Illinois high school graduation rates slump, Obama legacy, Obama Ayers Chicago corruption cronies, Obama doing to US what he did to Illinois
Illinois high school graduation rates slump, Obama legacy, Obama Ayers Chicago corruption cronies, Obama doing to US what he did to Illinois
“Why was Obama promoting Capri Capital and other investment firms at the same time that Rezko, Levine and Cellini were shaking them down?”…Citizen Wells
From the Chicago Tribune October 31, 2011.
“Illinois high school graduation rates slump”
“Despite its academic struggles, North Chicago Community High School could count on at least one piece of good news: Students were getting their diplomas. The school reported a 90.3 percent graduation rate in 2010.
But in 2011, the figure plummeted to 50.2 percent, a dismal picture created by a new formula that more accurately tracks how many ninth-graders graduate within four years. The new method, required by the federal government, was used for the first time this year in Illinois, with sobering results: Across the state, about 75 percent of high schools saw small dips to big drops in graduation rates, causing educators to adjust to a new reality.
“I think the school probably felt like they were doing things right because we were at 90 percent,” said Eric Gallagher, new principal at the struggling North Chicago high school. “It just took someone else to look at it from the outside.”
The new graduation rates are among the dozens of figures released Monday in the annual School Report Card data that provide information about everything from test scores to teachers’ experience to how much taxpayers spend on their schools.
Parents won’t see the changes in graduation rates in their school report cards because the state reports only this year’s figure with no comparisons to the prior year. The Tribune’s online database (schools.chicagotribune.com), however, shows 10 years of rates in addition to the regular report card data.
Educators who have seen comparative numbers often reacted with a mixture of criticism, concern and confusion over the new graduation rate formula.”
“In Lake Zurich, district officials corrected their figure twice after initially reporting a 100 percent graduation rate for Lake Zurich High School. The problem stemmed from misunderstandings about applying the formula, according to district spokeswoman Jean Malek. She said the accurate graduation rate is 92.8, up from 92.5 the year before.
Still, Lake Zurich is in the minority of high schools showing an increase in its graduation rate this year. It’s also a high performer — among about 30 percent of the more than 600 Illinois high schools that posted a graduation rate of 90 percent or higher this year.
Only 18 high schools, including Chicago’s Northside College Preparatory High School, attained a 100 percent graduation rate this year, compared with almost 100 high schools that did so last year. The statewide graduation rate slid from 87.8 to 83.8 percent.
The numbers are significant because graduation rates are one of the most important barometers in education, research shows.
“Because high school graduation is a strong indicator of social and economic well-being, this provides important information on the most basic measure of education success in the population,” stated a 2009 study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago. The report also cautioned that calculating graduation rates is fraught with technical issues and that no method is ideal.
The search for a better way to gauge how many students were getting their diplomas on time bubbled up from state governments.
“There was no consistency previously, and state governors were very interested in knowing how their particular schools and states were doing on getting students through high school within four years,” said Ryan Reyna, an education program director for the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices.
In 2005, the governors association for the first time came up with a common way to calculate graduation rates across states, leading the federal government to draw from that work and draft rules in 2008 on a new graduation formula.”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-grad-rates-1031-20111031,0,1934891.story
Just some of Obama’s contributions to education in Illinois.
October 23, 2011
“In 2000, after losing a Congressional race, Barack Obama was looking to revive his political fortunes. And he soon found a springboard — a group of black entrepreneurs also trying to break out.”
“In that push, Mr. Obama met with three state pension boards and introduced a bill on the executives’ behalf. He also worked closely with the state’s top legislative leaders to encourage the pension funds to increase the share of their investment portfolios managed by minority-owned firms. That share has risen to 12 to 20 percent now from 1 to 3 percent in 2000.”
“During this period, campaign finance records show, executives from Ariel, Loop and two other leading Chicago investment firms, Holland Capital Management and Capri Capital, sharply increased their donations to Mr. Obama’s State Senate campaign fund. And once he began his campaign for the United States Senate, they quickly became a fund-raising core that has carried over into the presidential race.”
October 19, 2011
“Following Obama’s efforts, the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System gave Ariel Capital $112.5 million to manage, and added hundreds of millions more over the next few years.”
“Three other minority-run firms — Holland Capital, Loop Capital and Capri Capital Partners — also saw hundreds of millions of assets turned over to them to manage after meeting with Obama and the state pension boards.”
“Cellini’s alleged crimes – essentially conspiring with others to force Capri Capital, also a real estate investment firm, and Thomas Rosenberg, a principal and part owner of Capri, to raise or donate substantial political contributions for Public Official A….”
September 25, 2008
The Annenberg challenge was supposed to improve Chicago schools but instead funded controversial groups like Acorn. Stanley Kurtz filed a FOIA request and after evaluating the Annenberg Challenge records has written his findings. Here are some of the highlights:
■Obama had most of his executive experience while working at the Annenberg Challenge. Obama does not refer to this fact.
■Chicago schools were not improved by the Annenberg Challenge. The money was instead spent on radical groups.
■Apparently Ken Rolling gave Bill Ayers a heads up in a possible cover up scheme.
■Obama and Ayers were on a committee together that created rules and bylaws.
2 links in the article above yield the following:
“During Obama’s time as Annenberg board chairman, Ayers’s own education projects received substantial funding. Indeed, during its first year, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge struggled with significant concerns about possible conflicts of interest. With a writ to aid Chicago’s public schools, the Annenberg challenge played a deeply political role in Chicago’s education wars, and as Annenberg board chairman, Obama clearly aligned himself with Ayers’s radical views on education issues.”
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/225348/chicago-annenberg-challenge-shutdown/stanley-kurtz
Another Obama damaging article removed?
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Obama is doing to the nation what he did to Illinois education for many years.
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