The top reported proficiency rate is 22% in Science. The lowest is 9% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Morrison Andrew J Sch
Andrew J. Morrison School serves a small K-8 student body in North Philadelphia, on the block bounded by North 3rd Street. The school is a regular public school within the Philadelphia City School District, one of the nation's largest and most complex urban districts.
The student body is predominantly Black and Hispanic, with smaller Asian and mixed-race populations. Every single enrolled student qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a marker of economic stress that affects both the school's per-pupil funding stream and the daily reality of the families it serves. The school enrolls a modest total across nine grades, with roughly balanced class sizes from kindergarten through eighth grade.
On state testing, Morrison faces a genuine academic challenge. In the most recent math assessment for grades three through eight, fewer than one in ten students scored proficient or above. In English language arts, the proficiency rate was under one in five. Science results from an earlier year showed just over one in five students meeting proficiency. These numbers place the school at the lower end of performance. A parent considering this school should recognize that the classroom experience here will be shaped by working with students who arrive several grade levels behind in foundational reading and math skills, and that catching them up is both the central mission and the ongoing struggle.
The district has adopted new standardized curricula in recent years, including a science-of-reading ELA approach and Illustrative Mathematics for all grades. These changes aim to improve consistency and instructional quality across Philadelphia schools, though early results have been mixed. The first year of the new ELA curriculum saw a one-point dip in reading scores before any recovery could be assessed.
Philadelphia itself is a dense, walkable city with strong neighborhood identity, significant higher-education and healthcare employment, and a large public park and library system. The property tax funding base for schools improved recently through city council action and a property reassessment. However, the district also announced a major facilities plan in April 2026 that will close seventeen schools beginning in the 2026-27 school year and modernize many others, reshaping school catchments across the city. Parents should confirm Morrison's status under that plan, as the closure and consolidation wave directly affects commute, enrollment stability, and building conditions.
The neighborhood around Morrison is predominantly residential, part of Philadelphia's North Philadelphia zone. Housing values in the 19120 zip code are modest relative to the national benchmark. Rentals are similarly affordable. A family choosing Morrison should do so with clear eyes about what the test data shows: this is a school where students enter with significant academic gaps, and where the school's effectiveness will depend heavily on whether the new district curricula, implementation, and any school-level supports are succeeding in narrowing those gaps. It would be worth asking the school directly about year-to-year trends in proficiency, the support structures in place for struggling readers and mathematicians, and what the school's own enrollment and facility status will be as the district's master plan unfolds.
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