Graduation rates up in Chicago -- Great, if true
If it's true, I'm elated to hear that graduation rates have improved in Chicago. It's a tribute to the hard-working CPS teachers, principals and parents, who are currently being debased by the administration and in the media. It also indicates that public schools are not "failing" after all.
My problem with the numbers I see is that there's no analysis attached. I worry, for example, that the improvements may also reflect the changing demographics of the city. Here I'm thinking of how some school reformers cheered when test scores rose in New Orleans after thousands of poor and black students left the system in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. You remember Katrina, don't you Arne Duncan?
What I would like to see is a school-by-school breakout of these numbers as well as some analysis of the widening or narrowing gap between white, Latino
Chicago Public Schools announced Saturday that more than 60 percent of their 2007-2008 freshmen graduated last year, calling it a history-making record. The current administration has only been in place for a year and therefore can take no credit for the increase in graduation rates. -- Catalyst
What I would like to see is a school-by-school breakout of these numbers as well as some analysis of the widening or narrowing gap between white, Latino