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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.

Updates

August 30, 2006

The district's new Student Code of Conduct (formerly called the Uniform Discipline Code) is a compromise between two positions: that of youth advocates who wanted more innovative methods of discipline, and principals and teachers who wanted more resources and training to use the innovative practices.

August 30, 2006
By: Ed Finkel

Three training programs for aspiring CPS principals have earned reputations and resources that put them ahead of the rest. But when it comes to getting jobs for those who graduate, one effort has an edge over the others.

Nearly two out of every three people who completed principal training with New Leaders for New Schools, a national program that launched in Chicago and New York five years ago and specializes in tapping career changers, have landed jobs as principals.

July 06, 2006

CPS has tapped Allan Alson, the highly regarded superintendent of Evanston Township High School, to oversee its high school transformation project. In 1999, Alson led the creation of a consortium of 15 school districts that were committed to closing the achievement gap between white and minority students. Associate Editor Maureen Kelleher spoke with Alson about what needs to be done to make Chicago's public high schools better.

Talk a little bit about your job and your role in high school transformation.

June 07, 2006

A majority of parents give their child's public school high marks—and themselves higher marks—in parental involvement activities and effort.

Those whose children attend charter, contract, military or small schools—so-called non-traditional schools—tend to view involvement at their schools more favorably than do parents with children in traditional CPS schools. Parents whose children were in high school reported lower levels of involvement.

June 02, 2006

CPS teachers have another year to go under their current contract agreement, yet union delegates have approved a preliminary list of demands and are gearing up to negotiate a new deal.

Several items on their wish list—shaving 15 minutes off of the school day, eliminating 50-minute periods in high schools, requiring the district to foot the entire bill for health insurance premiums—would undo provisions that were hammered out by former Chicago Teachers Union President Deborah Lynch and her team.

June 02, 2006

Beginning in September, 14 CPS schools will test run the district's multimillion dollar high school transformation project, an initiative designed to improve curriculum and instruction in core subjects.

Two months ago, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced it was giving $21 million for the effort. Initially, 15 schools were to be involved during year one, but cost was a factor for at least one school that considered the idea, then backed out.

May 23, 2006

Last October, Chicago teachers authorized a strike after rejecting a proposed five-year contract that was backed by their union's leaders. Anger over the contract's length and health care costs fueled the rejection.

In late November, they approved a revised package by just 2,503 votes (15,289 to 12,786), locking themselves into a four-year pact but winning 4 percent annual pay raises.

Dissatisfaction lingered, sparking a three-way challenge to union President Deborah Lynch in the upcoming May 21 election. If no candidate wins a majority, there will be a two-way runoff.

May 12, 2006

The news that only 6.5 percent of Chicago Public Schools graduates earned a college degree by their mid-20s grabbed front-page headlines for the Consortium on Chicago School Research, which tracked college participation rates for the classes of 2002 and 2003 using data from the National Student Clearinghouse.

The report is the first to follow graduates of a major urban school system to find out how many go to college, where they enroll and how many graduate.

Beyond the dismal college graduation rate, the Consortium found that:

May 12, 2006

After the Illinois Legislature raised the compulsory school attendance age to 17 from 16, the School Board launched a media blitz to announce a new attendance and truancy policy that included a controversial provision requiring parents to sign a consent form before a child drops out.

Bill Leavy, executive director of Greater West Town Community Project, says he believes the law has at least lit a fire under schools to do more to keep kids from leaving.

But some kids who tried to get back in school initially had a difficult time doing so, he adds.

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