Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
Here's the official agenda (PDF) for today's Board meeting, which will likely also include protests from the CTU about the pensions and payroll mess.
There will also be more about the on-campus recruiting, which is still unresolved from last month (and despite the hearing).
Other things to look forward to: A resolution about filling LSC vacancies at Global Visions. A new on-leave policy for replication schools. The usual amendments to charter school agreements (NKO and CICS). A fun little consulting contract with "Alson Consulting" (remember him?). New contracts with the New Teacher Project and TFA (for principal training!).
Here's a preview of one of the hot topics from the Tribune: Up to 75 city elementary schools face closure. Dwindling enrollment, not low performance and charters, may be what really does in CPS.
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Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 5:18 AM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
"...On the list are 79 schools at between 40 percent and 50 percent of their enrollment capacity. Twenty-five schools are at less than 30 percent capacity and these are at the greatest risk of closing, according to James Dispensa, director of school demographics and planning for the district..."
This story is typical Daley, typical Tribune, and typical "Renaissance 2010."
Since when is a mid-level CPS bureaucrat (two, actually, if Celeste Garrett is counted in) the source for a major story about a major policy (the closing of 79 public schools at a time when "Renaissance 2010" is raping the public schools) released in one of the ten largest circulation newspapers in the USA?
This story smells like the old New York Times Judith Miller "weapons of mass destruction" stories in 2002 and 2003. It's planted there to get some feedback.
And typical of the way the Tribune works with the Daley administration to plant editorial commentary as "news." The day an old Bridgeport kid who made good (Dispensa, at more than $100,000 per year) can run up a major story affecting (mostly) African-American elementary schools in Chicago without a green light from all the way up chain of command I'll personally praise Daley's "school reform" (once).
This story deserves to be alongside the biggest "Darts" of 2007 in Columbia Journalism Review. We'll see.
One other question. Arne Duncan's been closing schools for being "too small" since 2003 (Drake and others). At the same time, he's been opening schools that are smaller and praising an official policy of "small schools". Either CPS has a policy that schools should be "small" or not. If there is a policy of "small", then why not reduce class sizes in all these schools that are supposedly too small, establish the spare rooms for all kinds of activities the kids deserve, and promote that?
Answer: Because the real policy is to privatize the buildings and put them in the hands of outfits like AQS, CCSI, Aspira, and UNO under Renaissance 2010.
Context like this is beyond the Sam Zellbune.
But then, this context was beyond the old Tribune corporate crowd as well, so nothing's new.
What is more interesting is why a reporter puts his by-line on a story that comes straight from the corporate propaganda departments. So...
The educational "Judith Miller Spin in Reporting" award goes this year to the person who penned that "school closing" story, uncritically, that Alexander dutifully passed along here at Catalyst.blog.
The next time the editors of the Chicago Tribune and their buddies over by Eden Martin want to run an artitorial in support of Renaissance 2010, privatization, and charters, they should do so where it belongs: In the Ayn Rand section of their opinion pages, and not as "news".
This story is typical Daley, typical Tribune, and typical "Renaissance 2010."
Since when is a mid-level CPS bureaucrat (two, actually, if Celeste Garrett is counted in) the source for a major story about a major policy (the closing of 79 public schools at a time when "Renaissance 2010" is raping the public schools) released in one of the ten largest circulation newspapers in the USA?
This story smells like the old New York Times Judith Miller "weapons of mass destruction" stories in 2002 and 2003. It's planted there to get some feedback.
And typical of the way the Tribune works with the Daley administration to plant editorial commentary as "news." The day an old Bridgeport kid who made good (Dispensa, at more than $100,000 per year) can run up a major story affecting (mostly) African-American elementary schools in Chicago without a green light from all the way up chain of command I'll personally praise Daley's "school reform" (once).
This story deserves to be alongside the biggest "Darts" of 2007 in Columbia Journalism Review. We'll see.
One other question. Arne Duncan's been closing schools for being "too small" since 2003 (Drake and others). At the same time, he's been opening schools that are smaller and praising an official policy of "small schools". Either CPS has a policy that schools should be "small" or not. If there is a policy of "small", then why not reduce class sizes in all these schools that are supposedly too small, establish the spare rooms for all kinds of activities the kids deserve, and promote that?
Answer: Because the real policy is to privatize the buildings and put them in the hands of outfits like AQS, CCSI, Aspira, and UNO under Renaissance 2010.
Context like this is beyond the Sam Zellbune.
But then, this context was beyond the old Tribune corporate crowd as well, so nothing's new.
What is more interesting is why a reporter puts his by-line on a story that comes straight from the corporate propaganda departments. So...
The educational "Judith Miller Spin in Reporting" award goes this year to the person who penned that "school closing" story, uncritically, that Alexander dutifully passed along here at Catalyst.blog.
The next time the editors of the Chicago Tribune and their buddies over by Eden Martin want to run an artitorial in support of Renaissance 2010, privatization, and charters, they should do so where it belongs: In the Ayn Rand section of their opinion pages, and not as "news".
Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 8:02 AM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
in my experience dispensa is a pretty reliable guy.
however, the sun-times bit on running the story, too, which makes it seem all the more coordinated.
i don't even know if there's any mention of the report and recs in the board agenda, which means that someone had to tell the reporters that this was something to look at.
however, the sun-times bit on running the story, too, which makes it seem all the more coordinated.
i don't even know if there's any mention of the report and recs in the board agenda, which means that someone had to tell the reporters that this was something to look at.
Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 8:53 AM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
The article mentions some sort of map highlighting the location of the schools slated for closure. Where's the map?
Closing schools on the south and west side would be devastating, especially since Daley, et.al. have sent many of the city's housing residents to these parts of town. I am inclined to believe this is just part and parcel of Renaissance 2010.
Closing schools on the south and west side would be devastating, especially since Daley, et.al. have sent many of the city's housing residents to these parts of town. I am inclined to believe this is just part and parcel of Renaissance 2010.
Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 9:03 AM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
It's also kind of funny that they say busing is not an option because parents have told the Board that they don't want it. I remember about 5 years ago CPS stated that they were going to eventually phase out busing because it was costing too much money. I remember all of this because at the time they were saying that new students entering the classical/magnet programs, etc, were not going to have the option of busing, and that they intended to phase out busing within 5 years. I remember this well because it was going to affect my daughter. At one point, they stopped the buses from stopping at the house, then you had to walk to the corner to catch the bus, and then it became a matter of walking to the neighborhood school to catch the bus (our neighborhood school was about 6 blocks away). Because of this, I opted for private busing, however, I remember at the time it was said that all of this was being done because busing was being phased out.
CPS gives me a headache. I can't keep up with all of their doubletalk and lies.
CPS gives me a headache. I can't keep up with all of their doubletalk and lies.
Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 12:02 PM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
George is right on the $$$ for once. So much for small schools if you happen to live on the wrong side of the tracks.
Ironically, there's currently an "article" in Catalyst titled "Ren 10 Still Missing the Mark" that talks about CPS's 13 target communities that have yet to be blessed with a new Ren 10 school. All 13 of those communities are on the South and West sides. CPS has this all mapped out and is actively offering incentives for charters and contract schools to open in those neighborhoods "lacking good educational options". Can't wait to superimpose the two maps. Anybody want a building?
Ironically, there's currently an "article" in Catalyst titled "Ren 10 Still Missing the Mark" that talks about CPS's 13 target communities that have yet to be blessed with a new Ren 10 school. All 13 of those communities are on the South and West sides. CPS has this all mapped out and is actively offering incentives for charters and contract schools to open in those neighborhoods "lacking good educational options". Can't wait to superimpose the two maps. Anybody want a building?
Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 1:02 PM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
Stand UP!
I think both you and George are correct. I live in the Roseland area, and I know things are already in motion out that way what with the "consolidation" of Hughes and, I believe, Davis. And I also believe that CICS is trying to get hold of another building in our area (have forgotten where) I, too , can't wait to see these maps. Interesting. Very interesting.
I think both you and George are correct. I live in the Roseland area, and I know things are already in motion out that way what with the "consolidation" of Hughes and, I believe, Davis. And I also believe that CICS is trying to get hold of another building in our area (have forgotten where) I, too , can't wait to see these maps. Interesting. Very interesting.
Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 1:19 PM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
i'm still working on the maps, but in the meantime here's the presser sent to me by CPS, which has a little more detail but not much.
note that the demographics and school closings criteria are both presented here, by new accountability czar ginger reynolds (formerly of ISBE):
Chicago Public Schools officials on Wednesday informed the Chicago Board of Education that the district is looking for solutions for more than 140 elementary schools that are experiencing low enrollment.
Officials also said that various actions were being considered to help students at about 20 other schools for academic reasons. District officials said they were still reviewing all of the information and would be making recommendations to the board at the January meeting.
“We want to come up with solutions that are first and foremost in the best interests of our children, that will minimize the movement of students while also offering them the best possible education options,’’ said CPS Chief Executive Officer Arne Duncan. “We also want what is best for the community and the district. In reviewing all of this information, we will look for the highest use of our buildings and best use of the taxpayer’s money.”
James Dispensa, director of CPS school demographics and planning, told board members that geographical shifts in population throughout the city over the last several years have created both pockets of overcrowding and pockets of underutilization in schools. At the same time, the overall enrollment for the district, and for districts across the country, has dramatically dropped over the last decade because of fewer overall births in the United States.
Most of the underutilized schools in Chicago fall into strips that lie on the South and West sides of the city, as well as along the lakefront. According to the latest review of elementary schools, there are 25 schools where less than 30 percent of the building is being used, 43 schools where less than 40 percent of the space is being used, and 79 schools where less than 50 percent of the structure is being used, for a total of 147 underutilized schools.
Among solutions officials will consider are closing low-enrollment schools, consolidating them with other schools, relocating entire school populations to another site, or phasing out schools.
Ginger Reynolds, officer of CPS Research, Evaluation, and Accountability, also outlined new criteria for turning around schools next year, as officials work to raise the bar on academic standards and improve student performance.
“Every time we’ve set higher expectations for our students, our students have risen to the challenge,’’ Duncan said. “Many more of our students are meeting state standards than they were just a few years ago, and our district is making progress at a much faster pace than the rest of the state. While we are very proud of these accomplishments, we know there is still a lot of work we all have to do.’’
Reynolds told board members that actions would be considered to help elementary schools if all of the following criteria are met:
· 40 percent or fewer students met or exceeded composite standards on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test in 2007.
· 35 percent or fewer students met or exceeded ISAT composite standards on average from 2005 through 2007.
· 35 percent or fewer students met or exceeded ISAT standards on average from 2005 to 2007 in reading, math and science.
· Fewer than 50 percent of students made expected year-to-year increases from 2006 to 2007 in reading and math.
Reynolds said actions would be considered for high schools if all of the following criteria are met:
· Fewer than 15 percent of students met or exceeded Prairie State Achievement Exam composite standards in 2007.
· More than 10 percent of students dropped out of school in 2006-2007.
· On average, students missed more than 35 days of school.
· Fewer than 50 percent of students made expected year-to-year gains in 2006 on the ACT Educational Planning and Assessment System series.
“We are asking more of our students, but we also are asking more of our teachers, principals and administrators,’’ Duncan said. “We still have to meet national standards that require that more of our students be in the exceeding state standards category. We still have an achievement gap with the rest of the state that we need to close. And we still want to prepare more of our students for post-secondary education.’’
CPS Chief Education Officer Barbara Eason-Watkins agreed.
“Many of our schools are making progress, and many students are experiencing success, but students in schools that aren’t making progress deserve the same kind of success,’’ she said. “We can’t get to our goal of reaching every child in every school by accepting the status quo.”
Next month, school officials will be presenting information to the board on specific schools and specific recommendations for addressing low-enrollment and low-performance issues.
note that the demographics and school closings criteria are both presented here, by new accountability czar ginger reynolds (formerly of ISBE):
Chicago Public Schools officials on Wednesday informed the Chicago Board of Education that the district is looking for solutions for more than 140 elementary schools that are experiencing low enrollment.
Officials also said that various actions were being considered to help students at about 20 other schools for academic reasons. District officials said they were still reviewing all of the information and would be making recommendations to the board at the January meeting.
“We want to come up with solutions that are first and foremost in the best interests of our children, that will minimize the movement of students while also offering them the best possible education options,’’ said CPS Chief Executive Officer Arne Duncan. “We also want what is best for the community and the district. In reviewing all of this information, we will look for the highest use of our buildings and best use of the taxpayer’s money.”
James Dispensa, director of CPS school demographics and planning, told board members that geographical shifts in population throughout the city over the last several years have created both pockets of overcrowding and pockets of underutilization in schools. At the same time, the overall enrollment for the district, and for districts across the country, has dramatically dropped over the last decade because of fewer overall births in the United States.
Most of the underutilized schools in Chicago fall into strips that lie on the South and West sides of the city, as well as along the lakefront. According to the latest review of elementary schools, there are 25 schools where less than 30 percent of the building is being used, 43 schools where less than 40 percent of the space is being used, and 79 schools where less than 50 percent of the structure is being used, for a total of 147 underutilized schools.
Among solutions officials will consider are closing low-enrollment schools, consolidating them with other schools, relocating entire school populations to another site, or phasing out schools.
Ginger Reynolds, officer of CPS Research, Evaluation, and Accountability, also outlined new criteria for turning around schools next year, as officials work to raise the bar on academic standards and improve student performance.
“Every time we’ve set higher expectations for our students, our students have risen to the challenge,’’ Duncan said. “Many more of our students are meeting state standards than they were just a few years ago, and our district is making progress at a much faster pace than the rest of the state. While we are very proud of these accomplishments, we know there is still a lot of work we all have to do.’’
Reynolds told board members that actions would be considered to help elementary schools if all of the following criteria are met:
· 40 percent or fewer students met or exceeded composite standards on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test in 2007.
· 35 percent or fewer students met or exceeded ISAT composite standards on average from 2005 through 2007.
· 35 percent or fewer students met or exceeded ISAT standards on average from 2005 to 2007 in reading, math and science.
· Fewer than 50 percent of students made expected year-to-year increases from 2006 to 2007 in reading and math.
Reynolds said actions would be considered for high schools if all of the following criteria are met:
· Fewer than 15 percent of students met or exceeded Prairie State Achievement Exam composite standards in 2007.
· More than 10 percent of students dropped out of school in 2006-2007.
· On average, students missed more than 35 days of school.
· Fewer than 50 percent of students made expected year-to-year gains in 2006 on the ACT Educational Planning and Assessment System series.
“We are asking more of our students, but we also are asking more of our teachers, principals and administrators,’’ Duncan said. “We still have to meet national standards that require that more of our students be in the exceeding state standards category. We still have an achievement gap with the rest of the state that we need to close. And we still want to prepare more of our students for post-secondary education.’’
CPS Chief Education Officer Barbara Eason-Watkins agreed.
“Many of our schools are making progress, and many students are experiencing success, but students in schools that aren’t making progress deserve the same kind of success,’’ she said. “We can’t get to our goal of reaching every child in every school by accepting the status quo.”
Next month, school officials will be presenting information to the board on specific schools and specific recommendations for addressing low-enrollment and low-performance issues.
Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 1:57 PM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
Demographically though, there has been a significant decline in enrollment across the board. I believe I've seen a stat that says a decline in 40000 students. If that's so, then it makes sense to close schools, why keep as many open as you had when you had 40000 more students? It also makes sense to close them where the decline has been most severe. The CHA transformation project has resulted in a lot of families leaving Chicago for the suburbs so I can imagine there would be declines in areas where closed or "transformed" CHA complexes are.
Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 5:57 PM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
When are all the idiots at City Hall and CPS going to get pressure on getting to the bottom of the illegal conversions which is causing the schools to overcrowd?
Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 5:58 PM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
This demographic work should have been completed as part of a long-range planning process prior to the start of Ren 2010. When CPS closed schools in communities with declining student enrollments, new Ren 2010 schools clearly should not have been added to the communities.
I can hardly wait to see the list and hear the spin as they now close schools that are not "under-performing," but have had their student membership syphoned off by Ren 2010.
I can hardly wait to see the list and hear the spin as they now close schools that are not "under-performing," but have had their student membership syphoned off by Ren 2010.
Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 1:47 AM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
Jim Dispensa made his presentation after public participation at yesterday's Board meeting, and he used Power Point. So the information, including his Power Point, should now be on the public record and available without fuss under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
To argue over whether Jim Dispensa is accurate or manipulating data is to miss the whole point. He's presenting data on behalf of his bosses. If they want it accurate, and in context, he can get those data. If they want to spin it, as they have often in the past, he'll serve up the numbers that way. It's nothing personal. It's the way CPS works, whether the person doing the job is personable or nasty. Cogs in a gear wheel. Including Arne.
Last year, the Jim Dispensa fan club showed up, in the person of two principals, to praise the work of "Demographics." I hadn't seen anything like it at a Board meeting since a bunch of people did the same things for James Deanes back when Vallas was CEO.
So what?
The record is very clear, for anybody who's been paying attention over time.
The manipulation of Board policies and procedures has been evident throughout this whole process of school closings, privatizations, servicing real estate developers, and the like. It has been for years.
To this date, none of these discussions seems to include the Mulligan and Near North buildings (one an elementary; the other a high school) that have been vacant in the Gold Coast/Lincoln Park areas for more than five years. That's right, five years. If Arne Duncan is so concerned about rectifying the way the Board does things, those two buildings should be dusted off and reopened to the publics. Instead, they are slowly being eliminated, even from the maps.
That's how the real demographics in CPS are done. Political manipulation. Then the Sun-Times and Tribune dutifully take dictation from CPS and recycle the official truth as "news."
There are plenty of examples of how Operations and Demographics have teamed up the past several years to produce whatever results the Daley administration and its donors and allies demanded. In addition to wiping Near North and Muligan off the official maps (as a prelude to giving them away to developers?), here are just a few examples from different parts of town: Donoghue; Senn; and Austin. (I could easily throw in a dozen others, from Riis to Calumet, but won't this morning).
Basically, when they were asked, Jim Dispensa and his predecessor (Giacomo Mancuso) manipulated data to show whatever "demographics" the Daley administration wanted. In an era of democracy and true transparency, this would be called cooking the demographic books. Since we're in an era of one-man rule and "data driven" miracles, let's just say they're more theological than factual when looked at closely, in comparison with the city as a whole, and in context.
When they wanted to close Donoghue and turn the building over to University of Chicago charters four years ago, they left out much of the Donoghue population (the Child Parent Center) to prove it was "underutilized" (one of those squishy terms they love). Other school buildings in the "Mid-South" (the original epicenter of "Renaissance 2010") were similarly massaged, data driven wise...).
The same tricks were used to "prove" that Senn High School had enough space to be partly taken over by the Rickover Naval Academy when the question was being debated in 2004. David Pickens went around Senn saying the data demanded it, while of course ignoring the existence of an empty high school building still owned by CPS four miles away. Dispensa just provided the numbers by playing games with capacity and space data.
Austin High School has also been a victim. Austin was once one of the four largest capacity high school buildings in the CPS inventory. Suddenly, for the sake of smalling it, the "capacity" shrunk. And the figures that Dispensa has been handing out about the "capacity" of the Austin High School building are a joke. They seem to leave out one whole floor.
While Arne Duncan's people target the schools in certain community for closing because of "underutilization" (again, whatever that means), they then allow (most of, not all of) the charter schools to have very very very few kids.
Probably the most important thing about this flap and its manipulation, from the point of view of the Bush-Daley assault on democracy, is that none of these things were discussed at public meetings. The last time CPS compiled a hit list like this (back in 2003 at the dawn of "Renaissance 2010") the list proved to be terribly accurate. The schools on it have mostly been destroyed by Duncan.
Therefore, there should have been major public hearings, under the Open Meetings Act, on this thing. Instead, it was leaked to the Sun-Times and Tribune (but not to the rest of us in the media -- and that's a big "us") by Duncan, but attributed to Dispensa. Then it was presented by Dispensa to yesterday's Board of Education meeting, without discussion or debate in the public.
While this kind of thing is typical of the way business has been conducted since the Daley dictatorship began, it would be interesting to see what would happen if other people demanded that all of these major policies be subjected to public meetings and public discussion, and not just launched by some mid-level bureaucrat a week before Christmas.
To argue over whether Jim Dispensa is accurate or manipulating data is to miss the whole point. He's presenting data on behalf of his bosses. If they want it accurate, and in context, he can get those data. If they want to spin it, as they have often in the past, he'll serve up the numbers that way. It's nothing personal. It's the way CPS works, whether the person doing the job is personable or nasty. Cogs in a gear wheel. Including Arne.
Last year, the Jim Dispensa fan club showed up, in the person of two principals, to praise the work of "Demographics." I hadn't seen anything like it at a Board meeting since a bunch of people did the same things for James Deanes back when Vallas was CEO.
So what?
The record is very clear, for anybody who's been paying attention over time.
The manipulation of Board policies and procedures has been evident throughout this whole process of school closings, privatizations, servicing real estate developers, and the like. It has been for years.
To this date, none of these discussions seems to include the Mulligan and Near North buildings (one an elementary; the other a high school) that have been vacant in the Gold Coast/Lincoln Park areas for more than five years. That's right, five years. If Arne Duncan is so concerned about rectifying the way the Board does things, those two buildings should be dusted off and reopened to the publics. Instead, they are slowly being eliminated, even from the maps.
That's how the real demographics in CPS are done. Political manipulation. Then the Sun-Times and Tribune dutifully take dictation from CPS and recycle the official truth as "news."
There are plenty of examples of how Operations and Demographics have teamed up the past several years to produce whatever results the Daley administration and its donors and allies demanded. In addition to wiping Near North and Muligan off the official maps (as a prelude to giving them away to developers?), here are just a few examples from different parts of town: Donoghue; Senn; and Austin. (I could easily throw in a dozen others, from Riis to Calumet, but won't this morning).
Basically, when they were asked, Jim Dispensa and his predecessor (Giacomo Mancuso) manipulated data to show whatever "demographics" the Daley administration wanted. In an era of democracy and true transparency, this would be called cooking the demographic books. Since we're in an era of one-man rule and "data driven" miracles, let's just say they're more theological than factual when looked at closely, in comparison with the city as a whole, and in context.
When they wanted to close Donoghue and turn the building over to University of Chicago charters four years ago, they left out much of the Donoghue population (the Child Parent Center) to prove it was "underutilized" (one of those squishy terms they love). Other school buildings in the "Mid-South" (the original epicenter of "Renaissance 2010") were similarly massaged, data driven wise...).
The same tricks were used to "prove" that Senn High School had enough space to be partly taken over by the Rickover Naval Academy when the question was being debated in 2004. David Pickens went around Senn saying the data demanded it, while of course ignoring the existence of an empty high school building still owned by CPS four miles away. Dispensa just provided the numbers by playing games with capacity and space data.
Austin High School has also been a victim. Austin was once one of the four largest capacity high school buildings in the CPS inventory. Suddenly, for the sake of smalling it, the "capacity" shrunk. And the figures that Dispensa has been handing out about the "capacity" of the Austin High School building are a joke. They seem to leave out one whole floor.
While Arne Duncan's people target the schools in certain community for closing because of "underutilization" (again, whatever that means), they then allow (most of, not all of) the charter schools to have very very very few kids.
Probably the most important thing about this flap and its manipulation, from the point of view of the Bush-Daley assault on democracy, is that none of these things were discussed at public meetings. The last time CPS compiled a hit list like this (back in 2003 at the dawn of "Renaissance 2010") the list proved to be terribly accurate. The schools on it have mostly been destroyed by Duncan.
Therefore, there should have been major public hearings, under the Open Meetings Act, on this thing. Instead, it was leaked to the Sun-Times and Tribune (but not to the rest of us in the media -- and that's a big "us") by Duncan, but attributed to Dispensa. Then it was presented by Dispensa to yesterday's Board of Education meeting, without discussion or debate in the public.
While this kind of thing is typical of the way business has been conducted since the Daley dictatorship began, it would be interesting to see what would happen if other people demanded that all of these major policies be subjected to public meetings and public discussion, and not just launched by some mid-level bureaucrat a week before Christmas.
Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 1:10 PM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
I don't believe UNO is interested in getting CPS buildings. They are building their own new schools in Hispanic neighborhoods.
Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 2:27 PM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
And Daley will give Juan Rangel a city vacant lot to build a school for $ 1.00 dollar. That's how it works
Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 2:03 AM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
I wonder when this will happen here in Chicago.
They can only push so much until people have no other choice to take their rights as humans back.
Video From
Mike Klonsky's Small Talk
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They can only push so much until people have no other choice to take their rights as humans back.
Video From
Mike Klonsky's Small Talk
<object width="425" height="373"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0CYYPV8Nlek&rel=1&border=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0CYYPV8Nlek&rel=1&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="373"></embed></object>
Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 2:06 AM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
Democracy in post-Katrina New Orleans
Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 2:08 AM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
This should be it.
Democracy in post-Katrina New Orleans
Democracy in post-Katrina New Orleans
Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 5:40 AM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
"...I wonder when this will happen here in Chicago..." (Kugler, speaking about New Orleans).
Depends on what the "it" is in that sentence.
Chicago has already demolished more units of public housing than there was in all of New Orleans. The men who ran CHA during those years were well rewarded for what they did. One (Black Star's Phillip Jackson) now run for political office confident they will get the votes of their "community").
Chicago has already closed as many all-black public schools as have been closed in New Orleans and privatized most of them to charter schools and the other educational equivalent of "Collateralized Debt Obligations" (CDOs) and other Power Point fantasies. The Daley people make sure they keep enough African American "educational entrepreneurs" on the payroll to fill the TV screens when it comes time to sing the praises of charter schools, even those melting down as we speak this week because of poor security and inexperienced teachers (mostly very young and almost painfully white).
Chicago has already eliminated more union school jobs (remember: privatization began against the custodians and engineers long before it came for the members of CTU) than New Orleans did when it charterized its public schools. The first acts of Daley and Vallas were to privatize custodial work, making rich a handful of cronies who got the custodial contracts and driving down most custodians' wages to below poverty levels between 1995 and 1998.
The dramatic decrease in members of the Chicago Teachers Union the past three years is just the latest in a long line of attacks that haven't been answered. And when Marilyn Stewart -- through the Chicago Teachers Union -- rushed through the vote on the current contract and then made sure the ballot boxes had enough "yes" votes in them, that job was done as far as Daley was concerned.
All of that's already been reported in one publication in Chicago -- and nowhere else.
So in terms of numbers, the "it" that's being done to the poor and working class people of New Orleans has already happened in Chicago since the Daley dictatorship took over 12 years ago.
"It's" gathered speed under Arne Duncan, with school closings that did not generate massive protests (in most cases) and which the leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union, since Stewart took over, has ignored.
So on Wednesday and Thursday before Christmas 2007, Arne Duncan and the Board announced their latest attack on the poor and working class people who go to Chicago's public schools -- the new "school closing" matrices (which basically mean they can do whatever they can get away with to continue privatizing to the maximum).
When the hit list of schools to close is finally released (remember: they didn't release any list, just "policy" and a map), "it" will happen again.
That's why CPS makes sure, every month, that the Board of Education meeting has as many buereaucrats and Board security people as actual citizens on the fifth floor where the Board sits and rubber stamps everything Daley tells them to do. The Board chambers are always packed with people paid for by and loyal to the Board.
Presently, have more than 50 "Reserved" seats in the Board chambers. They stretch for row after row in the center section, the space that's mostly within camera range (because it's behind where people stand at microphones during public participation).
The latest they added to the "Reserved" sections were the high school AIOs. On Wednesday, December 19, 2007, all of the high school and more exotic AIOs (the "military area" AIO -- Rick Mills -- and the miscellaneous area AIO -- Cynthia Barron -- for example) were all arrayed primly in the back row of the first section in camera range. After the Board met, they went down and dined together while still on call for their next role as extras in the monthly Board meeting TV show. At one point there were $1 million (annualized, with benefits) worth of public servants dining in one small booth at the restaurant downstairs from the Board.
Like the rest of the people they put in camera range, the AIOs have to smile prettily, dress very nattily, and fill the seats the "public" should be sitting in.
Meanwhile, the "public" is stuffed into folding chairs on the 19th floor (the "overflow" rooms) so that Arne and Rufus don't have to even see the "public" let alone listen to it. And the Board controls the elevators, so that in a pinch, security can simply shut the elevators down so none of the "public" can get from the 19th floor to the fifth floor.
That's how it's done in Chicago. So "it" has already been done here. New Orleans, remember, is now following the Chicago model for corporate school reform: massive charterization, union busting, and screw the "leftover" families and their children. Oh, and just a little further footnote to the "it."
We hear that the "Vallas Team" currently running the remnant schools in New Orleans just added two now retired AIOs to its Chicago Boys and Girls in New Orleans.
Depends on what the "it" is in that sentence.
Chicago has already demolished more units of public housing than there was in all of New Orleans. The men who ran CHA during those years were well rewarded for what they did. One (Black Star's Phillip Jackson) now run for political office confident they will get the votes of their "community").
Chicago has already closed as many all-black public schools as have been closed in New Orleans and privatized most of them to charter schools and the other educational equivalent of "Collateralized Debt Obligations" (CDOs) and other Power Point fantasies. The Daley people make sure they keep enough African American "educational entrepreneurs" on the payroll to fill the TV screens when it comes time to sing the praises of charter schools, even those melting down as we speak this week because of poor security and inexperienced teachers (mostly very young and almost painfully white).
Chicago has already eliminated more union school jobs (remember: privatization began against the custodians and engineers long before it came for the members of CTU) than New Orleans did when it charterized its public schools. The first acts of Daley and Vallas were to privatize custodial work, making rich a handful of cronies who got the custodial contracts and driving down most custodians' wages to below poverty levels between 1995 and 1998.
The dramatic decrease in members of the Chicago Teachers Union the past three years is just the latest in a long line of attacks that haven't been answered. And when Marilyn Stewart -- through the Chicago Teachers Union -- rushed through the vote on the current contract and then made sure the ballot boxes had enough "yes" votes in them, that job was done as far as Daley was concerned.
All of that's already been reported in one publication in Chicago -- and nowhere else.
So in terms of numbers, the "it" that's being done to the poor and working class people of New Orleans has already happened in Chicago since the Daley dictatorship took over 12 years ago.
"It's" gathered speed under Arne Duncan, with school closings that did not generate massive protests (in most cases) and which the leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union, since Stewart took over, has ignored.
So on Wednesday and Thursday before Christmas 2007, Arne Duncan and the Board announced their latest attack on the poor and working class people who go to Chicago's public schools -- the new "school closing" matrices (which basically mean they can do whatever they can get away with to continue privatizing to the maximum).
When the hit list of schools to close is finally released (remember: they didn't release any list, just "policy" and a map), "it" will happen again.
That's why CPS makes sure, every month, that the Board of Education meeting has as many buereaucrats and Board security people as actual citizens on the fifth floor where the Board sits and rubber stamps everything Daley tells them to do. The Board chambers are always packed with people paid for by and loyal to the Board.
Presently, have more than 50 "Reserved" seats in the Board chambers. They stretch for row after row in the center section, the space that's mostly within camera range (because it's behind where people stand at microphones during public participation).
The latest they added to the "Reserved" sections were the high school AIOs. On Wednesday, December 19, 2007, all of the high school and more exotic AIOs (the "military area" AIO -- Rick Mills -- and the miscellaneous area AIO -- Cynthia Barron -- for example) were all arrayed primly in the back row of the first section in camera range. After the Board met, they went down and dined together while still on call for their next role as extras in the monthly Board meeting TV show. At one point there were $1 million (annualized, with benefits) worth of public servants dining in one small booth at the restaurant downstairs from the Board.
Like the rest of the people they put in camera range, the AIOs have to smile prettily, dress very nattily, and fill the seats the "public" should be sitting in.
Meanwhile, the "public" is stuffed into folding chairs on the 19th floor (the "overflow" rooms) so that Arne and Rufus don't have to even see the "public" let alone listen to it. And the Board controls the elevators, so that in a pinch, security can simply shut the elevators down so none of the "public" can get from the 19th floor to the fifth floor.
That's how it's done in Chicago. So "it" has already been done here. New Orleans, remember, is now following the Chicago model for corporate school reform: massive charterization, union busting, and screw the "leftover" families and their children. Oh, and just a little further footnote to the "it."
We hear that the "Vallas Team" currently running the remnant schools in New Orleans just added two now retired AIOs to its Chicago Boys and Girls in New Orleans.
Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 8:27 AM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
I was tempted to post this article as "HowTribLiesAgain" but decided to remain in my own time and on my own dime. Here is an update, however, now that I've had the time to do a first run on the "overcrowding/underutilization" story.
Let's start with a quote from the Tribune's propaganda piece touting Duncan’s soon-to-be-announced hit list.
"Chicago could close 10 to 15 public elementary schools in each of the next five years, officials are expected to announce Wednesday, as enrollment plummets on the city's Near West and South Sides.
"Even as overcrowding reaches critical levels in some neighborhoods, the district says 147 of its 417 neighborhood elementary schools are well below capacity, due mostly to families moving out of the neighborhoods and a decline in the number of children per family.
"On the list are 79 schools at between 40 percent and 50 percent of their enrollment capacity..." Carlos Sadovi, Chicago Tribune, December 19, 2007. That's the lede of the article that gave the foreplay for the Dispensa massaging of the "overcrowding" data at Wednesday's Board meeting.
Yesterday, the Board's official spokesman (in this case, Malon Edwards) told me that there was "no list." Absolutely. No list of the "underutilized" schools that might be closed because blah blah blah over the next five years (at the rate of ten to fifteen per year). So, the question arises, why was the story fed to the Tribune by a mid-level bureaucrat who grew up in Bridgeport near the Daley family just in time to ruin the Christmas for thousands of families. (Imagine reading that your school would probably be closed just when you had the space to really do things).
Was Jim Dispensa authorized to make that massive leak (without a list, mind you) to two of the twenty largest circulation newspapers in the USA? Or did he just wake up one morning, dream of the old days around 35th and Halsted, and get the Tribune (and Sun-Times, with less detail) to float a story, quoting him exclusively (while Arne sits in the corner blushing like a nun in a whorehouse).
There is no list.
There have been no public hearings on any of this stuff. How are "school capacities" established? On what basis are these "demographic" data projections created? And, while we're at it, which decides that CPS "saves" $100 million if Arne continues his attack on the public schools and closes another 75 schools (remember: Since Arne became CEO he's closed more than 40, flipping most of them to charters).
So Mr. Closing sits to the side and lets Mr. Demographics do that spinning, for at least the few days before Christmas.
Now let's look closely at one small demographic area of Chicago.
In the Sun-Times Jefferson Park-Portage Park Times this week, we learn (again, from Malon Edwards at CPS) that CPS will build a new school across from the police station at Grand and Central, just west of Prosser Vocational High School. According to the story (which has not run in the downtown papers, even thought the Sun-Times owns Pioneer Press and could have done a pickup), "A new elementary school is on the drawing board that is intended to alleviate overcrowding in some of the Belmont Cragin neighborhood..." (Jeff Park Times, Dec. 20, 2007, "Plan to relieve overcrowding" Page Three).
According to the story, the school will have a capacity for 900 students and will cost about $38 million.
Now, as everyone who has studied the maps knows, overcrowding is most severe on the Northwest Side (Belmont-Cragin north through Portage Park and Jefferson Park and over to Albany Park, if you're into the neighborhood designators; other ways to identify the problem is by alderman --Reboyras, Allen, Levar, Laurino -- or parish for all I care).
Overcrowding on the Northwest Side is first (as far north as Sauganash) -- followed by the Southwest Side (which has gotten all the attention so far because it has a more active political lobby).
There are more elementary schools on the Northwest Side with more than 1,000 children (in a school system that says by policy no elementary school should be more than 500 -- "small schools" and all that claptrap) than there are on the "Southwest Side."
And Arne Duncan says there are many schools that should be shut down in the middle of town (and on the traditional South Side) because, according to Jim Dispensa's data, they are "underutilized" (forget "small schools" when Arne's flipping CPS real estate; policy becomes whatever the flippers and charterizers dictate).
Well, here's a modest proposal.
There is one huge public school building on the Northwest Side that is not overcrowded.
In fact, it's "underutilized" by any definition -- although I guarantee it will never appear in one of the Board's hit lists.
That school is les than two miles northwest of the Grand/Central corner and is surrounded on all side by overcrowded elementary schools, but, this year, that school has (as usual) about 500 students.
How can a 500-student public school sit in the middle of the most overcrowded section of Chicago, the week Chicago announces it has "75" (or is it "147") underutilized public schools?
Clout, of course,
The underutilized Northwest side public school is the "Chicago Academy" at 3400 N. Austin. The old Wright College building.
That building was given to Martin Koldyke and the millionaires club that currently runs AUSL (remember them) out of the place, to train "turnaround specialists" that it dispatches back into the ghetto after training them in the safety of the Northwest side.
No mention will be made of the fact that CPS could put the Chicago Academy into any of a dozen shuttered schools down in the ghetto, since those 500 students and their teachers and fungible. In fact, the Chicago Academy should be in one of those buildings already closed down along State St. between IIT and Beasley, but of course it won't be. Nor with the Chicago Academy be relocated to the West Side in any of a number of buildings available there.
Chicago Academy does its "turnaround" training in one of the safest communities in Chicago, while hogging a public building that could be relieving overcrowding at a half dozen Northwest Side elementary schools (or even adjacent high schools).
Instead, we get propaganda and talking points from Chicago's corporate media, including the usual hyperventilating on Chicago Tonight and Chicago Week in review, courtesy of the "public" wing of corporate propaganda media.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all.
Let's start with a quote from the Tribune's propaganda piece touting Duncan’s soon-to-be-announced hit list.
"Chicago could close 10 to 15 public elementary schools in each of the next five years, officials are expected to announce Wednesday, as enrollment plummets on the city's Near West and South Sides.
"Even as overcrowding reaches critical levels in some neighborhoods, the district says 147 of its 417 neighborhood elementary schools are well below capacity, due mostly to families moving out of the neighborhoods and a decline in the number of children per family.
"On the list are 79 schools at between 40 percent and 50 percent of their enrollment capacity..." Carlos Sadovi, Chicago Tribune, December 19, 2007. That's the lede of the article that gave the foreplay for the Dispensa massaging of the "overcrowding" data at Wednesday's Board meeting.
Yesterday, the Board's official spokesman (in this case, Malon Edwards) told me that there was "no list." Absolutely. No list of the "underutilized" schools that might be closed because blah blah blah over the next five years (at the rate of ten to fifteen per year). So, the question arises, why was the story fed to the Tribune by a mid-level bureaucrat who grew up in Bridgeport near the Daley family just in time to ruin the Christmas for thousands of families. (Imagine reading that your school would probably be closed just when you had the space to really do things).
Was Jim Dispensa authorized to make that massive leak (without a list, mind you) to two of the twenty largest circulation newspapers in the USA? Or did he just wake up one morning, dream of the old days around 35th and Halsted, and get the Tribune (and Sun-Times, with less detail) to float a story, quoting him exclusively (while Arne sits in the corner blushing like a nun in a whorehouse).
There is no list.
There have been no public hearings on any of this stuff. How are "school capacities" established? On what basis are these "demographic" data projections created? And, while we're at it, which decides that CPS "saves" $100 million if Arne continues his attack on the public schools and closes another 75 schools (remember: Since Arne became CEO he's closed more than 40, flipping most of them to charters).
So Mr. Closing sits to the side and lets Mr. Demographics do that spinning, for at least the few days before Christmas.
Now let's look closely at one small demographic area of Chicago.
In the Sun-Times Jefferson Park-Portage Park Times this week, we learn (again, from Malon Edwards at CPS) that CPS will build a new school across from the police station at Grand and Central, just west of Prosser Vocational High School. According to the story (which has not run in the downtown papers, even thought the Sun-Times owns Pioneer Press and could have done a pickup), "A new elementary school is on the drawing board that is intended to alleviate overcrowding in some of the Belmont Cragin neighborhood..." (Jeff Park Times, Dec. 20, 2007, "Plan to relieve overcrowding" Page Three).
According to the story, the school will have a capacity for 900 students and will cost about $38 million.
Now, as everyone who has studied the maps knows, overcrowding is most severe on the Northwest Side (Belmont-Cragin north through Portage Park and Jefferson Park and over to Albany Park, if you're into the neighborhood designators; other ways to identify the problem is by alderman --Reboyras, Allen, Levar, Laurino -- or parish for all I care).
Overcrowding on the Northwest Side is first (as far north as Sauganash) -- followed by the Southwest Side (which has gotten all the attention so far because it has a more active political lobby).
There are more elementary schools on the Northwest Side with more than 1,000 children (in a school system that says by policy no elementary school should be more than 500 -- "small schools" and all that claptrap) than there are on the "Southwest Side."
And Arne Duncan says there are many schools that should be shut down in the middle of town (and on the traditional South Side) because, according to Jim Dispensa's data, they are "underutilized" (forget "small schools" when Arne's flipping CPS real estate; policy becomes whatever the flippers and charterizers dictate).
Well, here's a modest proposal.
There is one huge public school building on the Northwest Side that is not overcrowded.
In fact, it's "underutilized" by any definition -- although I guarantee it will never appear in one of the Board's hit lists.
That school is les than two miles northwest of the Grand/Central corner and is surrounded on all side by overcrowded elementary schools, but, this year, that school has (as usual) about 500 students.
How can a 500-student public school sit in the middle of the most overcrowded section of Chicago, the week Chicago announces it has "75" (or is it "147") underutilized public schools?
Clout, of course,
The underutilized Northwest side public school is the "Chicago Academy" at 3400 N. Austin. The old Wright College building.
That building was given to Martin Koldyke and the millionaires club that currently runs AUSL (remember them) out of the place, to train "turnaround specialists" that it dispatches back into the ghetto after training them in the safety of the Northwest side.
No mention will be made of the fact that CPS could put the Chicago Academy into any of a dozen shuttered schools down in the ghetto, since those 500 students and their teachers and fungible. In fact, the Chicago Academy should be in one of those buildings already closed down along State St. between IIT and Beasley, but of course it won't be. Nor with the Chicago Academy be relocated to the West Side in any of a number of buildings available there.
Chicago Academy does its "turnaround" training in one of the safest communities in Chicago, while hogging a public building that could be relieving overcrowding at a half dozen Northwest Side elementary schools (or even adjacent high schools).
Instead, we get propaganda and talking points from Chicago's corporate media, including the usual hyperventilating on Chicago Tonight and Chicago Week in review, courtesy of the "public" wing of corporate propaganda media.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all.
Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 9:49 AM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
Wait...so CPS releases a press release that specifically references the list, which is talked about by Arne Duncan and their main demographics guy, Jim Dispensa (who I will also say of all the people at CPS, I've only have heard great things about). But then some mid-level communications guy tells you there is no list and ... voila! ... the list has magically disappeared into thin air. Trust me...there's a list.
Not so sure how Dispensa "leaked" any of this information when it was printed in a CPS press release that, I have to assume, came from the same department Malon Edwards works in.
By yelling about all of this smoke, George, you're taking everyone's eye off the prize. If the numbers are right, something needs to be done and in the end that something is going to involve some sort of busing and some sort of charter-/performance-/contract-ization.
Test scores go up because the test is rigged, which makes a lot of people happy, but makes it a lot harder to close your elementary schools when many of them come off probation...so of course a new reason has to be created to close schools. This one actually sounds like a better one to me in the first place. Maybe we can just dig out the foundations of these school buildings, get the worlds largest crane, put them on the back of the world's largest semi-truck and drive these schools over to the southwest side to relieve overcrowding.
Not so sure how Dispensa "leaked" any of this information when it was printed in a CPS press release that, I have to assume, came from the same department Malon Edwards works in.
By yelling about all of this smoke, George, you're taking everyone's eye off the prize. If the numbers are right, something needs to be done and in the end that something is going to involve some sort of busing and some sort of charter-/performance-/contract-ization.
Test scores go up because the test is rigged, which makes a lot of people happy, but makes it a lot harder to close your elementary schools when many of them come off probation...so of course a new reason has to be created to close schools. This one actually sounds like a better one to me in the first place. Maybe we can just dig out the foundations of these school buildings, get the worlds largest crane, put them on the back of the world's largest semi-truck and drive these schools over to the southwest side to relieve overcrowding.
Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 11:31 AM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
You know, Charlie, bizarrely, that might be less expensive than building them there if by moving an existing school, it is grandfathered into any current school safety laws. Schools are notoriously expensive to build. They are subject to incredible safety laws (which makes sense, look at the Our Lady of the Angels etc.) and quite strict construction standards. It's why you can't build a one floor school for less than 1 million dollars.
As to why there is not the community anger in Chicago that you see in New Orleans I can give you a few reasons: 1. Chicago residents haven't been hit by a double whammy of a natural disaster coupled with phenomenal government malfeasance in dealing with both the tragedy and the rebuilding. 2. CHA residents whose buildings were demolished had the option of taking a rental voucher. 3. No one in Chicago is forced into a charter school, it's a voluntary choice. 4. Chicago is not taking advantage of the aftermath of a calamity to cleanse its neighborhoods of poor folk. 5. Mayor Daley was not elected by the disadvantaged to keep the city of Chicago from being turned into some middle class Disney-fied version of itself as I would argue Mayor Nagin was.
Chicago has its troubles and it's made a lot of decisions that could only have been made with racism, ethnic loyalty, and classism in mind, but it's no New Orleans.
As to why there is not the community anger in Chicago that you see in New Orleans I can give you a few reasons: 1. Chicago residents haven't been hit by a double whammy of a natural disaster coupled with phenomenal government malfeasance in dealing with both the tragedy and the rebuilding. 2. CHA residents whose buildings were demolished had the option of taking a rental voucher. 3. No one in Chicago is forced into a charter school, it's a voluntary choice. 4. Chicago is not taking advantage of the aftermath of a calamity to cleanse its neighborhoods of poor folk. 5. Mayor Daley was not elected by the disadvantaged to keep the city of Chicago from being turned into some middle class Disney-fied version of itself as I would argue Mayor Nagin was.
Chicago has its troubles and it's made a lot of decisions that could only have been made with racism, ethnic loyalty, and classism in mind, but it's no New Orleans.
Sat Dec 22, 2007 at 4:17 AM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
"Test scores go up because the test is rigged, which makes a lot of people happy, but makes it a lot harder to close your elementary schools when many of them come off probation...so of course a new reason has to be created to close schools..." (Charlie, yesterday).
Charlie, there is no list. Dispensa was leaking the story to get feedback for his old neighbor, the mayor. Anyone gets the list -- with the data sets backing up the claims, "demographics" and "performance" -- let's share it here.
Now, as to what you're noting about eighth grade test scores (especially), one of my favorite moments at the November 14 Board meeting was not watching the Marines retreat after Patty McCann narrated her experiences as a GI in Baghdad, but the presentation from American Quality Schools (AQS) about the failure of their "Entrepreneurship Academy" in the old Austin High School building.
While Mike Bakalis stood there, two AQS officials told the Board that the students the "Entrepreneurs" were getting from the elementary schools in Austin were reading at around "fifth grade level".
Arne and Barbara nodded and noodled sagely, while AQS went on to propose establishing four or five "feeder" AQS charter elementary schools in the Austin community to provide eighth grade graduates who were reading at "grade level."
Nobody suggested that someone was goosing up the eighth grade test scores to get the kids out of eighth grade, which has been the biggest open secret in CPS since the mayoral miracle began. And nobody suggested that CPS audit a couple of dozen of these miracle schools to review what has been going on.
The reason? If we admit that the problems begin and grow, at least in the inner city where the poverty is densest, all through elementary school, then we have to also answer questions about all those miracles we've been hearing about (and exporting as "models") for the past dozen years. Once you admit that CPS has been triaged all along, and that the hard-core inner city schools are worse off now than when the "miracle" began, you can see a bit of what's going on.
But as long as you're wearing ideological blinders, you're forced to repeat those mantras and talking points about how the problem is that we need "high school reform" when the problem is much deeper socially and economically, and goosing numbers up in seventh and eighth grades hasn't solved a damned thing.
It used to be that the old department of "research and evaluation" had ongoing audits of schools that posted unusual gains on the ITBS or TAP (the two tests that were used for a generation). The audit was simple. If the "miracle" were real, the kids would post the same gains (statistically) when given another form of the same test. I know because I had it happen to a class of mine once (an AP English class where I had the kids do a summer reading program and intense readings -- like "Heart of Darkness" -- in September). The reason for the unusual gains (this was when the TAP was given in the Fall of the year, not Spring was that the kids had (a) gone into the class voluntarily and (b) worked all summer on both reading and writing.
So of course when we were audited, the kids scored a bit higher than the first time. Now, that type of thing can only happen once of twice with kids who are testing low, and that's pretty much what happened to mine. We all know that from experience. Well, not all of us, since most of the people on the fifth and sixth floors at Clark St. have little or no classroom experience, although most have read and admired "Atlas Shrugged" or at least its Cliffs Notes.
But we digress.
The point is, that in the triaged poorest third of CPS schools (and nearly a majority of the high schools, as I've discussed, the general high schools) the formulas and plans (especially "choice" schools and punitive "accountability" schemes based on Donald Trump and Jack Welch corporate models) have made the schools "worse" by any human measure. The fact that the clip files are stuffed with lies doesn't change that. And the longer you are in a classroom in this city in real time, the more you know that's true.
Charlie, there is no list. Dispensa was leaking the story to get feedback for his old neighbor, the mayor. Anyone gets the list -- with the data sets backing up the claims, "demographics" and "performance" -- let's share it here.
Now, as to what you're noting about eighth grade test scores (especially), one of my favorite moments at the November 14 Board meeting was not watching the Marines retreat after Patty McCann narrated her experiences as a GI in Baghdad, but the presentation from American Quality Schools (AQS) about the failure of their "Entrepreneurship Academy" in the old Austin High School building.
While Mike Bakalis stood there, two AQS officials told the Board that the students the "Entrepreneurs" were getting from the elementary schools in Austin were reading at around "fifth grade level".
Arne and Barbara nodded and noodled sagely, while AQS went on to propose establishing four or five "feeder" AQS charter elementary schools in the Austin community to provide eighth grade graduates who were reading at "grade level."
Nobody suggested that someone was goosing up the eighth grade test scores to get the kids out of eighth grade, which has been the biggest open secret in CPS since the mayoral miracle began. And nobody suggested that CPS audit a couple of dozen of these miracle schools to review what has been going on.
The reason? If we admit that the problems begin and grow, at least in the inner city where the poverty is densest, all through elementary school, then we have to also answer questions about all those miracles we've been hearing about (and exporting as "models") for the past dozen years. Once you admit that CPS has been triaged all along, and that the hard-core inner city schools are worse off now than when the "miracle" began, you can see a bit of what's going on.
But as long as you're wearing ideological blinders, you're forced to repeat those mantras and talking points about how the problem is that we need "high school reform" when the problem is much deeper socially and economically, and goosing numbers up in seventh and eighth grades hasn't solved a damned thing.
It used to be that the old department of "research and evaluation" had ongoing audits of schools that posted unusual gains on the ITBS or TAP (the two tests that were used for a generation). The audit was simple. If the "miracle" were real, the kids would post the same gains (statistically) when given another form of the same test. I know because I had it happen to a class of mine once (an AP English class where I had the kids do a summer reading program and intense readings -- like "Heart of Darkness" -- in September). The reason for the unusual gains (this was when the TAP was given in the Fall of the year, not Spring was that the kids had (a) gone into the class voluntarily and (b) worked all summer on both reading and writing.
So of course when we were audited, the kids scored a bit higher than the first time. Now, that type of thing can only happen once of twice with kids who are testing low, and that's pretty much what happened to mine. We all know that from experience. Well, not all of us, since most of the people on the fifth and sixth floors at Clark St. have little or no classroom experience, although most have read and admired "Atlas Shrugged" or at least its Cliffs Notes.
But we digress.
The point is, that in the triaged poorest third of CPS schools (and nearly a majority of the high schools, as I've discussed, the general high schools) the formulas and plans (especially "choice" schools and punitive "accountability" schemes based on Donald Trump and Jack Welch corporate models) have made the schools "worse" by any human measure. The fact that the clip files are stuffed with lies doesn't change that. And the longer you are in a classroom in this city in real time, the more you know that's true.
Mon Dec 24, 2007 at 6:39 AM
Today's Board Meeting (December 19)
Since Arne Duncan took over (July 1, 2001), CPS has seen a drop in total student membership of about 30,000 -- not the more than 40,000 "demographics" is claiming and the recent hysteria quoted.
Let's recommend people read Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" to understand better what Arne and Ritchie are up to. Stop simply repeating the bizarre talking points fed to everyone as "news" in the Tribune and Sun-Times. Arne Duncan has already closed (and, mostly, flipped into private hands) more than 40 Chicago public schools since he became "CEO."
It's clear he's going for the Guinness Book of World Records before democracy final corrects this bizarre way of running public schools in a democracy. Whether people let him do it depends on whether his next round of lies is met with giggles (they are kind of silly most of the time) or militant outrage (which is the way the schools at Ground Zero should respond, and persistently) remains to be seen.
If people protest, loudly, publicly, and in a sustained way (as opposed to being bought off with "seats at the table" -- TACs anyone? -- or $100,000 per year "chief of staff" and "assistant chief of staff" jobs), they are not ready to try and shutter another 40 schools. The tide has turned, and Renaissance 2010 is bucking a new tide, both in the USA and elsewhere.
The first way CPS will be able to "save" money next year (when taxes drop because of the debt crisis) is by eliminating some whole departments that have expanded like viruses under Duncan ("New Schools" for example) and halving those that doubled since Daley took over ("Law" for example).
We'll see what happens once the holiday cover-ups are over and the next round of bizarre pronouncements emanate from Clark St. -- both north at Washington and south at Adams.
Let's recommend people read Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" to understand better what Arne and Ritchie are up to. Stop simply repeating the bizarre talking points fed to everyone as "news" in the Tribune and Sun-Times. Arne Duncan has already closed (and, mostly, flipped into private hands) more than 40 Chicago public schools since he became "CEO."
It's clear he's going for the Guinness Book of World Records before democracy final corrects this bizarre way of running public schools in a democracy. Whether people let him do it depends on whether his next round of lies is met with giggles (they are kind of silly most of the time) or militant outrage (which is the way the schools at Ground Zero should respond, and persistently) remains to be seen.
If people protest, loudly, publicly, and in a sustained way (as opposed to being bought off with "seats at the table" -- TACs anyone? -- or $100,000 per year "chief of staff" and "assistant chief of staff" jobs), they are not ready to try and shutter another 40 schools. The tide has turned, and Renaissance 2010 is bucking a new tide, both in the USA and elsewhere.
The first way CPS will be able to "save" money next year (when taxes drop because of the debt crisis) is by eliminating some whole departments that have expanded like viruses under Duncan ("New Schools" for example) and halving those that doubled since Daley took over ("Law" for example).
We'll see what happens once the holiday cover-ups are over and the next round of bizarre pronouncements emanate from Clark St. -- both north at Washington and south at Adams.
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