Posted on 02/21/2023 10:56:49 AM PST by george76
Baltimore’s failing schools. Recent test scores found that there were 23 schools in the city where not even one child was doing math at grade level. These included Elementary Schools, Middle Schools and High Schools. Those were the extreme low end but the numbers also showed that city-wide just 7% of 3-8th graders were doing math at grade level.
Today, Fox News highlights a similar report coming out of Illinois from a conservative group called Wirepoints. In this case, there were 53 schools where not one child could do math at grade level. Granted this is a small number of the total number of schools in the state (around 1%), but even looking at a much larger portion of the state’s school’s the performance on math standards is terrible.
There are 53 schools statewide where not one kid is proficient in math…
The data comes straight from the Illinois State Board of Education.
This column focuses on schools where zero percent of kids are able to read or do math. But we could have just as easily looked at the 622 schools where only 1 out of 10 kids or less can read at grade level. That’s a whopping 18 percent of the state’s 3,547 schools that tested students in 2022.
And only 1 out of 10 kids or less can do math at grade level in 930 schools…that’s more than a quarter of all schools in the state.
Here’s a chart showing the math performance in the worst performing schools. As you can see 33 of the 53 schools are located in Chicago.
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What’s also not clear is why some of the schools on this list are rated “commendable,” which Wirepoints points out is the 2nd highest of four possible ratings for schools. There’s also a big gap between how Illinois’ students perform on tests and how their teachers are rated during performance reviews.
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Just looking at 2022, 97.2% of teachers were rated excellent or proficient but only 29.9% of students can read at grade level. Meanwhile the new superintendent for schools statewide was picked from a district where only 2 out of 10 students can read at grade level.
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Anybody following Wirepoints’ recent reporting on Illinois’ educational crisis already knows the numbers: statewide just 1 of every 10 black students can read at grade level, and for Hispanics, it’s just 2 in every 10.For white students, it’s a better but still dismal 4 in 10. It’s not an exaggeration to say the state’s public schools are condemning an entire generation of Illinois children to failure.
So when Gov. Pritzker recently had the chance to name a new Superintendent to lead the state, he could have picked somebody to shake up the system, somebody whose district was actually leading the state in reading and math outcomes. Maybe somebody from outside the system or outside the state. Somebody who would, finally, prioritize merit, achievement and competence. Somebody who would obsess about dramatically raising student scores.
But he didn’t. Instead, Pritzker chose Tony Sanders, Superintendent of U-46 in Elgin, the state’s second-largest school district with 35,000 students. At U-46, just 1 in every 10 minority students can read at grade level. For all students, it’s just 2 in 10. Sanders has been in the district since 2007 and was named superintendent there in 2014.
It’s not just the former superintendent who is failing upward. How do children keep advancing to the next grade if they never learn to read at grade level? That’s not clear but they do keep advancing.
Sanders has done nothing to end the culture of automatically passing kids along to the next grade. No matter what grade Hispanic students are in, 9 out of 10 of them can’t read at their grade level. They’ve simply been passed along, year after year.
It’s how you end up with just 10% of 3rd graders reading at grade level and the same percent in the 11th grade.
These are obviously awful results but as in Baltimore you shouldn’t expect anything to change. So long as Democrats run the city and the state, teachers unions will continue to run the schools for the benefit of teachers and elected officials. Abysmal outcomes for students will continue to be tolerated.
Update: Betsy DeVos pointing out what an Illinois teacher’s union was focused on instead of test results. That’s right, they were protesting Gov. DeSantis coming to the state.
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America's big school union bosses:
❌Ignoring the 53 Illinois schools where no students are at grade level
✅Protesting out-of-state politicians to advance their woke agenda
LOL
> it is simply impossible to fire clearly incompetent and unqualified teachers <
I’m guessing that maybe 5% of the teachers I taught with were so bad at the job that they needed to be fired, immediately. That’s not a very high number. So, yes. It is a problem. But not a huge one.
I do not put in that group those teachers who are adequate, but cannot get the job done because of disruptive students in their classrooms. Those teachers need the support of the school administrators. There is nothing wrong with needing that support. Just as there’s nothing wrong with calling a cop when you need one.
But as I noted earlier, today’s urban principals will not give that support. They will not suspend disruptive students. So the teacher is left to flounder. He can try to be a policeman. He can try to teach. But he cannot do both.
And who suffers most? It’s the decent kids who are trying to learn.
THANK YOU, MRS WILLIAMSON, Teacher in my ONE ROOM SCHOOL
That’s like 9300 SCHOOLS!
Isn’t that like half of the students are stupid? /s
There’s a reason I call it HELLINOIS.
I live here (for now, moving to TN this year) so I know of what I speak.
But on the bright side, at least they don’t be acting white. And lest anyone think that melanin content is the determining factor, in London, England, students can be beaten up for “acting clever”.
But at least all students are equally stupid. We have eliminated inequality!
Forward!
Here is a story that sums up the state of US/Urban public schools.
Ukrainian girl who flees war in her country, winds up in a San Francisco public school, is robbed and threatened — she wants to return to Ukraine.
Doubly so.
So like 52 and a half %. 🤭
Obviously the standards are too high. Lower the standards and the kids will be all right.
“because the teachers cannot read, write, nor do math either..”
In their defense, have you seen this NEW MATH (Common Core)? It is ridiculous. I don’t understand it. My wife, who has a minor in Math and an MBA does not understand it. And my 9 year old sure as hell does not understand it. I teach her how to solve the problems, the hell with their stupid crap. She may not do it how they want, but she gets the correct answer.
Here is an example:
More proficient students can also use the number bonds method to conceptualize and solve addition problems involving large numbers. Suppose you wanted to add 140 to 74. You can break down 140 into 100 and 40. You can also break down 74 into 30, 40, and 4. This would leave you with an equation looking like this:
(100 + 40) + (30 + 40 + 4)
If you then add the 40 to 40 in the equation (40 + 40), you arrive at 80.
This leaves you with a new equation of 100 + 80 + 30 + 4.
If you add 80 to 30 you’ll get 110, leaving you with a newer equation of 100 + 110 + 4. The correct answer to this equation would then be 214, or 140 + 74 = 214.
There are much worse examples, but gives you an idea.
And once again I ask....
Why do you need a master’s degree to teach third grade math
But they are proficient in naming all 15,000 genders. Yay! Celebrate ignorance!
Does the author think this is a bad thing? I didn’t read the article because there is too much math in it.
King’s speech at the Mall remains one of the finest ever given in America. Eloquent and powerful. Uplifting and inspirational. In a word: magnificent.
And Biden thought he had to import illegals for cheap labor.
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