By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
The failure of Chicago Public Schools to educate the city’s children – especially at a taxpayer cost of nearly $30,000 per student – is undeniable. We’ve reported in detail that 80 out of every 100 CPS students can’t read at grade level.
The question that hasn’t been asked, though, is just how far behind those 80 students are. Just one grade, two or three, or more? We tried to answer that question by looking at the state’s five assessment categories for 3rd- through 8th-grade students. The data shows CPS’ failures are even more dismal than we’ve often reported. And though we weren’t able to assess how many grades behind students are, we do know this: most CPS students are far, far away from reading at grade level.
Take black CPS students to start with. Only 11 of every 100 black students were at grade level for reading in 2022, meaning those students scored either a 4 (“met expectations”) or a 5 (“exceeded expectations”) on Illinois’ Assessment of Readiness test (IAR).*
It also means 89 of every 100 black students did not meet grade level expectations.
But here’s where it becomes interesting. Of those 89 students that failed to meet expectations, only 21 were close to, or “approaching,” grade level. They scored a 3 and, it could be generously argued, they have a legitimate chance at getting to proficiency.
But the other 68 students face big challenges. Twenty-seven scored a 2 (“partially met”) and a damning 41 students scored a 1, the lowest score possible.
That’s 41 percent of all CPS black children stuck at the very bottom of the testing scale.
Unfortunately, CPS and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) offer no good descriptions to help us reach a conclusion on how many grades behind those students are. There are plenty of definitions and descriptions, but most are unhelpfully obtuse, so we won’t try to guess.
But ISBE does have some definitions for students scoring a 2 – the second-worst level – in reading. We looked at the 3rd-grade definition since the ability to read in 3rd grade is vital for a student’s future:
In reading, the pattern exhibited by student responses indicates:
- With very complex text, students demonstrate the inability to be accurate when quoting or referencing, showing limited understanding of the text when referring to explicit details and examples in the text.
- With moderately complex text, students demonstrate the ability to be minimally accurate when quoting or referencing, showing minimal understanding of the text when referring to explicit details and examples in the text.
- With readily accessible text, students demonstrate the ability to be partially accurate when quoting or referencing, showing partial understanding of the text when referring to explicit details and examples in the text and when explaining inferences drawn from the text. [emphasis added]
The state school board has no explanation for students who did the worst – a score of 1 – on the assessment test. Does that mean they can’t even be “partially accurate when quoting or referencing…” “…readily accessible text”?
Are the 41 percent of CPS’ black children one, two or several grade levels behind? Mayor Brandon Johnson and the CTU, along with Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his State Board of Education, should have to explain to Chicago parents just how badly the school system is failing their children.
All CPS students are in trouble
We highlighted black student results above, but it’s bleak overall for CPS. Over 80 out of every 100 of Hispanic students, and more than 50 out of every 100 white and Asian students aren’t at grade level in reading.
And overall, 32.5 percent of all CPS students were at the worst-level score.
Below we break out Chicago’s IAR results by race. Even though the overall scores are better for white and Asian students than they are for black students, there are still too many far away from proficiency.
No proficiency, no plan
It’s important to note that current city and state leadership have no plan to help Chicago’s worst-performing kids catch up. It would take an all-hands approach and obsession with literacy and math – and merit – to even have a chance.
Instead, Mayor Johnson’s transition team is advocating for new spending and support services – with no mention of improving results. Here are five of the transition team’s priorities, as reported by Chalkbeat:
- Give students more of a voice in their education — and pay them to weigh in
- Rapidly increase the number of full-service community schools to 200
- Provide free Wi-Fi, laptops, and public transit to students
- Replace federal COVID relief dollars that are running out
- Provide more help for homeless and migrant students
Nor is the Chicago Teachers Union interested in helping students. As we told Fox News last week, the union has fully morphed into a political group more interested in pushing social justice policies and DEI than improving education.
The fact that so many children – about 50,000 in CPS alone – are performing at the worst possible level should be the educational establishment’s deepest shame and highest priority to fix. But once again, as we’ve argued here and here, nobody in the system seems to care.
Appendix
Student outcomes on reading and math proficiency come directly from the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). The Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) for grades 3 through 8 is one of the key data points ISBE highlights on its Illinois Report Card website.
From ISBE’s Score Report Interpretation Guide For Parents:
Each performance level is a broad, categorical level defined by a student’s overall scale score and is used to report overall student performance by describing how well students met the expectations for their grade level/course. Each performance level is defined by a range of overall scale scores for the assessment. There are five performance levels for the Illinois Assessment of Readiness:
-
- Level 5: Exceeded expectations
- Level 4: Met expectations
- Level 3: Approached expectations
- Level 2: Partially met expectations
- Level 1: Did not yet meet expectations
Students performing at levels 4 and 5 met or exceeded expectations, have demonstrated readiness for the next grade level/course and, ultimately, are likely on track for college and careers.
ISBE says that only students performing at levels 4 or 5 on the IAR “have demonstrated readiness for the next grade level.” Which means that levels 3, 2 and 1 are not ready for the next grade.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Wirepoints’ Report Cards expanded to cover all 600 Chicago public schools. The grades are dismal.
- Chicago Public Schools doesn’t deserve another penny (Part 2)
- So much for Chicago Mayor Johnson’s promise of no property tax hikes (Part 1)
- No, Mr. Martinez, your excuses for Chicago Public Schools’ failure to educate children don’t hold up
- Chicago Public Schools fails its Hispanic students: Only 17 of every 100 read at grade level. – Wirepoints Special Report
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
I tried to count, but I ran out of fingers and toes. That is how the kids are taught math in the CPS.
“Wealthy” suburbs with “good” schools can fall off a cliff when a critical mass of contributors opt out (contributory property-taxpayers=nonTIF). The relative devaluation of Illinois real estate can be directly correlated to aberrant 2%-5% additional annual ‘cost-of-carry’ to live in Illinois (including forward carried public-pension-debt-burden). While some Illinois residents benefit from aberrant public-employee benefits and TIF, other members of the taxpayer community suffer aberrant shares of the burden to subsidize those lucky few. Those who suffer most from the burden of subsidizing Illinois public-sector wealth are working medical professionals. Medical pros: pay the highest tax rates (BECAUSE PRIVATE PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS… Read more »
An embarrassing failure at the highest level. Pay top dollar and get schitt.
Travesty and completely broken beyond repair.
While I thank you folks who are or were former educators who post on this forum, there is really the larger point of ROI for parents. For those same massive property taxes and potentially huge real estate purchases a family often looks to Chicago suburbs and more affluent communities for good reason. They simply get much more for their money and yield a greater return on investment with an education which is of higher quality then a city school. Price of admission being real estate. Granted it’s not as straight forward as it used to be at Hinsdale Central, New… Read more »
We may not be able to teach them to read, write or do math, but we will entertain them with drag and sex shows!
Well is it the teachers or the students? It certainly isn’t lack of money. Downstate we can educate students with much better results for much less money. The usual answer, “Chicago schools need more money.”
The voters up there could change a lot of things and I assume the parents are composed of qualified voters Perhaps it is them that are the problem
Absolutely correct! Downstate I think we see rural American schools which still emphasize traditions and values which are really important for those communities. These are communities which like the Jason Aldean song Small Town magnifies the difference between these values systems. The values system in urban areas is broken beyond repair and it’s been hijacked by big time global and political interests who use the children as pawns in their plan for total control. It’s really not about the money spent per pupil. Be sure you keep a very close eye on anyone the school board hires, recruits, elects, nominates… Read more »
Throughout all of my 40+ year management career, I’ve had to recruit, hire and train employees, in one industry or another, who were just on one side or the other of high school graduation. Your report well illustrates and explains what my experiences have actually been. It’s not that many recently ‘graduated’ applicants have a ‘little difficulty’ in reading their way through that process, it’s that so many just can’t do it at all without help. Can’t get their name, address, telephone number and Social Security number in the correct places. Can’t type an understandable sentence in a text field.… Read more »
Well said and articulated. I think it truly shows based on age. The various 70-80 year olds in my family still have wonderful penmanship, can read, write, spell like nobody’s business. All were products of American public schools with very few exceptions. They do not have college degrees. They are what our public schools used to produce, students who could function in many different career fields and have long careers because they were well trained and prepared for the working world. It’s still found but mostly in rural America. FFA and 4H for example still well rounded and seem to… Read more »
My rough-old-cob late father in law started out with a metal working voc-tech high school degree from what was a blue-collar working class high school, that’s now a failing inner city 80% Black school.
Followed by three years as a Machinist’s Mate G First Class in the Pacific building Navy facilities that the Japanese bombed every night.
Did drafting at home at night while an ironworker to pay for the house and land my wife and I inherited.
Retired as a VP for a construction company that built hospitals, schools and colleges all over Illinois.
Never went to college.
Blacks are affected the most. They are always talking about “rising up” and being treated fairly. Well, when are they going to do it?
Wirepoints, this is interesting but easily debunked by the naysayers because you can’t quantify your classifications. It reveals a study that didn’t have the time put into it to make the results actionable. You guys do great work, but this isn’t one of those times.
Why aren’t you placing the responsibility on the ISBE, the governor, the mayor, the CTU to act on the information? Wirepoints is reporting the problem. Is it also their responsibility to fix it? Just because a naysayer attempts to debunk the report doesn’t make the report false or unactionable. With no accountability, the parties responsible aren’t motivated to respond, let alone act.
You’re exactly right. Where is the source material? Could Wirepoints make it available?
Dave, the links for what we have are right there. Let me know if there’s something in particular you don’t see. We do our best to link to their stuff
John, the problem is in the available data. I think my colleagues were quite clear about that and what its limitations are.
These are great statitistics but I wish Wireoints would provide the Exact Citation from which this data was collated. It really helps people like me to know the facts and counter liberal nonsense.
Interviewing a professional educator or other persons in the industry would be helpful too. It’s important to use testimonies and examples to tell the story. How much time and what would be required to fix this?
No, it likely wouldn’t if the commenter remarks here are any clue. Part of the reason for their negative points of view can be attributed to at least a few reasons. Literally every person has been to school and has memories of time spent there. That carrie’s over into mindsets held later in life. Secondly, every property tax bill in IL at least clearly states how much in actual terms and implied percentage terms goes to local public schools and their employee pension systems. Thirdly, to the extent any adult has had negative experiences in schools personally or involving a… Read more »
What part of “these kids cannot read” are we misinterpreting? We absolutely would value teacher input of ideas of how to solve the problem. Explanations for why it is impossible because it is too hard are not as welcome.
If you or others are not willing to take the advice from people who do such work for years on end as their career then it’s unlikely you’ll value anyone else’s opinion who has an up-close-and personal career in that general field as well. No, my bet is you’re more likely to follow the advice of people you know regardless of their career to include your preferred political candidates who likely spew out their own stew of “solutions” as well.
Yes!! What would really hit home would be a group interview of parents and students. Asking the kids what they think would be great. Perhaps their parents could walk them through a competence test before the interview. I might actually do this myself for my new media property. I’ve got a block party this weekend and there are plenty of kinds and parents I could talk to.
Well, that’s a sure way to turn a friendly block party into a hate-fest event. Be wary of how you light that fuse. Maybe that’s topic that requires some advance planning if you expect it to blossom better than I do.
I said professionals. It doesn’t have to be Chicago teachers. There’s a whole bunch of people that could provide insight. Down / up votes don’t mean anything on this site.
Okay, that might be acceptable to me as well, but that depends upon how wide you want to accept the relevancy of the term “professional.” Just because an account, say, has had a lot of schooling doesn’t mean he has any credentials into what is required in the way of creating schooling excellence necessarily. He/she may well be no more knowledgable in that arena than any other person whose had signficantly better-than-average amounts of education or maybe even when compared to people with much lesser amounts of it.
You are right. The problem is that those who supposedly have the knowledge are too busy explaining that it’s impossible to teach these kids, and they have more important things to do in the social justice arena. An abdication of sorts, leaving those of us who don’t have any education training to try to find the solution.
Okay, go to it. But, I can almost guarantee it will be a liquor inspired rant fest leading to nothing unknown nor even reasonable agreement as to steps for realistic resolution. If the leading people dealing with it nationally can’t do it I think your random set of professional people at a party likely are not going to be any better. Expect a huge number of rants and probably nothing mutually agreeable in the way of progress. Hopefully I’m wrong. Give us a report afterwards, please.
You don’t need to be a pro or even smart to identify huge problems in the system. I can guarantee you that these kids are working with terrible textbooks. The entire textbook industry is predatory. Do kids really need a new algebra textbook every year? Algebra hasn’t changed much in 300 years. Common core is the devil. I’ve seen several classic texts completely destroyed by some goofball trying to cash in with a few modern updates.
I have this feeling that the reason for common core math is that no one can understand it hence all the students can’t succeed at math not just some of them. I can’t prove that but just a thought.
One thing for sure common core won’t work on STE issues but no problem there; immigrants will be used for things like that as so many are these days.
How many teachers do you believe would step forward, if asked, and offer their honest assessment of their own classroom and those of their fellow teachers, or criticize how their own union and CPS education policies are hamstringing them? In today’s cancel culture and the threatening ways of the CTU, precisely none. And even if they bravely did, that’s anecdotal evidence, perceptive information offered by someone in the classroom. Important to hear, I agree, but sometimes not measurable unless hundreds are interviewed. With ISBE stats so skewed to awful performance, matched by teacher evaluations and graduation rates that are clearly… Read more »
Not many would step forward for fear of reprisal. Here is an article from 2019 in Rockford school district.
https://www.wrex.com/news/13-investigates/13-investigates-rps-205-teachers-say-failing-students-still-get-moved-on-to-next-grade/article_8b8b9850-7042-52d4-8301-530f0b8293c2.html
Here is a list of Handle With Care students in Rockford Dist 205
https://www.wrex.com/news/which-rps-schools-have-the-most-students-logged-in-police-reports/article_c2bf2904-7a5f-11ed-ba03-0fd3384b8136.html
That’s not true. There are millions of Teachers all over the world.
So? What do teachers around the world have to do with this story? They’re standing up to the CTU? Really? Show me.
I don’t have day to day experience in dealing with young people in let’s say, the bottom 40 percent of CPS. Some might say this is a character flaw, but the truth is that I simply cannot speak from direct observation. I was in a Teamsters union in the late 70’s while working through college but the full time men and women in the union were literate and could compute and could adjust to circumstances very well. I had a healthy measure of respect for them; perhaps the objective of obtaining and keeping a high paying union job incentivized sound… Read more »
You’ve made a great comment here. Thanks for doing so. Good educational performance generally depends upon at least three primary factors all being continually encouraging and positive: the teacher, the student’s parents and the child’s level of willingness to cooperate. You could well name others such as classmates’s influences, the school’s overall climate for learning, the community at large, as well as the curriculum itself. I was only trying to stress the highest priority influencers as I chose to think of them. “Your mileage may vary”.
The problem with dismissing those who respond negatively to the current situation – the highest priority influencers as you call them – is that they are not wrong in pointing out the generally undesirable state of educational achievement, although I think their methods can be questioned. One thing I don’t see from the government/public union industrial complex is a recognition of just how painful life can be without literacy. No matter the outward bravado, a person without literacy lives a frightened and bewildering inner life – it is quite painful. Lots of talk about “investment” in the community – meaning… Read more »
How much time? Well, considering the post-modern Marxists have quietly and methodically advanced their ideology through their pedagogy into all of our education institutions (from K – postgrad) at a slow creep over the last 50 years or so, I’d say it’ll take at least another 50 years to take it back… that’s IF a majority of parents and teachers collectively decide it’s time to excise the cancer, chemo the rest of it, and start fresh. My POV from the inside? This body is too far gone. Dismantle it all – from the federal dept of education on down to… Read more »
Source is cited in graphics. Make a little effort.
These data are available to the public by law, unless illegally obscured by government.
Then the process is, file a FOIA request.
Then, the process is: wait until your FOIA is illegally ignored and file a FOIA rejection objection.
Then the process is, wait until your FOIA complaint is ignored.
Then the process is: do nothing? complain about government? Move out of Illinois? (Civil litigation against corrupt government/public employees is all but impossible in Illinois).
I saw the Illinois Board of Education citation. That’s pretty broad and open. I’d love a hyperlink to the primary materials or something with IBOE watermark. Do you know for a fact it was a FOIA request?
Why claim pushback against corrupt government is all but impossible? That’s simply not true.
The citations from the Illinois State Board of Education are already hyperlinked in the piece, but here they are in one spot:
Illinois Report Card Chicago IAR data: https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/District.aspx?source=trends&source2=iar&Districtid=15016299025
Grade 3 performance descriptors: http://resources.newmeridiancorp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/ELA-PLDS_a11y.pdf
ISBE score interpretation guide for parents: https://www.isbe.net/Documents/IAR-ScoreGuideParent.pdf
Am I losing my mind? Were those there last night?
Yes. No problem.
Frank, the links for what we have are right there in the piece. Let me know if there’s something in particular you don’t see. We do our best to link to their stuff.
CPS miseducation is the real Jim Crow 2.0.
Yep, the systemic racism that the Dems never get called out on.