Opinion: Pastor Corey Brooks Says Chicago Schools Are Failing Kids at Reading, With Only 23% of Fourth Graders Proficient
The South Side pastor cites the 2024 Nation's Report Card and calls for phonics, nightly reading at home and a school he plans to open. He blames parents and schools alike. It is his argument, not a news report.
Pastor Corey Brooks argues in a Fox News opinion piece that illiteracy is the most pressing problem for the young people he serves on Chicago's South Side.
The numbers. He cites the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress: 23% of Chicago fourth graders scored proficient or higher in reading, and 53% scored below basic. By eighth grade proficiency is only 27%. He says those figures cover all students, which is why he did not raise race.
The stakes. A child who is not reading proficiently by the end of third grade, he writes, is four times more likely to miss on-time graduation. He describes young people who cannot fill out a job application, parents who cannot read a medical report, and graduates who cannot read a lease. He calls it an "illiteracy epidemic" and says the city treats it like background noise.
The fix. Brooks says the science of reading "has been settled for decades" and starts with phonics: sounding out letters and blending them into words. He says structured literacy programs show results, and that schools dropped the basics as too simple.
The blame. He puts "most of it" on parents who do not read to their children each night, and also blames schools that promote children who are not reading at grade level.
His plan. Brooks says he is working to open his own school alongside the Leadership and Economic Opportunity Center, where parents would be taught to read to their children nightly. "I can envision it. I am building it."
Note for readers: this is an opinion column by a pastor and community leader, and the test-score figures are his citation of the Nation's Report Card, which we have not checked. The column does not say when the school would open.