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.
May we exppect this performance to go national? The Annenberg Challenge was used in Chicago to turm the schools into indoctrination centers, failing miserably on the teaching of basics like reading, writing, and arithmetic. but scoring well in Black History, Self Esteem and Global Warming.
Bill Ayers’ dreams come true.
I’ve been thinking for a while, that some of us 50-somethings need to get teaching credentials and take back our schools...
I positively agree. There’s an adage I once heard: those that can’t do, teach; those that can’t teach, write text books. Nothing can replace life experience when it comes to teaching, IMHO. I don’t, so much, have a problem with a 22 year old college grad teaching my toddler how to count to 10 or identify colors... Conversely, I have a huge problem with them teaching my teen philosophical and interpretive subjects.
Inner-city black children are taught hate in their churches, in their homes, and now in their schools. And ‘experts’ wonder why their hate-filled little minds can’t absorb academic skills?
We know it’s all the crakers fault onbody in the brotherhood can do no wrong not even OJ.
It must be Bush’s fault.. You know he just wants to keep the brothers down
Isn't that acceptable for "affirmative action" appointments?
Is there a large school district in the whole country where blacks and Hispanics achieve at the same level of whites nationally? If there were, I'm sure the media would be trumpeting it. If there is no such district, why bash Arne Duncan for not doing what any other school superintendent has been able to do?
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.=====================
And? What? You expect something different from Democrat controlled Chicago? You expect something better from a Socialist President elect?
Good luck with that.............
Army MP Retired wrote:I always heard it like this:
There’s an adage I once heard: those that can’t do, teach; those that can’t teach, write text books.
Those who can't do, teach.
Those who can't teach become administrators
And recently, someone here of FreeRepublic added:
Those who can't make it as school administrators run for congress.
The Soviet KGB certainly understood that education of the young was the key to eventual communist domination. If you haven't already seen the following interview with the former KGB spy, I high recommend it:
http://russianfun.net/videos/interview-with-the-former-kgb-spy-oleg-kalugin/
The Marxist/leftists in our nation have education by the neck from kindergarten through graduate school, yet conservatives seem to be asleep. They fail to understand that Marxism is our nation's **most** serious threat and that schools are their **most** important weapon.
There are two reasons why attempting to retake or reform the government K-12 schools is **not** the solution:
*The first reason is practical. If we don't reach out to our nation's youth **immediately**, I fear that freedom in our nation is lost. It would take far too long for conservatives to infiltrate the existing government K-12 system and turn it around. The the United States Titanic is sinking. Repairing the Titanic is impossible. Our nation's children need educational life boats **immediately**, not repair crews. ( Yes, it is that urgent!)
* The second reason is the government K-12 schools are fundamentally incompatible with the First Amendment and freedom of conscience. This can **NOT** be fixed. The biggest and most organized political group **will** impose their political, cultural, and religious worldview on those with less power. At the moment the government schools are atheistic and Marxist dominated. If it it wrong for them to indoctrinate our children, it is fundamentally a crime against freedom of conscience for us to do that to their children.
Conservatives **must** do the following:
* Get your own children and grandchildren out. Encourage friends and neighbors to remove their children from the government schools. Homeschool or privately school in a conservative private school. Not all private schools are conservative.
* Conservatives must immediately set up private educational foundations that would award grants to conservative teachers willing to open tuition-free mini-schools, one room school houses, and homeschool cooperatives. The foundations could certify the teachers, approve the curriculum, and test the students.
* Conservatives must recognize that the govenrnment schools have a monopoly on team sports in many counties, as well as all access to bands, orchestras, chorus, art, and theater for youth. These teams and other arts programs generate tremendous "rah-rah" support for the government schools in many communities, and assure that many children attend. Conservatives should work to move these programs to their county parks and recreation departments, and/or set up private alternatives.
Surely, KIPP children ( who are chosen by lottery) do **far** better when compared to children who were randomly not chosen in the lottery. Evidently, it is the methods being used by KIPP that are making the difference. It is certainly not the IQ of the children when both groups ( accepted or rejected) are chosen by lottery.
We need to begin the process of privatizing universal K-12 education so that the free market can begin to develop the educational practices that will yield the best achievement for **all** racial groups.
Have the study habits of the highest achieving children ( both institutionalized and homeschooled ) ever been thoroughly and carefully studied? Just exactly how much learning is really happening in the schools and how much is **really** being done due entirely to the child and parents’ efforts? Are these academically successful children really succeeding because they and their parents are actually homeschooling ( “afterschooling”)?
We need to know the answer to the above question because:
* If academically successful children are in essence being homeschooled by their parents and themselves then the existing system of government K-12 schools will **never** help children ( of any race and regardless of IQ) from disadvantaged families.
* If the greatest academic success achievable for a child's IQ is due to parental and the child's own teaching efforts in the home then institutional schools for children in disadvantaged families will need to somehow duplicate or substitute for what the children are not getting at home. KIPP by the way seems to be one answer. I believe that with a free market possibly other solutions would emerge.
I do believe that it is **insanity** to continue to apply the same government K-12 model of education to disadvantaged children that we are using today.
We do not honestly know if the existing system of government K-12 schools is even the most effective model for white middle class children in functional homes! It could be that white children in functional homes are succeeding **in spite** of their government k-12 imprisonment, not because of it. It could be that academically successful children are successful ( homeschooled and institutionalized) entirely due to their own and their parents “at home” efforts.
In a private market of education the best educational practices for chidlren of all ranges of IQ would emerge. In a private and free market system of education the best educational practices for helping children from dysadvantaged homes would emerge.
bttt
Those who can't, teach.
Those who can do neither, criticize.
Those who can’t, teach.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In what category are the many successful homeschooling moms who are working wonders with their kids?
That said, when conservatives point to low achievement in schools in D.C. or Chicago and conclude that "public schools stink", I think they are being a bit disingenuous. They need to compare public schools with other schools with same demographic profile, as you have done. I don't think suburban schools are getting better results because they have better teaching methods but because they have better "raw material" to work with.
The Hispanic kids at one charter school in my state (about $7,000 per year per student) beat out our local middle school, whites and Asians (about $14,000 per year per student) in their state tests last year.
The charter school doesn’t waste kids’ time with a lot of nonsense. It’s a tough school and many of the kids get scholarships to private high schools or go to specialized public high schools.
I know some teachers who have written textbooks. I have also learned how little say some authors have or want in books that have them as authors. It is the editors who decide how things are written.
That said, my problem with homeschooling is that some of the more active and knowledgeable parents are giving up on public schools instead of fighting for them.
Then there are the parents who 'homeschool' because their kids cause too much trouble in schools. There are good and bad in both directions.
I have stayed active in school as a sub because of my grandchildren (the oldest of which is a teacher's nightmare - smart and outspoken).
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