Sunday, August 10, 2008

The Education Challenge

"How many effective schools would you have to see to be persuaded of the educability of poor children?...We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need to do that. Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven't so far."
                 - Ronald Edmonds, Harvard University

Chicago Public School Facts

  • Only 6 of 100 African American and Latino high school freshmen males will graduate from a 4-year college (Chicago Sun-Times, Oct. 31, 2007)
  • Only 9% of African American 4th graders ranked proficient or above in reading, ranking Illinois 38 out of 41 states (Chicago Sun-Times, Nov. 2nd 2006)
  • Illinois ranks 49 out of 50 states when it comes to funding education from state funds. The education funding gap between the wealthiest district and poorest district is the largest in the nation. (Source: Education Trust)
  • 2005-2006 School Year Graduation Rates in Chicago
    Black males - 37%
    White males - 62%
    (Source: Schott Foundation)

Go to: www.saveourschoolsnow.com for more information.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

For any of you who wish you could do something about this, for even one young person, please click over to my blog at www.keriwyattkent.com/soul/ and read about how I'm trying to help a young man from the far South side to defy the odds and make it to college.
(Arloa, hope you don't mind my posting a link, but it fit so well with the topic!)