West Cook News

An analysis of state school test score data found 83 percent of black third graders in West Cook County public schools failed the state's mathematics exam.

Wirepoints.com reviewed Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) scores of 737 black third graders at 15 districts in West Cook, finding 609 of them (83 percent) couldn't do math at grade level.

The test scores are from 2019, the latest year available.

Black students performed the worst at Berwyn North School District 98 (92 percent math failure rate), Cicero School District 99 (92 percent failed), Berkeley School District 87 (90 percent) and Komarek School District 94 in North Riverside (88 percent), where seven of eight black third graders failed the math IAR exam, according to Wirepoints and the Illinois State Board of Education.

They performed the best at Lyons School District 103 (62 percent failed), Westchester School District 92-5 (72 percent) and Oak Park Elementary School District 97 (78 percent).

State "priority learning standards" list the skills the state considers grade-level. Among them for third graders are the ability to "fluently add and subtract," to "multiply one-digit whole numbers by multiple of ten (e.g. 9 x 80)" and to understand fractions.

Berwyn North was formerly run by current Illinois State Schools Superintendent Carmen Ayala, who blamed the "absence of cultural responsiveness" by the district's white teachers and lack of community relationships" for the schools' lagging scores when she joined the district in 2012. She ordered a "district-wide cultural audit" which resulted in a "culturally responsive curriculum" and "cultural responsiveness training" for white teachers.

"At that time, 88% of the district teachers were white and monolingual. The administration decided to take a district-wide approach regarding cultural sensitivity," according to a 2019 report in Illinois School Board Journal. 

Pushing students along

Wirepoints says the Illinois school system prioritizes social promotion of black students over their literacy.

“'Social promotion' – pushing kids into the next grade regardless of ability – leaves unsuspecting Illinois parents believing their kids are being educated simply because they’re advancing," wrote report authors Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner. "Social promotion in Illinois continues into high school. That’s when district officials tell parents what they want to hear – that their children have what they need to graduate."

Social promotion is illegal in Florida, where students who cannot test to grade standards are required to remain in third grade until they do.

Wirepoints also cites "racial equity" programs that blame low black student scores on racism, calling schools "more obsessed with vague outcomes like equity and diversity than merit and competence."

In River Forest School District 90, where in 2016, its school board implemented a so-called "racial equity" program that sought to prioritize equalizing white and black student test scores, rather than simply raising them, eight of ten black third grade students (80 percent) failed the math IAR exam.

That program was spearheaded by then-District 90 school board member Ralph Martire, who is now on the Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 board, and has implemented a similar "race-based" grading system there, mandating teachers stop penalizing black students for missing class or assignments, and allowing them to re-take quizzes.

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More than eight in ten West Cook public school third graders cannot do math at grade level

How is your district performing?

District	City	# of black 3rd Graders	# of Black third graders failing at math	Black math failure %
Lyons SD 103	Lyons	13	8	62%
Westchester SD 92-5	Westchester	32	23	72%
Oak Park ESD 97	Oak Park	120	93	78%
Lindop SD 92	Broadview	41	32	78%
Berwyn South SD 100	Berwyn	14	11	79%
Forest Park SD 91	Forest Park	40	32	80%
Hillside SD 93	Hillside	20	16	80%
River Forest SD 90	River Forest	10	8	80%
Bellwood SD 88	Bellwood	130	108	83%
La Grange SD 102	La Grange Park	18	15	83%
Maywood-Melrose Park-Broadview 89	Melrose Park	167	143	86%
Komarek SD 94	North Riverside	8	7	88%
Berkeley SD 87	Berkeley	63	57	90%
Cicero SD 99	Cicero	24	22	92%
Berwyn North SD 98	Berwyn	37	34	92%
TOTALS		737	609	83%

Summary of all Cook County public schools by region

Region	Districts	% of Cook County black students	# of black 3rd Graders	# of Black third graders failing at math	Black math failure %
City of Chicago	1	75%	14,801	11,722	79%
South Cook	42	19%	3,796	2,975	78%
West Cook	15	4%	737	609	83%
North Cook	10	2%	458	338	74%
TOTAL	68	100%	19,792	15,644	79%

Source: Wirepoints.com; Illinois State Board of Education; Number of black third graders is calculated by dividing the number of students enrolled in the district by the number of grades in that district.