Chicago and Barrington spend virtually the same amount of money, about $4,000, to educate each of their students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Glenbard High School District 87 and Thornton Fractional High School District 215 also spend comparable amounts on their students–about $4,600.
All four school systems say they could use more money. And all look to a revision of the state school aid formula to give it to them, though such a revision seems unlikely in this session of the Illinois General Assembly.
An examination of the four districts suggests that what a district spends per student is not the only measure of how extensive its programs are and what services are available.
The schooling Barrington and Chicago provide–and the results they obtain –are markedly different, just as the communities are. But those of Glenbard and Thornton Fractional are similar, despite the same kinds of differences in the communities they serve.
Factors other than money and students` backgrounds are important in determining the effectiveness of a school system, critics say. Many of those factors can be controlled by the schools themselves, and one Chicago watchdog group has gone so far as to say it will not support more state money for Chicago unless the school board changes its ways.
”Until we see significant reform, especially in responsiveness to the desires of parents on the part of the board, we don`t think the state should give Chicago schools any more money,” said Fred Hess, executive director of the Chicago Panel on Public School Policy and Finance.
”The system is too big, for one thing,” Hess said. ”You can`t make central decisions that are equally good for 595 different schools. When you try, you create incredible logistic blocks.
”The board is not accountable,” he said. ”We want to give Chicago parents the same accessibility to their school system that suburban parents have.”
Hess and others have been pushing in the legislature for a mechanism to break up the Chicago system, either with smaller, elected school boards or pilot programs giving parents eventual control over their school budgets. None of those proposals appears likely to pass this year, either because of opposition from the Board of Education and or from Mayor Harold Washington.
Hess did concede that some of the problems Chicago faces involve its large numbers of low-income students. The percentage of low-income students is important to consider in evaluating school systems, because repeated studies have shown that the most consistent predictor of student achievement is the educational and income level of a child`s parents.
The percentage of students from low-income families in Chicago is seven times greater than in Barrington Unit District 220, which includes
Carpentersville and Algonquin, and the Chicago public schools provide a much less comprehensive curriculum.
But the family income level is not the only factor at work.
Thornton Fractional has a percentage of low-income students eight times as great as that in Glenbard, yet it comes within striking distance of the Du Page County district`s offerings and accomplishments.
Both high school districts have impressive graduation rates–an average of 95 percent for the four Glenbard schools in Lombard, Carol Stream and Glen Ellyn, and 93 percent for the two Thornton Fractional schools in Calumet City and Lansing. Glenbard has 7,300 students and Thornton Fractional has 3,100.
Four out of five teachers in both districts hold advanced degrees. Glenbard`s average American College Test scores are only slightly higher than Thornton Fractional`s (although many more Glenbard students take the test and go to college).
Although 60 percent of Thornton Fractional students end their education with high school and a great majority of Glenbard students go to college, vocational students in the Glenbard district and college-bound Thornton Fractional students also can find the courses they need.
Kris Graham, 15, attends Thornton Fractional South in Lansing and wants a career in math or science. By the time she graduates, she will complete the equivalent of six years of science and four years of math, many of them honors courses.
At Glenbard South, Beth Huffman, 18, wants to be a professional baby-sitter. She spent part of her last semester at the Glen Ellyn school surrounded by 3- to 5-year-olds in a child-development class to improve her chances to enroll at a professional nanny school.
The gap between the Barrington and Chicago schools is much wider.
Barrington offers its 6,200 students a comprehensive array of courses, including the choice of five foreign languages in 7th through 12th grade, that is available only to a small number of students in magnet schools and specialized programs in Chicago.
Barrington`s buildings are well maintained, supplies are plentiful, three out of four teachers have master`s degrees or better, students read and do math at above-average levels and score above state and national norms on college-entrance examinations.
Chicago struggles to keep its buildings, many of them more than 100 years old, in repair, its teacher salary schedule rewards longevity more than advanced education, its students score below national norms in reading, math and on college-entrance examinations.
More than 96 percent of Barrington students finish high school; only 57 percent of Chicago`s do. Nationwide, the graduation rate is 75 percent.
Glenbard and Thornton Fractional each raise about 76 percent of their budgets from local taxes, 23 percent from the state and 1 to 2 percent from the federal government.
But Chicago relies on the state formula and federal money to bring it to Barrington`s level of funding.
Barrington raises 86 percent of its budget locally, gets 12 percent from the state and 2 percent from the federal government. Chicago raises 41 percent of its budget locally, gets 47 percent from the state and 12 percent from the federal government.
Why does $4,000 stretch further in Barrington than in Chicago, but $4,600 accomplishes about the same thing in south Cook County as it does in Du Page? ”Chicago needs to reorder its priorities,” Hess said. ”In the last two years, for example, the board thumbed its nose at parents` complaints about the inadequacy of textbooks and supplies.
”Instead of upgrading those areas, the board added 303 new central office positions, including 225 who have no direct contact with students,”
Hess said. ”Of those, 85 were in the district or field offices. They provided no additional services so it was a net loss in productivity.”
Certainly, the sheer number of low-income students in Chicago has an effect. Forty-five percent of the 430,000 students live in families below the poverty line, most without fathers in the home.
But interviews with teachers and principals in both systems suggest that other important factors are the size of the districts and the role of the bureaucracy.
The history of a new computer laboratory at Einstein Elementary School on Chicago`s South Side is typical. The computers arrived more than a year after they were ordered. The software came a month later. Workers appeared to install the carrels for the computers two weeks after that–with less than 14 days left to go in this school year.
In Barrington, William Richter, science department chairman at Barrington Middle School, look puzzled when asked if he has enough equipment to teach his 7th and 8th graders.
”We have hundreds of film strips,” Richter said. ”We order 145 specimens a year for students to dissect. We were the first junior high school in the state to have a planetarium. I can`t think of anything I need that I don`t have.”
Einstein Principal Sander Postol ticked off the various ways he
”scrounges for money” to get what he believes his students need but the school board cannot afford.
He sends troubled students to a private counseling agency because the board does not provide enough social workers or psychologists. He recruits private foundations to bring the arts to students because the board does not pay for art and music teachers. He works with the Amoco Foundation to get scholarships to train his science teachers.
”We look kind of stupid that we aren`t giving our kids what the suburban schools are,” he said. ”If you want to do something good, you can`t wait for the board to fund it. I`ve learned how to hustle.”
According to a ”report card” issued last year by the Illinois State Board of Education, none of the 3d or 6th graders at Einstein scored in the top quarter among their peers nationwide in reading or math. By 8th grade, 1.9 percent scored at that level. More than three out of four Einstein students live in poverty.
In Barrington, 45 percent of the 3d graders, 43 percent of the 6th graders and 44 percent of the 8th graders scored in the top quarter in reading, and 53 percent of the 3d graders, 46 percent of the 6th graders and 59 percent of the 8th graders scored that high in math.
The average American College Testing score for Barrington high school students is 21.5. Overall in Chicago, it is 13.6; at Wendell Phillips High School, which most Einstein students attend, it is 9.2. The state average is 19.1, and a perfect score is 36.
”I hear suburban people talking about how they need more money, and I suppose they think they do,” Postol said. ”But the greatest need is here. It seems like the kids who need the most get the least.”
