By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Many people have a hard time believing that the number of CPS students reading and doing math at grade level can really be as low as we report – and that the students graduate anyway. A quick glance at the Illinois Report Card shows a record 88% of CPS students graduated last year even though just 22% were reading-proficient on the SAT.
But not only are the district’s failures and incompetence really that bad, they’ve been going on for at least 50 years. Norman Lear, who passed away this month, highlighted those failures all the way back in 1974.
A three-minute clip of the Lear-produced show Good Times, titled “J.J.’s grades seem to be a problem,” shows just how long the system has been pushing unprepared children up and out of Chicago’s schools.
Watch for yourself what JJ’s principal tells his parents and it’ll seem eerily familiar.
Lear, hardly a conservative social critic, heaped scorn on the obvious bigotry of low expectations 26 years before that phrase was even coined.
City leadership and the Chicago Teachers Union still pursue the same disastrous policies today – but now it costs taxpayers nearly $30,000 per student to obtain the same dismal results.
Appendix.
Read more from Wirepoints:
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.
It is not only the school’s responsibility but the parent’s responsibility. Teaching begins at home; folks need to want to invest their time in their kids. Sometimes, I do not get home until just before bed from work.It is important i take that time to read to my sons. We take our kids to Museums and the Zoo. the yearly membership for the whole family is less than a ticket to one sporting event or a trip to a movie for the whole family. We need to make a change in the family dynamic and what is important. Do you… Read more »
A third of these students are chronically absent. Forget reading to their child or taking him to a museum. These parents can’t even be bothered to get their kid to school on a regular basis. Until these parents start valuing education nothing will change.
You mean “parent or guardian” instead of “parents” as most of these children are raised in single parent households with mostly absent fathers, or by grandparents or aunts/uncles.
Its next to impossible to teach chronic absentees anything where a subject requires the building of a progressively learned knowledge and skills—and truly how many don’t? The commenters on this website who choose to narrow the problems of public education to defaming teachers endlessly never even seem to consider the learning hurdles that can’t be met because of chronic truancy.
I’ve mentioned this before. How does anyone expect the Latino students who speak their native language at home and also outside with their friends to learn anything at school when many do not understand what the teachers are teaching? Plus depending on the age of the student is then put in a corresponding grade when they are most likely not ready to be in that grade will usually fail. In their home country being in 3rd grade or whatever does mean they are ready to be in our 3rd grade. As for the African American students most of the blame… Read more »
But, as for Khan ya gotta wanna do It! A few will, but most won’t and for a variety of reasons, some good and some not. People with dedication may well be successful, but most won’t dedicate themselves to that cause. Its far easier to take the easy way out way too soon.
Here is most likely the underlying cause. Lead pipes/in paint and years ago in gas. How many have some sort of lead poisoning in inner cities? Learning disabilities is one of the main health problems. https://www.edf.org/content/lead-pipes-hidden-threat-families-across-america Has anyone ever done a simple test on students in inner city schools for lead toxicity? All you need is a hair or fingernail sample which is non invasive. Lead pipes are in the news in Chicago but what about the health of the people who still drink water from the pipes and have lead paint which has been painted over. The suburbs have… Read more »
If it were only so simple. Homes have had lead feed lines and lead paint for centuries, every great physicist, doctor, scholar and engineer for two centuries came from such homes and drank said water. It didn’t make them stupid, fat, lazy or a criminal. The reasons are clearly $hit parents and $hit schools not a damn pipe or paint on the wall.
It is one possibility most likely a good one. It would be simple to find out. If not what do you propose? What is your solution? I still would check those who are incarcerated and check for heavy metal poisoning and compare levels for different races.
https://www.webmd.com/children/what-is-lead-poisoning
Read the health problems for children.
I have a collection of high school math, physics, chemistry, mechanics and electronics textbooks from the 1930’s 40’s 50’s. All these subjects require math at the least algebra, often calculus, all non linear analysis. It is amazing what was taught to high schoolers from the 30’s through 50’s, and how many of them actually got through these subjects. America is becoming a very ugly place. In Russia, these subjects are well taught and learned, and Russia is today one of the most devoutly Christian countries and clean, modern and crime free countries. Russia is, in fact what America should be.… Read more »
Boy are you going to get the natives riled up.
Spot on Rick. And another thing, back in those days they had high school shooting teams!
Wow, a time capsule reminder!! Embarrassing but unfortunately people cannot be shamed with the truth!
So sorry, Mr Lear. Fifty years ago you complained about the sad state of affairs at Chicago public schools. No one listened and now it’s worse. Thank you for taking the risk and going on record. Today you would be canceled. Gonna miss you.
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Have reading & math proficiency rates increased or decreased for Blacks, Hispanics & Whites at CPS since Good Times (1970s?) would be an interesting question? Or just the astronomical $30,000 cost? I believe for Blacks, they’ve increased slightly but have been flat since the 90s?
Well since the school boards are elected by the people I would say the schools are a reflection of what the voters want and, as we can see, parents do not care about the quality of their children’s education in Chicago.
Chicago’s school board is appointed. It will convert to an elected board in 2024. It will be interesting to see if anything changes.
Changes, only if the CTU is prohibited from financially supporting their favored candidates.
Whoops my downstate focus made me blow it on this. Regarding changes with the new board selection nothing will change in a positive move for the students and as my resource on this is look who Chicago picked for Mayor.
Uhhhh, NOPE.
It is time to bring out JB the big inflatable rat
And place it in front of the capital building in
Springfield. A rat only cares about itself and how much food it can get, or in the case of the
Teachers Union how much money they can stuff in their pockets
The kiddos are the ones who pay the price,
Those left behind never catch up, and are
Looked at as second rate citizens
What in the wide world of sports is going on here !
I’m glad there are more years behind me than in front of me. I don’t want to live in a world where today’s students, without educations, are in charge.
Well Marie, they’ll be funding your social security check!
But 22% + 88% = 100%, right? Oh wait.. time to stop Brandon and Stacy from balancing my checkbook.
So the system has perpetuated failure for 50 years. And now Chicago voters have put the leaders of the system in the mayor’s office. Their plan worked!
Dyn-O-Mite!!!
The blatantly obvious fact that for those 50 years, and beyond, the City of Chicago has been controlled by Democrats should be covered by the media. What about the children!
The children are now parents or even grandparents!
That’s the one thing schools in Illinois do teach, kids should birth lots of kids. Illinois will pay for them, transition them and teach those kids how to have more kids and apply for food stamps, welfare, housing assistance, free medical care, etc. Who says the “system” is failing? Seems to me it’s thriving!
Teen pregnancies are at historical lows. The kids get the contraception implants at young ages, paid for by medicaid, and with abortion on demand in all black and hispanic communities, also paid for by medicaid, kids aren’t really having kids. https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2019-01-16/chicago-teen-birth-rate-hits-historic-low Birth rates are at historic lows right now, unfortunately especially among educated black women with resources, who would be most able to give their children a privileged upbringing that would give their offspring the best chance in life to succeed. So in the black community, it really is only the poorest and least educated that are having all the… Read more »
But to come full circle, even though teen pregnancies are at historical lows, STDs are at historical highs, especially in some communities. It’s estimated by the CDC that, as far back as 2010, 50% of black women had herpes simplex 2 (HSV-2), the itchy rash down there that never goes away. 50%!!! STD rates are soaring everywhere, especially in the gay/trans community, which is an increasingly large number of younger, non-white populations. I’m not exaggerating this, you can google this information yourself, it’s all out there. As teen pregnancies have dropped, and LGBTQIALKDap has increased, incurable STD rates have soared.… Read more »
They have never cared about the children. They have other priorities. Take care of number one.