Posted on 09/10/2012 11:45:48 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
U.S. Department of Education: 79% of Chicago 8th Graders Not Proficient in Reading By Terence P. Jeffrey September 10, 2012
(CNSNews.com) - Seventy-nine percent of the 8th graders in the Chicago Public Schools are not grade-level proficient in reading, according to the U.S. Department of Education, and 80 percent are not grade-level proficient in math.
Chicago public school teachers went on strike on Monday and one of the major issues behind the strike is a new system Chicago plans to use for evaluating public school teachers in which student improvement on standardized tests will count for 40 percent of a teacher’s evaluation. Until now, the evaluations of Chicago public school teachers have been based on what a Chicago Sun Times editorial called a “meaningless checklist.”
In 2011, the U.S. Department of Education administered National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests in reading and math to students around the country, including in the Chicago Public Schools. The tests were scored on a scale of 0 to 500, with 500 being the best possible score. Based on their scores, the U.S. Department of Education rated students’ skills in reading and math as either “below basic,” “basic,” “proficient” or “advanced.”
Nationally, public school 8th graders scored an average of 264 on the NAEP reading test. Statewide in Illinois, the 8th graders did a little better, scoring an average of 266. But in the Chicago Public Schools, 8th graders scored an average of only 253 in reading. That was lower even than the nationwide average of 255 among 8th graders in “large city” public schools.
With these NAEP test results, only 19 percent of Chicago public school 8th graders rated proficient in reading while another 2 percent rated advanced—for a total of 21 percent who rated proficient or better.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Give the teachers 21% of their pay.
This is more a reflection of the “families” these kids come from than poor teachers. Eighty percent of black children are out of wedlock and there are no fathers around.
Not to say that the Chicago teachers are doing a great job though.
Too many letters in the Chicago alphabet, apparently.
After that, back in the late 1970s, I was taking some courses in journalism and broadcasting at a city college in Chicago. I was the editor of the college newspaper. The students writing for the paper--the ones who were PUBLIC school graduates, many of them studying journalism--would submit articles for the paper, and their articles needed a LOT of work! I would say that I could write better when I was in 8th grade than these college students could write.
Have you ever tried to learn good grammar from a teacher that only spoke ebonics?
“Proficient” means there is a standard by which to measure.
That standard inherently is a “white” standard and is therefore racist.
If logic weren’t itself inherently racist, and leftists were capable of using it, this is the reasoning they’d use.
You are correct, sir. It is more about the parents than the teachers--although some (not all) of the teachers are products of the same environment and are not that bright themselves.
—— What is so hard about learning how to read?——
Nothing. Both my daughters learned how to read in a total of ten hours of instruction at age 4.5. (15,minutes a day for a month.). Apparently, they were a bit behind the curve for homeschoolers.
There’s money to be made in dragging out the process. What a friggin’ joke.
phonics is racist.
You can’t buy phonics toys/books/videos if you spend all your spare cash on “wealth signals” like $300 sneakers.
BTW, reading at 4.5 is about right when teaching them phonics.
My 3 yr old knows all the letter sounds, but we’ll probably wait until she’s at least 4 to start teaching phonics & reading.
A nation of functional illiterates is easily controlled. That is the goal of Progressive education and it has proved a success.
Read Charlotte Iserbyts book titled THE DELIBERATE DUMBING DOWN OF AMERICA. It's on line to download.A new updated version is available at Amazon.
These Progressive educators should be held criminally liable for the damage they have done.
but at least they know how to use a condom and where to get them for free
I wonder how the teachers would rate if given the same tests?
I'll conceade that that is a large part of the problem. But it has consequences and unions aren't doing anything to address that either. The apathy of the students and their parent(s) seems to cause apathy in the teachers (based on conversations with teachers I know). It's a job for most of them. Show up, get through the lessons, check the box. The teachers are powerless to give a $#%&, much less engage the student or family. I once listened to a teacher complain about having to do "lesson plans". I asked, "You mean like organizing your week at work? All professionals do "lesson plans". We are not contractually "required" to do them because we couldn't do our job without "planning" our work. In the private sector, this is an understood necessity, not something your boss has to tell you to do."
There is a diabolical culture problem with the inner city youth. It is a generational degredation of any sense of self respect and/or pride. Parents don't know any better because they didn't do any better as kids and expect even less from their own.
I bet if a kids grades were somehow linked to public assistance, a good many students would start doing better. If a child were to forget their homework or fail a test, the family gets $100 less in subsistance that week? At least the parents might visit the school a time or two.
I hate to compliment a PBS show, but my girls learned their letter sounds from Sesame Street. Letter sounds is the tedious part. Once they know that, putting the sounds together is a piece of cake.
We used Blumenfeld’s book, Alphaphonics, which goes for about $20. I understand that it’s significantly less expensive than 8 years of schooling. They miss out on some fabulous socialization, though.
Time for the Dems to throw more money at a failing enterprise. After all it worked so very well with GM and Solyndra.
Mine went to public schools. He's now a nuke on a USN fast attack sub. I'll wager he's not only proficient at reading, but also able to find the logical flaws in that argument.
But- so far this year we are doing good with a combination of K12 HS course supplemented with other curriculum
He loves PLATO science, Cicero for History, and I may add PLATO or Thinkwell Math for pre-algebra and algebra.
If you can't get your kid out of public school consider supplementing her “education” with outside curriculum
Check out Homeschool Coop for lots of ideas a and good deals
From the pictures I have seen of the teachers who are on strike, it is no wonder the kids can’t read. The teachers themselves probably can’t read, write or think. I wouldn’t let those miscreants near a child of mine.
I... honestly don’t remember where I learned the letter sounds. Probably Sesame Street as well, but it’s been a long time. But I do remember that I taught myself to read at age 2 just from getting my hands on some library books and what little I remembered from TV.
Then again, I’m mildly autistic, so reading was something that came naturally to me. Social skills, far less so. This made me one of the most hated people in the school among my peers.
The up side is that I managed to go to one of the few competent public schools left, and they made sure to teach me on my level, even if it meant pulling me aside with a bunch of other gifted students.
Of course, nowadays being smart is something to be ashamed of in public schools...
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