South Philly schools seeing continued increase in enrollment
Three South Philly recently ranked among the best in the city, showing some of the strong points in the education system in the city.
While many schools are doing very well, others in the Philadelphia School District have rapidly growing enrollment rates, with some schools even reaching capacity. Schools like Jackson and Meredith Elementary are currently at, or even over, capacity, showing that something needs to be done here.
In the areas of South Philly, many schools have been seeing an increase in middle and upper class residents, along with an immigrant population, which along with some school closures, has been pushing the enrollment rates even higher.
Open Info Philly, a new website for sharing relevant data to Philadelphians, shared these findings about school enrollment.
Jackson Elementary saw the largest enrollment growth, of 67% in 6 years. In 2009, it was only at 58% of capacity to today’s 99% capacity. The catchment area has remained constant during this time. Every demographic grew in this six year span, but the largest growth is in the Hispanic population (doubling in size), multi-racial and White population. The SDP suppresses demographic data when it is a small size and thus some data suppressed in 2009, so I am not able to compare the initial numbers for multi-racial and White students.
Percentage of growth between 2009 and 2015:
- Arthur – 28% Growth
- Jackson – 67% Growth
- Kirkbride – 43% Growth
- Meredith – 25% Growth
- Nebinger – 41% Growth
- Southwark – 40% Growth
- Stanton – 57% Growth
- Vare – 16% Growth
Schools at over 85% capacity:
- Jackson – 99% Capacity
- Kirkbride – 86% Capacity
- Meredith – 123% Capacity
As you can see, these schools are reaching, even exceeding, capacity. In the span of six years, most of these schools have seen double-digit growth. E.M. Stanton and Chester Arthur also saw increasing numbers based on the district’s expanded catchment area.
Check out the rest of Open Info’s findings here.
