Chicago reading scores

The Chicago Sun-Times is all excited about the Chicago public schools reading scores going up.They call it a "surge".In the article,you'll see that only 42.4% of 3rd graders read at state standards.That's only 42.4% and the Chicago Sun-Times is getting excited.Donald Moore :

executive director of Designs for Chicago, a Chicago school reform group, warned that the results don't bode well for schools that must produce passing scores on 47.5 percent of both their reading and math tests this year under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Overall, Moore noted, Chicago scores dropped this year in seven of 11 state tests taken.

"They always pick those few specific areas in which scores have gone up and highlight those and explain away the rest,'' Moore said of CPS officials.

The high porperty taxes and sales taxes don't seem to be doing the trick.That's where the surge has been.One wonders how many of Mayor Daley's friends send their children to the local public schools.