Take that, Civic Committee

On the heels of the Civic Committee's report, calling Chicago school reform an "abysmal" failure, Mayor Daley called a press conference of his own to announce (hold on to your hats) that reading scores went up 1.1 % over last year. That's not all. Math scores increased by 3% and science by 1.7%.

Take that R. Eden Martin.

Daley:"We are...convinced that our progress is truly being made in every school," said Daley.

The Tribune: "Of the 519 elementary schools in the city, 320 showed improvement over last year's test scores. That leaves roughly 200 performing at the same or worse, though the district did not provide data for those schools."

Russo: "The City Hall press release here (PDF) reveals quite a bit of hedging and uncertainty -- taking credit for increases at the same time as it acknowledges the sorry state of affairs. It's a delicate line to walk. "

Catalyst: "Catalyst didn’t receive word about the press conference and therefore didn’t attend. Let’s just call it a technical glitch that we are working on remedying."

Don't feel bad, Catalyst. Neither did SmallTalk. Our invitations probably got lost in the e-mail.