Earlier this month both David and I wrote about Baltimore’s failing schools. Recent test scores found that there were 23 schools in the city where not even one child was doing math at grade level. These included Elementary Schools, Middle Schools and High Schools. Those were the extreme low end but the numbers also showed that city-wide just 7% of 3-8th graders were doing math at grade level.

Today, Fox News highlights a similar report coming out of Illinois from a conservative group called Wirepoints. In this case, there were 53 schools where not one child could do math at grade level. Granted this is a small number of the total number of schools in the state (around 1%), but even looking at a much larger portion of the state’s school’s the performance on math standards is terrible.

There are 53 schools statewide where not one kid is proficient in math…

The data comes straight from the Illinois State Board of Education.

This column focuses on schools where zero percent of kids are able to read or do math. But we could have just as easily looked at the 622 schools where only 1 out of 10 kids or less can read at grade level. That’s a whopping 18 percent of the state’s 3,547 schools that tested students in 2022.

And only 1 out of 10 kids or less can do math at grade level in 930 schools…that’s more than a quarter of all schools in the state.

Here’s a chart showing the math performance in the worst performing schools. As you can see 33 of the 53 schools are located in Chicago.

What’s also not clear is why some of the schools on this list are rated “commendable,” which Wirepoints points out is the 2nd highest of four possible ratings for schools. There’s also a big gap between how Illinois’ students perform on tests and how their teachers are rated during performance reviews.

Six-figure salaries and pensions, and zero accountability for #Illinois teachers. 97% of teachers rated "excellent or proficient" despite dismal student outcomes.@Wirepoints and @open_the_books join @foxillinoishttps://t.co/vrx9q4joxN #twill @chicagosmayor @GovPritzker pic.twitter.com/byekcmJB9O

— Wirepoints (@Wirepoints) February 17, 2023

Just looking at 2022, 97.2% of teachers were rated excellent or proficient but only 29.9% of students can read at grade level. Meanwhile the new superintendent for schools statewide was picked from a district where only 2 out of 10 students can read at grade level.

Anybody following Wirepoints’ recent reporting on Illinois’ educational crisis already knows the numbers: statewide just 1 of every 10 black students can read at grade level, and for Hispanics, it’s just 2 in every 10.For white students, it’s a better but still dismal 4 in 10. It’s not an exaggeration to say the state’s public schools are condemning an entire generation of Illinois children to failure.

So when Gov. Pritzker recently had the chance to name a new Superintendent to lead the state, he could have picked somebody to shake up the system, somebody whose district was actually leading the state in reading and math outcomes. Maybe somebody from outside the system or outside the state. Somebody who would, finally, prioritize merit, achievement and competence. Somebody who would obsess about dramatically raising student scores.

But he didn’t. Instead, Pritzker chose Tony Sanders, Superintendent of U-46 in Elgin, the state’s second-largest school district with 35,000 students. At U-46, just 1 in every 10 minority students can read at grade level. For all students, it’s just 2 in 10. Sanders has been in the district since 2007 and was named superintendent there in 2014.

It’s not just the former superintendent who is failing upward. How do children keep advancing to the next grade if they never learn to read at grade level? That’s not clear but they do keep advancing.

Sanders has done nothing to end the culture of automatically passing kids along to the next grade. No matter what grade Hispanic students are in, 9 out of 10 of them can’t read at their grade level. They’ve simply been passed along, year after year.

It’s how you end up with just 10% of 3rd graders reading at grade level and the same percent in the 11th grade.

These are obviously awful results but as in Baltimore you shouldn’t expect anything to change. So long as Democrats run the city and the state, teachers unions will continue to run the schools for the benefit of teachers and elected officials. Abysmal outcomes for students will continue to be tolerated.

Update: Betsy DeVos pointing out what an Illinois teacher’s union was focused on instead of test results. That’s right, they were protesting Gov. DeSantis coming to the state.

America's big school union bosses:

❌Ignoring the 53 Illinois schools where no students are at grade level

✅Protesting out-of-state politicians to advance their woke agenda pic.twitter.com/VObTGk8hPI

— Betsy DeVos (@BetsyDeVos) February 20, 2023