Looking for answers to flatlining scores
It's a math problem worthy of the state's brightest students. Illinois grade school students have improved steadily on state exams in the five years since a federal law put pressure...
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Median household income rises a bit
America's poverty rate remained flat, but the median household income reached $50,233 in 2007, a modest increase of 1.3 percent from 2006 after adjusting for inflation, according to U.S. Census...
Minorities will be in majority
Fifty-four percent of America will be minorities by the year 2050, thanks largely to Hispanics, and the nation will be substantially grayer, thanks mainly to aging Baby Boomers. Hispanics to...
Profiling ‘consent searches’
Minority motorists in Chicago are about five times more likely than whites to undergo a "consent search," in which police at traffic stops ask permission to search vehicles. That disparity,...
Illinois 8th graders test well on writing
Eighth graders in Illinois scored among the second tier of states in a national writing test last year, according to results released Thursday. The average score for public school students...
Kendall nation’s fastest-growing county
When you live in a rural area in the shadow of behemoth Cook County, bragging rights can be hard to come by. Kendall County may be the birthplace of the...
School chiefs’ pay on sharp curve up
School superintendents' average pay in Illinois climbed 23 percent in the last five years, a jump experts said reflects an increasingly competitive market and a number of retirees with big...
When guest equals ghost
As they hustled up and down the fields harvesting giant tobacco leaves in the broiling heat, they weren't allowed to stop for water. And the work went on into the...
State writing exam pass rate plummets
Only half of Illinois 5th graders passed the state writing exam last school year, a precipitous fall of nearly 20 percentage points in just three years, according to data released...
Girls outpace boys on tests
Girls in Illinois grade schools outperformed boys on every state achievement exam last school year, according to a Tribune analysis, a twist in performance that has perplexed state officials and...