A new report says Chicago Public Schools teachers were told by school officials to give immigrant students passing grades and promote them to the next grade “even if they showed serious academic deficiencies.”
WGN News The paper reported that “several” teachers from various schools in the district had contacted them and exposed the disturbing trend.
One teacher said one of her students was given a “C” across the board and was told to move up to third grade, despite his test results being “kindergarten level.”
Another teacher said that during training, school officials had directly instructed them to promote migrant students to the next grade.
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A new report says non-English speaking immigrant students were being turned away by the Chicago Public School system. (iStock)
The influx of non-English speaking students also creates challenges, teachers said.
Many immigrants settle in predominantly black neighborhoods where schools typically don't have programs for non-English speakers, according to the report.
“They are being placed with teachers and classrooms where there are no Spanish speakers, so there is a significant language barrier.” WGN News Sylvia Snowden reports.
Snowden said one teacher said she had been using Google Translate “for a whole year” to communicate with her immigrant students and had to rely on translations from her Spanish teacher.
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Chicago Public Schools teachers spoke about the challenges they faced trying to communicate with immigrant students in the classroom. (Getty Images)
According to the City of Chicago: At least 48,000 immigrants Since August 2022, people have been traveling by bus and plane from the Texas border to the Windy City, Chicago.
Dr. Pedro Martinez, CEO of Chicago Public Schools, told WGN that immigrant students and U.S. students are held to the same academic standards, and he claimed schools have “90 percent or more” bilingual support programs.
However, Snowden said he was unaware of the WGN investigation when Dr. Martinez made these comments.
“But when confronted about our reporting, a CPS spokesperson acknowledged in a statement that the district's promotion guidelines have been 'modified to address the special needs of English language learners,'” WGN reported.
“Chicago Public Schools strives to provide a rigorous, welcoming and inclusive K-12 environment for all students, including those who are new to Chicago with their families from all over the world. As a district, we have high expectations for all students, have implemented modified policies and progression guidelines to meet the special needs of English Language Learners, and work with principals, counselors, teachers and parents to provide in-school and after-school interventions throughout the year that focus on assessed student learning deficits,” a Chicago Public Schools spokesperson told WGN News.
The district also claimed that ESL students who enrolled at the school in the last quarter of the school year were placed in a summer school program to improve their English skills. Teachers who spoke to WGN disputed the allegations, saying “none” of their students attended summer school.
Chicago Public Schools did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
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