Proviso Township High Schools worst in Illinois in multiple categories

In the most recent school year Proviso Township High Schools (District 209) had the lowest percent of students that meet or exceed standards on standardized tests in the state of Illinois. Results were obtained from the Illinois Interactive Report Card sponsored by Northern Illinois University.

Proviso scores went down absolutely (less students meet or exceed standards) and relative to other districts. Last year Proviso could at least claim to have more students meeting standards than Bloom.

District 209 has the lowest graduation rate in the state. [Orion corrected in comments.]

District 209's dropout rate is tied with Odin (Marion, IL) for #1 in Illinois.

District 209 has the second highest rate of chronic truancy.

District 209 has more low income students than most districts. However, many districts have more low income students. And even in these poorer districts, more students meet or exceed standards.

And District 209 spends more per pupil than most districts.

Who is to blame?

• The District 209 board of education, especially, board president Emanuel "Chris" Welch
  
• The unions
  
• The mayors
  
• Karen Yarbrough, the Democratic Committeeman
  
• Charles Flowers, the former Regional Superintendent of Education
  
• Illinois State Board of Education
  
• Cook County States Attorney
  
• Superintendent Nettie Collins-Hart and her predecessors, especially Robert Libka
  
• U.S. Attorney Northern Illinois District
  
• board members of Proviso's elementary school districts
  
• Gov. Pat Quinn
  
• The voters
  
  In different ways, all these people could have made a difference and improved D209 and the education received by D209 students. And all of these people did too little.
  
  Flowers might be able to plead that he was simply a fuck-up and didn't really have the ability to make a difference. But let's be honest. When he got elected Regional Superintendent he was more focused on taking care of his people than making a difference in the quality of education received by students.
  
  Quinn's influence is weak and extends through the Illinois State Board of Education. But I suspect if he lit a fire under the ass of the state superintendent of education, things could be made better.
  
  Proviso property owners pay taxes for services. They don't like getting ripped-off, but they aren't mad enough about it to take effective action.

1	New Trier	90
2	Northfield	81
3	Elmwood Park	78
4	Lyons	75
5	Riverside-Brookfield	72
6	Township HSD 214	70
7	Lemont	69
8	Oak Park & River Forest	68
9	Con HSD 230	67
10	Maine	66
11	Township HSD 211	66
12	Homewood Flossmoor	63
13	Evanston	62
14	Niles	61
15	Reavis	59
16	Ridgewood	58
17	Evergreen Park	57
18	Oak Lawn	54
19	Bremen	53
20	Leyden	46
21	Argo	44
22	CHSD 218	39
23	Rich	37
24	Thornton Fractional	35
25	Thornton	30
26	Bloom	28
27	Proviso	25

is Proviso Probe for sale?

A friend suggested I sell Proviso Probe, or at least discover what people are offering.

I could sell it to a buyer who would resume publishing.

Or I could sell it to one or more buyers who would take the content offline.

Or I could sell it to a buyer who removes some content, but leaves the rest. (There is some content that has been temporarily hidden that could be brought back too.)

If you are interested in making an offer, email me, RadioNyberg circled "a" Yah00 spot c0m.

I am blogging, just not here

Proviso Probe has been suspended.

I (Carl Nyberg) am now blogging at Ellen of the Tenth and occasionally at Prairie State Blue.

Charles Flowers arrested

Daily Southtown (Duaa ElDeib):

Regional Supt. Charles Flowers was charged today with theft by the Cook County state's attorney's office....

Flowers turned himself in about 1 p.m. to sheriff's police in Maywood. He was accompanied by his attorney, Tim Grace.

I linked to ElDeib's article first because he's been the most vigilant about covering Flowers at the Regional Office of Education.

The following media outlets also have coverage:

Chicago Breaking News Center (Matthew Walberg)
WBBM 780 AM
Chicago Public Radio (links to an interview with Flowers)

What to say?

Having dealt with Flowers and his staff, I can attest to the office being run in an unprofessional manner.

I did a small amount of work for the ROE making video recordings of meetings. While Flowers and his staff were accustomed to manufacturing thin excuses to eat and drink on the office credit card, it was difficult to get them to pay me relatively small amounts of money for recording meetings.

On one occasion I arrived to record a meeting which necessitated leaving another job early. I arrive to complaints from various people, including Flowers. I was accused of not returning phone calls. Apparently, one of Flowers' assistants had given him the wrong number for me.

Members of Flowers' staff claim the office has never had sufficient resources to fulfill its mandates without either going in to debt or getting subsidies from the Cook County Board. This is probably true, however, mismanagement and misprioritized spending were a problem.

Based on what I saw of putting meals on the credit card and an attempt to put a bar tab on the credit card, it seems credible that Flowers and his people got sloppy and crossed the line and spent taxpayer money on stuff that was clearly personal expenses.

Flowers has been abyssmal at handling the media. He has avoided taking questions from Duaa ElDeib and in one instance Flowers' sister called and left a snotty voicemail.

Mike Manzo's video advertisement

I'm not sure why, but this ad caused me to laugh really hard.

Ascot makes the case for change

If other candidates have a succinct message for Proviso voters, contact me, RadioNyberg circled "a" Yahoo spot com.

Lipinski weathers Tea Party activists

Advocates of health care reform don't like the Tea Party activists who have been loud and obnoxious when members of Congress have held public meetings.

The pro-health care reform people shot video of a recent town hall meeting by U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski where Tea Party activists heckled a woman telling the story of her pregnant daughter-in-law dying after being denied the care she needed because she was uninsured.

h/t Jeff Wegerson (Prairie State Blue)

I would prefer the United States enact health care reform based on a deliberative discussion of what's wrong with the current system and how we can make it better.

But the Republican Party seeks to defeat any health care legislation because it perceives that the GOP will do better in the 2010 elections if they can say the Democrats have not accomplished anything on the Democrats top legislative priority.

Generally Americans want health care reform. And generally they want something similar to what the Democrats are proposing or something more radical, like single-payer health care. Since the Tea Party activists don't have the people on their side and they don't have good arguments for maintaining the status quo they yell louder, make extreme claims and are generally obnoxious.

Edgar endorses Sheahan for state rep

If you care what former-Governor Jim Edgar thinks, he's supporting Brien Sheahan for the 41st Illinois House district. State Rep. Bob Biggins is retiring. See Daily Herald Animal Farm (John Patterson).

BTW, the blog entry mentions the professions of the other candidates, but not Mike Manzo. Doesn't it seem Manzo should be identified as an employee of Commissioner Tony Peraica? It seems at least as relevant as mentioning the professions and employers of the other candidates.

Who did ROLT endorse for GOP primaries?

The Republican Organization of Lyons Township (ROLT), aka Team Tony, endorsed Patrick Hughes for U.S. Senate, Jason Plummer for Lt. Governor, Judy Baar Topinka for Comptroller and Mark Thompson over Liz Gorman for Cook County Board in the 17th district. See Illinois Review. More members voted for Dan Proft than the other governor candidates, but insufficient for the organization to endorse.