The American Pundit

I know what you’re thinking: Barack Obama lying? It’s probably blowing your mind, contradicting everything you’ve ever known about The One. The man that represents Catholics better that the pope telling a tall-tale in order advance his interests? Heart-ache…

New research from a Chicago civic group takes direct aim at the city’s “abysmal” public high school performance — and puts a new spin on the academic gains made during the seven years that Arne Duncan led the Chicago schools before he was named U.S. Education secretary.

The Civic Committee of The Commercial Club of Chicago, a supporter of Duncan and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s push for more control of city schools, issued the report June 30. It says city schools have made little progress since 2003. …

In December, Obama said that during a seven-year tenure, Duncan had boosted elementary school test scores “from 38% of students meeting the standards to 67%” — a gain of 29 percentage points. But the new report found that, adjusting for changes in tests and procedures, students’ pass rates grew only about 8 percentage points.

Obama also said Chicago’s dropout rate “has gone downevery year he’s been in charge.” Though that’s technically true, the committee says it’s still unacceptably high: About half of Chicago students drop out of the city’s non-selective-enrollment high schools. And more than 70% of 11th-graders fail to meet state standards, a trend that “has remained essentially flat” over the past several years.

Even among those who graduate, it says, skills are poor: An analysis of students entering the Chicago City Colleges in fall 2006 showed that 69% were not prepared for college-level reading, 79% were not prepared for writing, and 95% were not prepared for math.

If his goal was to provide an education insufficient for a low-level career in waste disposal, Duncan clearly succeeded beyond his wildest imagination. However, I highly doubt that that was his vision.

Spinning the failure of a man being put in charge of our nation’s schools into a total success is nothing short of a complete disgrace. But then again, the fact Obama is disgraceful is hardly news.