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Philadelphia schools Superintendent Tony Watlington is remaining optimistic in the face of an uncertain and chaotic national education landscape.
Watlington delivered his second annual “State of the Schools” address today as the dust still stirs from Trump administration actions that have cleared the way for immigration arrests at schools, attempted to freeze all federal grants, withhold federal funding from K-12 schools that teach “critical race theory” or “radical gender ideology,” and sought to use presidential power to target transgender people and restrict their rights to health care.
His address hewed close to familiar talking points Watlington has repeated at school board meetings and press conferences since he took office.
Student attendance is marginally up. The four-year graduation rate is up. The dropout rate is down by more than a thousand students. Fourth grade math scores are improving thanks in part to a curriculum overhaul. District officials are relaunching Parent University. They’re working on improving their customer service via a new platform they say has already received tens of thousands of responses. They’re in lockstep with Mayor Cherelle Parker on her commitment to extended day, extended year school.
In his speech to district, city and state officials gathered in the auditorium at School of the Future, Watlington posed the question: “Are the children well?” His answer: “I am here to tell you all of our children are not well yet, but …. more of our children are well.”
In brief remarks before he spoke, Mayor Cherelle Parker said she was “proud” of the progress that the city’s students and Watlington were making. “I am here to confirm the commitment to keep public education at the center of all work being done by the Parker administration,” she said.
Watlington made no mention of President Trump or the potential impact of his second administration on education — even as rumors circulated in the room about ICE agents being spotted near two city schools. A district spokesperson told Chalkbeat those rumors were false.
As some educators, lawmakers, and families press the school district to do more — such as make bold political statements, take firm stances, and declare itself present on the national stage — Watlington is remaining focused on his strategic plan.
“We’re turning the corner. We’re making some significant progress,” Watlington said in a recent interview with Chalkbeat ahead of his address. “We believe that the progress to date positions us to be one of the fastest improving large urban school districts in the country.”
Watlington is no stranger to navigating politically fraught worlds. In his previous positions as a veteran educator and school leader in North Carolina, he told Chalkbeat, he had to learn how to work with a divided legislature in the American South. His secret? Focus on the data.
“What conservative legislators always said to me is, ‘Look, what we care about most is the bottom line. What’s the return on investment for every penny we spend?’” Watlington said.
In his address and in conversations with lawmakers in Harrisburg, Watlington said he would “make the case that we’ve made good investments” with the federal, state, and city money they’ve been allocated, politics aside.
“Some of it came from President Trump. The lion’s share came from President Biden. Regardless of where it came from, we made good use of those dollars,” Watlington said. “The district is accelerating. We’re getting better.”
On specific issues such as the threat of immigration raids at schools and explicit orders to eradicate programs that promote diversity, equity, or inclusion or adhere to policies Trump deems “woke,” Watlington has stood firm but stuck to his talking points.
“We’ve prepared our school leaders to comply with the laws of the land, even those that change from time to time … and to do it with respect to protecting the rights of our immigrant students,” he said. “We are not going to gin up extra levels of anxiety. In a very professional and strategic and appropriate manner, we will address those issues” when and if they arise.
“While the mayor and [school] board lead advocacy, my job is to make the case about the data,” he said. “We’re absolutely committed to doing all that we can to ensure safe and welcoming schools.”
And though Philly students’ standardized test scores on average are still well below their peers’ in Pennsylvania and across the country, Watlington said he is confident they’ll make up that ground.
“It takes time to pull all those systems together,” he said. “You’re going to make some progress. Then you’re going to ebb and flow and back slide a little bit.”
He’s planning a trip to Finland in the coming months to study their education system — one that has garnered endless fascination in the U.S. But he’s not naive about the challenges Philly students face. Watlington said Finland does not suffer from the same stark wealth disparities that we have in the U.S., and Finnish people have more reliable access to better health care.
“When I look at the bigger context, it’s not just the school district’s responsibility to improve academic performance,” he said. “It requires us to address wealth attainment and health care in tandem with us in the school district during our job to teach kids to do reading, writing, and arithmetic.”
Nevertheless, he said he believes the state of Philadelphia’s schools is strong.
“We are absolutely where we should be at this time,” he said. “Maybe a bit ahead.”
Chalkbeat Philadelphia Senior Writer Dale Mezzacappa contributed reporting.
Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.
