Between 2001 and 2009 the percentage of Philadelphia students who entered ninth grade and graduated in four years increased from 48 percent to 56 percent. Those gains might seem modest, and are clearly insufficient. But the fact that they occurred at all, and at a time when dropout rates nationally have not budged, suggests that Philadelphia is doing something right.
Dale Mezzacappa
Dale Mezzacappa, a former reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, is a contributing editor of the independent Philadelphia Public School Notebook.