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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.

Sidebar

February 10, 2012

Of the 58 suburban school districts visited by state monitors in the past three years, not one district met all of Illinois’ tough education requirements for English-language learners, and nearly 40 percent—22 districts—failed to provide a bilingual program for all the students who qualified for it.

June 06, 2011

Just as in kindergarten, preschool educators use a variety of programs and strategies to teach literacy skills. And the question of what is developmentally appropriate for young children is a key point of contention.

Many preschools use the Creative Curriculum, which emphasizes exposing students to language in its natural context but offers little in the way of explicit instruction, notes Terry Carter, a past principal of Barton Elementary who is now director of learning and organizational development for Academy for Urban School Leadership.

June 06, 2011

Research has linked a host of benefits to full-day kindergarten, which education advocates and policymakers say should become the new standard. These benefits include:

Fewer English-language learners held back More time engaged in reading and math lessons and greater gains Teachers have the time to plan better lessons

In general, CPS forwards to schools only enough money for them to offer half-day kindergarten. It forces the majority of schools to use their own discretionary money if they want to have a full-day program.

April 29, 2011

Jermaine Kelly’s elementary school experience was chaotic. Every time he turned around, a fight was “jumping off,” he says, smiling sheepishly and adding, “We had wars inside that school, and I was in the middle of it.”

The response of the principal was swift and always the same. Jermaine says he was suspended so many times, it felt like going through a revolving door. “I would get there, and two days later I would be back home,” Jermaine recalls.  In 7th grade, he was suspended multiple times for eight to 10 days.

April 29, 2011

Chicago’s debate over social promotion has faded for the most part. In Illinois, few followed the city’s lead in making standardized test scores a primary factor in retaining children.  Many large districts and charter schools say they look at multiple factors before holding children back and don’t pass students along for social reasons—but don’t fail large numbers of students either.

April 29, 2011

Since approving a tough student promotion policy in 1996, the School Board has constantly adjusted it, allowing more students to be promoted from one grade to the next.

1996

March 09, 2011

STEP-UP is an offshoot of the Chicago Teacher Education Pipeline, which began in the Latino community of Little Village in fall 2004. As of spring 2010, nearly 140 teacher candidates had completed student teaching in the Pipeline’s partner schools.

March 09, 2011

The federal government has spent millions of dollars to help local universities prepare teacher candidates for Chicago Public Schools.

But this year’s budget crisis has meant that far fewer new graduates ended up in Chicago’s neediest neighborhood schools. “The significant budget cuts this last year deeply impacted our graduates’ capacity to find work,” notes Kavita Kapadia Matsko, director of the University of Chicago’s Urban Teacher Education Program, which includes a year of education coursework plus a year-long paid residency in a school.

November 22, 2010

Peer juries, the most common restorative justice practice in Chicago Public Schools, have existed in high schools since at least the 1990s.

Now, Hay Elementary has a promising peer jury program launched with the help of the district’s pilot restorative justice program.

Principal Wayne Williams says the peer jury began with strong teacher training and student recruitment.

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