Posted on 12/31/2008 2:32:21 AM PST by Man50D
The Chicago Public Schools, whose superintendent, Arne Duncan, has been tapped by President-elect Barack Obama to be the next education secretary, failed to meet the Illinois state standards set under the No Child Left Behind Act every single year the standards have been in force.
For the last five school years (2004-2008), the Chicago district (District 299) failed to make “Adequate Yearly Progress” (AYP) in key areas, according to the district’s progress report on the Illinois State Board of Education Web site.
Under the No Child Left Behind Act that Congress passed in 2003, each state must “develop and implement a statewide accountability system” to ensure annual progress in all educational agencies and public schools in the state.
Illinois administers a test every spring to determine proficiency in reading and math. The results are combined with each school’s participation rate and attendance rate (for elementary schools) or participation rate and graduation rate (for high schools), to determine if the school or district has made its AYP goal.
In 2006, 58 percent of students in the Chicago Public Schools met the state standards in reading and 59.7 percent met the state standards in mathematics. Both percentages were above the set 47.5 percent AYP success rate for that year.
However, to be counted as making Adequate Yearly Progress, schools must also achieve proficiency for all subgroups of students--White, Black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American, Multiracial/Ethnic, Limited English Proficiency (LEP), Students with Disabilities and the Economically Disadvantaged (ED).
In 2006, for example, only 20.2 percent of Chicago’s “Students with Disabilities” subgroup met the state reading standards, and only 22.9 percent met the math requirement--both well below the expected percentage. As a result, the Chicago school district did not meet AYP goals in 2006.
In 2008, meanwhile, 60.1 percent of all students for the district achieved the standard in reading, which was below the 62.5 percent level required for that year.
The Black subgroup failed to meet the minimum level of proficiency in both reading and math, and the Hispanic subgroup fell short in reading along with the LEP and ED subgroups. The Students with Disabilities subgroup failed to achieve goals in both reading and math.
The Illinois State Board of Education sets a universal standard throughout the state that each district and school must meet. To meet state proficiency standards, 95 percent of all students – as well as 95 percent of all subgroups of 45 or more students – must be tested in reading and math. Only students in certain grade levels take the test each year, in grades ranging from elementary to high school.
The standards increase in difficulty each year, and will increase until the 2013-2014 school year when the proficiency rate for reading and mathematics is expected to be 100 percent for each school district in America, in accordance with No Child Left Behind.
The Chicago school district is currently on “Academic Watch” status, based on its failure to make adequate progress for four consecutive years--and in year two of academic watch for failure to make required improvements.
Arne Duncan, whom President Obama will nominate as secretary of education, was superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools from 2001 to 2008.
It’s not the race, it’s the culture. On average, the majority black and hispanic cultures don’t place much emphasis on learning. Chris Rock even said it, something like going back to the ‘hood with a master’s degree and someone saying “Oooh, you have a master’s degree, but can you whoop MY ass?”
The NEA has thought about it and made it hard to get those credentials. You can either go back to school as a freshman and get a college degree in "education" or you can get certified (in some states) via an "alternate route" which takes into account other degrees you have, experience, etc. My wife looked into that (she's a lawyer) but discarded it because apparantly alternate path teachers can't get hired.
Why have races evolved different cultures? I think in part it's because the members of a race emphasize what they are good at, which will also tend to be what they like. People who aren't that smart will not enjoy academic work or leisure reading as much as more intelligent people, on average. Would black youths emphasize sports as much as they do if they were not good at them or did not see the example of many successful black athletes? Jews have a culture that emphasizes education, but European Jews have an average IQ of 115, so this may be another example of a group playing to its strengths.
Don't know, probably circumstances over the years. Of course these are just averages. I once worked with a black guy who had two Ph.D.s, then got a J.D. just for kicks.
I absolutely agree with you that the generally white suburbs have better “raw material” ( IQ).To compare inner city schools with suburban schools is utterly inappropriate for 2 reasons:
1) IQ in the white suburban children is likely to be higher.
2) The child in the white suburban school is more likely to be a 2 parent family with his biological parents. These parents are far more likely to be “pre-schooling” and “afterschooling”.
However...
1) It is hard to know how much is due to higher IQ ( which certain exits) and how much is due to having more 2 parent families who do tons of “afterschooling”, “preschooling”, and “homeschooling”.
2) We do NOT know **where** and how kids are learning. It could be that the parents and kids are actually doing 99% of the teaching a learning at home ( afterschooling). It could be that the only thing government schools are doing is sending home a curriculum for the children and parents to follow. Little to no learning may actually be due to the teachers or classroom experience.
3)It could be that with academically successful children are successful **IN SPITE** of being incarcerated in a prison-like setting ( suburban, rural, or urban) .
4) If academically successful children are doing well because of their parents and their efforts **in the home** then the 150 year old government K-12 model is guaranteed to fail children from dysfunctional families. What is needed are innovative approaches to institutional schooling that will make up for, or replace, the “afterschooling” should be happening in the home but isn't.
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