IIRC & CPS

One of the things I thought was interesting was the data from the IIRC website and the comparison of the southern school with the Chicago school. The southern school I felt like I understood pretty well. It seemed to have a lot in common with my school, which I have looked at a lot on the IIRC. When I looked at the Chicago school's numbers, I could tell something was strange about it by comparing it to the rest of the district. The fact that it was charter school that was probably not easy to get into made me think about what happens to students who can not attend charter schools. I also found the Chicago school to be interesting since the district's CEO at the time is now the United States Secretary of Education. I was a little concerned about the district's performance at first, so I did some checking. Ther CEO had been there since 2001. From 2002-2008 their percentage of students meeting and exceeding standards went from 60% to 75%, however, the state's percentage went from 60% to 75% over the same period of time, so Chicago closed the gap on the rest of the state by 7%. It looked to me like he was doing a good job and there was an upward trend in student achievement. Hopefully he'll do well on a national level.