How Washington High School keeps the dropout rate low
George Washington High School’s four-year graduation rate is 80 percent — the best in the city.
There, and at Northeast High School, fewer than two-thirds of the student body qualifies as low-income, which is likely part of the reason for the low dropout rate.
Washington Principal Kathy Murphy was one of four School District of Philadelphia principals to share her school’s approach to student engagement with the Public School Notebook.
Though she says the lower class sizes and extra teachers afforded by stimulus money made the biggest difference in student achievement, she’s found other, cost-effective ways to keep students on track.
The story also features the ideas that have been working at Roxborough, Germantown and Ben Franklin high schools.
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