The Chicago Teachers Union president has a convenient excuse for low test scores in the public school system: The exams are “rooted in white supremacy.”

“The way in which, you know, we think about learning and think about achievement is really and truly based on testing, which at best is junk science rooted in white supremacy,” Stacy Davis Gates said last week in a radio interview.

She also said teachers’ low pay is due to sexism: “This society has never wanted to pay women [their] worth, and as you know, our union is 80% female.”

Gates made the comments when asked by the black radio station WVON 1690 to respond to criticism about asking for pay raises despite low student achievement. The union wants a 9% annual raise and money for solar panels, abortions, and transgender drugs and surgeries as part of its contract negotiation.

Playing the race card makes sense from Gates’s point of view, since only “31% of elementary school students in Chicago Public Schools were proficient in reading,” according to Chalkbeat Chicago. 

“In math, 19% of Chicago third through eighth graders were proficient,” based on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness test.

Gates regularly blames other people for low test scores. “Conservatives don’t even want black children to be able to read,” Gates suggested in June.

The teachers union is not completely responsible for the test scores of its students. Factors such as parental involvement, early childhood education, and poverty can play a role in how students perform throughout their time in school.

But “white supremacy” is also not to blame for the low test scores. It is true that some intelligence tests have unfairly been used in the past to make claims of racial inferiority.

However, universities have found that standardized tests, such as the ACT and SAT, can provide a benefit to racial minorities and low-income students. This is because these students may come from schools that do not offer a variety of Advanced Placement and honors classes. The students can show their aptitude by taking a standardized test, which allows them to be compared to other applicants.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology recognized this. The elite college suspended its use of standardized tests in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 disruptions, but reinstated it in 2022. 

The dean of admissions explained that “standardized tests also help us identify academically prepared, socioeconomically disadvantaged students who could not otherwise demonstrate readiness⁠.”

Dean Stuart Schmill said these students “do not attend schools that offer advanced coursework, cannot afford expensive enrichment opportunities, cannot expect lengthy letters of recommendation from their overburdened teachers, or are otherwise hampered by educational inequalities.”

His comments also suggest tests are not “junk science,” as the union president claimed, but are helpful in determining who will succeed in college. 

“Our ability to accurately predict student academic success at MIT⁠ is significantly improved by considering standardized testing — especially in mathematics — alongside other factors,” Schmill wrote.

A 2024 study by a Brown University economist similarly concluded that “SAT and ACT scores have substantial predictive power for academic success in college.”

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But if Gates is concerned about “junk science,” she might look closer at the Chicago Public Schools curriculum, which has students watch the Black Panther movie and read essays by climate change activists in English class.

Students deserve better than a union president who plays the race card to explain away their low achievement and a school district that panders to them by showing Marvel movies. Instead, students should be challenged with difficult readings and held to a higher standard. 

Matt Lamb is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is an associate editor for the College Fix and has previously worked for Students for Life of America and Turning Point USA.