Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE), a nonprofit organization comprised of persons with children in the Chicago Public Schools, has filed a complaint with the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights this week. The concern is with the CPS’s correlation of the state mandated standardized tests to the failing of students.
The required tests are administered at all public schools in Illinois in grades 3, 6, 8, and once during the secondary education years. PURE’s concern is with CPS' failing of students in the elementary and middle school grades: 3rd, 6th, and 8th. The group contends that the Chicago Schools’ policy of failing any student who performs poorly on the state tests is disproportionately harmful to Black and Latino students.
This is the second time the group has filed a complaint against CPS. Eleven years ago, some issues were resolved after the filing. However, PURE says they needed to re-file because Chicago Schools are still flunking too many students in the face of data showing that retaining students does not help them and is often no more than a route to dropping out.
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), the state's authority on such matters, commented on the situation by stating that the tests are designed to gauge how well a school is performing – not to determine if a student should be held back.
Since 1996, Chicago Public Schools have failed in excess of 100,000 students based on either scoring below the 24th percentile on a portion of the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) in reading or math, receiving below a grade of C in reading and math at the student's school, or having more than 9 unexcused absences. Additionally, in grade 8, a student must have a grade of C in writing or pass the Chicago Schools’ writing test if he wishes to be promoted.
Current policy states that when a student does not succeed by the end of the regular school year, he is referred to summer school. If he fails summer school as well, he must repeat the grade level.
At present, CPS says it is not beneficial to a student to send him on to the next grade level until he is academically prepared, and the parent group says the basis for holding a student back is unfair to minorities.
Source: Chicago Public Schools/Chicago Tribune/Pure's website
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