Chicago Public Schools is the fastest-improving urban district, concludes Stanford’s Sean F. Reardon. Test scores for the average Chicago student went up by six grades in the five years between third and eighth grade, he told a conference of education experts.
The gains mean CPS has moved from a low-performing urban district to the national average for big cities, notes the Chicago Sun-Times.
Chicago’s Latino students are narrowing the achievement gap. Photo: Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune/Getty Images
While all racial and ethnic groups improved, gains were strongest for Latino students.
Achievement gaps narrowed for Latinos relative to white and Asian students, reports Maureen Kelleher in Education Post. However,”the White-Black gap has held steady, and Black boys in poverty are still being left behind.”
High school students also are doing better, she writes. “Recent gains in graduation and college entrance have been driven by more Black and Latino boys staying in school, getting their diplomas and going on to college.”
Nobody’s quite sure why elementary students are doing better, writes Kelleher. The district has struggled with leadership turnover and budget problems over the last few years.
CPS uses data to track student progress and intervene before it’s too late, writes Janice Jackson, chief education officer for the district.
Chicago students still score well below the Illinois average: Only 26.1 percent of elementary students meet state standards, notes WBEZ. Elementary scores were “stagnant in math and inched up in reading” this year.
Statewide, most Illinois students aren’t doing well on Core-aligned tests or meeting state standards, reports WBEZ.
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