By Julie Wostehoff

CPS announced four new school closures and a school takeover today, January 26, 2006, with a magical flourish of data that seem to show that they are closing the bad schools, moving children to better schools, and turning another bad school over to better operators.

Hogwash.

Not to say that the schools slated for closure have been providing the high-quality education that our children need and deserve. But the hype and spin coming out of CPS today in order to promote Renaissance 2010 simply does not stand up to scrutiny.

Anyone can spend a couple of hours on the Illinois State Board of Education and CPS websites (www.isbe.state.il.us; cps.k12.il.us) and put the lie to most of today’s CPS pronouncements. Of course, the media doesn’t have that kind of time and what they print tomorrow — based on the positive CPS spin — is what most people think is the real story.

One disclaimer — PURE does not believe that test scores are a very good way to evaluate schools. But CPS has made test scores the gold standard, so we are going to measure them with their own ruler.

Please share some of the “rest of the story” by forwarding this analysis to anyone you think might be interested. Parents and the community need to know the truth because it is our children and out neighborhoods that are under attack. We at PURE plan to share it with our alderpeople, legislators, and, most importantly, every LSC member.

Handover of Sherman to private contract operators

Let’s start with the handover of Sherman school to the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL). AUSL is the project of wealthy businessman Martin Koldyke who runs three contract schools in Chicago already: the Chicago Academy Elementary School, the new Chicago Academy High School, and “Dodge Renaissance Academy” which replaced Dodge school, one of the first three schools closed by CPS for poor performance back in 2002 and the first real Renaissance 2010 school.

AUSL’s Chicago Academy boasts high test scores. It is also 48% white and only 52% low-income. The student selection process described on the school web site (http://www. chicagoacademy. org/student_ selection.htm) sounds as if the administration can pick and choose who attends. But let’s acknowledge that AUSL can run a pretty good school for middle class kids. We don’t have enough data on the Chicago Academy High School to know how it is doing.

But Dodge Renaissance, like Sherman, is nearly 100% African-American. What’s the track record of AUSL in a low-income, minority community? Not so good.

Although the Dodge Renaissance school web site says that there are three teachers in each classroom (imagine how great that would be in any one of our regular public schools!) the results are not so great. In fact, the state report card for Dodge Renaissance looks an awful lot like the state report card for Sherman.

Sherman overall ISAT reading 2005: 29.1% meeting/exceeding standardsoverall ISAT math 2005: 21.2% meeting/exceeding standards

Dodge Renaissance overall ISAT reading 2005: 31.0% meeting/ exceeding standards overall ISAT math 2005: 19.7% meeting/ exceeding standards

There’s more. Sherman’s overall ISAT scores ROSE from 2004 to 2005 from 22.3% to 24% Dodge Renaissance’s overall ISATs DROPPED from 2004 to 2005 from 33.5% to 25.9%.

So, why is CPS giving Sherman over to AUSL???

Let’s see — in the changeover, all teachers and other staff will lose their jobs and the LSC will be disbanded. Could that be a reason? Because the argument that this is for the good of the children just doesn’t hold up.

Comparing closing to receiving schools

Now let’s look at the other closures. CPS is claiming that all of the receiving schools are better-performing than the schools they are closing and that if the scores of some of the receiving schools seem similarly low, the receiving schools are at least IMPROVING according to the data bites from the CPS data-parsing shop.

Hogwash.

Again, this is not to make excuses for the closed schools or argue that the status quo would be better. The status quo is unacceptable. But it is also unacceptable for public officials to attempt to pull a hoax on the entire city to create the impression that they are making responsible decisions. They are not, and parents and the community have a right to know the truth and not be played for fools by spin, hype, and misleading data bites.

Specifically, while some of the receiving schools do show better results on the ISAT or other state tests than the schools to be closed, others do not.

The truth is that ONLY in the case of Farren will all students have the opportunity to attend a significantly better-performing school (Beethoven).

In all other cases, the choices are mixed. Most of the receiving schools have failed to make adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind law. And the state scores of many of the receiving schools have dropped, not risen, from 2004 to 2005.

Here are the facts from the 2005 State School Report Cards.

School to be closed – Collins High School:

Overall reading scores, 2005 state tests 21.2% “meeting/exceeding>”

Overall math scores, 2005 state tests 1.7%

Receiving school – Manley High School:

Overall reading scores, 2005 state tests 21.1% meeting/exceeding

Overall math scores, 2005 state tests 3.3%

Manley’s overall state scores dropped from 2004 to 2005 from 10.4 to 9.1.

Some Collins students will go to Crane, which has somewhat better test scores. But how many will go to Crane and how many to Manley? And what is the benefit to students to be forced out of one low-performing high school and into another?

School to be closed – Frazier: Overall reading scores, 2005 ISAT 22.8% Overall math scores, 2005 ISAT 22.7%

Receiving school – Henson: Overall reading scores, 2005 ISAT 29.2%. Overall math scores, 2005 ISAT 19.8. Henson’s overall ISAT scores dropped from 2004 to 2005 from 27.2% to 23.8%.

Again, some Frazier students will go to Webster, Gregory, or Sumner, which have somewhat better test scores. But how many will go where? And how does it benefit students to be forced out of one low-performing school and into another, or even into one that is only somewhat better, when we know that any school move sets children back?

School to be closed – Morse: Overall reading scores, 2005 ISAT 15.6%. Overall math scores, 2005 ISAT 18.7%

Receiving school – Morton: Overall reading scores, 2005 ISAT 21.6%, Overall math scores, 2005 ISAT 10.8%

Morton’s overall ISAT scores dropped from 2004 to 2005 from 18.9% to 16.8%.

Receiving school – Ryerson: Overall reading scores, 2005 ISAT 26%. Overall math scores, 2005 ISAT 21%. While Ryerson’s ISAT scores are higher than Morse’s, they are actually lower overall than Farren’s (reading 25%, math 25%), which CPS is closing!

Again, some Morton students will go to Lafayette, which has significantly better test scores. But the African-American parents of Morse students should be told that there is a very large achievement gap between the Hispanic and African-American students at Lafayette. For example, overall reading for African-American students is 33.3% but for Hispanic students it’s 60.9%.

So, how does it benefit students to be forced out of one low-performing school and into another, or even into one that is better but which may not be so good at serving African-American children?

It’s time to stop the Renaissance 2010 hoax!