Fox News recently featured Wirepoints’ report on the the 55 and 30 Illinois schools with no students able to do math or read at grade level. The article drew national attention to the fact that Illinois schools are failing to teach students even basic skills despite the increasing amount of cash poured into the education system.
Take, for example, Spry Community Links High School in the heart of Little Village in Chicago, where data from the Illinois State Board of Education shows spending of $20,000 per student before the pandemic. Today it spends $35,600. And still, not a single one of its 88 kids at the school can read at grade level. It’s the same for math. Zero kids are proficient.
“‘What’s really incredible is that many of these schools are rated ‘commendable’ by the Illinois State Board of Education. That’s the 2nd-highest of four ‘accountability’ ratings a school can receive,’ Wirepoints wrote. ‘Not a single one of the 113 students at Sandoval Sr High School can read or do math at grade level. And yet the school is ‘commendable.’”
Please note that the title of the Fox News report is incorrect. There are 55 schools, including both elementary and high schools, where not a single student is proficient in math.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Poor student achievement and near-zero accountability: An indictment of Illinois’ public education system
- Unwed births, illiterate children and black-on-black crime: What Chicago’s mayoral candidates ignore
- Elgin’s Tony Sanders promoted to Illinois State Superintendent, though just 2 in 10 students in his district can read at grade level.
- Six facts Gov. Pritzker doesn’t want you to know about Illinois’ 2022 Report Card
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Talk to a teacher in one of these failing schools and find out why. It’s Trump’s fault.
I got to admit I find much humor in school teacher contract talks where the board members say if they don’t hand out raises they will loose the great makeup of teachers in their classrooms. What a laugh and I wonder do the teachers actually believe this?
So the highest paid public school teachers deliver the dumbest kids in the nation? In the real world results matter and buffoons like CTU are tossed to the curb. The only solution is school vouchers for all and fire the incompetent CTU members.
I had to look up YCCS, Youth ConnectionCharter Schools. This is the CPS version of independent Charter schools staffed by the same low talent CTU folks who ruined the regular schools. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Close it all down!
Headline News if anyone could read or do math at grade level.
Teachers are not in it for education. Money, Money, Money. Just ask the CTU.
This is criminal, teachers are stealing taxpayer money and the students’ future opportunities. Should be against the law. Pay for performance and end all pensions. PPF and the likes of him have destroyed Illinois for generations to come.
Not all of them. I know many who are I regard as heroes.
I find it interesting that I haven’t seen it noted anywhere that for a student to be proficient at a school in Illinois they must score at or above a 540 for ELA or Math. The College Board considers the SAT score of 480 in these sections to be “college ready”. Some of these rural and urban high schools have less than a 1/3 of their students that SHOULD go to college. The others should enter trade schools, apprenticeships, and/or go straight to the workforce. Many of these students know that the SAT isn’t going to have any bearing on… Read more »
No child at the school can read or do math proficiently because no one in the school can read, write or do math at all. The average test scores at these schools are abysmal because the students are functionally illiterate. It’s not because they have all collectively decided to not take the test seriously. For Example, RICHARDS CAREER ACADEMY HS (9 – 12), has an average ELA Score of 382.7 and Math of 376.9, which is a composite score of is 759.6. This is the 7th or 8th percentile. CICS – RALPH ELLISON CAMPUS (9 – 12) has a composite… Read more »
Certainly there are social factors that compound the problem. Constant fighting in the schools, bad parenting, bad nutrition, anti-intellectual cultural bias, ad infinitum. But as the parent of a “high achiever” (highest PSAT score in her school), I would attest that parenting and “teaching” are both overrated in a child’s academic outcomes. Smart kids are naturally eager to learn and soak up concepts, information, language, etc. like a sponge. The teachers can help guide and correct, but not if all they’re getting back is blank stares. The smartest kid I ever knew was raised in a dingy house by his… Read more »
Not too long ago, most of these students used to drop out of school, and usually ended up in prison. It did wonders to bring down the crime rate.
Pray for more young women to go into the convent. Yeah, it’s a long way back to something that actually worked.
For the uninitiated: 4th or 5th percentile means 4-5% of test takers scored less than the student. So of 100 participants, 4 or 5 scored poorer than the student and 95-96 scored better than the test taker who ranked in the 4th or 5th percentile.
Conversely, someone who scored in the 99th percentile, with 100 participants, that person scored better than 99.
However you cut it, these kids are getting screwed.
Spot on Debtsor. Big bucks for bad results. My Catholic school in the 60’s charged $25 per quarter and at least Old Joe could read when he got out and could make change for a dollar!
And the nuns never went on strike. They were truly on a mission from God.
This is criminal, they are stealing from the taxpayer money and from the students their future. Along the students are just getting passed on to the next grade without any education. The lust for pension money has destroyed everything else. End all pensions and pay for performance.
I don’ know how you do it all, ed, John, Mark, Matt. Wirepoints is the best one place to get the news of Illinois by far. Your articles are always are the best and have things not reported anywhere else, and I really like how you pick the best articles from other places. Awesome to see the national publications like this following you.
We do have a couple part time contractors, a books manager, and a new hire we will be announcing this week, but I am proud of how much we produce with a lean staff.
It sounds like covering all the issues and horrible things happening in Illinois is creating jobs. JB is a job creator after all. lol
Hee hee. Carnival barking is high growth. In fact, both our online traffic and reprints around the country over the past week smashed all previous records.
And the scam is still ongoing! Remember this when you pay your Illinois taxes.