Rahm Emanuel spoke about his plans for Chicago's schools at an all-girls charter on the Near South Side Monday. The mayor-elect promised to push for a longer school day and longer year, saying that the city's students spend less time in school than anywhere in the nation.
While he was at the Young Women's Leadership Charter School, the only all-girls charter in the city, Mr. Emanuel also had ample praise for the school itself, citing its high graduation rate and pledging to expand it, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
But, as WBEZ reports, everything's not quite as rosy as Emanuel described it at YWLC:
Emanuel called the school's results "quite impressive," though state records show only 15-percent of high schoolers there met state standards.
The mayor-elect twice on Monday cited a "hundred percent graduation rate" at the charter school. But that number does not take into account students who dropped out before their senior year.
And the Sun-Times goes on to highlight more mediocre figures from the school:
Only 15.2 percent of juniors passed their state tests last year, compared to 29.8 percent citywide. The school's average ACT score was 16.2, compared to 17.4 citywide, with 18 generally considered the minimum for college.
Only 13.8 percent of YWLC students hit the recent CPS goal of a 20 or better on the ACT, compared to 24.8 percent citywide.
Using multi-faceted CPS "scorecard figures" that Emanuel has cited previously to tout charter schools, the school ranks 81 out of 112 CPS high schools. Using test scores, test score improvement, attendance, graduation rates and other data, the scorecards place schools in one of three levels. YWLC is Level 3, the worst level, which CPS calls "below average."
Emanuel has pledged to grow the city's charter schools, and its single-gender schools in particular. Critics have argued that his focus on charters threatens to undermine the city's neighborhood public schools.