by Michael Lewyn
It is conventional wisdom that big cities have problems retaining the middle class because of poor schools. But many older cities labor under a disadvantage that their suburbs don’t have — lots of students from underprivileged background.
A recent study suggests that when one controls for social class, Chicago schools are actually not so bad. This study compared the test scores of Chicago’s elementary schools with those of other Illinois schools with similar poverty rates, and calculated a “Poverty-Achievement Index” (PAI) based on this comparison. As it happens, 55 of the 100 schools with the best PAIs were in Chicago- which is to say, their test scores were better than those of suburban or small-city schools with similar student bodies.
(Cross-posted from cnu.org)
The other question though is how do students from high or middle income families do in schools with a lot of low income students vs in schools with few low income students. I think part of the concern among parents is that their children will be held back by struggling classmates, and as a result will try to avoid any schools with low income students whether that’s schools in inner city Chicago, or in Harvey or Joliet or North Chicago or East St Louis or inner city Rockford or Peoria.