According to a new round of standardized testing results released by the School District of Philadelphia, there is reason for guarded optimism in Philadelphia's public schools.
Student scores improved on the 2004 Terra Nova exam, which is given to students in grades one through 10.
However, despite the improvement, more than half of the district's students scored below national norms.
School District CEO Paul Vallas expressed mixed emotions in a press release.
"While we are pleased that the number of students performing at or above the national average has increased across virtually all of the grade levels, the fact remains that more than half of our students perform below grade level," he said. "Obviously, there is still much more work to be done."
It was in 2002 that the district first made significant strides toward improving students' performance. Through the district's School Reform Commission, six outside managers -- including Penn -- were hired to operate the 70 lowest-performing schools in the district.
While these schools have demonstrated progress since the partnerships were forged, the outside-managed schools were outperformed in all areas of the standardized exam by charter schools and regular district schools.
Nevertheless, Media Relations Manager for the school district Joseph Lyons remained optimistic.
"We're encouraged by the progress that the partner schools are making, and we hope that everything continues," he said.
Among the outside-managed schools, the schools under Universal Companies showed the most growth since last year, even surpassing regular district schools' growth rates.
The Penn partnership schools -- Henry C. Lea Elementary School, Alexander Wilson Elementary School and William C. Bryant Elementary School -- boasted an 8.4 percent increase in the percentage of students at or above the national average in language since 2002, the largest increase in language scores of any other manager's schools.
Penn partnership schools also experienced a 4.2 percent increase in the percentage of students at or above the national average in mathematics since 2003.
Nancy Streim, associate dean of the Graduate School of Education, expressed her satisfaction with this year's scores.
"The spring 2004 Terra Nova scores show that the Penn partnership schools are making good progress toward improving student achievement," she wrote in an e-mail interview.
Streim also commented on the scores of the Penn-assisted Sadie Alexander School, which, since its founding in 2001, has received not only guidance from the University but also a financial contribution for each child attending.
"At Penn Alexander, we are very proud of the students' performance on the spring 2004 Terra Nova, which shows significant numbers of the neighborhood's children scoring in the top quartile of test takers nationally," Streim wrote.
This is the second consecutive year that the district has used the Terra Nova exam, which tests reading, language, mathematics and science.
Next month, the results from the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment -- a test which the state and federal governments use to measure progress -- are due. Yet Streim warns that test results should not be seen as a singular determinant of educational progress.
"It's important to remember that test scores are only one snapshot of school improvement," she wrote.
"There are tremendous mutual benefits for the community and the University when faculty and students take their coursework, research and service into the schools."
