Soon scores from a small portion of the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) will come back.
- The booklet sent out with ISAT says “No person or organization shall make a decision about a student or educator on the basis of a single test.” (1)
- Despite this, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) trusts this test to override our own teachers in deciding the future of our children.
- For third, sixth and eighth graders, our promotion policy automatically flunks at least one in four children based on a thirty or forty question test. (2)
- At the end of summer school, CPS is five times more likely to retain a child for the next year if they are African-American than if they are white. (3)
- By retaining a student, CPS increases that child’s chance of dropping out by 29%. (4)
- Chicago Public Schools spends $100 million dollars every year on this policy. (5)
- Extensive research shows that it DOES NOT WORK. Repeating a grade does not help children succeed. (4)
Why do we continue to threaten eight-year-olds and tell third-graders they are failures? Why do we make students cry, throw-up, and finally quit?
Chicago Public Schools should use the $100 million it spends every year on holding back kids to instead provide what students really need: caring professionals with the time and resources to find out what works for each of them. Our children need advocates, not inflexible policies spit out of a machine.
CPS should stop using standardized test scores to override all other considerations in making student grade promotion decisions. I encourage anyone who agrees to sign the petition. And I encourage other parents to contact Parents United for Responsible Education if your child is forced to go to summer school.
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2009 ISBE ISAT Professional Testing Practices for Educators booklet
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CPS policy sends any student below the 24th percentile to summer school.
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http://www.fairtest.org/chicago-research-criticizes-retention-test-driven-improvement
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$10,000 per student per year times approximately 10,000 students retained