Chicago Public Schools prom slogan: ‘This Is Are Story’
June 10, 2014
Illinois Policy Institute
It’s hard to deny just how poorly Chicago’s public schools are
performing when it hits you in the face. Such is the case with Paul
Robeson High School’s 2014 prom theme: “This is Are Story.”
That image came from veteran investigative reporter Chuck Goudie, who posted this image on his Facebook page.
Some people might enjoy mocking the irony of the gross misuse of vocabulary.
But unless the organizers of the prom festivities planned the wording this way as a joke, there’s nothing funny about the situation.
Paul Robeson High School is located in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, one of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in the city. The high school also is part of the failing Chicago Public Schools, or CPS, system.
Four out of 10 CPS freshmen do not graduate.
If they do graduate, 91 percent have to take remediation courses in college because they do not know how to do basic math and school work. Just 26 percent of CPS high school students are college-ready, according to the ACT subject matter tests.
Students in these schools whose families can’t afford an alternative are trapped in classrooms that, for the most part, aren’t equipping them to succeed in the future.
The average CPS teacher salary is $76,000. The last contract negotiations in 2012 gave CPS teachers 17 percent raises over three years.
The median household income in Chicago is just $47,408. The disparity is worse in Englewood, a neighborhood where 23.6 percent of residents are unemployed and the average per capita income is $12,255.
Something’s not adding up.
Students can’t spell. They can’t do math. They aren’t graduating. And they’re not being set up to succeed in the real world.
So why should CPS teachers be rewarded with raises?
The Paul Robeson prom theme is a glaring example of just how bad things have gotten in Chicago Public Schools. The tragic irony is that Paul Robeson students picked a theme that evokes hope for the future; something every child deserves.
But until CPS changes its ways, the system will continue failing students at schools like Paul Robeson.
It’s time all Chicago students have a reason to believe in a brighter tomorrow.
Authored by Hilary Gowins
I'm 47 years old, and Chicago Public schools, in bad neighborhoods, have sucked for as long as I can remember. When it suits them, somebody will show up and write some story cataloguing the horrors, and then moving on. The Chicago Sun Times has written about it, The Chicago Tribune has written about it, on and on and on.
ReplyDeleteI've never understood the bitching about teacher salaries. Again, it is an easy thing to bring up and fan outrage over, but it's like Bibi's speech, it offers no solutions. Average income in Englewood is 12K. How much food do you think those kids have to eat? How much help do you think those parent's give the kids? Same ol Same ol. A bunch of white people who couldn't care less about the actual kids will still show up to bitch about the salary of the teacher.
Just curious, is it the salary they bitch about or what they get for the salary?
DeleteIt's not are policy to disclose that.
Delete"Just curious, is it the salary they bitch about or what they get for the salary?"
DeleteSo if the kids in shitty neighborhoods were all acing the ACT's they wouldn't bitch? I watched it for a long time when I lived there Lou, and I can't remember a time when people weren't outraged about how much money teachers make coupled with how much time they get off. Some people are so obsessed with what they pay in taxes that they will bitch about everything
Perhaps in some places. Our teachers make above the state average and are the highest in the metro area. We pay higher taxes to the schools which is reflected in higher performance of students in the schools. We have no teachers union so teachers are paid for performance.
DeleteThe level of accomplishment of students in the school district is a reflection of:
1. Parental involvement.
2. Quality of instruction.
3. Quality of teachers and their reasons for being in the school district.
What's the payback?
High level of student success.
Value of property in the schools district is pretty decent. Houses even during the housing implosion didn't go gown much in price. 10%.
The problem is when you pay a lot of money with no or little return. But then again part of that return is dependent on the parents who are generally checked out.
I do envy our teachers. They have a pretty good deal with time off during the year, 2-3 months off in the summer, a decent retirement plan, decent health benefits.
The question, should teacher benefits be better than the majority paying their salary? Maybe that's the rub.
Just shows that the unions care more about themselves than the education their members provide.
ReplyDeleteWow. You so totally supported that statement.
DeleteUnions at one time were very necessary organizations that provided for their members where business did not. For the most part that is but a footnote in history.
DeleteYep. Paid $76,000/yr. for working 7 hours a day, 9 months per year, and what are the taxpayers getting in return? Stupid children.
Delete