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ISSUES THEN AND NOW
Education
The decade from 1990 to 2000 marked a positive trend in the quality of education in the Chicago metropolitan area. Despite this general trend, student body composition, success rates, enrollment statistics and school funding still demonstrate a disparity in quality of education available to the different racial groups in Chicago. A detailed report can be found here
Educational attainment and quality of programs and facilities reflects marked racial inequalities.
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The Chicago area ranks fourth in the nation or African American-Caucasian school segregation.
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30% of all public schools are 100% African American and 47% are 90% or more are African American.+
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In Chicago, nearly 60% of African American high school freshman do not graduate with a degree in four years.
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85% of African American school children would have to switch schools for them to be evenly distributed throughout the city, and African American students are the least likely of all minorities to interact with other minority groups.+
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Illinois ranks 49th nationally in the amount of educational funding provided by the state. Most funding is local, and the disparity ranges from $18,225 per student in Lake Forest to $6,678 per student in the Harvey Chicago school district. This discrepancy in educational quality is both and explanation and cause of some of the inequalities that exist in Chicago.^
The overall disparity in education has decreased between 1990 and 2000.
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Pre-primary and pre-school (education which researchers have linked to future academic success) has seen the highest increases, African American enrollment increased by 139%, Asian Americans by 143%, Hispanic 351%. This particular statistic, however, is difficult to analyze because of the dramatic increase in Hispanic immigration during this same period.
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African Americans also had a 68% increase in eight grade graduations and a 21% increase in high school graduations.
Racial disparity can be seen in test scores, truancy, drop out and mobility rates.
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Drop out rates for the 2000-2001 school year are: 38% African American, 21% Latino, 0.2% Native American, 38.3% Caucasian and 1.7% Asian American.
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Since the 1995 Safe Schools Law went into effect, most of the students expelled from classrooms were either African American or Latino. African Americans are three times more likely to be expelled than Latinos or Caucasians.
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In the Prairie State Achievement Exam, the average African American scores for reading and math were 31.8 and 19.2 respectively, compared to 66.1 and 62.8 for Caucasian students. Similarly, Caucasian students receive higher scores on the ACT and SAT standardized exams and are more likely to take Advanced Placement exams in high school (70% of AP Exams were administered to Caucasian students, as opposed to 4% African American, 15% Asian American and 6% Latino).
Certain policies and laws perpetuate these inequalities. For example, due to the No Child Left Behind testing initiatives, many schools do little to prevent poorly performing students from dropping out, at times even encouraging it. This will add to the population of uneducated workers who are unattached to either education or the labor market, and does not provide an incentive to remedy the fundamental educational problems, only improve yearly test scores.*
chicagofreedommovement@yahoo.com or call 312.915.8602