The top reported proficiency rate is 33% in Science. The lowest is 12% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Franklin S Edmonds Sch
Franklin S Edmonds School serves a small enrollment spanning pre-K through eighth grade in northeast Philadelphia. The school is located on Thouron Avenue and draws its students almost entirely from a single neighborhood context: the student body is predominantly Black, with a smaller multiracial population and very small numbers of Asian and Hispanic students. Virtually all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker of economic concentration that shapes both the school's resource profile and the families it serves.
On state assessments administered this year and last, the school's academic results are below proficiency benchmarks across the board. In math, one in eight students in grades three through eight scored at proficient or above. In English language arts, roughly one in three did. Science results from the prior year showed slightly higher proficiency, just under one in three students reaching proficient levels. These numbers are low and represent a genuine challenge in foundational skill acquisition that a parent should understand plainly: most students in this school do not demonstrate grade-level competency in tested subjects.
The school operates within Philadelphia City School District, which has undertaken significant curriculum changes in recent years. Beginning in 2023-24, all district schools adopted a unified math curriculum based on Illustrative Mathematics for K-12. In 2024-25, the district rolled out a district-wide English language arts curriculum built on science-of-reading principles for grades K-8. These shifts mean that Edmonds students are learning from materials and pedagogies now standardized across the district, though early district data shows that reading proficiency actually declined slightly in the first year of implementation. It is worth asking the school directly how they have adapted to these curricula and what supports they are using to help students catch up to grade level.
The school's enrollment is small by city standards but balanced across grades. Class sizes appear reasonable for a K-8 building, though detailed staffing information was not available. Data on the school's special education population and English learner count were not reported, so a parent seeking to understand the population of students with IEPs or language learners would need to inquire with the school directly.
The neighborhood context matters. The school sits in a section of northeast Philadelphia with below-average housing values relative to the state benchmark and moderate rental costs. The area is stable, working-class urban, and served by SEPTA transit, though not in the high-walkability zones of Center City or University City. Families in this catchment tend to have lower median household incomes than citywide.
A parent considering this school should understand that it serves a high-poverty, predominantly Black student community and that current proficiency rates indicate most students are not yet meeting grade-level standards in core subjects. The school's strength lies in its small size, its full pre-K-to-8 pipeline, and its participation in the district's newly standardized curricula, which may support improvement over time. But the baseline academic performance suggests this is a school where students will need strong classroom instruction and, very likely, supplemental support to move toward proficiency. This is factual ground for a parent to stand on in conversations with the school about how it addresses the gap between current results and grade-level expectations.
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