Students in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system are learning faster than just about any other school district in the nation, according to new research.
Reardon based his analysis on 300 million elementary school test scores covering more than 11,000 school districts.
“I don’t think CPS is doing anything extraordinary or special for parent engagement, but it may be worth pointing out that we’re suddenly leading the nation in student growth and our kids of color are outperforming comparable kids of color across the state,” said Marilyn Rhames, the founder of the nonprofit Teachers Who Pray and a veteran teacher in Chicago.
[/media-credit] Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the report a testament to the hard work, progress and success of Chicago’s remarkable students, teachers, principals and families. In this photo, Emanuel speaks during the White House Summit on Working Families Chicago Regional Forum at the Ralph Metcalfe Building in Chicago, Ill., April 2014.
Still, Rhames, author of the upcoming book, “The Master Teacher: 12 Spiritual Lessons that can Transform Schools and Revolutionize Public Education,” cautioned that there’s another side to the success story that shouldn’t be overlooked.
“There’s a huge race-based disparity of performance on the SAT, which all 11th graders in the state of Illinois has to take,” Rhames said. “Some CPS high schools did the worst in the state. So, how effective is our growth, if it’s not translating into better preparation for college?”
But, it’s not just about test scores, student attendance is up, Chicago high schools are offering more rigorous courses and high school graduation and college enrollment rates continue to rise, said Elaine Allensworth of the Chicago Consortium on School Research.
The consortium has provided a descriptive examination of two- and four-year college enrollment patterns among CPS graduates over the last 10 years.
They found that CPS graduates’ immediate college enrollment rates increased over the last decade, with 63 percent of 2015 graduates enrolling in either a two- or four-year college immediately after high school, compared to 50 percent of graduates in 2006.
In 2015, CPS graduates’ rate of enrollment in four-year colleges was equal to the national rate at 44 percent, and higher than some urban districts, including New York and Los Angeles, which were 38 percent and 24 percent, respectively.
In June 2017, WBEZ in Chicago reported that even as CPS—the state’s largest school district—reeled from an ongoing budget crisis, an academic turnaround has occurred.
For decades, the district reportedly shouldered a reputation of being perennially challenged by poverty and chronically low-performing schools.
“That’s not Chicago anymore,” said Paul Zavitkovsky, a researcher with the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Center for Urban Education Leadership.
Research has also revealed that Chicago students, on average, repeatedly outperform their peers outside the city.
Reardon, a leading expert on education equality in the United States, presented an analysis in November that revealed Chicago’s students learn and grow at a faster rate than 96 percent of school districts in the country—including wealthy districts.
Reardon’s findings also noted that, among the 100 largest school districts in the country, Chicago has the highest growth rate between third and eighth grade; and each successive CPS class is outperforming the class that came before and improving at a rate far above the national average, according to Reardon’s report.
“This report is a testament to the hard work, progress and success of Chicago’s remarkable students, teachers, principals and families,” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement. “CPS students make Chicago proud every day. They not only lead in the classroom, they lead the country in academic growth, and their achievements are earning national recognition and respect.”
Kate Phillippo, an associate professor of cultural and educational policy studies at the School of Education at Loyola University Chicago, said she’s excited to see increased learning growth in CPS.
“It’s important to note what Chicago accomplished specifically. For example, its third grade test scores are still below the national average, but its growth is unusually high,” Phillippo said.
While there’s no one secret to success, initiatives at the school level have clearly promoted growth, she said.
“I think the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has the potential to support student achievement, giving districts greater flexibility about how they approach curriculum, and what learning supports they provide to their students,” Phillippo said. “ESSA’s provision for less standardized testing will also free educators up from a sense of pressure to prepare students for high-stakes tests. Finally, it is critical that ESSA has kept in place protections for economically disadvantaged students; that’s one of the hallmarks of ESSA.”
Learn more about the Every Student Succeeds Act at nnpa.org/essa.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s influence on the Civil Rights Movement is indisputable, but his fight for equity in education remains a mystery to some.
That fight began with his own education.
“He clearly had an advanced, refined educational foundation from Booker T. Washington High School, Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University,” said Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., the founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. “His education in his speeches and sermons and writings were apparent and he wanted us all to have that type of education.”
King completed high school at 15, college at 19, seminary school at 22 and earned a doctorate at 26.
“Dr. King laid down the case for affordable education for all Americans, including Polish children—from the ghetto and the barrios, to the Appalachian mountains and the reservations—he was a proponent for education for all and he believed that strong minds break strong chains and once you learn your lesson well, the oppressor could not unlearn you.”
Rev. Al Sharpton, the founder and president of the National Action Network (NAN), said that NAN works with Education for a Better America to partner with school districts, universities, community colleges, churches, and community organizations around the country to conduct educational programming for students and parents.
“The mission of the organization has been to build bridges between policymakers and the classrooms by supporting innovations in education and creating a dialogue between policymakers, community leaders, educators, parents, and students,” Sharpton said. “We’re promoting student health, financial literacy, and college readiness in our communities, just like Dr. King did.”
King was a figure to look up to in both civil rights and academia, Sharpton told the NNPA Newswire.
“Then, when you look at his values, he always saw education, especially in the Black community, as a tool to uplift and inspire to action,” Sharpton said. “It’s definitely no coincidence that a number of prominent civil rights groups that emerged during Dr. King’s time, were based on college campuses.”
Sharpton added that King routinely pushed for equality to access to education.
“Just as importantly, he always made a point to refer education back to character—that we shouldn’t sacrifice efficiency and speed for morals,” Sharpton said. “A great student not only has the reason and education, but a moral compass to do what’s right with his or her gifts. It’s not just important to be smart, you have to know what’s right and what’s wrong.”
Dr. Wornie Reed, the director of Race and Social Policy Research Center at Virginia Tech who marched with King, said when he thinks of King and education, he immediately considers the late civil rights leader’s advocating that “we should be the best that we could be.”
“King certainly prepared himself educationally…early on he saw that education played a crucial role in society, but perceived it as often being misused,” Reed said. “In a famous essay that he wrote for the student newspaper at Morehouse in 1947, he argued against a strictly utilitarian approach to education, one that advanced the individual and not society.”
Maryland Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings, who remembers running home from church on Sundays to listen to King’s speeches on radio, said King had a tremendous impact on education in the Black community.
“Dr. King worked tirelessly to ensure that African Americans would gain the rights they had long been denied, including the right to a quality education,” said Cummings. “His fight for equality in educational opportunities helped to tear down walls of segregation in our nation’s schools.”
Cummings continued: “He instilled hope in us that we can achieve our dreams no matter the color of our skin. He instilled in us the notion that everyone can be great, because everyone can serve and there are so many great advocates, who embody this lesson.”
In support of education equality, civil rights leaders across the country are still working to ensure all students, regardless of color, receive access to experienced teachers, equitable classroom resources and quality education, Cummings noted further.
For example, the NAACP has done a tremendous amount, across the country, to increase retention rates, ensure students have the resources they need, and prepare students for success after graduation—whether it be for college or a specific career path, Cummings said.
During his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway, King said: “I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.”
The need for high quality education in the Black community is universal and the route to get there may be different, but education does matter, Jackson said.
“Dr. King told me he read a fiction and a non-fiction book once a week. He was an avid reader and, in the spirit of Dr. King, today we fight for equal, high-quality education,” said Jackson. “We fight for skilled trade training, affordable college education and beyond.”