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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

December 05, 2008

At Dyett High School, the stories told by four students show how the work of a community organization can bring in resources to help schools.

The students—all African-American boys—explained how the Education to Success Initiative and a restorative justice program helped them re-engage in school. They spoke recently at the Chicago Urban League as part of its High School Equity Project.

December 04, 2008

It’s official, at least according to documents filed in court yesterday in the ongoing saga to lift Chicago’s desegregation consent decree. Efforts to purposefully integrate schools after the consent decree is gone are likely to focus on income not on race. Also, a battle will be fought over the quality of bilingual services in CPS.

Witness lists for both sides—CPS and the U.S. Attorney’s Office—that were submitted to federal court do not name any experts who will testify at the next hearing on behalf of race-based strategies to create racially-mixed schools. The hearing is rescheduled for Jan. 22. (It was originally set for the 20th, then postponed for President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration.)

November 17, 2008

After leaving high school in 2007, nearly 40 percent of students with disabilities are unemployed and not enrolled in any type of college or vocational program a year later.

These are the findings of a post-secondary survey conducted by the Illinois State Board Education and analyzed by Access Living. The report released on Nov. 12 surveyed 209 disabled students who exited CPS; some had graduated, while others had dropped out. The students surveyed had a mix of disabilities, though they were slightly more likely to have learning disabilities than the district’s population as a whole.

November 12, 2008

Coming into Coles Elementary in South Chicago, Principal Jeffrey Dase knew he needed a game-changer. Once an overcrowded school that needed mobile classrooms, Coles had lost about 40 percent of its students since 2000 and was struggling to raise its academic performance. Other forces were adding pressure. With new charters and magnets opening up yearly, all offering at least a promise of something better, the school faced stiff competition.

November 07, 2008

[A Spanish-language version of this story was published in the Nov. 25 edition of Extra newspaper.]

Kenneth Green knew he wanted to send his daughter to a magnet school, Chicago’s oldest schools of choice. He spent hours enveloped in research and touring campuses, trying to find the right combination of high academic expectations and a diverse racial mix.

October 31, 2008

Even as CPS officials celebrate record numbers of students meeting state standards on the ISAT, a new study indicates that only about one in 10 8th-graders has any chance of hitting the district’s target of 20 or higher on the ACT. A Consortium on Chicago School Research report released today finds that only those 8th-graders who exceed state standards are likely to score a 20 or higher.

October 09, 2008

Last year, students at Robeson High School in Englewood had one of the district’s worst attendance rates. But somehow, on the first day of school this year, attendance was more than perfect.

This unlikely phenomenon is the result of how Chicago Public Schools calculates first-day attendance. Instead of counting the number of students who actually show up out of those who were assigned or enrolled to a school, the district compares them to enrollment estimates made in February.

No-shows do not count against a school’s attendance at all.

October 08, 2008

Chicago’s first-day attendance includes elementary schools, high schools and charters. For all school types, the number of students who actually showed up is compared to enrollment estimates that were done last winter.

September 10, 2008

From the corner, Kurt Jones spots two boys sizing each other up nearby. Jones, principal of the low-performing Libby Elementary, is monitoring the dismissal of students from summer school, and since it’s a hot day, these two boys have already shed their T-shirts. The lean boys are wearing unbelted jean shorts, sagging below their underwear—white briefs and plaid boxers. Just beyond them, two men sit on the concrete stoop of an apartment building, seemingly oblivious to the mean, mugging youngsters in the middle of the street.

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