York City School District: Academic Performance

York City Schools Among Lowest Performing in Pennsylvania

• York City SD ranked 499 out of 500 districts on the Department of Education’s 2012-13 State Performance Profile (SPP), with a score of 46.5.
  • The state considers 70 to be a passing score.
• William Penn Senior High School—the primary public high school in the district—was one of the bottom 15 percent of schools in the state.
  • SPP Score: 42.7
  • Advanced or Proficient, 2012-13 PSSA/Keystone Exams:
    Math: 39 percent
    Reading: 51 percent
• Average Math SAT: 381
• Average Reading SAT: 368
• Preliminary results indicate most city schools saw declining scores in 2013-14.

Charters Outperform District Schools

• The three charter schools operating in York City averaged a 54.7 on the SPP compared to 46.5 for district schools.
• New Hope Academy Charter School, which was forced to shut down after 2013 in part for academic performance, performed better than than 4 of 7 district schools with SPP scores.

  

PSSA Results Lag Behind Statewide Averages

• York students lag behind both statewide and economically disadvantaged PSSA scores.
• In 2012, more than twice as many York students performed ‘below basic’ in math than the statewide average.
• Nearly three times as many York students performed ‘below basic’ in reading than the statewide average.

• York City saw little to no improvement in PSSA scores between 2008 and 2012.

Spending per Student has Substantially Increased over the Last Decade

• York City spending per student (Average Daily Membership) increased from $9,081 in 2002-03 to $15,256 in 2012-13. This is a 33 percent increase in inflation-adjusted dollars.
• Spending per ADM exceeds the statewide average of $14,600.

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