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

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Sarah Karp

State financial aid for college on hold
May 14, 2009
By: Sarah Karp

In this tough economy, families worried about paying college tuition got one more piece of bad news: The state announced that on Friday it will stop, at least temporarily, doling out money from its pot of financial aid.

Applications for state financial aid, called MAP (for Monetary Award Program), are up by 20 percent, and the number of eligible applicants is up by 27 percent, says Paul Palian, director of media affairs for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.

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College-going gap for Latinos
May 13, 2009
By: Sarah Karp

CPS plans in the coming weeks to release data on college-going rates among its graduates, an annual announcement that highlights the district’s success in getting more students into higher education.

But if findings for the Class of 2008 are similar to those for previous years, one troubling trend will hold true: Latino students will lag far behind their classmates. In 2007, just 40 percent of Latino graduates had enrolled in college by fall, compared to 50 percent of black students, 66 percent of white students and 76 percent of Asians.

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Central office braces for layoffs
May 07, 2009
By: Sarah Karp

With a looming $475 million deficit, central office is abuzz with rumors of impending layoffs this month. Today, a CPS spokeswoman confirms that layoffs are “anticipated,” but declined to say when they would occur.

Such steps are in line with what is happening at City Hall, where Mayor Richard Daley announced drastic cost-cutting measures, including 14-day furloughs for non-union employees, were in the works to offset its $300 million deficit.

 

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Secretary Duncan vs CEO Arne
May 01, 2009
By: Sarah Karp

As CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Arne Duncan boasted about ISAT gains, even though the district showed poorly on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation’s report card. But now as Secretary of Education, Duncan told reporters at the Education Writers Association conference Thursday that school officials who highlight state standards knowing there is a disparity between those results and performance on national assessments are lying to parents and children.

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Putting the brakes on high school transformation
April 28, 2009
By: Sarah Karp

An ambitious districtwide effort to overhaul high schools is in limbo.

After a three-year rollout that spanned 43 schools—just shy of the target of 50—there are no schools in the pipeline for next year. Previously, schools were selected each spring to adopt the beefed up curricula that underpin High School Transformation.

Funding for the project, some $80 million ($20 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), has nearly run out, leaving a cash-strapped CPS to foot the bill. Weeks ago, funding for a long-planned evaluation of the project was pulled. Gates spokesman Chris Williams declined to comment on whether the foundation will fund the project in the future.

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Top CPS grads often land at less rigorous colleges
April 23, 2009
By: Sarah Karp

A new report from the Consortium on Chicago School Research has a surprising finding: Even students from top CPS high schools and programs are winding up at colleges far below their qualifications.

The study, released Thursday, is the fifth in the Consortium’s series on CPS graduates after high school. In this new study, Consortium researchers build on previous work that revealed a substantial mismatch between the colleges CPS students could get into and where they go. The study found this mismatch extends to top students in selective schools and programs. Even in schools such as Whitney Young and Lane Tech, about a third of students go to less rigorous colleges.

The study can be found at the Consortium website.

 

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What's good for Chicago, Duncan says ...
April 16, 2009
By: Sarah Karp

More evidence that Education Secretary Arne Duncan is exporting what he did as CEO of Chicago schools across the country. News comes that he is open to letting states report five-year graduation rates in their quest to make adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind. New NCLB regulations announced in October by former education secretary Margaret Spellings calls for all districts to implement a four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate by 2011.

 

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School closing bill passes State House
April 03, 2009
By: Sarah Karp

News that the Illinois House of Representatives today unanimously passed House Bill 363, which calls for creating a state committee to set standards for school closings, repairs and construction.

Don Moore of Designs for Change sent out this press release:  

MAJOR STATE LEGISLATION TO DETERMINE PRIORITIES FOR SCHOOL REPAIRS, SCHOOL CLOSINGS, AND SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION IN CHICAGO PASSES STATE HOUSE 118-0

CHICAGO, FEBRUARY 4, 2009 - State Representative Cynthia Soto responded to the concerns of parents, Local School Councils, and teachers in her district and the rest of Chicago, by leading a successful campaign to set standards for a fair school facilities policy for the city.

After a 118 to 0 victory in the State House today, Soto's Chicago School Facilities bill (House Bill 363) moves on to the State Senate.  Chicago is one of the few large cities that has refused to adopt a meaningful process and set of standards for determining a range of school facilities issues that are addressed by Rep. Soto's bill, which include  "school openings, closings, consolidations, turnarounds, phase-outs, construction, repairs, modernizations, boundary changes, and other related school facilities issues in Chicago."

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Students vet new teachers at Fenger
March 24, 2009
By: Sarah Karp

Teachers and administrators seeking to land a job at turnaround target Fenger High School are being vetted in an unusual way: students are grilling them, either speed dating style or with questions fashioned after the game show Jeopardy.

To find students to participate, Donald Fraynd, who oversees the district’s high school turnarounds, reached out to Mikva Challenge, a youth-oriented civic engagement nonprofit and asked them to convene a group of teens to interview finalists for educator positions.

Fenger joins Harper and Orr high school in undergoing a turnaround, which entails firing all the teachers and staff and making them reapply for their jobs, as well as rolling out new curriculum and programming.

The CPS turnaround team is particularly interested in students’ opinions on whether teacher and administrator candidates, old and new, will work well with students, says Cianna Ashton, a program director for Mikva Challenge. The reason for this extra layer of vetting stems from this year’s experience at Harper, where some new staffers have had problems connecting with students, says Ashton.

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