By: Diane Benjamin
This graph shows the percent of Unit 5 students who participated in Standardized Testing in 2021: https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/District.aspx?source=trends&source2=participationrate&Districtid=17064005026
If you click the link you can view the rate for various years. In 2019 it was 99% for English Language Arts and Math, 96% for Science. 2020 has no data.
Next look at 9th Graders on Track: https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/District.aspx?source=trends&source2=freshmenontrack&Districtid=17064005026
Click the link – Minority scores fell even more than ALL. Obviously Unit 5’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs are making education worse for minorities. COVID loss because kids weren’t in school is clear. Unit 5 students are now behind those at schools that didn’t shut down. Why would any parent vote for those who did this to their kids?
Look around the website. Unit 5 scores above state averages in other categories. Keep in mind however: more than 25% of students didn’t test.
Unit 5 doesn’t need more tax dollars, they need to eliminate indoctrination and start concentrating on their purpose for existing. School Board elections are in April 2023. Plan to vote NOW!
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The Equity industry has a predefined excuse for failure built in to their plans Diane. They say that Equity is a never ending quest with “no destination”. And also that “systemic” racism is implicit and everywhere. They just won’t tell you exactly where it is. It’s a secret. Trust them.
These people aren’t exactly stupid, but they think we are.
If only everyone would do a deep dive into what Unit 5 is really all about. The proficiency for math and reading is shameful. Children are supposed to be in school to become educated: reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling. Unit 5 is now more focused on brainwashing and indoctrination. Between their hyper focus on Critical Race Theory within Diversity Equity Inclusion, Transformative Social Emotional Learning, Culturally Responsive Teaching, Equity Action Plan. Just look at the website. Parents were deliberately distracted on masks, remote learning, etc., when they implemented a lot of this. Some of it has been slowly implemented over the years. Also, the Superintendent and school board chose to adopt Comprehensive Sex Education. They could have declined to opt in as so most other school districts have done. More parents need to Homeschool or choose a private school. Public schools are no longer properly educating children, and they are no longer safe.
Been trying to come up with a valid solution to the achievement problem.
Maybe the solution isn’t to focus on identities. Maybe the only thing that works is to allow parents to choose where their kids go to school. Then the system will adjust to the goals parents and their kids have.
So maybe we should have some schools that focus on teaching woke activism and other schools for those who value traditional education and scholastic achievement.
Let parents choose and they will have more buy in to the system they commit to. When people don’t have control over their choices they lose hope, they don’t take ownership. When parents don’t care, their kids won’t either.
School Choice is the fastest fix
I think maybe it’s the only fix.
Why don’t parents attend school board meetings? Because they are resolved to the fact that they don’t have a choice anyway, that whatever they think doesn’t matter.
The unions, school boards, the board of education should be doing everything they can to get parents involved if they want to see scholastic achievement improvement. Instead they hide what they’re doing or they blatantly feel like it’s none of the parents business.
The only way is to give parents choices and control.
Would be really interesting to know who’s opting out. High achievers or low achievers? 25% opt out is more than sufficient to skew the results. If it’s the low achievers opting out then the results are even worse than what’s published.
Standardized testing does nothing, it’s worthless. It just teaches to a test, no one actually learns anything. Everyone knows it, this is the educational industrial complex in full effect.
Evidently they are doing a bad job “teaching top the test”. They used to try harder.
I agree that standardized testing is an educational industrial complex. However, I don’t know any other way to measure student performance. Unit 5’s standard based grading is the entry point for all the equity crap they’re cramming down us in a very in your face manner. It’s raising up dumb kids and dumbing down smart kids to where everyone is a 3. Last year i had a parent teacher conference within Unit 5 and the teacher told me my daughter was doing very well. She had a solid C. When I told the teacher that was unacceptable, she looked at me like I was from Mars and that I should be happy with the C. With another one of my children, I had a conference with a teacher in which my kid was earning a B. That teacher very sarcastically said to me, “Are you one of those parents who thinks your kids should get all A’s?” I answered, “No, but I’d like to be assured that an A is possible.” With Standard based grading I’m not sure it is. In their world an A is not equitable.
Point is smart students will do well on the tests and the average and dumber students won’t. In that sense I think it’s a very accurate measurement. When I see the goals of the educational system (Yes, Unit 5), standardized testing will have to be removed in order for them to accomplish their goals. That should tell you something right there and we should be suspicious of it. The end goal is to make everyone just an average student by taking away accurate standards of measurement with the goal of equity.
Research is very clear that students who come from two parent households, and stable home environments do better in school. All that is enemy number 1 for the radical left. Standard based grading removes parents from the process and appeals to the lowest common denominator. Smart students are the enemy, not the goal.
I tell my kids not to worry about it, as it means nothing. Maybe more parents are doing the same…?
overnight more than 25% decided to not participate?
Wouldn’t surprise me.
The reason these tests are now optional is we all know that learning was severely affected with COVID and online education was a horrible failure. Just about everyone has now moved to test optional including most colleges and universities. It’s to hide the horrible test results that would surely be the outcome of mandatory testing. They have, in effect, shielded themselves from any accountability. The only thing that’s certain from all of this is their incessant pleas for more money, so perfectly illustrated by our own Unit 5.
I don’t know if the testing is valid or not but I do know unit 5 is using the scores to justify “equity” (according to their documents not my opinion).
Equity says –
Light skinned people are unjustly rewarded.
Other skin colors or identities are oppressed or victims.
Racism is imbedded in everything.
You can make your own conclusions a
S to how that will play out.