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The "nation's report card" for public schools came out yesterday, and Chicago ranks behind other urban areas on reading and math for 4th and 8th graders.
about 16 percent of the 2,400 4th graders who took the reading exam showed proficiency, compared with an average of 22 percent in cities as a whole. In math, 16 percent of Chicago pupils were proficient, compared with an average of 28 percent in other cities.About 17 percent of Chicago 8th graders made the grade in reading, compared with an average of 19 percent in the other urban areas. In math, 13 percent of city children met the proficiency level, compared with an overall urban average of 22 percent.
The news wasn't all bad, though. Chicago's Hispanic 8th graders tested better than Hispanic students in the other 11 cities (Cleveland, DC, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, Houston, Charlotte, Boston, Atlanta and Austin), and Chicago's low-income students scored higher than their economic peers in all but one other city. Unfortunately, black students "scored near the bottom of the heap in most tests."
Phillip Jackson, founder of the Black Star Project, a racial equality in schooling initiative, led a 100-person march to City Hall today to present his eight-point plan to improve education for black CPS students. Jackson's march was based on statewide data, not the national report that came out today.
In other education news, this stupid moment of silence bullshit will apparently never end. A judge ruled yesterday that the state superintendent can't punish schools for not implementing the moment of silence, even though there's nothing in the law about noncompliance in the first place.
And finally, Barack Obama unveiled his education-themed ad for New Hampshire. We give it a B.
Amundsen High School as seen with Numoero Siete's rad as hell kite aerial photography
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we is well smart boyakasha!
When ever I hear Mos Deff and Talib Kweli's song "Black Star" I think of Phillip Jackson!
He's one interesting cat.
He grew up a poor kid from the jets- either Taylor or the Greens, I forget. No college degree, but he worked quietly and stealthily in the community paying for projects out of pocket while working in corporate America at the bottom.
He got on Paul Valla’s radar screen as a local school council member and rose up to become his chief of staff actually doing some progressive stuff. He was loved by every one in education.
When Daley got rid of Vallas who he viewed as a threat, he tapped Phillip to carry out his initial policies of ethnic cleansing on the south and Westside of Chicago as his "Head House N,___,___,___, O In Charge", like Today's Terry Peterson, although Jackson had it much worse growing up poor.
So Jackson's had this million dollar political future in Daley, but his consciences couldn’t take it any more. He quits and now has become a very smart critic while funding and leading one of the most progressive grass roots none profits that actually calls what's going on in the Chicago Public Schools part of a holocaust directed at a certain group of folks.
The cool thing is that he’s not pointlessly bombastic for the sake of selling out later to the highest bidder. He’s also pragmatic, smart and disciplined enough to keep funds coming in.
When the revolution is won, it will be because folks like Phillip
Big Upps to Chicagoist for "discovering" him. Hopefully one day you might interview him. I'm sure it will be a well commented on post, if that’s good or bad.
Later yall I'm out. Happy Friday!
Daley is such a stick-in-the-mud I can't stand him. Oh, but it will be great when the CTA melts down, the school kids rob everyone and we get the Olympics. And those cops are thugs. And I'm sick of it. I lived in New York once and it was nothing like this.
P. Jackson is actually someone who Ive have heard speak on several occasions. He did not go overboard and spread the blame around. Ive heard him on several occasions say that many In the african american community are not holding up there end. To many single mothers not enough involvment in the childrens education. He is well spoken but his profile is small. He ran a campaign for congress and was crushed by booby rush but the guy rush beat in the previous election seems to be doing alright so there is hope for P. Jackson.
Maybe the kids would do better if the chicago public schools didnt have the shortest school day and one of the shortest school years in the country. But the teachers union will never let that happen. Who cares how the kids are doing the teachers make alot of money for a little more than part time job.
The teachers are worse than the cops, and they're all political hires. It's sick what's going on in this city. Everybody knows somebody but the kids on the street who only know their gang leaders. It's time for a change because Daley is running this city into the ground.