CPS wants to hear about the Black student experience as it develops a ‘Black Student Success’ plan
Chicago Public Schools is kicking off a series of community discussions aimed at improving Black student achievement.
By Sarah Karp
CPS wants to hear about the Black student experience as it develops a ‘Black Student Success’ plan
Chicago Public Schools is kicking off a series of community discussions aimed at improving Black student achievement.
By Sarah KarpChicago Public Schools is kicking off a series of eight community discussions over the next two weeks designed to inform the development of a plan aimed at improving Black student outcomes and their experience in school.
The district is under pressure to take action after a group of Black activists blasted the Chicago Board of Education for having a standing committee focused on special education but not on Black students. Currently the effort is being spearheaded by a Black Student Success working group, but a bill awaiting the governor’s signature would create a permanent Black student achievement committee.
The discussions are being anchored by several sobering data points. Among them: As of the beginning of this school year, 20% of Black students are at least two grade levels behind in kindergarten through second grade and some 40% are in need of urgent intervention in reading in third grade through senior year of high school, CPS data shows.
Chief Equity Officer Fatima Cooke said there are too many statistics where Black students are far behind others. In fact, in some key areas, such as discipline and college enrollment, the data shows outcomes worsened last year, compared to previous years.
“Historically and today, Black students are situated further from opportunity … and it really shows that there’s so much work that still needs to be done to create those holistic systems that foster environments where black students are empowered, that they feel seen and that they have a sense of belonging,” she said.
Cooke stressed that the district wants to understand the student experience better as a way to improve outcomes. ”What are the conditions that have to be in place in order to make that happen?” she said.
Dyett High School student Jahnae Roberts said she and her peers feel they would be able to learn more if their social and emotional needs got more attention. Jahnae is a student representative on the working group.
“Focusing on what the students need, not just educational wise, but, what do they need to receive at school that they may not receive at home? To make it a better place for them?” she said.
The Black Student Success working group has been meeting since December to try to understand where Black students stand in the district and how conditions got to this point. But members stress they don’t want to come up with recommendations until they hear from the community.
Board of Education member Tanya Woods said she is looking to the Black Student Success plan to establish what each student and school should have available and also how to transform schools for Black students.
“We know that not every child in every school has those basics and those basics go far beyond the outdated school books, it goes far beyond a lack of supplies, it goes far beyond not having the best and the brightest teachers at a school,” Woods said. “It goes far beyond transforming a facility that was designed to be almost prison-like and calling it education — to now try to turn it into something that is a viable learning community for today’s students of 2024.”
Sarah Karp covers education for WBEZ. Follow her on X @WBEZeducation and @sskedreporter.