By Glenn Minnis | The Center Square contributor
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Illinois state Rep. La Shawn Ford said it’s not hard to comprehend why Chicago Public Schools system low-income and minority students are reading and performing math at much lower levels than their state peers.

Even after state officials inflated the number of students meeting proficiency levels by lowering reading and math benchmarks, new Illinois Report Card data shows struggling students still posted achievement gaps as low as 22 points below state average, including Black and Hispanic students scoring as low as 28 points below standards.

“Some of these schools that our students go to are underperforming because they are underutilized,” Ford, D-Chicago, told The Center Square.

Overall, data shows more than half of CPS students are reading below grade level and roughly 75% are falling short of the mark in math. As for 3rd through 8th-graders, only 35% read at grade level and just 19% are proficient in math.

At the high school level, just 32% of low-income 11th graders read at grade level and 17% proved to be competent in math.

Noting that wide discrepancies also exist among Black and Hispanic 3rd through 8th graders, Ford pointed out that similar achievement gaps between minorities and other students across the city are also prevalent at the high school level, with Black 11th graders testing 26% below the state average in reading and 28% below in math and Hispanics 12 and 17 points below standards.

“We need to move from what we call a goal to educate our students to a mandate to educate our students,” he said. “That’s where we’re struggling. It’s only a goal in Illinois that we meet our students’ needs. Until we make it a priority and a mandate, everyone in this state will suffer.”

The Illinois Report Card was first made public in late October.