Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 9:10 PMBy: Dan Bassill Where's The Action Going On At? If you could put a layer of information on the map showing income demographics, it might help people understand why some school perform better, and have fewer problems than others.

In the end, the question is, what's the point of your map? Are you trying to mobilize people to do something to help change what happens at the schools on the map?

Fri Nov 16, 2007 at 7:18 AMBy: Charlie Where's The Action Going On At? The fact that there are no points on this map south of the Eisenhower is beyond ridiculous. If there is any real action going on, I'd say that's where most of it is.

Sat Nov 17, 2007 at 9:15 AMBy: 1.04 Where's The Action Going On At? Charley


I guess the fantastic Charter Schools are a little short on
Technology .What a bone headed thing to write.

Sun Nov 18, 2007 at 10:27 AMBy: Dan Bassill Where's The Action Going On At? I encourage you to visit http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net/programlocator/default.asp and search for volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in different zip codes of the city and suburbs. The results show on a Google map similar to yours.

I'd like to encourage schools in different parts of the city, especially those in areas with few tutor/mentor programs, and plenty of poverty and poorly performing schools, to create service-learning programs in which students are collecting and mapping information about community assets, then using blogs and web sites to draw more consistent attention, and resources, to the programs in their school neighborhood, or to motivate business, churches, hospitals and/or universities to work together to create more programs in areas where there are few, or none.

This could be a leadership activity, at the same time as it is a learning activity. If it can't take place in the school, it could take place in a non school technology center, or tutor/mentor program with a technology component.

Tue Nov 20, 2007 at 3:17 PMBy: at home Where's The Action Going On At? hey, check out these two blogs about chicago homeschooling:
1) Chicago Homeschool Habitat http://chicagohomeschoolhabitat.com/ (with link to an interview of prez candidate mom about homeschooling kids on the campaign trail)
2) Relaxed Homeskool http://relaxedhomeskool.com/
--- both are run by Kim Campbell

Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 10:59 PMBy: mulie Where's The Action Going On At? Every time I see the title "Where's the Action Going On At?" I want to change it to "Where's the Action?"

Thu Nov 22, 2007 at 12:41 AMBy: Kugler Hyde Park Tech Corps - November In November the big push has been to get out the products were refurbished. Four complete computer systems were donated to families of students that came to report card pick up. Later in the month building materials and a new TV/VCR was donated to the Nu Mercy Church in Matteson, IL with the agreement that HPA Carpentry students would help with the reconstruction of the church. Our first donation of $423.95 to the One Laptop per Child Program was made before the Thanksgiving holiday. The South East Training Center Project received some much needed furniture and a new TV/YCR to complement the 150+ computers that they have take delivery of over the past year from HPTC. These do not include the numerous individual donations of computer systems and equipment to individual students and organizations, the original mission of the organization which is to help Bridge the Digital Divide. Stay tuned for the BIG DECEMBER SURPRISE!

We are your recycling center!

Hyde Park Tech Corps

Located in Hyde Park Career Academy

Thu Nov 22, 2007 at 1:50 AMBy: George N. Scmidt Where's The Action Going On At? "...I have never seen a business run like this. How do they not pay their employees? Raise? I just would like to get paid for 10 days of work..."

A good focus might be in a month at the December 19 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. CPS deflected a lot of the problems it might have faced at the November Board meeting by cleverly putting the meeting at the earlest ever (November 14) rather than holding it the week after Thanksgiving. Just about the only people who showed up were those who'd been called especially to be there: a couple of dozens soldiers and Marines (who had been false flagged, it turns out, about the contents of the proposed "Rules on Recruitment") and the usual charter school touts. Nobody else knew the meeting was happening, which is really what Michael Williams and Arne Duncan want, given how things are collapsing so fast you can't count all the messes these "data driven" business geniuses have deployed.

Mary McGuire begged CPS to fix the payroll mess -- again a CTU officer lit a vigil light and prayed for help from her Lords, since the union has surrendered all other means of standing up for the members.

And Rufus duly promised (for the eighth month in a row) that he and Arne were really concerned and saddened -- deeply saddened -- that so many teachers (and lots of other school workers) hadn't been paid what they had earned (of course, since March). But -- get this -- Rufus actually said that the glitches in payroll had been reduced from eight percent to "only" one or two percent (he drooled out the numbrs the other way, as "success" percentage: in other words, more than 92 percent of the teachers were getting paid correctly when the hugely expensive outsourced privatizated but untested "People Soft" payroll system was rushed into operation (in place of a kludge that had been working) back in March.

Back before Mayor Daley took over CPS and put in geniuses with business savvy like Arne Duncan (and his huge tribe of overpaid underlings) to "reform" education in Chicago, nothing short of 99.999 percent was acceptable, and every problem was being handled promptly or became, quickly, a huge scandal.

Now everyone's reduced to begging and imbibing the BS that flows like altar wine from the high priests of privatization and the Chicago public education miracle show. How great have Chicago's public schools become? THE GREATEST. Just ask the propaganda teams deployed everywhere to prove it.

December 19 the Chicago Board of Education meets again.

And consider this. If CPS has created this big a mess with payrolls, how big will the mess be when they have to generated more than 50,000 federal and state tax documents after January 1, 2008? And how long will that mess be on your record when Arne Duncan continues to prattle in defense of the ridiculously indefensible while the IRS is chasing you and your family around because of the mess the Daleyoids made while your union wimpered, whined, and begged on its knees?

Thu Nov 22, 2007 at 9:32 AMBy: Mike Where's The Action Going On At? George, where do you pull your stat of " nothing short of 99.999 percent was acceptable" from, besides your bloated a**?

Fri Nov 23, 2007 at 1:44 PMBy: George N. Schmidt Where's The Action Going On At? "George, where do you pull your stat of " nothing short of 99.999 percent was acceptable" from, besides your bloated a**?..."

C'mon. You've been down there so long you think farts are Chanel #5...

But out to reality. The data entry for key information at CPS during the 1980s and 1990s, as anyone who was in Payroll can tell you, was supervised (overall, by Mike Edwards) at that point by Betty Shiras (may her soul rest in peace). Betty's 12 to 15 people knew every rise and fall in the data year at CPS, and evey one worked with fierce pride to make sure those records were accurate.

Since Paul Vallas destroyed most of those effective internal systems (some during the move from Pershing Road; others afterwards and into the Duncan years, when Arne gets credit) the fascination with automation has undermined each of these systems, and now you have Kelly Temps trying to field the next round of questions from angry teachers and other workers.

It was a failed business model, one of the most disastrous examples of the stupidity of "data driven management" in history. If there were any real accountability in Chicago (instead of simply scapegoating of teachers and others actually doing the work) Runcie and Duncan would be on the unemployement lines (or working for John Rogers over at Ariel Capital Management) right now.

Instead, the disaster they began when they pretended they could outsource these key systems to high tech cronies is going to be doubled within the next six weeks. How? By the fact that their payroll screwups on January 1 become IRS screwups for more than 50,000 full and part-time people workiing for the "largest employer in the State of Illinois."

That's how big these things can get when the right doses of arrogance, ignorance, and sheer corruption (intellectually when it's not financial) meet in the person of somebody like our CEOs and their adjutants.

Fri Nov 23, 2007 at 8:26 PMBy: Kugler Where's The Action Going On At? Cindy,

Call Ms. Linda Murray AP @ Hyde Park Career Academy
phone: 773-535-0890

Sun Nov 25, 2007 at 10:04 AMBy: Hello Where's The Action Going On At? Anyone know the latest update on Brooks?

Mon Nov 26, 2007 at 9:15 PMBy: alexander Where's The Action Going On At? yes, just having some fun. i'm a former english teacher, too -- not that you'd know it from my lack of proofreading skills.

Wed Nov 28, 2007 at 5:07 AMBy: George N. Schmidt Where's The Action Going On At? Not so fast on the defamation comeback. A little Googling could have clarified that one liner, "Right Said Fred." (By the way, what are you doing up at three a.m. without being on my Buddy list?). And it's important here to do so to keep the free flow of ideas flowing...

If a charge is being investigated by competent legal authorities, any reporter can report that in a reasonable way and not be "guilty" of libel (which is a civil, not a criminal thing, by the way).

When Conrad Black was indicted, we were able to report every bit of the indictments whether or not we knew if Black were going to be found "guilty" on all counts years later. (I was the only reporter in town who had written about Black's unusual corporate stuff before his downfall, including the fact that Henry Kissinger and Margaret Thatcher were being paid big bucks for serving on the Sun-Times Board while being truant from most Board meetings. That information was in the public record -- Hollinger International's Proxy Statements -- long before everyone figured out that Black was not only a right wing ideologue but also a crook).

Not every investigative body holds a press conference to announce the investigation (like Paul Vallas did when he and Mayor Daley sued me for "copyright infringement" either years ago next month), since usually those things are done professionally (which was never a charge Vallas had to face)...

Anyway...

Libel is kind of a squishy reality, both here and when it involves public officials and public figures. Whether people like it or not, at some point in life, many (including public school principals) become "public officials" for purposes of public criticism. As a result, the standard for proving libel becomes much much higher (think Southern sheriffs back during the Civil Rights era for example).

Public figures (Britney Spears, etc.) and public officials (Arne Duncan, Richard M. Daley, and your local school principals) must prove reckless disregard for the truth, not just some lower standard, to win a libel case. It's possible (witness the recent case outside Chicago where a judge successfully sued after a columnist made a serious factual error), but only if one side has deep pockets.

But a reasonable regard for the facts ("truth" is a more abstract concept) and some reasonable attempts to get both sides (e.g., I'm still waiting for a call back from Patrick Rocks to track down who was responsible for the missed communications about the New Policy on Recruitment at the November 14 Board meeting) usually helps.

Truth is always an absolute defense to libel. When someone sues you for libel (or threatens to, to shut you up), you have the right on discovery to obtain every shred of information to prove that defense.

The blogosphere has changed a lot of this, since people in this new medium can apparently say anything they want most of the time, and if the viral networks spin it, so be it. The world's largest village gossip machine, not coming to a keyboard near you.

I'm more interested in why the Inspector General hasn't investigated all of the sub sub contracts that went into creating the People Soft and IMPACT debacles, although one crooked principal is always worth one brief three paragraph news piece (unless, like Josef Nurek, he was a world class pornographer and kept young boys as roommates while testifying on the glories of Chicago charter schools at the House Committee on Labor and Education)...

What a business!