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School closings

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

Sarah Karp

April 03, 2009

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."

March 24, 2009

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.

March 12, 2009

Ever since No Child Left Behind became law, a common complaint among elementary school principals is that transfer students drag down test scores, and they’re unfairly held accountable for the performance of children who arrive mid-year.

I heard something like this just two weeks ago from a principal in Humboldt Park, who told me that 15 new students had arrived that week—just days before the ISAT.

Any truth to these gripes? The answer is both yes and no.

March 06, 2009

A year ago, the Bilingual Education and World Language Commission was expected to issue a report laying the ground work for a recommendation that would represent a major shift in the way non-English speakers are taught in the district.

It was never released.

So, where is the report? District officials say they just haven’t found the “right time” to release it, but others suspect that making it public is delayed as CPS defended its bilingual program in federal court.

February 20, 2009

A year ago, the district launched a broad new anti-dropout initiative aimed at keeping freshmen on track to graduate. Now CPS is adding more weapons to its arsenal: after-school classes, online learning and timely data reporting to schools.

The initiative launched last February featured Freshman On-Track Labs, which provided each of six schools with two staff members who devise strategies to keep students from failing or being chronically absent. It also created Freshman Connection, a program for every graduating 8th-grader to attend a six-week class before they entered 9th grade. There was also an initiative to support freshmen who are most at-risk for failure and students who were transitioning out of Cook County Juvenile Detention Center back to a regular high school.

Previously missing was an option for 9th graders to immediately make up credits in classes they had failed.

February 04, 2009

Walk into any CPS high school and you’re likely to see college banners as well as posters urging students to fill out financial aid forms or go on college tours.

The message is loud and clear: College is the path to success.

February 04, 2009

Edward Osby, a welding instructor at Simeon Career Academy, points to the white marker board in his classroom and notes that the math problem on it is not one that should stymie high school students. Yet months into the year, he’s still teaching it.

“Students should know how to convert six-tenths of a yard into inches,” Osby says. Such a proclamation—that students are behind academically—is not unusual in CPS. At almost 85 percent of high schools, the average scores of incoming freshmen are far below national norms.

February 04, 2009

Behind the city’s hard sell to be selected as the host city for the 2016 Olympics, Mayor Richard M. Daley is working with business leaders to make sure that Chicago has an ample supply of hospitality workers to take care of tourists.

Hospitality is one of the four shortage areas that are the focus of the city’s effort to revamp workforce development, including career training in Chicago’s public schools. The other areas are nursing, transportation and technology.

February 04, 2009

A couple of years before President Barack Obama tapped CEO Arne Duncan to become the nation’s education secretary, Duncan’s pal and new boss lent his now-famous image and voice to a public service announcement about the district’s career education program.

In the 60-second spot, Obama lauds these programs as offering a competitive edge by combining rigorous coursework with industry knowledge and hands-on experience.

That may have been Duncan’s dream, but it is far from reality.

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