Here’s a startling statistic: despite having only 11 percent of students performing at grade level in math and reading, Illinois’ lowest-performing high schools graduate more than 60 percent of their students within four years. And only 6 percent of these students are college-ready according to the ACT. All of this indicates that the state’s lowest-performing...
Thousands of students in Illinois’ rural schools lack access to the high-quality courses they need to be successful in college – that’s according to a recent report published by the National Rural Education Association. In fact, many of these students are unable to take AP classes or are routinely offered only one foreign language option,...
It’s never too late to help a struggling student. An amazing new study conducted by the University of Chicago’s Urban Education Lab shows that intense tutoring combined with group behavioral counseling can help high school students with weak math skills, chronic truancy and disciplinary problems improve their performance. The study showed impressive gains. In fact,...
Despite increased funding over the past10n years, most Illinois elementary schools and high schools still struggle to teach students the basics of reading and math. Some of this is due to laws that allow poor-performing teachers to stay in classrooms, but most is due to the structure of Illinois’ education system itself. Here are 10...
It’s common knowledge that Illinois lags behind other states when it comes to embracing education reforms. But a new report recently released by the Friedman Foundation shows just how much catching up the state has to do. The 2014 edition of the Foundation’s “The ABCs of School Choice” highlights every school choice program in the...
Despite increased funding over the past 10 years, most Illinois elementary schools and high schools still struggle to teach students the basics of reading and math. Some of this is due to laws that allow poor-performing teachers to stay in classrooms, but most is due to the structure of Illinois’ education system itself. Here are...
It’s time to bring school choice to Illinois – so says the Chicago Tribune, in a convincing editorial published this weekend. Not only did the Tribune discuss the poor performance of Chicago’s persistently low-performing schools, it also talked about successful school choice programs in Wisconsin and Indiana – Illinois’ neighbors to the north and east....
Reforms that will empower parents, reward and retain high-quality teachers and improve student outcomes are proceeding at a snails’ pace in Illinois. That’s not me talking – it’s StudentsFirst, a national education reform organization headed by former Washington D.C. public schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee – in a report late last week. The organization’s national report...
Chicago Public Schools’ plan to alleviate overcrowding in schools on the city’s west and north sides is a costly, jumbled mess. Its initial decision to provide $20 million to Lincoln Elementary to alleviate overcrowding at the school, even though it’s the 17th most overcrowded school in the city, was met with fierce resistance. Teachers and...
Chicago Public Schools, or CPS, displayed plenty of bad judgment last year: in the way it managed its budget, the school closings fiasco and the adoption of a new promotion policy that pushes students to the next grade even when they’re not ready. More recently, CPS continued its poor decision-making by providing $20 million to...
The state charter school commission is under attack. State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, D-Aurora, has contempt for the state charter school commission, even though she voted for its creation more than two years ago. It was on full display the last time Jeanne Nowaczewski – the commission’s executive director – appeared in front of the...
The Chicago Tribune is calling on the state to be honest about how well its students are performing academically: “Illinois has a track record of massaging its school performance numbers to mask reality and make everybody feel good. Last year, 849 schools could boast that 90 percent or more of their students passed statewide reading...
State government officials, district administrators and union bosses have been actively misleading parents about the quality of Illinois’ elementary schools for years. New Illinois Standard Achievement Test, or ISAT, scores released last week by the Illinois State Board of Education, or ISBE, prove as much. In fact, most schools across the state experienced significant drops...
The Illinois General Assembly may consider much needed pension reform during the second week of fall veto session, which lasts Nov. 5 until Nov. 7. But they will have to do so without the latest teacher and administrator salary information affecting the state’s largest pension system, the Teachers’ Retirement System, or TRS. Last week the...