Thursday Morning News See previous posts for information about closings.
High school student shot by off-duty police officer ChiTown Daily News
An off-duty police officer working a high school security detail chased down and shot a student Tuesday after the teen set off a campus metal detector then fled during a search, a Chicago Public Schools spokesman said.
New limits for military recruiters at Chicago schools Tribune
Juniors and seniors now have until Dec. 1 each year to bar military officials from being able to obtain private information about them, said Mike Vaughn, a CPS spokesman. Recruiters are barred from recruiting without authorization from school officials. They also must give two days notice before visiting a school, and principals can now bar recruiters after repeated infractions.
Activists rally before board meeting to protest military ... Medill Reports
Anti-war opponents attended a Chicago Board of Education meeting Wednesday morning to denounce current military recruitment policy in the city's public high schools. [picture]
So the antiwar folks and maybe Edison move to get things done but pretty much everyone else is either quiet or doesn't have the media savvy to make things sufficiently uncomfortable to the Board to make some changes.
Unless, that is, a school or two got taken off one of these lists before last week when the list was locked. Remember, the rumor was that there were 20 schools involved, not 19.
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Thu Jan 24, 2008 at 3:05 AM
Thursday Morning News
The real joke will come during the hearings.
For the past six (yes, it's now six as of April 2008) years, Arne Duncan's speciality has been closing schools based on an every changing series of "criteria", each of which is praised by the editorialists in the major media. Yesterday, I watched while some of the TV talking heads kept asking the Edison parents what they would do about overcrowding, as if it were the responsibility of one school to understand and counter the "demographic" lies of the entire Duncan and Williams administration.
While CPS is finding the money to build new schools (e.g., Peck) in other parts of town and additional major money for renovations following its earlier closings (Morse; Grant; Collins; Austin, to name three current ones; Calumet to name one that's now completed), parents, teachers and children are being made to suffer over the lies and half truths.
The biggest solution to overcrowding on the northwest side (since Daley doesn't want to build a new school up near Edison) is to tell AUSL to take their training program to the real inner city, in one of the buildings that is already vacant, and turn the Wright College site (where they currently are) over the CPS for relief of the northwest side overcrowding. AUSL clouted its way into a "safe" area (Roscoe and Austin) to supposedly train teachers to go to place like Englewood and save things there. There are sites across the south side that could house the AUSL program, instead of allowing its clout to keep it safely in a northwest side area which didn't face much crime (until Tuesday, when AUSL went up because of its poor management).
That's right. The "teacher training academy" on Austin is having major security problems because its FNGs can't figure out how to control their own building, in one of the safest parts of town. A day after that problem, Arne prances out the AUSL saviors to run a Power Point dog and pony show about turnarounds for the cooing Board members.
If this stuff wasn't so serious, it'd be worth recommending to Second City.
For the past six (yes, it's now six as of April 2008) years, Arne Duncan's speciality has been closing schools based on an every changing series of "criteria", each of which is praised by the editorialists in the major media. Yesterday, I watched while some of the TV talking heads kept asking the Edison parents what they would do about overcrowding, as if it were the responsibility of one school to understand and counter the "demographic" lies of the entire Duncan and Williams administration.
While CPS is finding the money to build new schools (e.g., Peck) in other parts of town and additional major money for renovations following its earlier closings (Morse; Grant; Collins; Austin, to name three current ones; Calumet to name one that's now completed), parents, teachers and children are being made to suffer over the lies and half truths.
The biggest solution to overcrowding on the northwest side (since Daley doesn't want to build a new school up near Edison) is to tell AUSL to take their training program to the real inner city, in one of the buildings that is already vacant, and turn the Wright College site (where they currently are) over the CPS for relief of the northwest side overcrowding. AUSL clouted its way into a "safe" area (Roscoe and Austin) to supposedly train teachers to go to place like Englewood and save things there. There are sites across the south side that could house the AUSL program, instead of allowing its clout to keep it safely in a northwest side area which didn't face much crime (until Tuesday, when AUSL went up because of its poor management).
That's right. The "teacher training academy" on Austin is having major security problems because its FNGs can't figure out how to control their own building, in one of the safest parts of town. A day after that problem, Arne prances out the AUSL saviors to run a Power Point dog and pony show about turnarounds for the cooing Board members.
If this stuff wasn't so serious, it'd be worth recommending to Second City.
Thu Jan 24, 2008 at 4:54 AM
Thursday Morning News
I'm not sure what makes George Schmidt think that moving AUSL out of the Wright College building would somehow relieve NW side overcrowding. Then again, I'm not sure I understand much of George's reasoning. Where do you think the Chicago Academy students live? In non-NW side under-populated areas? Their students live on the NW side, predominantly in neighborhoods where there is still overcrowding in the traditional public schools. So the opening of Chicago Academy went a long way toward reducing the overcrowding in those nearby schools.
Thu Jan 24, 2008 at 8:29 AM
Thursday Morning News
maybe it was price that got off the hook at the last minute, i'm wondering.
anyone else know of schools that were on the list at some point but got off somehow before it went public?
-- alexander
anyone else know of schools that were on the list at some point but got off somehow before it went public?
-- alexander
Thu Jan 24, 2008 at 6:27 PM
Thursday Morning News
One of the questions Arne refused to answer today was my question about the capacity of the Chicago Academy. It's one of two schools for which they don't have a capacity figure, according to Jim Dispensa.
Last year, Chicago Academy had around 500 students. This year?
Don't tell us that Chicago Acdemy isn't taking up space that could be better used on the northwest side, or that it's serving more than a sliver of kids from the northwest side. Chicago Academy could be located anywhere in town, which means it should not be in a part of town beset by overcrowding, especially when Arne & Co are closing down other northwest side schools for "demographic" reasons. Chicago Academy should be out on the West Side or down on the South Side, doing urban, not taking up public space in an area that needs more classroom space for the kids.
Last year, Chicago Academy had around 500 students. This year?
Don't tell us that Chicago Acdemy isn't taking up space that could be better used on the northwest side, or that it's serving more than a sliver of kids from the northwest side. Chicago Academy could be located anywhere in town, which means it should not be in a part of town beset by overcrowding, especially when Arne & Co are closing down other northwest side schools for "demographic" reasons. Chicago Academy should be out on the West Side or down on the South Side, doing urban, not taking up public space in an area that needs more classroom space for the kids.
Thu Jan 24, 2008 at 9:07 PM
Thursday Morning News
George- I don't always agree with you but there is some truth to what you're saying. AUSL-Chicago Academy ranks lower than many of the other neighboring CPS schools on the NW-side. Despite their selective enrollment standards, longer school day, small class size, and multiple teachers per room, there is nothing outstanding about the work they do. Worst of all, when there are problems with a child or parent they're quick to transfer them to the neighborhood CPS school. The NW side needs help. Student enrollment continues to increase while funding is shrinking. The Chicago Academy would serve the community much better if it was utilized to full capacity and given attendance boundaries. Frankly, the leadership is lacking and unprofessional. My faculty blows them out of the water!
Sun Jan 27, 2008 at 5:38 PM
Thursday Morning News
As everyone who's paying attention knows, the Chicago Academy could be located anywhere in Chicago in its mission to find the most challenging students so that its highly caffeinated teachers, mentors, and NLNS executive class types could get their shake-and-bake silver bars before going into combat (and feature stories over Labor Day weekend off page one of the Chicago Tribune for their heroic "turnaround" efforts).
Instead, they scour the city for the students they select, and still can't keep the lid on the gang problems their FNGs are allowing to fester on the third floor over there. And they dump their sludge as fast as possible into local schools without blinking and eye, then stand besides Arne while he goes through the latest round of teacher bashing.
I personally think that Arne should give them the old Richard Wright Elementary School building, as is, and have them really start from scratch to prove all that heroism they claim as a birthright. Then the Tribune could cover the story from scratch as well, from the first paint can. Oh, and the kids they choose for their basic training camp should be from ZIP Codes adjacent to and including Richard Wright's.
And they can't have anybody helping out in the classroom unless the other real world teachers within two miles of them do. No extra aides or mentors to hold their soft hands when things fall apart, the center cannot hold, etc.
Oh, and no cops to rush in to their building to save their asses, like last week, when all their theories crash into reality, despite all of their careful propaganda and corporate shilling.
That's my suggestion. It frees up the building for real northwest side schooling (and the relief of overcrowding) and levels the playing field.
Otherwise, what's going on in that building, measured against the reality of elsewhere, is ugly propaganda and hypocrisy. Of course, what else is new. Next thing we know, I'm going to suggest that Arne Duncan, Rufus Williams, and the corporate shills on the Board of Education spend at least two years, without chauffeurs and body guards, as substitute teachers in the inner city. With their families required to show their heroism by living on sub pay and benefits.
Instead, they scour the city for the students they select, and still can't keep the lid on the gang problems their FNGs are allowing to fester on the third floor over there. And they dump their sludge as fast as possible into local schools without blinking and eye, then stand besides Arne while he goes through the latest round of teacher bashing.
I personally think that Arne should give them the old Richard Wright Elementary School building, as is, and have them really start from scratch to prove all that heroism they claim as a birthright. Then the Tribune could cover the story from scratch as well, from the first paint can. Oh, and the kids they choose for their basic training camp should be from ZIP Codes adjacent to and including Richard Wright's.
And they can't have anybody helping out in the classroom unless the other real world teachers within two miles of them do. No extra aides or mentors to hold their soft hands when things fall apart, the center cannot hold, etc.
Oh, and no cops to rush in to their building to save their asses, like last week, when all their theories crash into reality, despite all of their careful propaganda and corporate shilling.
That's my suggestion. It frees up the building for real northwest side schooling (and the relief of overcrowding) and levels the playing field.
Otherwise, what's going on in that building, measured against the reality of elsewhere, is ugly propaganda and hypocrisy. Of course, what else is new. Next thing we know, I'm going to suggest that Arne Duncan, Rufus Williams, and the corporate shills on the Board of Education spend at least two years, without chauffeurs and body guards, as substitute teachers in the inner city. With their families required to show their heroism by living on sub pay and benefits.
