Will "Enrollment Creep" Hinder HST?
"Chicago Public School’s multimillion dollar High School Transformation project is forcing the district to confront a long-standing, but quiet problem: Hundreds of freshmen don’t register for weeks after the first day of school."
Check it out. Up to 20 percent late enrollment at some schools, they say.
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Wed Feb 20, 2008 at 1:59 AM
Will "Enrollment Creep" Hinder HST?
"...This principal says the situation has worsened since the infusion of charter schools in the West Side’s Humboldt Park area. Now, not only are top students siphoned away by the district’s selective schools, but motivated students with average performance go to charter schools..."
At least in four pages Catalyst got one thing right, the fact that the expansion of selective enrollment charter schools has added to the problems (plural) faced by the general high schools. But since Catalyst is an apologist for anything spewing out of Chicago's version of corporate school reform, the 600 pound gorilla -- dramatically demonstrated this school year -- is ignored in the article completely. This little story is reporting lite. Here's why:
As we all discussed here back in October, there are about a dozen specific ways in which the general high schools are screwed by CPS -- then scapegoated -- as a matter of policy. But the most dramatic reason is finally noted in this article: school doesn't really begin for many many students in the general high schools until October or November because CPS plans it that way.
Not the teachers.
Not the principals.
CPS.
How is this done? Tight staffing and ridiculous budget constraints.
As everyone reported when Julian, Wells, and Schurz high schools were facing walkouts in October, there were staff cuts at the general high schools. Because Julian had last year's tragedy, it got a little more media attention. Because Wells is near the media centers of downtown, Wells got a little more media attention.
But CPS managed to deflect blame from its own policy, which requires schools that are going to stabilize in the fifth or sixth week of the schools year to "compete" (on the basis of test scores) with schools that can begin the school year (and the instructional year in each classroom) on the first day of "school" in September.
The cuts at a dozen general high schools from CVS and Julian all the way north to Wells and Schurz were targeted. Not one of the selective enrollment high schools faced those kinds of cuts.
The solution has been obvious since the 1980s, when many of us first documented this problems (and many others facing the general high schools) and demanding solutions.
Since Arne Duncan -- and now "High School Transformation" in the general sense the "Turaroundization" for Harper and the Orrs -- the general high schools have been the victims of every flavor of the month "reform," every goofy expansion of "choice" and every new iteration of reconstitution.
If ten or twenty percent of your students don't even begin school until October or later and by policy (tight staffing) you disrupt classes for 40 to 80 percent of your students in October or even later, you are not providing those students with instruction until late October or early November.
No goofy "early transition" program for 9th graders will change that, despite the fact that this program was already hyped by Duncan in the Sun-Times three months ago.
One solution will be to provide the general high schools with more staff, not fewer, and to assure every general high schools that no staff will be cut after the first day of instruction.
CPS now has more than $400 million in its cash reserves, and that amount will grow. For Arne Duncan to continue his silly Shock Doctrine antics about a "deficit" (like he tried to pull again last Thursday) is simply another in the long long long line of lies that come out of CPS administration on a regular basis (how many of the schools being closed and screwed this month were told -- personally by Arne -- how great they were within the last two years).
"High School Transformation" as it hits the general high schools when combined with the background of the stupid expansion of "choice" is just another example of Orwell in action in Chicago. The Catalyst narrative is another one. Leaving out the underlying realities -- to describe this problem without identifying the cause in the budget and "tight staffing" policies of Arne Duncan -- is dishonest.
At least in four pages Catalyst got one thing right, the fact that the expansion of selective enrollment charter schools has added to the problems (plural) faced by the general high schools. But since Catalyst is an apologist for anything spewing out of Chicago's version of corporate school reform, the 600 pound gorilla -- dramatically demonstrated this school year -- is ignored in the article completely. This little story is reporting lite. Here's why:
As we all discussed here back in October, there are about a dozen specific ways in which the general high schools are screwed by CPS -- then scapegoated -- as a matter of policy. But the most dramatic reason is finally noted in this article: school doesn't really begin for many many students in the general high schools until October or November because CPS plans it that way.
Not the teachers.
Not the principals.
CPS.
How is this done? Tight staffing and ridiculous budget constraints.
As everyone reported when Julian, Wells, and Schurz high schools were facing walkouts in October, there were staff cuts at the general high schools. Because Julian had last year's tragedy, it got a little more media attention. Because Wells is near the media centers of downtown, Wells got a little more media attention.
But CPS managed to deflect blame from its own policy, which requires schools that are going to stabilize in the fifth or sixth week of the schools year to "compete" (on the basis of test scores) with schools that can begin the school year (and the instructional year in each classroom) on the first day of "school" in September.
The cuts at a dozen general high schools from CVS and Julian all the way north to Wells and Schurz were targeted. Not one of the selective enrollment high schools faced those kinds of cuts.
The solution has been obvious since the 1980s, when many of us first documented this problems (and many others facing the general high schools) and demanding solutions.
Since Arne Duncan -- and now "High School Transformation" in the general sense the "Turaroundization" for Harper and the Orrs -- the general high schools have been the victims of every flavor of the month "reform," every goofy expansion of "choice" and every new iteration of reconstitution.
If ten or twenty percent of your students don't even begin school until October or later and by policy (tight staffing) you disrupt classes for 40 to 80 percent of your students in October or even later, you are not providing those students with instruction until late October or early November.
No goofy "early transition" program for 9th graders will change that, despite the fact that this program was already hyped by Duncan in the Sun-Times three months ago.
One solution will be to provide the general high schools with more staff, not fewer, and to assure every general high schools that no staff will be cut after the first day of instruction.
CPS now has more than $400 million in its cash reserves, and that amount will grow. For Arne Duncan to continue his silly Shock Doctrine antics about a "deficit" (like he tried to pull again last Thursday) is simply another in the long long long line of lies that come out of CPS administration on a regular basis (how many of the schools being closed and screwed this month were told -- personally by Arne -- how great they were within the last two years).
"High School Transformation" as it hits the general high schools when combined with the background of the stupid expansion of "choice" is just another example of Orwell in action in Chicago. The Catalyst narrative is another one. Leaving out the underlying realities -- to describe this problem without identifying the cause in the budget and "tight staffing" policies of Arne Duncan -- is dishonest.
Wed Feb 20, 2008 at 11:46 AM
Will "Enrollment Creep" Hinder HST?
George’s totalitarian view of high school admissions is that everyone should go their neighborhood high school and that new high schools are destroying neighborhood high schools. We can take a different view, though, and suggest that the creation of new high school options and school choice is a positive step for students, but that access to those new options is not managed particularly well by CPS.
George would also have you believe that CPS is entirely to blame for everthing from teaching position cuts to the hundreds (if not thousands) of new 9th graders that show up late for 9th grade each year. That view strikes me as obtuse.
Teaching position cuts occur at elementary and high schools when enrollment decreases. Enrollments decreased at many of the neighborhood high schools last year. Enrollments remained stable at selective enrollment high schools (as they generally do).
So, did teaching positions cuts affect neighborhood high schools disproportionately? Sadly, yes. But enrollment declines are the reason. Are new (mostly charter) high school options the cause of neighborhood high school enrollment declines? One would assume yes, partially. But that’s missing the point of the article.
The gist of the Catalyst article questions why CPS has created many new high school options while simultaneously perpetuating a chaotic, free-for-all high school application process that doesn’t really work for kids or parents.
It seems clear from the article that CPS’ decision to eschew a New York-style admissions program overhaul may be contributing to the enrollment creep problem. Aside from that, though, the lack of an effective process also contributes to something even more negative: The inability of students to get enrolled into a public high school of their choice.
George would also have you believe that CPS is entirely to blame for everthing from teaching position cuts to the hundreds (if not thousands) of new 9th graders that show up late for 9th grade each year. That view strikes me as obtuse.
Teaching position cuts occur at elementary and high schools when enrollment decreases. Enrollments decreased at many of the neighborhood high schools last year. Enrollments remained stable at selective enrollment high schools (as they generally do).
So, did teaching positions cuts affect neighborhood high schools disproportionately? Sadly, yes. But enrollment declines are the reason. Are new (mostly charter) high school options the cause of neighborhood high school enrollment declines? One would assume yes, partially. But that’s missing the point of the article.
The gist of the Catalyst article questions why CPS has created many new high school options while simultaneously perpetuating a chaotic, free-for-all high school application process that doesn’t really work for kids or parents.
It seems clear from the article that CPS’ decision to eschew a New York-style admissions program overhaul may be contributing to the enrollment creep problem. Aside from that, though, the lack of an effective process also contributes to something even more negative: The inability of students to get enrolled into a public high school of their choice.
Thu Feb 21, 2008 at 11:23 PM
Will "Enrollment Creep" Hinder HST?
Choice-er. Until you come out of the closet and stand up like an adult behind your glib evasions, there's not a lot to say. If Daley, Vallas and Duncan had improved every community's high school while what I will continue to call "stupid choice" over the past 13 years, I might conclude otherwise. But that's not what happened, despite your theology. As a result, today Chicago has about 40 high schools that have been systematically deprived of just about everything, while a handful get all the advantages.
Then, adding insult to injury to oppression to exploitation, Duncan creams the general high schools with position closings in October (and later, since some are still going on).
That's the real totalitarianism in Chicago today. Not some John Galt nonsense from Arne's theocratic central committee. If you're so brave, Choicer, why are you hiding? Isn't this whole thing about the marketplace -- including the marketplace of ideas?
Then, adding insult to injury to oppression to exploitation, Duncan creams the general high schools with position closings in October (and later, since some are still going on).
That's the real totalitarianism in Chicago today. Not some John Galt nonsense from Arne's theocratic central committee. If you're so brave, Choicer, why are you hiding? Isn't this whole thing about the marketplace -- including the marketplace of ideas?
Fri Feb 22, 2008 at 6:40 AM
Will "Enrollment Creep" Hinder HST?
Choice-ster is looking at this much too simplisticly. Yes, the cuts were due to the decline in enrollment. But the board is a political being that have set it up so that the neighborhood schools can't have it any other way. Most 8th grade parents want their child in a selective enrollment. When that doesn't happen they go for what they believe is the next best option, or (if they have them) pull political strings. Yes, IMPACT can "place" students in a high school. High Schools contact these kids to be told "No, I am not going" It is impossible for a neighborhood school to accurately determine the number of arriving students. It should be noted, that a similar problem exists at "better" neighborhood schools. They also cannot predict enrollment because of the number of families using fake address once they have exhausted their other options. The system is set up in a way where any school with restricted enrollment has the advantage.
Fri Feb 22, 2008 at 9:53 AM
Will "Enrollment Creep" Hinder HST?
For once I agree with George, at least partially. Regular neighborhood high schools should have their faculties set in September, based on the highest enrollment of the previous year, and held regardless of enrollment changes in the early part of the year. If cuts have to happen, make them at a sensible time (like between June and September) so principals and staff know where they stand. It's the least the system can do to offset all the other ways it screws neighborhood high schools.
This does not rule out coming up with a better way of solidifying entering freshmen counts sooner, by the way. That also seems like a good idea. If that ever happened, then maybe you could dump my idea about holding staff steady in the neighborhood high schools, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that day to come.
This does not rule out coming up with a better way of solidifying entering freshmen counts sooner, by the way. That also seems like a good idea. If that ever happened, then maybe you could dump my idea about holding staff steady in the neighborhood high schools, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that day to come.
Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 12:45 AM
Will "Enrollment Creep" Hinder HST?
"This does not rule out coming up with a better way of solidifying entering freshmen counts sooner, by the way. That also seems like a good idea. If that ever happened, then maybe you could dump my idea about holding staff steady in the neighborhood high schools, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that day to come..." (give gen hs a break, Friday).
You can't do it if the school has to take kids who walk in any time, and that's the way it should be in a public school. Before I was blacklisted, we were in the business of educating everybody, not just those privileged snots who were announcing a week ago that they would be moving to the suburbs if CPS didn't put "Disney II" into "their" community. Everybody is democracy. the rest is varying forms of aristocracy, divine right, and all that stuff we began dumping back when the Declaration of Independence was inked.
The pressure from "everybody" is going to get greater and greater in the next couple of years, as kids and their families are dumped from their homes (housing bubble; mortgage scams) and become urban wanderers.
Those kids have the right to go to school. Given how rough their life has become (and their increasing numbers every day thanks to the geniuses who got rich scamming them), the general high school might be the last outpost of stability, sanity, and smiles in those lives.
We had kids who arrived from Eastern Europe (before 1989) who studied in bath tubs because it was the only place in the stuffed apartment where they could. We had kids from Asia who had never sat in a desk until they arrived at a Chicago public school. We got kids fresh out of Juvie (er., the Nancy B. Jefferson school) the day after they got out. Now assuming each of those children and young adults still had a little belief in the promise of America and all that stuff, were they supposed to wait until next year's magnet school deadline or charter school application deadline to get back in school.
If the kid shows up in December, it's been our obligation -- as Americans -- to find a place in a public school for that kid.
It's only since those Ayn Rand nut cases (like Arne Duncan) took over and began repeating their incantations that anyone even gave a second thought to the fundamentally un-American claims they're making on all of our resources, and on how they are screwing all of us in the general high schools.
The answers are simple.
Every general high school is staffed for maximum 20 in all academic subjects. (Yes, 20. Those kids need more services, not less).
The principal has the extra staffing to bring kids into the "new kid" classes without having to go through those contortions in September and October to make the numbers (like some of the high schools, taking in every asshole gang banger to keep teachers). In other words, "data driven" should drive the data in the direction of human beings and human needs -- not to padding the "bottom line" on one of Arne's obscenities, those spreadsheets without which he and his bullies go brain dead.
Imagine (1) if every general high school had enough teachers on day one to do those things.
(2) Then make it clear that there be not cuts in the teaching staff once the school year has begun. Period. No Power Point BS and no Excel zombies crashing in to data drive you insane.
(3) Add staff (never subtract) throughout the school year, as special needs arise.
That's how to begin improving the general high schools of Chicago, instead of sabotaging all 40 of them as Mayor Daley and his minions have been doing since the miracle was first proclaimed 13 years ago.
Whitney Young and the magnets already have the privilege of not adding kids after Day One.
The charter high schools already have the privilege of not adding kids after Day One.
But the general high schools not only have to take in "your tired, your poor... etc." but are then blamed for the economic, emotional, social, and cultural baggage that come in the door with those children.
This city's flipped reality on its head for too long and gotten away with it because our corporate media are about as dishonest as anything since the late 19th Century, when most rags were praising the Robber Barons. But with these new media, we can stop that kind of lying slime from polluting everywhere, beginning now.
Every time Arne Duncan walks into a place like Julian, or Orr, or Hyde Park, or Clemente, or more than three dozen other Chicago general high schools it should be to apologize to every teacher, student, and other worker in that building for all the crimes he's committed against them.
And maybe the next time Arne screws a place like Wells, David Gilligan should tell him to do his own dirty work and face the people he's screwing, instead of sending out some lieutenant to try and cover up the mess...
You can't do it if the school has to take kids who walk in any time, and that's the way it should be in a public school. Before I was blacklisted, we were in the business of educating everybody, not just those privileged snots who were announcing a week ago that they would be moving to the suburbs if CPS didn't put "Disney II" into "their" community. Everybody is democracy. the rest is varying forms of aristocracy, divine right, and all that stuff we began dumping back when the Declaration of Independence was inked.
The pressure from "everybody" is going to get greater and greater in the next couple of years, as kids and their families are dumped from their homes (housing bubble; mortgage scams) and become urban wanderers.
Those kids have the right to go to school. Given how rough their life has become (and their increasing numbers every day thanks to the geniuses who got rich scamming them), the general high school might be the last outpost of stability, sanity, and smiles in those lives.
We had kids who arrived from Eastern Europe (before 1989) who studied in bath tubs because it was the only place in the stuffed apartment where they could. We had kids from Asia who had never sat in a desk until they arrived at a Chicago public school. We got kids fresh out of Juvie (er., the Nancy B. Jefferson school) the day after they got out. Now assuming each of those children and young adults still had a little belief in the promise of America and all that stuff, were they supposed to wait until next year's magnet school deadline or charter school application deadline to get back in school.
If the kid shows up in December, it's been our obligation -- as Americans -- to find a place in a public school for that kid.
It's only since those Ayn Rand nut cases (like Arne Duncan) took over and began repeating their incantations that anyone even gave a second thought to the fundamentally un-American claims they're making on all of our resources, and on how they are screwing all of us in the general high schools.
The answers are simple.
Every general high school is staffed for maximum 20 in all academic subjects. (Yes, 20. Those kids need more services, not less).
The principal has the extra staffing to bring kids into the "new kid" classes without having to go through those contortions in September and October to make the numbers (like some of the high schools, taking in every asshole gang banger to keep teachers). In other words, "data driven" should drive the data in the direction of human beings and human needs -- not to padding the "bottom line" on one of Arne's obscenities, those spreadsheets without which he and his bullies go brain dead.
Imagine (1) if every general high school had enough teachers on day one to do those things.
(2) Then make it clear that there be not cuts in the teaching staff once the school year has begun. Period. No Power Point BS and no Excel zombies crashing in to data drive you insane.
(3) Add staff (never subtract) throughout the school year, as special needs arise.
That's how to begin improving the general high schools of Chicago, instead of sabotaging all 40 of them as Mayor Daley and his minions have been doing since the miracle was first proclaimed 13 years ago.
Whitney Young and the magnets already have the privilege of not adding kids after Day One.
The charter high schools already have the privilege of not adding kids after Day One.
But the general high schools not only have to take in "your tired, your poor... etc." but are then blamed for the economic, emotional, social, and cultural baggage that come in the door with those children.
This city's flipped reality on its head for too long and gotten away with it because our corporate media are about as dishonest as anything since the late 19th Century, when most rags were praising the Robber Barons. But with these new media, we can stop that kind of lying slime from polluting everywhere, beginning now.
Every time Arne Duncan walks into a place like Julian, or Orr, or Hyde Park, or Clemente, or more than three dozen other Chicago general high schools it should be to apologize to every teacher, student, and other worker in that building for all the crimes he's committed against them.
And maybe the next time Arne screws a place like Wells, David Gilligan should tell him to do his own dirty work and face the people he's screwing, instead of sending out some lieutenant to try and cover up the mess...
Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 7:32 AM
Will "Enrollment Creep" Hinder HST?
"Add staff (never subtract) throughout the school year"
This is brilliant. Excellent policy. In a district where the enrollments of neighborhood high schools are beginning a significant multi-year decline, let's simply agree to never, ever reduce the number of teaching positions there.
So CPS will get far less $ from the state and federal governments due to the enrollment declines, but no worries. Let us simply acknowledge how important it is to keep high schools staffed beyond their formulas and come up with the tens of millions dollars somewhere.
Pay no attention to those pension and health care timebombs behind the curtain.
This is brilliant. Excellent policy. In a district where the enrollments of neighborhood high schools are beginning a significant multi-year decline, let's simply agree to never, ever reduce the number of teaching positions there.
So CPS will get far less $ from the state and federal governments due to the enrollment declines, but no worries. Let us simply acknowledge how important it is to keep high schools staffed beyond their formulas and come up with the tens of millions dollars somewhere.
Pay no attention to those pension and health care timebombs behind the curtain.
Sat Mar 22, 2008 at 9:59 AM
Will "Enrollment Creep" Hinder HST?
To be short-staffed at the beginning of the school year is done deliberately to squeeze the data numbers that show fewer vacancies in CPS-it is a ploy. If Arne and his crew are so interested in data, why don't they refer to the copy of Time Magazine earlier this year and other magazines which state that there will be a shortage of teachers in the near future in most department areas. By shortchanging students now in the present by understaffing schools at the beginning of the year and firing most PATS at the end of the year, why will many teachers want to teach in the city and be denied tenure? School closings running rampant, low pay, few materials to teach, poor school structures, and violence are many of the drawbacks of teaching in CPS. However, to teach in the inner city and to be blamed for all the ills of society by Mayor Daley is just arrogantly wrong and the most hurtful. Shame on you, Mayor.
Sat Mar 22, 2008 at 1:07 PM
Will "Enrollment Creep" Hinder HST?
We currently feel understaffed due to a growth of over 100 students last September. Classes are almost all over the union class size of 28. Yet, somehow projections say we need to close positions and have projected our enrollment for next fall even lower that it was last fall. We beat last falls projection, yet you project us even lower for next year. In what universe does this make sense? We are being set up to fail.
Sat Mar 22, 2008 at 1:47 PM
Will "Enrollment Creep" Hinder HST?
Response to 9:59 You are so right. The teacher shortage in special education is even lower than the 300 that CPS admits to every year. Our school is losing a special education inclusion positon for next year simply because CPS uses a resource number of 20 as opposed to a instructional number or 10-12 in the inclusion programs.This will wreak havoc with our program and minutes will not be met.
It is so short that CPS even has a booklet for the special education substitutes. Some special education classrooms have subs all year every year.
This data can easily be verified by looking at the provider information OSS has but that will not be done because subs are cheaper than full time teaches.
The OSS overpaid, inept administrators are too busy spinnning their data for the Mayor and the Judge. Sad to say, they are successful. I had high hopes for the monitor's office. I thought the children would finally be educated with correct supports and services just as the children are, even in the poorest suburb.
Where is the Corey H. monitor and why hasn't this been investigated when the monitors visit schools to do special education audits?
It is so short that CPS even has a booklet for the special education substitutes. Some special education classrooms have subs all year every year.
This data can easily be verified by looking at the provider information OSS has but that will not be done because subs are cheaper than full time teaches.
The OSS overpaid, inept administrators are too busy spinnning their data for the Mayor and the Judge. Sad to say, they are successful. I had high hopes for the monitor's office. I thought the children would finally be educated with correct supports and services just as the children are, even in the poorest suburb.
Where is the Corey H. monitor and why hasn't this been investigated when the monitors visit schools to do special education audits?
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