Chicago schools celebrate recovery in student reading levels, outperforming national averages

CHICAGO - Chicago public school officials are celebrating the findings of some new research that takes a look at student reading levels.

According to the findings from Harvard and Stanford researchers, students have recovered to pre-pandemic reading levels and outperformed most large school districts nationwide.

Those findings are from the Education Recovery Scorecard, which looks at the reading levels of Chicago's third through eighth graders between the years 2019 and 2023.

Of the states analyzed, Illinois saw the most gains in reading during that time and was one of only three states whose reading levels now exceed the 2019 levels.

Chicago schools demonstrated an even higher increase than the statewide average, with Black CPS students seeing some of the highest improvement in reading achievement.

Despite the good news on the reading front, math scores by contrast remain well below pre-pandemic levels at both the state and district levels.

CPS officials say many of the strategies put in place during the pandemic to help students were thanks to federal funding and that they'll continue to look at their options to continue them going forward.