Chicago: 55 Schools Have Zero Students Proficient in Reading or Math
“There were 22 schools that had no students who could read at grade level; another 33 schools claimed that no students could perform math at grade level.”
We recently noted that Baltimore has 23 schools with zero students who can do math at grade level.
Now, a similar report is coming out of Chicago, which, like Baltimore, is completely controlled by Democrats.
FOX News reports:
Chicago Democrat sounds alarm as 55 schools report no proficiency in math or reading: ‘Very serious’
Parents nationwide are still battling the impact of stringent school closures and lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Chicago families are no exception.
An alarming report has revealed that dozens of Chicago schools claim no students are proficient in either math or reading despite the state and federal government funneling billions of dollars into education in the Windy City.
Illinois state Sen. Willie Preston, a Democrat and a father of six, joined “Fox & Friends First” to discuss the report and how parents and lawmakers in the city can help children excel in the classroom post-pandemic.
“Government isn’t the anthem for all things,” Preston told Griff Jenkins. “I think that we have to reengage parents, have parents actively take a role inside the schools when they can be, but in addition, we need to make certain that we … spend our money in the right way as it pertains to our children’s education.”
Wirepoints released the findings that stem from 2022 data from the Illinois Department of Education, which indicated that in 55 Chicago public schools, no students were reported proficient in either math or reading.
There were 22 schools that had no students who could read at grade level; another 33 schools claimed that no students could perform math at grade level.
Statewide, there were 53 schools that reported no students who were proficient in math; another 30 schools reported zero students who were able to read at grade level.
How do you call this anything but failure?
Not a single student can do math at grade level in 53 #Illinois schools. For reading, it’s 30 schools. Not 1 single student. Education data from @ISBEnews
It's yet another indictment of the state’s educational system. Via @Wirepointshttps://t.co/rMZlnHjcgK #twill #SchoolChoice… https://t.co/IEbaxctIoo pic.twitter.com/meKyUDo7sk
— Wirepoints (@Wirepoints) February 14, 2023
Mailee Smith of City Journal says teacher unions in Chicago deserve much of the blame for this:
Militants, Not Educators
The Chicago Teachers Union may once have aimed at improving the lives of teachers and students, but it is now a hyper-political machine that strives for one thing: power. The union’s hostile takeover of Chicago politics and its abdication of responsibility for educating children have been more than a decade in the making. The process began in 2010, when the Caucus of Rank and File Educators, or CORE, took leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).
Since CORE’s ascension, the school district’s demands on taxpayers have ballooned by 55 percent, while the number of students the district serves has shrunk by more than 20 percent. That translates to $2.5 billion more from taxpayers and a loss of more than 87,000 students, driven by a significant decline of black and Hispanic students. Many children who remain in the schools have no escape route; district-wide, all students have registered declines in academic performance. Reading and math proficiency scores have fallen by as much as 30 percent during the past decade, according to data obtained from the Illinois State Board of Education. At the end of the past school year, just 20 percent of third- through eighth-grade students on average were proficient in reading; only 15 percent were proficient in math.
This plummeting performance owes to CTU’s determination to focus on politics rather than on students.
Children and families in Chicago are being robbed of their future.
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Comments
But everyone gets paid all the while. A win for Dems and unions.
“but in addition, we need to make certain that we … spend our money in the right way as it pertains to our children’s education.”
Like on a non-government option that shows some shred of competence.
Make the teachers take the proficiency tests and if they can’t pass then fire them.
I’m willing to be that a significant percentage would be immediately fired.
Fire CTU members? Good luck with that.
They, supposedly, have already passed a competency exam for their subjects. I have no idea whether that is actually enforced or not.
Supposedly.
I distinctly remember a report from the 90’s (I think maybe it was Stossel that did it?) that showed that a MAJORITY of teachers in public schools they tested could not pass the student tests.
And that was 30 years ago, before the woke disease really took root.
I have always wanted to subject the DoE/legislature to standardized testing to see how they would perform.
I fully support requiring teachers to take the test. Then, I would finally get to see what is on the damn thing.
I remember seeing a trial where 2 English teachers were suing because they were fired because they couldn’t pass the math portion of the teacher’s proficiency exam. While on the stand they showed their math illiteracy by using math incorrectly.
It’s especially sad when you realize how low level the math competency exam is for general education and not specifically being a math teacher. FYI, it’s super low level.
Union official, “I’ll pay attention to children’s needs when they’re dues-paying members of my union. Until then, . . .”
I’m surprised it wasn’t 100%
Considering what the feedstock is for the schools, I’m surprised as well.
Most people don’t want to admit that a school’s performance can be almost perfectly predicted if one knows the median income and racial composition of the area.
It’s a sucky truth, but it’s still a truth.
And perhaps also close correlation with the competence of the government + unionized “teachers” employed.
It ends up going together. It’s hard to get good teachers to work in crappy schools. They can grab people when they first graduate and don’t know any better, but those people will leave the school after 1-2 years.
The best way to be a “good” teacher, as evaluated by test scores, is to teach financially well off asian/white kids. If you are even barely competent, you’ll get great scores.
Chicago adolescent daycare should save heaps of money by paying babysitter/cat herder rates because that’s what they are getting.
To clarify, Chicago School System = adolescent daycare/pre-jail.
Same for most big cities. Anyone who thinks crooks and grifters like Lightfoot or that repulsive, obese trust-funded governor Pritzker give a damn about the academic achievement of poor and working class kids, especially black kids, is naive at best.
This is actually a cogent observation.
That whole Obama-era “initiative” — the one that spawned school-shooter Cruz — to “break the school-to-prison pipeline” was smoke and mirrors. No pipeline is necessary, when they’re already the same place.
Nonunion social workers for the younger kids, then probation officers for the higher grades.
The obvious solution to this problem of students failing exams is to do what Oregon did: Stop giving the exams!!
Then nobody will know how crappy your schools are!
“the impact of stringent school closures and lockdowns”
Yes, sure, those are the only issues. Couldn’t have anything to do as well with years of lousy teachers who haven’t been held to any standard of competence, horrible curriculum that doesn’t focus on fundamental skills, and disruptive feral students who place zero value on learning.
The “stringent school closures and lockdowns” helpfully made the other reasons more visible.
Cool it with the racist remarks!
Data, like black people, are incapable of racism.
It would indeed be better to concentrate on the horrible impact of “education by government bureaucracy” – America’s best example of systemic racism.
The school choice moment is upon us. Real choice this time, not just charter schools but adequate vouchers to allow Parents to fund the education of their children. Fund the Student not the system and see how fast improvement is made is educational outcomes.
It’s not a failure. Public education in leftist-dominated areas is for indoctrination and breeding dependence, not education.
Well golly Sargeant Carter, I sure am surprised.
Wow, government is incompetent? Is this supposed to be news? It should simply be the assumption that the government is incompetent and will fuck everything up.
Not everything. But it is inherently incompetent in the field of education.
The people who hand out the resources and rewards always get what they want in the end. These kids are coming out the way the people who run “education” want.
If somebody else wants a say, they need to start handing out resources and rewards. This is why the public education apparatus is so incensed about parents at school board meetings. If those uppity parents grab who gets appointed and paid, they may get what they want in their kids’ education. Can’t have that.
In the “One Best System” of education by government, there will always be winners and losers.
That’s Marxist Equality going. But the teachers are making a bundle
Math and English is racist. Tests are racist. Chicago Public Schools are racist. Achievement is racist. Excellence is racist. Apparently, so is mediocrity, as well as even minimal proficiency.
Shall I go on?
Abolish government schools.
What’s the deal with the enrollment figures on that list? Thirty students at one school, 44 in another? What kind of schools are these?
What scares me is that one of them is a “Medical prep” school.
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/20-fewer-illinois-public-school-students-proficient-in-reading-math/
It’s all k-12 public schools in Illinois.
1 in 10 blacks in all 2600 schools are reading at grade level
2 in 10 Hispanics
4 in 10 white.
Chicago is merely a little worse than horrible.
The reading and mathing stuff can be done with chatbox. Along with acting, art, medicine, law, science, driving, defense, customer service and vacuuming.
That allows humans to do more interesting things, like whatever those students were doing instead of reading.
Cede Chicago to Canada, stat!
Only 55?
The governments and school districts of both Baltimore and Chicago apologize profusely for their failures. And they promise that if given more money and power within a few years NOT ONE student in their school districts will be able to read or write. They will still vote repeatedly for Democrats and other Leftists.
Subotai Bahadur
It’s worth remembering that government-run industries are the only ones ever rewarded for failure by increased funding and salaries.
I’ve worked with people from Chicago and totally believe these stats. In fact, I think they under represent how bad schools are in Chicago. Not exactly the smartest people in the world.
Philadelphia says, “Hold my beer.”
I’m no fan of teachers, but these PUPILS are ineducable.
Given the government schools, it is impossible to determine the validity of your statement.
Simple solution: lower standards. Change “math” to “counting to 20.”
Reading and math? Who cares?! Those are so white-centric!
I’m sure that the students in those 55 schools are above-grade in CRT studies. That’s what REALLY counts in those 55 communities!
Yep the tests are so much easier.
Question 1. Is everything bad in your life someone else’s fault and not your responsibility? Yes!
End of test. Congrats you are ready to study DEI in college!
This is what happens when public education is run by a monopoly called teachers’ unions
Wow.
I’m not surprised at the problems with reading and math in Chicago schools.
I am surprised that LI can’t do logic. The article says that 22 schools have no students who can read at grade level and that 33 schools have no students who can do math at grade level. That means that between 33 and 55 schools have no students who can read or do math at grade level. It seems fairly likely that some of the schools are double counted and the number is less than the headline 55 count of schools.
Venn diagram anyone?
Garbage in, garbage out.
I went to a CPS from Headstart through 6th grade (1966-71) and had a fine education. It was continued in a Western Suburban jr, high and high school, where I did well in spite of (or because of) my experiences with the acid-taking, dope-smoking contingent.
I believe it’s not merely a coincidence that the deterioration of Chicago schools coincides with a massive white flight.
Chicago as a whole began to seriously deteriorate beginning in 1980 and the decline is accelerating.
That’s nothing! The entire population of Chicago’s City Hall is not proficient in reading or math. In fact, the cumulative IQ of City Hall is less than the temperature outside at International Falls, MN on New Years Day.