Chicago Sun-Times
A few years ago, bolstered by research done at the University of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools put a lot of effort into making sure its ninth graders didn’t fail core courses like math and social studies, or miss too many days of class, to help ensure students would be “on track” to graduate from high school.
Now the U. of C.’s Consortium on Chicago School Research, the same group that did the earlier analysis, is urging schools that want to make sure ninth graders go on to graduate and attend college encourage them to work hard in noncore areas, too. Specifically, in art and gym...