Chicago schools told teachers to give migrant students passing grades, ignore performance: report
Chicago public school officials told teachers to give migrant students a passing grade and move them to the next grade, even if the students did not speak English and displayed “severe academic deficiencies,” according to a new report.
Migrants who moved to Chicago have resettled in predominantly black neighborhoods on the South and West Sides, communities where the schools are not always equipped to accommodate non-English speaking students.
Teachers who work in Chicago elementary schools spoke with WGN News this month said that these schools do not have English as a Second Language (ESL) support programs, making it difficult to communicate with students.
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Regardless of any concerns about academic proficiency, educators said that administrators still instructed them to give migrant students a C in every subject last school year.
One teacher told WGN News reporter Sylvia Snowden that she relied on Google Translate and the school’s Spanish teacher for an entire school year to overcome the language barrier with her students.
The CPS district claimed that students who enrolled in the school during the last quarter of the school year who did not speak English as a second language were placed in summer school programs. The teachers who spoke to WGN say this is untrue, stating that “none” of their students were enrolled in summer school to help improve their English.
During an August appearance on WGN Radio’s "Lisa Dent Show," CPS CEO Pedro Martinez initially claimed that migrant students were not held to a different academic standard as other students in the district. The interview with Martinez occurred before the CPS CEO knew of WGN’s investigation into the issue.
After the outlet confronted the school district with its reporting, a spokesperson for CPS acknowledged that the district’s promotion guidelines are “modified to serve the specialized needs of English Language Learners.”
On its website, CPS states that the district offers “several support services for refugees and other students and families who have recently arrived in the United States.” For students, the CPS website states that schools offer different English Learner Programs to help students develop academic language skills.
According to the English Learners Program page, over 70,000 students at CPS are classified as English learners. Students who enroll in CPS for the first time are required to complete a Home Language Survey, asking if the family uses a language other than English in the home and if the student speaks a language other than English.
Schools with 20 or more English learners who speak a different language at home are required to provide a Transitional Bilingual Education Program, while schools with 19 or fewer English learners who speak the same home language must provide a Transitional Program of Instruction.
Chicago Public Schools did not immediately respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment.
Data as of Sept. 19 shows that Chicago has seen nearly 50,000 migrants arrive from the southern border since Aug. 31, 2022. Over 48,000 individuals seeking asylum arrived in the city from Texas, and over 5,000 have arrived via airplane since June 2023.
“The City of Chicago receives limited information about the timing and number bus and airplane arrivals, as well as passenger composition and verification of sponsors,” the official website for the city stated.
“However, since the early days of this operation, our Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) has recorded and reported the number of chartered buses that arrive to our ‘landing zone,’ people who arrive by airplane in our airports, and those who independently arrive to emergency staging areas in police stations.”
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
