Some questions about CPS reading scores.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, “Chicago Public Schools officials are celebrating new research that shows students have recovered to prepandemic reading levels and outperformed most large school districts nationwide.”

It was only last year they were bemoaning learning-loss.

I wince at the claim that CPS has “outperformed” other districts.

As a retired teacher who spent 30 years in the public schools I detest these race metaphors.

It triggers Arne Duncan for me and his Race to the Top.

I am also not fond of describing learning as “performance.”

Our students are not seals at Sea World.

But if it is true that our students are reading more, enjoying it more along with having access to books (maybe libraries?), then that would be worth celebrating.

"Any improvement of such a magnitude was a remarkable achievement, since it implies that the average student learned 133 percent or more of the typical learning over the academic year last year," researchers wrote, according to the Sun-Times.

I don’t even know what that means.

Do you?

I never had an average student. I don’t understand the concept of learning 133 percent more of typical learning.

What exactly is typical learning?

What is an average student anyway?

If you add together all the “typical learning” and divide by the number of “typical students.” you get the average.

That student only exists in research papers. No such student exists in reality.

Writing about learning loss, my friend, retired NY math teacher and blogger, Jonathan Halabi wrote:

Learning loss, right? Most of you reading this are teachers, or were teachers. Think about it. A kid comes into your class in September, and they leave in June. And during the time they are with you, they “lose learning.” What’s that? They know less in June then they did in September. Seriously? They actually “lose learning”? I know that doesn’t happen. You know that doesn’t happen, except in some rare, pathological conditions. everyone knows that doesn’t happen.

A kid sits in your class for 10 months and knows less coming out than they did coming in. They “lost learning”. Has that happened to any of your students? Not mine.

So, according to this research, a typical third grader who was a typical kindergarten or first grade student during the worst of the pandemic has recovered from the alleged learning loss they experienced during the pandemic.

I’m glad. But it is ridiculous.

Here is another question I have.

According to Chalkbeat:

The percentage of chronically absent students in Illinois shot up in the 2020-21school year and got even worse in 2021-22. In CPS, 39.8% of students were chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year, down from 44.6% the previous year.

So “learning loss” has been fixed when it comes to reading in CPS, but almost 40% of our students are chronically absent and not part of this study.

40%

Perhaps it is too early to celebrate.