The Chicago Teachers Union has been tweeting to explain why schools should not reopen because of the Chinese Virus, and even tweeted that doing so is racist, sexist, and misogynist.
It deleted that tweet, but a survey of the union’s twitter feed revealed something of an obsession, The New American reported on Monday, with tweets and retweets and such non-academic matters “white male power.”
Meanwhile, the school district’s report cards from state education authorities show that a majority of the city’s students, meaning a majority of black kids, can’t read or write, or do math.
In other words, CTU is failing the city’s kids. And badly.
The Grades
Assessments from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers for 2015 through 2018, grades three through eight, show that only 27 to 29 percent of students were proficient or better in English and language arts.
That means, of course, that at least 71 percent of students were not proficient. That side of the chart breaks into three categories: “did not meet,” “partially met,” and “approached.” Almost 50 percent of the kids did not meet or only partially met proficiency standards.
The three categories notwithstanding, the numbers don’t lie. The large majority of Chicago’s school kids either can’t read and write or don’t read and write very well.
Breaking down the racial categories shows where the big problems lie.
Through the same four years, between 54 and 60 percent of whites were proficient or better, along with 58 to 60 percent of Asians.
Only about 20 percent of those two cohorts did not or only partially met the standards. A little more than 20 percent approached proficiency.
For Hispanics, the numbers were nearly reversed. Between 26 and 28 percent were proficient or better, while between 43 and 46 percent did not meet or only partially met the standard. Between 28 and 30 percent approached proficiency.
Black students performed very poorly. The number of students who were proficient or better was just 18 to 20 percent for the four years, which means 80 percent were below proficiency:
- Between 26 and 29 percent did not meet proficiency
- Between 28 and 29 percent rated partially met
- Between 25 and 26 percent approached
Math scores for whites, Asians, and Hispanics were similar to their scores for English and language, although Asians performed noticeably better than the other two cohorts.
Black scores were the worst:
- Only 12 to 14 percent of blacks were proficient or better
- Between 25 and 31 percent did not meet proficiency
- Between 33 and 38 percent rated partially met
- Between 23 and 26 percent approached
The state’s assessment was no better. Nor were the numbers for high school SAT scores. (PDFs below; charts at bottom of documents)
IAR 2019 Chicago Math Report Chicago SAT Report ChicagoCity schools spend almost $28,000 per pupil, counting instruction and operation.
Looking at these figures and the cost per pupil, one might imagine CTU has some work to do. But alas and alack, their priority is racial politics.
The Tweet
The tweet that invited a look at the union’s Twitter feed and how students perform was this one: “The push to reopen schools is rooted in racism, sexism, and misogyny.”
Though the union’s anonymous Twitter master deleted the ridiculous claim, a survey of the feed showed an unhealthy if not unhinged obsession with racial issues, including a tweet from CTU that pondered the problem of “white mediocrity”
The union also retweeted the dubious claim that Chicago cops “assassinated” a member of the leftist, anti-white Black Panther Party, and as well as the sentiments of a defund-the-police advocate.
The tweet pinned to the top of its feed is a farewell note to the hated U.S. education secretary, Besty DeVos: “Bye Betsy.”
The union has filed its second injunction to stop schools from reopening on January 11.
