Report: Ill. student dynamic changing too fast
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February 5, 2009

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Latino students outnumbered black students in 2007 for the first time in Illinois, placing new demands on schools already struggling to raise test scores and graduation rates, according to a new study.

Students who have trouble speaking English have only a 57.2 percent graduation rate, according to the annual "Kids Count" report from Voices for Illinois Children. At the same time, Illinois faces a shortage of bilingual teachers.

The report released Thursday also found that Illinois had the Midwest's largest disparity in spending between rich and poor schools. A school with high property values could spend up to $20,000 on each student in 2007, while the very poorest districts had to make do with less than $7,500 per student.

But Illinois made strides with early education programs, increasing the number of students in public preschool programs by 72 percent since 2000. And the number of uninsured students continued to fall.

Latinos accounted for 80 percent of the 200,000-student growth in public schools in the last 20 years, according to the report, which focuses on education issues.

"The composition of our student body has changed significantly in the last 20 years," said Jerry Stermer, pResident of Voices. "We're going to have to address this complex challenge from a variety of fronts all at once."

Another at-risk group: students from low-income families. About 41.2 percent of Illinois students are poor, including 82.8 percent of students in Chicago and about 40 percent of students downstate.

These low-income students graduate at a rate of 74.9 percent.

The study found less than half of the state's eighth-graders were proficient in math, reading and writing and only 20 percent of high schoolers were ready for college.

Of eighth-graders who took the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam in 2007, 31 percent were considered proficient in math, 20 percent in reading, 27 percent in science and 37 percent in writing.

The Illinois Board of Education hopes to better support bilingual education teachers by giving school districts more money for each bilingual student next school year, according to Mary Fergus, a Board spokeswoman.

The $7.9 million proposal in next year's budget would give schools that normally receive about $300 per bilingual student as much as $500 per student next school year.

The report also points out gaps in education spending.

Voices for Illinois Children looked at per-pupil spending for the top 5 percent of schools and the bottom 5 percent. Illinois had a gap of $8,375 between the top and bottom groups, compared to $7,843 in Ohio and $7,041 in Iowa. Wisconsin had a $4,738 gap.

Stermer said Illinois schools rely too heavily on local property taxes instead of state money, meaning poor communities have less to spend on their children.

"Student success should not depend on a ZIP code," he said.

Fixing the problems won't be easy, he said. It will take more than just funding and experienced teachers, but parental involvement, early childhood learning, after school programs, healthy lifestyles and teacher mentoring.

The report shows Illinois made some significant gains. Total enrollment in public preschool programs grew 54 percent since 2004 with bigger boosts since with the launch of the Preschool for All program in 2006.

Still, 17,500 children were placed in waiting lists for pre-kindergarten, compared to 11,900 in two years ago.

The study considered data from several sources, including the Illinois State Board of Education, the National Center on Education Statistics and the Consortium on Chicago School Research.

Voices for Illinois Children is an advocacy group that lobbies in Springfield.
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