Current Issue

School closings

As CPS prepares to close a record number of schools, the fate of students and communities is in question.

Debra Williams

March 09, 2008

The district's alternative certification initiative has changed dramatically over the last three years: Some programs that worked with CPS have ceased operating or been scrapped, and prospective teachers no longer receive tuition subsidies.

March 05, 2008

Updated February 13, 2008--Chicago Public Schools is getting closer to changing how teachers are evaluated.

For the last three years, a joint district-Chicago Teachers Union committee has been working on revising teacher evaluations, long criticized as virtually useless. (See Catalyst, WebExtra July 2007.)

February 18, 2008

Principal preparation programs would have to meet new standards under recommendations to be presented next month to state lawmakers by a task force that examined principal preparation across Illinois.

December 18, 2007

When it comes to high schools, the federal No Child Left Behind Act is not an effective tool for educators and administrators seeking to improve them.

Such was the consensus of a panel of experts who were convened for a Dec. 10 forum on reauthorization of the landmark federal education law and how it can be changed to support high school improvement.

CPS Schools Chief Arne Duncan described the landscape of Chicago's public high schools, which include some of the nation's top schools as well as some of the worst.

December 03, 2007

Getting young children ready for school by exposing them to language, equipping them with reading readiness skills, and instilling a love of exploration and learning is the key to preparing them for school success.

November 29, 2007

Three years ago, prospective teachers looking for a fast track to the classroom in CPS could choose from among 14 alternative certification programs. Now there are only seven.

Gone are:
October 31, 2007

Veteran educator Marietta Beverly got this telling response when she told colleagues at a seminar years ago that she was the principal of a middle school: "Oh, you poor thing, you!"

October 30, 2007

Anyone who has ever raised an adolescent knows that from one day to the next, you never know what you're going to get. One day everything is fine, but in the blink of an eye, the world is coming to an end. Stacey Horn, associate professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, teaches adolescent development to prospective and current teachers to help them navigate this terrain. Horn talked to Associate Editor Debra Williams about what makes middle-grades students different, what teachers can expect and what schools and teachers can do to meet their needs.

October 30, 2007

The 7th-graders in Nikkol Palmer's classroom at Mays Academy are quiet and respectful as they slowly trickle in, take their seats and open their textbooks to the short story they've been reading.

"OK, what was the last event in the story? Where did we leave off?" asks Palmer, who teaches language arts and social studies. The story, "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," tells the adventures of a young mongoose who protects his "human family" from a set of deadly cobras.

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