CHRONICALLY TRUANT STUDENTS AND TESTS
Recent headlines involving truancy:
“In Chicago Public Schools, 30,000 students, roughly 7.4 percent of the district’s population, were classified as chronically truant”.
“At least 20 percent of the student body in 33 CPS schools was marked chronically truant last year.”
“Across Illinois, the number of chronic truants has jumped nearly 60 percent since 2002.”
These students are probably among the ones that were not taking the Illinois Achievement Tests up until this year, when a “loophole” in the testing rules was closed. It is blatantly unfair to throw these students’ test scores in with all the others to determine a school or a district’s average. How in the world can these students possibly pass ANY test, much less the YEARLY achievement scores?
Illinois has spent $175 million over the last decade on the truancy problem. With all the recent budget cuts, the amount of spending on the truancy problem has dropped dramatically. I’m not sure any amount of money can