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Thursday Morning News
Organizers call off 2-day school boycott AP
At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, about a dozen students sprawled on the floor of the visitor's center.
No hugging in this 10-step program Southtown Star
Here's a 10-step tutorial for Meeks, from supporting a constitutional convention to banning Gov. Rod Blagojevich from Meeks' church, House of Hope in Chicago:
School boycotters say message was delivered CTDN
Boycott aside, the first day of school proceeded normally for most Chicago students.
What kind of high school for Austin? AWN
"We need a comprehensive high school in Austin so that the children of Austin will have all the options, academic and extracurriculars," says network member Grady Jordan, a former principal of Collins High School and a former superintendent of high schools for the Chicago Public Schools.
Catholics Pledge Help Against Youth Violence WBEZ
Chicago’s Catholic school leaders today pledged to work in solidarity with public schools against street violence.
'I know why kids are killing. They're hurting' Sun Times
In a four-part editorial series this week, the Chicago Sun-Times is calling on the school system to fundamentally rethink how it deals with the social and emotional needs of its students.
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Thu Sep 4, 2008 at 8:43 AM
Thursday Morning News
If small schools are the way to go, what happened at Orr High School?
Fri Sep 5, 2008 at 1:52 AM
Thursday Morning News
Grady Jordan and I are both quoted extensively in the Austin Weekly article, so I'd hope everyone would read it.
My suggestion to their reporter was to tell everyone from Austin community to take a walk west the two miles to Oak Park River Forest High School in Oak Park and look at what a large comprehensive high school can do. I'm also quoted as saying "small schools" is "separate but equal" and an insult to inner city teachers and children. CPS and the small schools touts have gotten away with this nonsense only by virtue of relentless ruling class propaganda.
When Mayor Daley was touting "Turnaround" on January 31, 2008, at Sherman ("School of Excellence") and announcing that "Turnaround" would now receive Gates Foundation millions (instead of "Smalls Schools"), I asked whether Daley was going to personally apologize to the teachers he was getting fired from Orr High School, since he had been "Principal for a Day" there and had been face to face with many of those teachers for four or five years.
Instead of answering my question, Jacqueline Heard had the mayor end the press conference. They also claimed they couldn't conduct the tour of "Sherman School of Excellence" which they had announced for that day. Actually, they tried to cancel the tour for me and Substance, but since NBC got a tour, I tagged along. Part of the "School of Excelence" "Turnaround" scam is that they reduce class size by as much as 50 percent (kindergarten and primary grades at Sherman are not more than 21 that I counted).
The old Sherman had no such additional resources.
Like "Small Schools" (the last Chicago miracle funded by Gates and other corporate millions), "Turnaround" is a teacher bashing attack on public schools. Had they put the resources into the six schools they just closed before last year, instead of waiting for "Turnaround", things might have changed a little.
They are all hypocrites, but it's most fun to watch Daley ad lib under pressure. He slowly unravels, but our colleagues in the major media simply cut that stuff out and edit until he sounds rational and coherent.
I know. I know. He's just a miracle worker.
My suggestion to their reporter was to tell everyone from Austin community to take a walk west the two miles to Oak Park River Forest High School in Oak Park and look at what a large comprehensive high school can do. I'm also quoted as saying "small schools" is "separate but equal" and an insult to inner city teachers and children. CPS and the small schools touts have gotten away with this nonsense only by virtue of relentless ruling class propaganda.
When Mayor Daley was touting "Turnaround" on January 31, 2008, at Sherman ("School of Excellence") and announcing that "Turnaround" would now receive Gates Foundation millions (instead of "Smalls Schools"), I asked whether Daley was going to personally apologize to the teachers he was getting fired from Orr High School, since he had been "Principal for a Day" there and had been face to face with many of those teachers for four or five years.
Instead of answering my question, Jacqueline Heard had the mayor end the press conference. They also claimed they couldn't conduct the tour of "Sherman School of Excellence" which they had announced for that day. Actually, they tried to cancel the tour for me and Substance, but since NBC got a tour, I tagged along. Part of the "School of Excelence" "Turnaround" scam is that they reduce class size by as much as 50 percent (kindergarten and primary grades at Sherman are not more than 21 that I counted).
The old Sherman had no such additional resources.
Like "Small Schools" (the last Chicago miracle funded by Gates and other corporate millions), "Turnaround" is a teacher bashing attack on public schools. Had they put the resources into the six schools they just closed before last year, instead of waiting for "Turnaround", things might have changed a little.
They are all hypocrites, but it's most fun to watch Daley ad lib under pressure. He slowly unravels, but our colleagues in the major media simply cut that stuff out and edit until he sounds rational and coherent.
I know. I know. He's just a miracle worker.
Fri Sep 5, 2008 at 11:56 AM
Thursday Morning News
The only problem I have is calling the small schools program racist. It may be a bad idea, but I honestly believe no one behind the idea wants it to fail in order to hurt the students.
The reason why this isn't being tried in wealthier suburbs is because they don't have the same challenges. Compare the drop out rates in Austin to the drop out rates at OPRF. Compare the levels of truancy at Austin and OPRF. Compare the socioeconomic statuses at Austin and OPRF. Wealthier students will outperform poorer students most of the time on those tests, graduation etc. And then when you cram all those poorer students into one majority poverty school you almost guarantee lesser outcomes. So the question is, how do you successfully educate the students in a school system segregated both by class and race? There are simply not enough higher SES students to undo that fact on the ground.
Will small schools help? I don't know, I suspect not, unfortunately. The good thing about the small school clumping (putting a few in the same building) is that the economies of scale can be used to have drama clubs, math teams, sports etc.
The reason why this isn't being tried in wealthier suburbs is because they don't have the same challenges. Compare the drop out rates in Austin to the drop out rates at OPRF. Compare the levels of truancy at Austin and OPRF. Compare the socioeconomic statuses at Austin and OPRF. Wealthier students will outperform poorer students most of the time on those tests, graduation etc. And then when you cram all those poorer students into one majority poverty school you almost guarantee lesser outcomes. So the question is, how do you successfully educate the students in a school system segregated both by class and race? There are simply not enough higher SES students to undo that fact on the ground.
Will small schools help? I don't know, I suspect not, unfortunately. The good thing about the small school clumping (putting a few in the same building) is that the economies of scale can be used to have drama clubs, math teams, sports etc.
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