By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Chicago’s Acero Schools has announced it’s closing seven of its 15 charter schools next year. The closings capture the ongoing mess at the Chicago Public Schools. Like CPS as a whole, charters are suffering from the machinations of the Chicago Teachers Union. A look at Acero’s student outcomes alone, tells you much of the story.
Acero teachers first unionized in 2014 and hooked up with the CTU in 2018. Later that same year they struck on the network and its 7,600 students – the nation’s first charter strike. Then just two years later Acero, along with all CPS schools, was shut down during Covid. The CTU made sure Chicago schools remained shut far longer than many other big districts in the nation.
The data below shows just how damaging that’s been to students at Acero. It’s impossible for us to apportion the blame for the results – Acero management, the union, CPS leadership, covid policies…all are complicit – but the CTU’s fingerprints are there for sure.
Check out the declines in both reading and math. On average, reading proficiency in Acero schools has fallen by nearly half between 2018 and 2023. 26% of students were able to read at grade level in 2018, but in 2023, it was down to just 14%.
Some schools have experienced a complete plunge. At Jovita Idar, 42% of kids were reading proficient in 2018 – the best outcome among Acero schools. Last year, reading was at just 18%.
Only one Acero school managed to avoid a collapse in reading: Tamayo Elementary…one of the schools slated for closure.
Math outcomes were even worse with a 60% collapse between 2018 and 2023. 21% of students were able to do math at grade level in 2018. In 2023, it was just 8%.
Sadly, there’s nothing special about Acero’s dropping outcomes or its dismal results. We can show you similar results at hundreds of the district’s traditional schools. Take reading: there are 306 schools, half of all CPS schools, where at most 15% of students can read at grade level.
In math, there are 445 schools, or 72% of all CPS schools, where at most 15% can do math at grade level.
If you want to see how bad things are, go to KidsCantRead and look up individual CPS schools. You’ll see what a mess the CTU and the admin at CPS have made of student achievement.
The funny thing about the Acero closings is that the CTU is protesting the very charter closures it’s worked so hard to make happen. Why? Because Acero’s teachers are part of the union – closing the school would mean lost jobs and lost dues.
The machinations of the CTU are clear when you learn President Stacey Davis-Gates’ solution to the problem: Have CPS absorb the Acero schools.
For the union it’s a win-win. Goodbye charter schools, but keep the schools open and unionized teachers employed. Only Chicago’s students are the losers.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Why the Chicago Teachers Union Always Gets What It Wants
- Chicago Public Schools spends $100 million yearly on its 20 emptiest schools. And it wants to spend another $1 billion on them.
- Update: Chicago school board resignation is giant distraction from the fact that kids at CPS can’t read
- What literacy crisis at Chicago Public Schools? Illinois State Rep. Buckner says he can read ‘very well.’
- Catholic Schools in Cicero and Berwyn are closing. Students’ only local alternatives are failing public schools.
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.
Uh oh, someone is confusing a Democratic Party jobs program with education again.
I thought that an inherent part of the Charter School experiment was that the teachers would be relatively new in the profession and would not be unionized in order to contrast and compare to traditional schools. In this case it wasn’t the charter schools that failed but rather the regulatory bodies that allowed them to morph into typical public schools that, in Chicago’s case, are dismal failures.
That was the intent of charters. But they were a threat to CTU from the get-go. As charters, they had freedom and flexibilty as to curriculum, scheduling, etc. By showing positive results, they were on the path to proving that there was an alternative to CPS. And CTU was most certainly not going to suffer that quietly. They began whispering in the ears of charter staff about how great unionization would be, then openly courted them. Once they hooked up with CTU, much of the freedom and flexibility disappeared. Why? Because when you convince people that they are underappreciated and… Read more »