The Board of Education Will Hold the First Public Goals and Guardrails Committee Meeting on September 7th

The School District of Philadelphia Board of Education invites the public to attend the first of three Goals and Guardrails Committee meetings scheduled for this year on Thursday, September 7, 2023, at 4 p.m., in the Education Center Auditorium, located at 440 North Broad Street. The next meetings will be held on October 12 and November 9, 2023. Monthly monitoring reports can be found here.

In August, the Board approved establishing a Goals and Guardrails Committee of the Whole to track progress on our established goals for public education in Philadelphia, which had been done during monthly Action Meetings. At the monthly Committee Meetings, the Board will be able to focus more deeply on monitoring the progress being made towards improving student achievement while increasing community participation and public engagement in the sessions.

“Goals and Guardrails sits at the center of the work we do as the governing body for the School District of Philadelphia. As a Board, it is critical that we ensure that all stakeholders and community members are active participants in this process as we strive toward student success in key areas of reading, math, and college and career readiness,” said Board of Education Vice President Mallory Fix-Lopez, who has guided the Board in this work.

Last month, the Board also approved an amended vision, mission and indicators of success for  Goals and Guardrails to align with key takeaways from monitoring during the past two years and to align with the recently adopted Strategic Plan, “Accelerate Philly.” Find the details here.

The Board originally adopted Goals and Guardrails in December 2020 as a five-year plan to raise student achievement. Goals & Guardrails has provided a framework that looks at governance through the lens of racial equity and has allowed the Board to set clear expectations for student success, monitor progress towards those expectations and to adopt budgets and policies that provide support based on student needs. The Board uses specific leading indicators to track the progress of each Goal and Guardrail and invites the public to attend monthly meetings to hear the progress monitoring discussions as the Board and School District community work collectively to achieve success.

Goals and Guardrails include the following student achievement goals:

• Students read on grade level;
• Students are proficient in math; and
• Students graduate ready for college or career.

Guardrails, which are the non-negotiable conditions that must exist in every school, direct that every school must:

• Be a safe, welcoming, and healthy place for our students, staff, and community to be and learn each day;
• Provide students with a well-rounded education with co-curricular opportunities, including arts and athletics, integrated into the school experience;
• Welcome parents and guardians and encourage them to be partners in their child’s school community; and
• Ensure that students’ potential is not limited by practices that perpetuate systemic racism and hinder student achievement.

“I am incredibly encouraged by how far we have come as a Board since adopting Goals and Guardrails and believe the updates to the plan and progress monitoring are moving in a positive direction as we continue to put student achievement at the forefront of all we do as a Board,” said Board Vice President Fix-Lopez.