Data & trends
Fifteen citywide patterns parents may want to know, grouped by theme, shown for Philadelphia as a whole rather than any single school. Each one echoes a question from the Story ideas page. Figures are drawn from the same official records; a blank is never counted as a zero. See the notes and sources at the bottom.
Philadelphia public-school enrollment, 2014–2025
Total public-school enrollment has held near 200,000. District-run enrollment has declined over the decade while charter enrollment has grown, a shift worth seeing alongside any single school.
Bottom line: about as many kids attend public school as a decade ago, but more now choose charters.
School District of Philadelphia enrollment, 2014–2025.
How hard is it to get into Philadelphia’s selective high schools?
How many students apply for each offer at the 14 most competitive selective-admission programs (of 38 citywide), longer bar = harder to get in; the percentage is the admission rate. The hardest to enter aren’t always the famous names: small specialty schools like Saul (agriculture) and CAPA (the arts) make far fewer offers than Masterman, so more students compete for each.
Bottom line: the hardest schools to get into accept only about 1 in 20 who apply.
2024–25 admissions; School District of Philadelphia school-selection data. Admit rate overstates true selectivity, applications aren’t unique students, and yield/waitlists mean offers exceed eventual seats.
Do the highest-spending schools post the highest scores?
Schools sorted into four bands by per-pupil spending, then averaged. Proficiency runs opposite to spending, most likely because the best-funded schools serve the highest-need students: special-education centers and deep-poverty neighborhoods. Spending appears to track need, not test results.
Bottom line: schools that spend more are usually serving higher-need kids, not posting higher scores.
Per-pupil school budgets vs. math proficiency, 2024–25; the 80 schools reporting a per-pupil figure.
How common is counselor and nurse understaffing?
Share of schools above the recommended caseload, 250 students per counselor (American School Counselor Association) and 750 per nurse (national nurse groups). Nearly half of schools exceed the counselor line.
Bottom line: about half of schools have more students per counselor than experts recommend.
2024–25; 239 schools report a counselor caseload, 215 a nurse caseload. Recommended levels are professional guidelines, not legal mandates (the counselor figure has no state mandate).
Do the poorest schools keep their teachers?
Teacher retention in the highest-poverty half of schools versus the rest. The schools serving the neediest students retain teachers at a lower rate.
Bottom line: the poorest schools lose their teachers the fastest.
Teacher retention, 2024–25, enrollment-weighted. Schools split at the citywide median student-poverty rate.
Citywide proficiency, by subject
Share of students scoring “proficient” or “advanced”, the top two of four bands on Pennsylvania’s PSSA/Keystone tests, enrollment-weighted across schools. Reading leads; math trails furthest.
Bottom line: most students are not yet proficient in reading, math, or science.
PSSA/Keystone, 2024–25. Science reflects a 2024–25 federal assessment waiver and covers fewer schools.
The racial gap in math proficiency
Math proficiency by student group, citywide. The distance between Black and Hispanic students and their Asian and white peers is among the largest equity gaps in the data, and appears related to the neighborhood-income gradient on the Story ideas page.
Bottom line: Black and Hispanic students are far less likely to test proficient in math.
Math (Algebra I / PSSA), 2024–25, enrollment-weighted across reporting schools.
Are schools moving their students forward?
Share of schools meeting the statewide academic-growth standard, by sector. Growth (PVAAS, Pennsylvania’s measure of year-to-year progress, where 70 meets the standard) reflects how far a school moves its students, not where they start, and most schools meet it, in both sectors.
Bottom line: most schools, district and charter, help students make about a year of progress.
PVAAS growth index, 2024–25. Alternative schools are omitted (only one reports a growth index).
How many Philadelphia students are chronically absent?
A student is “chronically absent” after missing about 10% of school, roughly 18 days a year, i.e. the share not attending at least 90% of days. Chronic absence rose sharply in the pandemic years and, while it has eased, still runs above one in three students.
Bottom line: more than 1 in 3 students miss too much school to keep up.
Enrollment-weighted across the 216 schools that report every year, so the years are comparable. Citywide chronic absence is higher in sets weighted toward high schools, which attend less regularly than elementary schools.
Suspension rates: District vs. charter
Out-of-school suspension rate by sector, enrollment-weighted. Charter schools suspend students at a higher rate than District-run schools.
Bottom line: charter schools suspend students at almost twice the district rate.
2024–25. Sectors enroll different, self-selected populations and may count and report suspensions differently (in-school vs. out-of-school, repeat vs. unique students), compare with care.
Where do suspensions fall hardest?
Out-of-school suspension rate by the racial makeup of the school, enrollment-weighted. Schools serving the most Black and Hispanic students suspend at close to triple the rate of schools serving the fewest. This is a school-level pattern: the published data does not break discipline down by individual student race, which is the figure worth requesting from the District.
Bottom line: schools serving mostly Black and Hispanic students suspend at nearly triple the rate.
2024–25 out-of-school suspension rate, grouped by quartile of the combined Black and Hispanic share of students at each school. Source: School District of Philadelphia open data.
Graduation and college-going
Among the high schools that report a 4-year cohort rate, the average school graduates 86% of students in four years (89% in five), and about half of graduates enroll in college. This is higher than the districtwide rate, because lower-graduating alternative and transfer programs often aren’t included.
Bottom line: most students graduate, but only about half go on to college.
4- and 5-year cohort graduation, 2024–25, averaged across the 86 high schools reporting it (not a districtwide student-weighted rate, confirm against the District’s official figure). College = matriculation. Source: Future Ready PA Index / School District of Philadelphia.
FAFSA completion, citywide
Share of seniors completing the federal financial-aid form, the gate to Pell grants and most college aid. Completion fell sharply in 2023, when a delayed federal FAFSA overhaul slowed the form nationwide, and has since recovered.
Bottom line: only about half of seniors complete the form that unlocks college aid.
Three years shown (2022–2024), enrollment-weighted. Source: SDP / Future Ready PA Index.
Are 9th-graders on track to graduate?
The ninth-grade on-track rate, earning enough credits and attending enough to be on pace, widely cited as the single best early predictor of graduation. It has held near 82% citywide.
Bottom line: about 4 in 5 ninth-graders are on pace to graduate.
Three years shown (2022–2024), enrollment-weighted.
Who teaches in Philadelphia? Teaching staff vs. student body
Studies have linked teacher–student racial match to attendance, discipline and achievement. This is a District-wide comparison, not specific to any one school, between the people who teach in Philadelphia’s public schools and the students they serve.
Bottom line: the teaching staff is far whiter than the students it serves.
Who does each sector serve?
Share of economically disadvantaged students by sector, students whose family income is low enough to qualify for free or reduced-price meals (or an equivalent measure). All three sectors serve high-poverty populations; alternative schools most of all.
Bottom line: most students in every sector come from low-income families.
2024–25, enrollment-weighted.
Notes & sources
Every figure on this page is a citywide aggregate drawn from the same official records used across this site, primarily from the 2024–25 Pennsylvania Future Ready PA Index and PSSA/Keystone results, with enrollment, staffing and discipline data from School District of Philadelphia open data. Most figures are enrollment-weighted across the schools that report a value; a blank is never counted as a zero, so a metric’s citywide figure reflects only reporting schools and can differ from an official districtwide rate. Terms: proficient/advanced = the top two of four PSSA/Keystone performance bands; PVAAS = Pennsylvania Value-Added Assessment System, the state’s year-to-year academic-growth measure (70 = meets the standard); on-track = ninth-graders earning enough credits and attending enough to be on pace to graduate; economically disadvantaged = qualifying for free/reduced-price meals or an equivalent income measure.
This is an independent, unofficial tool. It is not affiliated with, operated by, or endorsed by the School District of Philadelphia or the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Always confirm a figure against the official source before publishing.