test scores at D209 suck, again. And they are trending downward.

Forest Park Review (Josh Adams) has a graph of the trend on test scores at the three Proviso Township High Schools. The Y-axis is the "Percentage of students meeting or exceeding benchmarks". From 2001 to 2009 scores trend downward. It's true at East. It's true at West. And it's true at PMSA.

What is appalling about District 209 is that it spends more per pupil than all but the most elite school districts and that it's test scores are either at the very bottom or in the bottom few for the entire region.

The district serves a Black and Latino population, but it's not like Proviso Township is the only community in Illinois serving Black and Latino students. And the households in Proviso are economically comfortable, if not affluent.