Education Week: Civil Rights Complaint Filed Over Chicago Flunking Policy: A non-profit organization representing Chicago Public Schools parents filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights today, alleging the district's policy of flunking 3rd, 6th and 8th grade students based on standardized test scores has disproportionately harmed black and Latino students.
Parents United for Responsible Education, or PURE, said in a news conference this morning that it filed a similar discrimination complaint against CPS in 1999 and reached a resolution to some of its concerns.
But the group said it decided to file another complaint after 10 years of seeing CPS flunk 'thousands of children every year'—despite research that PURE says shows flunking students doesn't help children's later achievement, and in fact increases their chances for dropping out of school.
'They drop out at an early age because they're so discouraged,' said Julie Woestehoff, executive director of PURE. 'It's like you have a bureaucratic door shut in your face and then you're left with a child who is unhappy and doesn't want to go to school.'
