Study: High School Choices Elude Phila. Students

A report that takes a comprehensive look at the critical transition that students make from middle to high school in Philadelphia finds that fewer than half of 8th graders end up attending their top-choice high schools.

“There are many young people who feel they are trying to select and get into a high school that has a strong reputation and is safe and where they do well,” said lead author Eva Gold, the founder of Research for Action, the Philadelphia-based research group that produced the report. “And,” she added, “they end up in the high school they were trying to avoid.”

Released last week, the 110-page report draws on districtwide data from 2006-07 on 8th graders’ public-school-selection choices; data from 2007-08 on student demographics, and high school enrollments across the city; teacher and student surveys from that same year; and in-depth interviews conducted over the next few years in 15 district-managed schools and four charter schools, among other information sources. But it does not include districtwide data for the city’s charter high schools, to...