Yeah, you're totally right. The Illinois school system is obviously outstanding if you look beyond just the charter schools. The rest is clearly beyond criticism. Because nothing says 'educational excellence' quite like what we've got going on here . This is an absolute dumpster fire. https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/state.aspx?source=trends&source2=iar&Stateid=IL
The schools in Chicago are a dumpster fire -- I've never said otherwise. The worst performing of them are the for-profit charter schools. Many of them run by companies owned by major Trump supporters.
The first thing that needs to be done is ban all for-profits charter schools. Allow non-profit charter schools only. For-profit charter schools are generally the lowest performing schools and non-profit charter schools are the highest performing charter schools. This should be step 1 in improving U.S. public education. Beyond there -- I support initiatives to get rid of "common core" (which has been a disaster), eliminate using Critical Race Theory as a teaching method, and focus on achievement in conventional subject areas (Math, Science, English, History, etc.) We have an existing lengthy ET thread on Critical Race Theory in schools. https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/critical-race-theory-parents-fight-back.359357/
COmmon core should be scrapped for Singapore Math. U.S. is so fucking arrogant it does not want to look at leaders in the world and see how they do things. Common Core is for typical americans who think they know best and will never take advice. Singapore Math better prepares students for Algebra and Calculus and when my son's school adopted it we all saw the difference immediately (thankfully he did not go into the public system until HS where that is not taught in Pre Calc and Calc). Not surprising : The Singapore math approach, known for its problem-solving focus and visual learning techniques, has been adopted by numerous schools and countries in Asia, including Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, among others.
In terms of math education, countries like Singapore, China (specifically Shanghai), South Korea, and Japan consistently rank high in international assessments, demonstrating strong math proficiency and rigorous education systems.