Multiple teachers at Chicago Public Schools say administrators told them to give illegal migrant students passing grades last school year.
Several elementary school teachers told WGN Radio they were instructed by school administrators to give their migrant students a 70% grade in every subject and approve their move up to the next grade, even if the children demonstrated severe academic deficiencies.
Complicating matters, none of the elementary school students in these teachers’ classes spoke any English, while the teachers spoke no Spanish. The schools did not offer classes to teach English as a second language.
Last month, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez assured that migrant students were held to the same standards as Chicago’s American students.
However, a Chicago Public Schools spokesperson later acknowledged to WGN Radio that the district’s guidelines for moving students up to the next grade are “modified to serve the specialized needs of English Language Learners.”
Nearly 50,000 illegal migrants have arrived by bus in Chicago from the Texas border since 2022. The city is currently paying to shelter about 13,000 newly arrived migrants.
