How can 84% of Chicago Public Schools students graduate when only 26% of 11th graders are proficient in reading, math? – Wirepoints Quickpoint

By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner

It’s shameful. Chicago Public School officials want to celebrate a record graduation rate when much of the other data shows they are failing Chicago’s children.

Only 26 percent of CPS 11th-graders can read and do math at grade level, according to the latest Illinois Report Card data, and yet last week the district proudly announced that 84 percent of students graduated from CPS in 2021 – a new record high. 

First of all, color us skeptical about that record high rate. Everyone knows that the city’s children were underserved by remote learning – the failures were reported ad nauseum by the press. Announcing record graduation rates is a way for district officials to sweep those failures under the rug.

But there’s a more fundamental problem: the graduation rate distracts from the fact that CPS officials are pushing out poorly educated children. 

Only 26 percent of Chicago 11th-graders are proficient in English Language Arts and only 27 percent proficient in math according to 2019 Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) data.

Nearly 83 percent of students in CPS are either black or Hispanic, and, unfortunately, they have the lowest scores.

Just 14 percent of black 11th-graders are proficient in English Language Arts and just 13 percent are proficient in math. Hispanics aren’t much better, with just 25 proficient in reading and 27 percent proficient in math.

Pushing students through the system under “social promotion” only sets up thousands of children for failure every year.

“Social promotion” starts early at CPS. Just 30 percent of black children can read at grade level in the third grade, and just 37 percent of Hispanics can. Nevertheless, those students are sent on to the next grade year after year.

And when they do finally graduate, about 60 percent of students that attend community college end up having to take remedial courses.

CPS is in deep trouble, as we’ve documented recently, with more than 100,000 kids having left the district since 2000. And that’s despite a doubling in per student funding. CPS’ operating spending has risen from $8,000 to $18,000 per student since 2000, a 121 percent increase in per student spending and more than double the 50 percent increase in inflation.

There are plenty of reasons for inner city families to leave Chicago. The homicides, the ever-increasing cost-of-living, the lack of opportunity – we talked about all of those issues and more in our recent podcast with South Sider Devin Jones. And poor education is high on the list, for sure.

Unsurprisingly, the farce continues. District officials now say they want to hit a 90 percent graduation rate by 2024.

Forget the graduation rate. Focus, instead, on whether the kids can read or write at grade level.

Read more about the problems with CPS and Chicago:

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John
2 years ago

normies should notice the anti-white hatred in the choice of a photo of a white student to represent the 74 percent

Luke
2 years ago

Can you update to include other comparison districts and statewide average? Across entire state of Illinois, the numbers are largely similar, and even at top-performing districts the overall demographics are only a few points better. https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/State.aspx?source=trends&source2=sat.details&Stateid=IL

To qualify as “proficient” students must score >540 on the ELA SAT. SAT is designed with 500 as median – so by design most students will not be “proficient” yet surely you don’t think that less than half of Illinois students should be graduating? https://www.isbe.net/Documents/Statewide-SAT-Performance-Levels-Family-FAQ.pdf

ProzacPlease
2 years ago
Reply to  Luke

When the results are indefensible, the standards are always questioned. Is it that difficult to determine whether or not a student demonstrates basic reading and math skills?

Last edited 2 years ago by ProzacPlease
Freddy
2 years ago

In the photo. Is that the teacher or the student banging their head?

NoHope4Illinois
2 years ago

With CPS enrollment in a free fall as parents look for better educational choices, perhaps CPS should start holding back kids – keep the warm body count up for those tax dollars. The money, it’s all about the money with CPS and the teachers union.

streeterville
2 years ago

CPS has no academic standards for assessing student performance, aside from its handful of selective enrollment prep schools. “Education” is no longer its primary purpose, largely ignored altogether. Though CPS says “equity” is intended in its policy-decisions, CPS’ primary mission is to hide its gross incompetence, and its huge graft-structure, composed of incompetent teachers, incompetent administrators, and incompetent downtown leadership.

CPS is a political-combine, granting generous salaries and pensions to otherwise underqualified and often unqualified POC folks, and ensuring reliable political votes for Chicago’s machine-sponsored candidates. CPS true mission is devoid of genuine educational goals.

Last edited 2 years ago by streeterville
James
2 years ago
Reply to  streeterville

Don’t simply be a complainer shouting into the couldn’t-care-less winds. Become a politician and show ’em how it should be done.

nonya
2 years ago

Why are you looking at 11th grade statistics talking about 12 grade statistics? 11th graders arent the one graduating from highschool, that’s the 12th graders. Come back with 12th grade statistics

Mrs. L
2 years ago
Reply to  nonya

You’re right don’t look at 11th grade scores for graduation rates rather look at Pre-K /K. Reading and math proficiency begins before 11th grade. We have an educational system that has removed phonemic awareness, spelling and vocabulary from its curriculum because it’s leans towards “research based studies” that have shown reading basal programs aren’t beneficial. In addition, most math curriculums aren’t written to scaffold math skills. The skills are either too high or too low for students. Yet, each year money is spent on these programs and students clearly aren’t benefiting from them. To end, Failure of students don’t begin… Read more »

debtsor
2 years ago
Reply to  Mrs. L

Common core sucks and has worst outcomes. And now parents can’t help their children with their homework because it’s an entirely ‘new’ way of doing things. So it’s quite literally the worse possible situation with the worst possible outcome where the only person who can help the struggling student is the teacher who probably barely understands the common core lesson herself. Few in the education industry will admit that common core has been an unmitigated disaster, of epic proportions, and we’re made an entire generation of students dumber than ever before.

Last edited 2 years ago by debtsor
Kenshin
2 years ago

You cannot expect white levels of performance from people with less than white average IQs.

Mrs. L
2 years ago
Reply to  Kenshin

IQ’s are not based upon race. However, accessibility to adequate and efficient resources can be the determining factor in performance outcomes. Most Black and Hispanic students are not afforded the resources to begin a fair comparison against white students. Just looking at the disportioncate amount of monies amongst students in particular areas within Chicago communities speaks volumes to the disparity in student performance and expectation. Blacks and Hispanics are just as intelligent when given the same support and opportunities.

Thee Jabroni
2 years ago
Reply to  Mrs. L

hate to break it to you but IQ has nothing to do with school grades and overall general knowledge,i know,i know,im a racist

James
2 years ago
Reply to  Thee Jabroni

I agree to an extent but not wholeheartedly. Grade achievement has something to do with one’s intelligence, but its hardly anything approaching a predictable, direct relationship. Many other factors come into play when delving into that relationship.

Anonymous
2 years ago

I’m a CPS teacher. CPS principals usually do not allow teachers to give d and f grades without pounding on the teacher because it affects their 100k+ jobs. Therefore, students have less incentive to work. Since the students are not responsible for producing and know they will usually get at least a C for their presence, the teachers are hard pressed to make grades have meaning. If grades have no meaning, and the students will not produce, and the principal penalizes teachers for low grades, the teachers stop holding the children accountable because accountability turns into punishment and lots of… Read more »

Last edited 2 years ago by Anonymous
Mike
2 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

The textbook was 50 years old?

The Beatles broke up in 1970.

James
2 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

You can’t, and much of what you’ve described also takes place in suburbia but in surely lesser ways. As I said earlier, administrators who have those higher salaries have no tenure in their jobs and can be replaced at will which means they learn quickly their boss wants only good news reports such as notably pleasing the students and their parents, and part of that equation is giving grades that are more politically appeasing than a gauge of academic progress. Few such administrators are eager to take what’s offered if they are replaced with no tenure rights except to return… Read more »

ProzacPlease
2 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

Thank you for posting. Serious question- why do teachers continue to vote in a monolithic block for the union leaders and politicians who perpetuate this system? Why don’t they revolt and try voting for something different? Teachers as a group have overwhelmingly supported liberals for decades. How will anything change if they keep voting for the status quo?

James
2 years ago
Reply to  ProzacPlease

Well, I don’t know all the reasons, but if you go back in time to the 1920’s and 1930’s teachers were easily and often replaced by relatives of school board members. I can’t say when tenure and teacher firing proccesses started to require hearings as they do now in many (most?) states, but both of those things became law due to (liberal leaning) teachers and politicians who fought and lobbied for them. They likely would not have happened otherwise. I think I’ve given you the basic origin as to why many teachers started supporting liberal politicians. Meantime salaries and benefits… Read more »

ProzacPlease
2 years ago
Reply to  James

The salary and benefits bone has been just about picked clean. Realistically, there is not much more to be had there.

Wouldn’t it make sense for teachers to prioritize what is happening in classrooms when choosing union and political leaders? The current leaders have been at it for years, yet this is where we are. Time for a change.

James
2 years ago
Reply to  ProzacPlease

There are districts here and there where things generally are run as you’ve suggested all should be run. But, the districts which grab the most attention here and nationally are the really immense ones which operate by different sorts of norms for reasons of theie own. Large districts tend to operate by hard-and-fast contractual rules that specify who does what verv precisely. The really small districts tend to operate something more like Mom-and-Pop businesses where roles and attitudes are looser and people tend to be less rigid about what’s done, meaning what you desire is more likely to be done… Read more »

Eugene from a payphone
2 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

So the entire 12 years of CPS schooling becomes 1 big assembly line turning out a mediocre product of little value.

Admin
2 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

Anon, thanks for that input. The perspective of teachers is really appreciated, especially when they can comment anonymously.

Thee Jabroni
2 years ago

Im just waiting for the democrats to blame Trump….or Jon Gruden,everythings Trumps fault,huh,democrats!?

IainC
2 years ago

Just turning out future felons and Democrats

Michigan
2 years ago

To me, this is no laughing matter. I worked with a Latino whom said the public schools in lower Chicago were using textbooks that referred to the Soviet Union as current. Plus, the principals don’t look for performance as much as numbers graduated in the South Chicago schools. The high performing schools up North get the money for performing better. I don’t care about the race. The country needs educated citizens and workers to stay competitive. This is such crap happening to these kids whom did not chose their place to be raised. They suffer. It sucks. We all hurt… Read more »

debtsor
2 years ago
Reply to  Michigan

GET OUT OF CITIES.

nixit
2 years ago

Does keeping underperforming kids around punish the ones who are trying? Imagine being a 15 yo student trying to learn geometry and you’ve got some 18 yo who could give two-sh*ts disrupting class every day. That’s on top of the other 15 yo students that don’t give two-sh*ts either. Some kids don’t care. Some will never care. Maybe re-brand Chicago State as CPS+ and send all the under-performing grads there to re-learn what they refused to learn the first time. It’s already a sinkhole of a university anyway. Treat it as a prep school for life. I’ll even volunteer as… Read more »

Last edited 2 years ago by nixit
Arbuckle
2 years ago

A nigger with a diploma is like the difference between a nigger and a nigger with a hat.

Fed up neighbor
2 years ago
Reply to  Arbuckle

Who ever you are please leave this site and don’t return you and your racist language is not welcome here, keep it to yourself.

Michigan
2 years ago
Reply to  Arbuckle

Spoken like a Democrat Margaret Sanger – Robert Byrd follower.

The Paraclete
2 years ago
Reply to  Arbuckle

I’m ashamed! I laughed very hard!

Lakeysha
2 years ago

Thank you! Thank you for this article. I laughed when CPS issued that article last week. CPS is a joke. It’s all about DATA! And I know for a fact that they’re pushing kids out that can’t read or write.

Admin
2 years ago

School choice.

ProzacPlease
2 years ago

Many of the very good comments below have illustrated how deeply this problem affects our entire lives, and our society. It is not solely a matter of affixing blame, but we cannot allow the education establishment the luxury of acting as if it has nothing to do with them, and there is nothing to be done about it.

Ken M
2 years ago
Reply to  ProzacPlease

It will only get worse until we Abolish the Dept. of Education and every other Government entity involved in wrecking education in the USA…The Federal Government is by definition an inherently inefficient, wasteful, & coercive territorial monopolist of ultimate decisionmaking & violence…there is no one to go to for help–judges are gov’t employees and part of the problem…

NB-Chicago
2 years ago

Per S Karp & Calkbeat articales I read, its my understanding that CPS no longer requires testing. They dumped the ISAT. Testing is now voluntary and schools can choose to use an even more dumbed down test (can’t remember name). So, I’m not sure how CPS knows only 26% of kids meet standards? On top of that, with Covid, now 100% of kids are advanced through 8th grade no matter how poorly their performance or attendance. And for high school they have added all kinds of exemptions and ‘equity’ credits that makes it’s nearly impossible for a cps hs student… Read more »

Rick
2 years ago

CPS doesn’t expect much in the way of brain power out of blacks or hispanics from the get go. So they dumb it all down for them, and those poor schmucks graduate at the level they were handed. A 12 year stint where they were never challenged academically on how to learn and grow and use their own mind. The white kids in this system are just along for the ride, why they do better is probably due to only parental involvement and language and family. Another reason is schools not recognizing individual passions and desires in students. Its all… Read more »

Last edited 2 years ago by Rick
James
2 years ago
Reply to  Rick

I absolutely agree.

debtsor
2 years ago
Reply to  Rick

“The worst mistake a parent can make is to send a kid to college who first doesn’t have a passion.”

This depends. Do you want your kid to meet a spouse in college? That’s where I met my spouse.

Or do you want your kid swimming in the deep pool of late teen, early 20’s local townies, tweakers and drunks?

James
2 years ago
Reply to  debtsor

You’ve made a good point here, and that’s part of the college-or-not equation, too, as it certainly was for me. But, surely there ought to be ways to counsel offspring in those sorts of ways short of spending HUGE amounts of money for things where even a hint of talent and/or passion are absent, basically putting them in a holding pattern and hoping for the best. How many families can truly afford that extravagance at the expense of investing it more wisely? The old days of college tuition being $500/semester are long gone.

debtsor
2 years ago
Reply to  James

It also depends where my kid will be going to college. If my kid has zero passion but was accepted at U of I Champaign-Urbana or Michigan, my kid is going to college. Most kids at 18 have no idea what they want to do and the expose will help them. That degree opens doors that no degree will not. OTOH, is my child’s only four college option Northeastern University or Southern? If my child has no passion, a 850 SAT, and the full pay plan at some crappy state school, then no, I’m not doing that. I’m not going… Read more »

Mike
2 years ago
Reply to  debtsor

There are intelligent graduates of Northeastern and SIU that get good jobs.

The person matters more than the institution from which they obtain the degree for a lot of employers.

And the townie dating pool has kids that do not have college degrees but have good jobs and some will become successful small business owners.

Last edited 2 years ago by Mike
debtsor
2 years ago
Reply to  Mike

I’m sure there are some townies out there that are real catches, I admittedly have been out of the dating pool for a few decades now so I can’t say for certain. However, all the stats I see are that over 60% of generation x 18-25 year olds are living at home, and underemployed, vaping weed all day. And of course there’s nothing wrong with SIU or NEIU. But is NEIU worth $27,612.36 a year? Is SIU worth $29,903.00? If you ‘re going be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a degrees, why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars… Read more »

Mike
2 years ago
Reply to  debtsor

“I’m sure there are some townies out there that are real catches, I admittedly have been out of the dating pool for a few decades now so I can’t say for certain.”

What is your definition of a townie?

“However, all the stats I see are that over 60% of generation x 18-25 year olds are living at home, and underemployed, vaping weed all day.”

What stats indicate that “… over 60% of generation x 18-25 year olds are living at home, and underemployed, vaping weed all day?”

debtsor
2 years ago
Reply to  Mike

https://www.zillow.com/research/gen-z-at-home-falling-but-high-27957/

The Share of Gen Z Living at Home is Falling, But Remains Very High
My definition of a townie is the 18-25 year old that lives at home with parents, is underemployed, and vapes weed, or harder drugs, some portion of the week. Roughly 22% use marijuana between 18-29. www statista com/statistics/737849/share-americans-age-group-smokes-marijuana/

www bls gov showing 20-24 years olds have 8% unemployment and its nearly 10% for men, and it was nearly 13% a year ago.

www brookings edu/blog/up-front/2016/08/15/men-not-at-work-why-so-many-men-ages-of-25-to-54-are-not-working/

Men not at work: Why so many men aged 25 to 54 are not working

Willowglen
2 years ago
Reply to  debtsor

I am in agreement that SIU or NEIU at list price is a poor value. Of course, some make it work, but college in 2021 is all about value. Although not entirely on subject, many good suburban schools don’t do a good job of preparing kids who don’t fit in college for trades and practical skills. Parents in my well off area fought like crazy in the schools to get their son the right kind of resources for a mechanics’ trade. The schools have a college or fail mentality. The kid is now a Mercedes mechanic, and sends his parents… Read more »

Rick
2 years ago
Reply to  debtsor

Finding a mate is not the purpose of college. If I send my kid to trade school or college, I’m not doing it for his/her love life, In fact the opposite. That’s their job. There are millions of people without college working in trades, or that started their own businesses who have the happiest of marriages. There are millions of people scraping by paycheck to paycheck with wonderful marriages and families. There are also millions of people with useless degrees who never discovered a passion and are 200K in debt, and in for for hard marriages because of that debt.

James
2 years ago
Reply to  Rick

I don’t think finding a mate for your offspring is necessarily the top priority on the mind of many such parents as your response would seem to suggest. It might well be a lower priority consideration for some, though. Marital happiness can be found with no such pre-dispositions at all as can marital discord. That’s a separate issue.

susan
2 years ago

There is a solution, it requires formation of a safe-haven region within our corrupt sinkhole State. It would provide a workaround of the poisonous strangling economic buggery powers granted to the regime in power. All unincorporated land in Illinois: Form a large Village (or several small but similar) which operates under a charter as follows: public debt issuance prohibited (somehow; public officials’ hold-harmless revoked, or some other clever mechanism). SSAs to pay for hyper-local infrastructure desired on a those-who-will-profit-shoulder-risk basis. ALL land in New Illinois Village bestowed TIF status, with assessments frozen for 23 years (doubtful New Illinois TIF would… Read more »

streeterville
2 years ago

Then slap government-agency implemented CRT-inspired hiring practices, and quickly you empower endemic ineptness and inevitable malfunctioning services everywhere. Can’t expect a person reading at 6th grade-level to be a middle-manager at a governmental agency, and yet we find them, over and over and over again, empowered to roles that far exceed their capabilities. Kimm Foxx anyone? Bottom-of-class graduate of a 3rd or 4th tier law school, supposedly running one of the largest DA offices in US. And how did you expect her to perform? No wonder she’s not prosecuting crime and thereby enabling crime — she’s elected to a position… Read more »

debtsor
2 years ago
Reply to  streeterville

“No wonder she’s not prosecuting crime and thereby enabling crime — she’s elected to a position she has no qualifications to capably serve.” Kim Foxx, like most big city DA’s, wasn’t elected to prosecute crime. Kim Foxx was elected to to use her office as a force for social justice. Her prosecutorial discretion – i.e. her to power to charge or not charge – is her primary tool to effectuate social justice. Voters only care for her intersectional identity and her progressive ideology. A greater part of society has refined what ‘qualified’ mean. Competency, credentials, education, none of this matters… Read more »

Last edited 2 years ago by debtsor
Unemployed observer
2 years ago

Defund Defund Defund Defund The Criminal CTU.

NoHope4Illinois
2 years ago

Teachers union doesn’t care about their lack of work product – they got there’s and then some. The mayor and Arne Duncan approve.

James
2 years ago

Who is ready, willing and able to do all that’s required to replace them? I think the line of such applicants is way too short to be realistic. Maybe you are such a job candidate. If so, you are going to be lonely and disillusioned in short order.

Freddy
2 years ago
Reply to  James

Question? Do you know what is the per pupil expenditure required to fufill the necessary requirements to graduate? Not what it is now depending on school district but what is the $$$ amount to achieve that goal. I believe the state’s minimum per pupil expenditure is approx $6,500. Some rural public school districts spend that in central and downstate Illinois and the kids still get the necessary education to graduate. That number is close to what local private schools charge here in Rockford (7K). Maybe those schools do not have the administrative bloat like having a half dozen assistant supers… Read more »

James
2 years ago
Reply to  Freddy

I can’t answer your question as to what the costs are—or even “should be”—to educate children. It almost seems irrelevant to me as it is for any other goods and services we need. You simply have to cough it up or move elsewhere since complaining, posturing and whining seem to bring no relief. Comparing the cost in one place to its cost elsewhere essentially is a wasted efffort, too. It costs what it costs. The only solutions I can see beyond what I’ve already mentioned are to re-define what kinds of people receive what kinds of education and for how… Read more »

Freddy
2 years ago
Reply to  James

Thanks. Good answer!

Michigan
2 years ago
Reply to  James

James, you are correct that training everyone for college is not realistic nor should be. The problem is that there are intelligent, and maybe docile or low self esteem urban kids who would be pushed into better economic positions in their lives if the education system worked for them. That means more growth for the economy going forward because these kids will buy better houses and cars, add talent to labor market. Others would be great tradesmen. I used the word “would” because you know that there are missing opportunities. At least, maybe we would get hip hop music that… Read more »

Paula
2 years ago

Did you mean ‘theirs’? Are you blaming a teacher for this too?

James
2 years ago

Isn’t it obvious that spending and outcome achievement has nearly zero positive correlation? Yet, all all the widget-maker mindsets want to think otherwise. To be “educated” requires a set of criteria and attitudes mostly unrelated to spreadsheet thinking.

ProzacPlease
2 years ago
Reply to  James

Yes, that is obvious to everyone except the education lobby that constantly demands more money for schools, and blames poor outcomes on lack of “investment” in education.

James
2 years ago
Reply to  ProzacPlease

Whatever mythical system you envision to replace CPS will have employees and administrators who do likewise. The underlying problems will remain until such time as we either redefine the criteria as to who is capable of being educated or what is a more appropriate set of criteria for determining who is credibly “educated.”. The college grads’ ideas for such things clearly is not appropriate for inner-city schools and likely holds true nation-wide.

ProzacPlease
2 years ago
Reply to  James

James, I agree with you that we need to re-define education. The current model is clearly not working.

But you seem to think that the widget makers with spreadsheets have forced this upon the poor teachers. In fact, the unions have resisted any changes, especially the type of change you suggest.

The unions will resist any change that potentially reduces their power. It is they who perpetuate the system, not the spreadsheets.

James
2 years ago
Reply to  ProzacPlease

Its the legislators who define what’s required. The teachers support candidates who have sympathies in their corner, but its the legislators as a body who make the rules. A good start to overhauling the legislators’ votes is to have elections supported by taxes. That would quickly change the things many legislators see as important.

James
2 years ago
Reply to  ProzacPlease

Your take on my statement was not the intent I meant to convey. I was referring to people who who have the mindset that more dollars ought to bring predictably higher outcome results, something usually true in industry where spreadsheets rule the day in accounting, but its seldom true in the nebulous world of dealing with the human psyche and trying to influence its decision-making process. The “spreadsheet mentality” isn’t greatly applicable to determining the likely academic-achievement outcomes of school systems.

nixit
2 years ago
Reply to  James

You can’t force people to care.

James
2 years ago
Reply to  nixit

Bingo! You are hereby awarded the genius medal of the week. Nobody ever seems to even think of that here. A good part of that is that school-age people are generally on welfare—either governmental, parental or both. Their needs are already me to one degree or another and are not inclined to do attend to someone else’s instruction or advice.

BillD
2 years ago

I’m pretty sure the $/pupil is not inflation adjusted, making your chart misleading. Your argument is strong without any spending information. You weaken your message by presenting unadjusted spending.

Admin
2 years ago
Reply to  BillD

BillD, our full piece on the education spending, linked here, covers the inflation you mention. https://wirepoints.org/families-continue-to-flee-chicago-public-schools-as-it-loses-14000-students-in-2022-more-than-100000-since-2000-wirepoints/

CPS’ operating spending per student has more than doubled from $8,000 to $18,000 since 2000, and it’s done nothing to stem the tide of student flight. That’s a 121 percent increase in per student spending, more than double the 50 percent increase in inflation over the entire period.”

We’ll add it to this piece for clarity.

Rob M
2 years ago
Reply to  Ted Dabrowski

Ted, your reporting on this is factual, and the selfishness of the adults who run CPS and CTU cannot be defended. You should, however, compare other districts reading proficiency scores with CPS, also other with similar poverty demographics or a clearer picture. Then, maybe look at neighboring states. I know other states spend less and get similar, or even better results in some cases. I also would be interested in the private schools. Many private and charter don’t do any better with that population of students. The ones that do have substantial parent buy in, longer days, and give a… Read more »

susan
2 years ago
Reply to  Rob M

Even more helpful would be if YOU provided those statistical comparisons. It is available via your computer. Yes it is tedious, time consuming and requires mental concentration on a task unlikely to prove rewarding. BUT! The act of performing research (as opposed to reading someone else’s research, and forming opinions based upon whether you ‘like’ or ‘thumbs down’ the author) is its own reward. You will gain greater insights, and confidence in your own beliefs’ validity. Try it! You defined a problem, the answers are within your grasp, and you will feel really good if you perform this task yourself…without… Read more »

BillD
2 years ago
Reply to  Ted Dabrowski

Great, it make a difference. However, you continue to display numbers in a misleading way even if you use words to try to explain it. There’s not a good economics reporter that would display nominal $ over a 20 year period. Far simpler is to just present real $. Particularly in chart form. That picture as presented even with your clarification is just plain wrong. Why do you continue to do it? You don’t weaken your case by presenting the data in real $.

Last edited 2 years ago by BillD
Susan
2 years ago
Reply to  BillD

The cumulative 20 years of inflation from 2000 to 2020 (at average 2% annual rate) would be around 50%. So if $8047 rose at the rateof inflation it would have risen to $12074, rather than $17,779. $17779 oepp is 47% above the rate of inflation. Furthermore, State of Illinois contributions toward pension obligations (“the silent killer”) have risen exponentially during that time period. Spending per pupil is necessary information in order to portray the magnitude and horror of Chicago political corruption. Oepp can be compared and contrasted with all of America where free fair public education is provided within the… Read more »

The Paraclete
2 years ago

The capabilities of the students is irrelevant, patting yourself on the back and crowing about nonexistent accomplishments is the CPS script. They’re graduating students who not only can’t read, but are confused by an arrow on the floor!

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A statewide concern: Illinois’ population decline outpaces neighboring states – Wirepoints on ABC20 Champaign

“We are not in good shape” Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski told ABC 20 Champaign during a segment on Illinois’ latest population losses. Illinois was one of just three states to shrink in the 2010-2020 period and has lost another 300,000 people since then. Ted says things need to change. “It’s too expensive to live here, there aren’t enough good jobs and nobody trusts the government anymore. There’s just other places to go where you can be more satisfied.”

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