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| Chicago public-school reform flops |
| 2009-07-02 |
| Chicago Public School reform largely has failed, with the vast bulk of students either dropping out or unprepared for college and apparent gains at the grade-school level more perceived than real. That's the bottom line of a blockbuster report released Tuesday by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club, a report that directly challenges the legitimacy of one of Mayor Richard M. Daley's major claimed accomplishments. Titled "Still Left Behind," the report freely uses terms like "abysmal" to describe the true state of public education in Chicago. The report was prepared by committee President R. Eden Martin, a lawyer, with analytical support from Paul Zavitkovsky of the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Half of the students drop out by high school, and of those who remain until 11th grade, 70% fail to meet state standards, the report says. In fact, "In the regular (non-magnet) neighborhood high schools, which serve the vast preponderance of students, almost no students are prepared to succeed in college." The report directly challenges widespread claims by current and former CPS officials that local students have shown substantial progress over the last decade on standardized tests. For instance, it notes a 2006 letter from then schools CEO Arne Duncan, now U.S. secretary of education, stating that the share of CPS students meeting or exceeding state standards had leapt 15 points in one year. In fact, it says, the change occurred because of a change in the test, not because of real educational gains. As a result, it points out, while a test cited by local officials showed that 71% of 8th graders met or exceeded state standards in 2007, a national test taken here the same year showed just 13% were up to par. Similarly, while the test employed locally reported that the share of 8th graders meeting math standards grew from 32% to 71% from 2005 to 2007, the national test, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, showed scores effectively flat, moving from 11% to only 13%. The report does note that the changes in the test were ordered by the state, not by CPS. CPS officials and Mayor Richard M. Daley had no immediate response to the report, but Ron Gidwitz, former chairman of the State Board of Education, said he believes its results are on point. "It hard to refute their conclusions when you look at the evidence," including how CPS students do on college-enrollment tests, Mr. Gidwitz said. "We haven't made nearly as much progress as people thought." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #18 The Wizard told the the Scarecrow, "You don't need an education, what you need is a Diploma". No, it's incorrect, it's even worse, the Wizard said "You don't need a brain" |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-07-02 19:29 |
| #17 ...compounded by lazy and ineffectual personnel management in our businesses... There hasn't been anything resembling "personnel management" in business since the arrival of the HR mentality. I've always considered HR to be the point where Leftism managed to infect an otherwise capitalist venture. Namely...business. |
| Posted by: Speath Fillmore2260 2009-07-02 19:02 |
| #16 Trailing daughter #2 became friends with a lovely Korean girl who came over here as an exchange student. She loves it here, because she gets more than four hours of sleep each night, and gets to sleep in on weekends. According to her the pattern over there is to study until one or two in the morning, get up at five for school, then sleep through classes and lunch, due to sheer exhaustion. She found the classes much easier as well, but the student exchange people had dropped her back two years (junior to freshman) because she came over with very little English. That sleep pattern and pressure are to me unacceptably unhealthy, even if Korean students graduate knowing more than Americans. I agree with WolfDog's prescription. At-home enrichment is only part of the solution. The other part is demanding the kids earn their grades themselves. I've a girlfriend who spends pots of money on private tutors and SAT training programs for her three sons... but she does all their school projects for them, "because they don't do things like that well," allowing them only to choose the subject. So of course two of the three don't understand why they should do their homework and turn it in on time. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-07-02 17:07 |
| #15 It's just not the issue of paying. These were basic working families in Korea which would be classified as 'poor' by American bureaucratic standards. Note I wrote they 'pooled' money. The kids very well understood it was their 'job' in the family to succeed. There was no sense of 'entitlement' but rather 'obligation'. It is a current within the society derived from thousands of years of Chinese cultural influences [which also has its influence in Japan] and the Han Emperor who developed the first civil service and opportunity for anyone who could pass the exam. There was the means of social mobility. That trait is something absent in some of the subcultures here in America and is reflected in their approach and appreciation for education. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-07-02 16:17 |
| #14 I taught in a university for many years and a lot of students thought they should have an "A" for paying their money and showing up. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2009-07-02 13:00 |
| #13 Bright Pebbles and Procopius2k; parents "paying" for their child's education is not always the answer. As a retired private school teacher (Catholic School) I see the biggest hurdle to education (public or private) as the culture of entitlement and enabling endemic in our society. Too many students (enabled by parents and family) feel they are entitled to no less than a "B", or at the very least a "C", simply for showing up for class; never mind how disruptive their behavior may be to others in the class. Until we make everyone accountable for for their own success or failure, no amount of monies spent will cure the problem. Just my two cents worth. |
| Posted by: WolfDog 2009-07-02 12:56 |
| #12 They obviously don't have enough money. |
| Posted by: DoDo 2009-07-02 12:03 |
| #11 Today's educational system runs on what I call the "Scarecrow Principle" based on the Scarecrow of the Wizad of Oz. The Wizard told the the Scarecrow, "You don't need an education, what you need is a Diploma". |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2009-07-02 11:05 |
| #10 For instance, it notes a 2006 letter from then schools CEO Arne Duncan, now U.S. secretary of education, stating that the share of CPS students meeting or exceeding state standards had leapt 15 points in one year. It gets better and better |
| Posted by: Beavis 2009-07-02 10:48 |
| #9 Courtesy of the Ayers and Obama Chicago school "reforms". "Calling Bill Ayers a school reformer is a bit like calling Joseph Stalin an agricultural reformer." |
| Posted by: ed 2009-07-02 10:19 |
| #8 The news out of CPS isn't entirely bad. I understand grades in Markmanship have improved drastically. |
| Posted by: Dreadnought 2009-07-02 10:14 |
| #7 Michelle and Barry leave town and the place just goes to HELL! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-07-02 10:11 |
| #6 I thought Bill Ayers was the |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2009-07-02 10:10 |
| #5 If you want education you're going to have to make parents interested in their childrens learning, and that means they have to pay for it out of their own money. When I was in Korea, I'd watch the children march off to school in the morning. Then sometime just afternoon they'd trip on back home. The official school day was done. Then after their lunch, the kiddies spent the rest of the day with a tutor paid for by the families who pooled resources for the instructor. When the families paid, you can be certain the kids were 'encouraged' to focus. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-07-02 08:58 |
| #4 ...almost no students are prepared to succeed in college. Well, we identified the first problem. The vast bulk of people shouldn't be going to college. It's part of the '60s hype which witnessed all sorts of trades move their certification from apprentice-journeymen-master to paper mill subsidy for academic empire building along with the blooming of 'studies' which lack direct application to practical work other than increasing the population of instructors in colleges. It's been compounded by lazy and ineffectual personnel management in our businesses that fall back on those same pieces of paper as 'job qualifications'. The whole practicality of what a citizen needs to know to be productive and to participate in a real democracy has been subordinated to the education industry and self protection union. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-07-02 08:51 |
| #3 State schools are merely a crèche. Learning is secondary to their primary purpose. If you want education you're going to have to make parents interested in their childrens learning, and that means they have to pay for it out of their own money. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2009-07-02 07:43 |
| #2 Why civilizations always have a death wish? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-07-02 05:51 |
| #1 Bad culture & bad government. |
| Posted by: whatadeal 2009-07-02 05:03 |