Nearly 60% Won’t Graduate at South Side School

A startling number of children are falling through the cracks at one Chicago Public School. More than half of the kids didn’t even pass the eighth grade. As CBS 2’s Jim Williams reports there is fierce debate about who’s to blame.

It is a debate that has gone on for years in poor communities: do you blame the schools for the students’ poor performance or do you blame their parents?

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It was a disastrous year for the eighth grade at the south side Bradwell Elementary school in a tough neighborhood with high poverty. More than half the class, 44 of 77 students, did not graduate.

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The Board of Education insists the Bradwell school did everything possible to keep the students’ grades up, offering extra credit and school on Saturday. And the Board says written notices did go out.

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