PFT Lauds School Dist. For Taking 2nd Look At Performance Scores

The School District has found School Performance Index scores for traditional public and charter schools may be inaccurate due to errors in the way performance data was analyzed and calculated to produce the SPI scores.

Its move to seek the assistance of an outside firm to conduct a recalculation of the District’s School Performance Index, has met with the approval of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. PFT President Jerry Jordan welcomed the initiative, adding, however, it comes too late to help many of our public schools.

Jordan explained, The PFT has been extremely vocal in protesting the SP’s use of faulty data and methodology. The calculations used by the SPI were so convoluted we and even some charter-school providers wanted the SRC to reconsider using the SPI as basis for making decisions on the future of public schools. Our cries fell on the deaf ears of the SRC, which used this index as the basis for quickly closing or converting 17 traditional public schools to charter schools, several of which were already on an upward trajectory, according to the state’s PVASS.

Jordan added, We welcome the review of SPI, and applaud the school district for working to expedite the process and determine What is a Metro District. We hope the review leads to a system that is much clearer and implemented more transparently than SPI ever was.

The SPI is an index of a number of different performance data-sets used as one of several tools to evaluate school quality. It was created to provide an easy to visualize ranking of school performance that is more comprehensive and looks at more than just the Adequate Yearly Progress measure created by the No Child Left Behind Act.

As part of the District’s official procurement process, the District released a Request for Proposal requesting proposals from professional data-analytics firms interested in conducting the recalculation of the SPI. The School District wants the outside auditors to include recalculation of the SPI scores for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years, and the calculation of 2011-2012 SPI scores, which has not yet been done.

Jordan is also lauding the efforts of City Councilman Jim Kenney in unveiling the tremendous financial losses suffered by the School District as a result of its using questionable financial transactions known as “swaps”. Jordan said the City Council hearing dramatically revealed the City and School District “have already lost $331 million in net interest payments and cancellation fees relating to swaps. The City has exposure that could rise to $240 million more, according to the Pennsylvania Budget & Policy Center. The School District also has remaining swaps, and while it claims those swaps are serving the district well, I want to express our concerns.”

Swaps are a way of protecting against the impact of interest-rate spikes on variable-rate bonds issued by local governments. In particular, however, when interest rates remain low, swaps can became financial sinkholes whose repayment takes priority over funding needed services. Too often, the swap agreements have stiff fines for cancellation.

Jordan admitted, “Teachers are not experts in these matters, but we know two things: First, many of the banks seeking to profit from swaps have already been bailed out by the taxpayers. Rather than work to return the favor, these banks are too often seeking to add insult to injury. Second, we know there are legitimate charges that certain banks used to manipulate the interest rate in order to keep it low, thereby adding to the harm swaps have caused our community.”

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