Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has almost doubled its spending per student over the past decade, but test scores are dropping.
The district is spending $29,028 per student in the current school year—a 97 percent increase since 2012, according to a recent analysis by Illinois Policy.
The analysis, using data from the Illinois State Board of Education about the 2022-23 school year, found proficiency in math has dropped by 78 percent since then, while proficiency in reading has declined by 63 percent.
It comes as students across the country are struggling to make up for COVID-19 losses. Nationally, they have recovered one-third of what they lost in math and one-quarter of the losses in reading, according to the Education Recovery Scorecard, an analysis of state and national test scores by researchers at Harvard and Stanford.