catalyst-chicago.org

Fewer than half of the teachers hired in Chicago Public Schools through the national program Teach for America stay on the job for three years, the commitment required of teachers in other alternative certification programs.

Data from Teach for America show that 43 percent of its teachers who started in CPS in 2001 stayed on the job in 2004. Of those who started in 2000, 39 percent stayed for a third year.

Tatyana Hopkins sits in the front row of her 5th-grade classroom at Henson Elementary in North Lawndale. But she still squints to read words on the chalkboard and sometimes asks a classmate to read them for her.

Last October, her doctor told her she needed glasses. Tatyana's mother, Latonya Pearson, intended to take the 11-year-old to the optometrist. But she works nights six days a week sorting mail for the postal service, and is exhausted by Saturday. "I just haven't had time to take her," she said in early January.

"Los niños no votan. Ese es el gran problema con los asuntos infantiles. Así que nosotros, los adultos, tenemos que hablar en voz alta y claramente para crear la voluntad pública, la cual crea una voluntad política."

Adele Simmons vice-presidenta y ejecutiva de Chicago Metropolis 2020

El asunto

Estudios sobre el cerebro indican que las oportunidades más favorables de aprendizaje para los niños comienzan antes de que lleguen a el jardín de niños (kindergarten).