On Tuesday, April 17, the School District of Philadelphia announced an unprecedented expansion of 2,272 seats in nineteen of the District-managed high performing schools for the 2012-2013 school year. A total of 1,802 additional seats will be available in 11 high schools and 470 in six elementary and two middle schools.
This announcement represents one of a set of steps the District has taken to continue to increase the number of high quality school options for students and parents in public schools. Earlier this year the District announced that four schools were selected for the Renaissance Schools match process, shifting approximately 3,000 more seats to high performing turnaround teams. The District’s goal is to continue to invest in the growth of high performing school options while closing or restructuring low performing schools.
The 19 schools were selected because they scored a 3 or higher on the District’s School Performance Index (SPI), have capacity in the school buildings and can maintain the integrity and quality of the academic program with an increase in student enrollment.
Of the 11 high schools, nine are Special Admission and two are Citywide Admission. The high schools will follow their regular admission criteria to select and enroll new students.
The elementary school seats will be made available first through the District’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) School Choice Program. The program gives parents of children attending schools in a school improvement status the option to apply to transfer their child to a school that has not been identified as needing improvement. Parents of students that qualify for the NCLB School Choice program will be notified directly by mail.
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