Spend $93K per student and what happens? None can read at grade level.
Not a single 11th-grade student was proficient in reading or math in 2023-2024 at Douglass Academy High School. The near-empty school has the highest per-student spending in Chicago Public Schools.
Think student success is just a matter of spending enough money? Well, Douglass Academy High School spent $93,787 per student last school year – yet not a single 11th grade student at the school was proficient in reading or math.
Only 35 students were enrolled at Douglass last year in a building that can fit over 900 students. There are currently 27 full-time equivalent staff members, an increase of two staff members since the previous school year.
What sense does it make to keep a big high school open for basically a single classroom worth of students? Why squander so many resources on so few students?
Because the Chicago Teachers Union demands it. And Chicagoans can expect more of the same – high costs and abysmal student outcomes – if CTU gets its way in current contract negotiations
CTU’s leaked contract is filled with costly demands, including additional staff members. A report by the Civic Federation estimates the additional staff will cost the district an estimated $1 billion in the first year. It also threatens to increase Douglass’ already exorbitant per-student spending.
Douglass Academy High School spends the most in CPS, but sees some of the worst results
Douglass Academy High School spends the most per student compared to any other school in CPS, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s 2024 Report Card – and well above the district’s average of $19,908. That spending encompasses “site-based expenditures,” only excluding certain expenditures such as capital and debt servicing.
It would be cheaper to send a student to Loyola, the University of Chicago or Northwestern University – including tuition, room and board – than to Douglass.
With that kind of spending, one would expect academic proficiency to soar, but that’s not the case.
Not a single 11th grade student could read or perform math at grade level on the SAT in the 2023-2024 school year. Douglass saw 80% of tested students score in the lowest proficiency level for reading. In math, 90% scored in the lowest level.
The last school year in which any 11th grade Douglass students could read or perform math at grade level was the 2016-2017 school year. Just 2.4% of students could read or perform math proficiently then.
Teachers can’t teach empty desks. In the 2023-2024 school year, 62% of students were chronically absent, outpacing the district average of 41%. And students can’t learn without teachers: more than half of the teachers at Douglass had 10 or more absences during the school year.
Not only were students and teachers missing, but most of the high school is empty. The school was built for over 900 students, yet only 35 students were enrolled. Only 4% of the building’s ideal capacity was met, making Douglass the emptiest school in CPS.
CTU and CPS are deadlocked in negotiations
CTU’s contract with CPS expired last summer. After months of negotiations, CTU and CPS are deadlocked on several provisions.
One of the provisions stalling a new agreement is staffing. CTU is demanding the addition of more than 1,000 staff members by the 2028 school year. Even underenrolled schools such as Douglass could receive additional staff despite already employing nearly one staff member for every student.
Another demand by CTU is a reduction in class sizes. But CTU makes no mention of rightsizing severely underenrolled schools such as Douglass.
In the December 2024 negotiations update, CTU leadership said, “We cannot – and will not – settle for a deal that leaves us in the dark about critical issues like… if our students will finally experience manageable class sizes.”
A school with 35 students and 27 staffers may be extremely manageable, but it’s not a high school. Students are missing the high school experience of varied classes, learning from others, sports, band and visiting friends in the cafeteria. For a school that spends nearly $94,000 on each student, Douglass is drastically short-changing its students.
CTU has long fought against closing underused and obsolete schools. It has attacked CPS CEO Pedro Martinez for allegedly considering school closures and consolidations. That position is blatantly self-serving and shows CTU cares little about what its stand is doing to students.
CTU is more concerned with union jobs than student outcomes
While fewer than 1 in 3 students in CPS can read at grade level and even fewer can do math, CTU leadership is continuing to push for costly demands. Many of these demands have nothing to do with helping students learn, such as demands for migrant stipends, housing for teachers and environmental initiatives for “green schools.”
Students at Douglass Academy High School are struggling. Chicagoans and CPS parents have expressed concern about “students not learning enough academically” in CPS.
What will it take for CTU leaders to put students first? It’s disheartening that the union’s priorities would leave students so adrift in a school named for a self-taught man whose life was dedicated to providing education as the key to liberty and equality.