Current Issue

School closings

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

Updates

December 03, 2007

Chicago Public Schools is closing in on its goal of opening 100 new schools under Renaissance 2010, but almost half of the communities identified as most in need of high-performing schools have yet to get them.

After the fourth round of new schools approved recently under the district's controversial program, 10 of the 25 "priority communities" identified in a 2004 report by the IFF (formerly the Illinois Facilities Fund) have yet to get the new schooling options they need.

November 01, 2007

Jones College Prep is aggressively trying to turn the tide on a quiet but alarming trend: the dwindling percentage of black students at the South Loop bastion and other elite city high schools.

African Americans account for half of CPS students, but only 29 percent of those in selective high schools, down from 37 percent in 1995. And the biggest drops are in the highest performing schools—Young, Jones, Lane, Payton and Northside—where the black student population has declined by 10 percent since 2000.

October 01, 2007
By: Ed Finkel

Chicago Public Schools will expand its community schools effort over the next year with an infusion of $7.5 million from CPS and between $700,000 and $800,000 from Chase Bank.

Funding for the schools became a question mark this year, when three-year grants from the Campaign for Community Schools ran out. The Campaign primarily raised funds from private sources to seed the community schools, which also receive money from the federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers program.

October 01, 2007

This fall the district has launched an initiative to standardize reading curricula in hopes of curbing the negative impact of mobility on reading instruction and achievement.

The initiative has begun with 150 elementary schools that volunteered to be part of the first cohort. Over the next three years, 150 schools will be added annually, adopting one of the two reading programs the district has selected.

October 01, 2007

Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools officials say they spent a significant amount of time negotiating over charter schools and Renaissance 2010 during talks in August.

Yet only one provision—the formation of a new committee to look into new models for performance schools—directly addresses the controversial program.

Behind the scenes, however, the union's opposition to charters appears to be changing.

September 20, 2007

Sept. 20--Despite little ink to show for it in the final contract, Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools officials say they spent a significant amount of time negotiating over charter schools and Mayor Daley's Renaissance 2010 program during talks in August.

Yet only one provision—the formation of a new committee to look into new models for Renaissance 2010 performance schools—directly addresses the mayor's controversial new schools program.

September 20, 2007

In a new, state-of-the-art community center near 69th and Sangamon in Englewood, slots for early childhood programs are going begging.

By mid-August, only four of 34 slots in the half-day Head Start were spoken for, and only six of 20 slots in the full-day program. The center has applied for two Preschool for All classes, and needs to fill those as well.

"We are shocked that we are having trouble filling our slots," says Leon Denton, who oversees the child care programs and is waging a door-to-door campaign in the African-American community to find eligible children.

September 04, 2007

When a vote to authorize a worker's compensation settlement came before Mayor Richard Daley's handpicked School Board back in April, the trustees did something unique—they split their vote.

The 5-2 decision marked the third time in 12 years that the Board's members disagreed on the record. What's more, not one split decision has dealt with educational matters, but rather contracts for food services and wireless networking.

September 01, 2007

Dozens of grants that lawmakers earmarked for building repairs and after-school programs at individual Chicago schools are among the $463 million in spending cuts Gov. Rod Blagojevich made Thursday, a Catalyst budget analysis shows.

He also cut $5 million statewide for severely overcrowded schools, and $3.5 million in charter school startup grants. For Chicago, that means a loss of $3 million for overcrowding relief and $3 million for charter school startups, according to CPS' Chief Financial Officer Pedro Martinez.

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