Sarah Karp | catalyst-chicago.org

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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.

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Sarah Karp

CPS promises tough scrutiny of charters November 13, 2012 By: Sarah Karp As CPS talks about closing as many as 100 traditional CPS schools, they are facing pressure to take a hard line when it comes to under-performing charter schools. CPS officials announced Tuesday that12 charter operators, running 32 campuses, are up for renewal this year. And they pledged to scrutinize them. Read More \| (1) Comments	Grades for Illinois education up slightly, but still low November 13, 2012 By: Sarah Karp Only one-third of Illinois students are proficient in reading at 3rd grade, begin high school academically on-track to graduate and leave high school ready for college, according to the latest Advance Illinois report on education in Illinois. Read More \| (1) Comments
For the Record: School progress reports November 12, 2012 By: Sarah Karp CPS elementary schools, whether they are run by the district or by charter operators, perform about the same overall: A third are doing great, a third so-so and a third perform poorly, according to an analysis of CPS school ratings that were released Monday. Read More \| (2) Comments	CPS to ask to delay school action announcements November 02, 2012 By: Sarah Karp CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett said today she plans to ask the state legislature to postpone by four months--from Dec. 1 to March 31--the announcement of proposed school actions. CTU President Karen Lewis reiterated her stance that Byrd-Bennett put a moratorium on school closings for a year. She said waiting to make an announcement til March 31 doesn’t give parents and teachers enough time to prepare for a school closing the following fall. “It is time to step back and do some analysis,” Lewis said. Read More \| (41) Comments
Minimal cost savings for closing schools: analysis October 31, 2012 By: Sarah Karp School action guidelines released today confirm what officials have been quietly telling people for months: CPS officials will focus on school utilization in considering what schools to close, and will pay less attention to school achievement. The strategy is a big change from previous years, when school performance was one of the main criteria in determining whether to close a school. “We need to make some decisions about right-sizing the district,” said CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett. Read More \| (9) Comments	CPS holding "private" meetings with community leaders on school actions October 24, 2012 By: Sarah Karp With a week to go before CPS must propose guidelines for school closings and other actions, district officials are holding last-minute meetings to give community leaders a reality check, as well as ask their advice on the criteria. Read More \| (10) Comments
The turnaround test October 23, 2012 By: Sarah Karp Dressed in a gray suit, Doug Maclin stood behind a podium facing the panel of CPS board members, looking a bit uncomfortable. He was at the May meeting to brag about the changes he had accomplished during his short tenure as principal of Chicago Vocational Career Academy. Read More \| (9) Comments	Emanuel chooses seasoned leader in Byrd-Bennett October 12, 2012 By: Sarah Karp In officially announcing that Jean-Claude Brizard was resigning and Barbara Byrd-Bennett was taking over, Mayor Rahm Emanuel refused to say how his first hand-picked school leader fell short. But in emphasizing that Byrd-Bennett has experience managing a major urban school district, Emanuel took a subtle approach in pointing out a hole in Brizard’s background, one that might have proved lethal. Read More \| (10) Comments
CPS opens application process for selective, magnet schools October 08, 2012 By: Sarah Karp Starting today, students can apply for selective enrollment, magnet and other specialty schools, an annual ritual that sends many families scrambling for a shot at what are considered the city’s better schools. This year, the district was supposed to debut a new single-application process that would mean students could apply for all schools in one place and then get one offer. The centralized system would be modeled on the application process now used in New York City and Boston. Last November, the Board of Education awarded the Institute for Innovation in Public School Choice a $390,000 contract to help develop the new application. CPS spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler says CPS officials felt that they were implementing too many other initiatives, such as the common core and the longer school day, to also roll out the single high school application. She says it is now scheduled to be implemented next year. Though she says that the delay had nothing to do with unresolved issues, those intimate with the process say CPS is still working through topics such as how to incorporate charter schools into the mix. Read More \| (10) Comments