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Among educators in Chicago, conventional wisdom maintains that teachers in city schools routinely flee to jobs in the suburbs, lured by lower housing costs and, in high schools, higher salaries.

But in fact, less than one percent of CPS teachers quit each year to take jobs elsewhere in Cook County or the five collar counties, according to a Catalyst analysis of Illinois State Board of Education data from 1999 through 2003. That amounts to approximately 100 to 200 teachers per year during that period.

Hundreds of high school dropouts are expected to be turned away from alternative schools in the coming months, since the state cut a grant to dropout programs funded through City Colleges.

Eleven alternative schools lost about 30 percent of their expected budgets for this year—a total of nearly $2 million—when the Illinois State Board of Education turned down City Colleges' grant proposal for the first time in 18 years.

Meaningful changes in schools and in classrooms must involve teachers. So says Allen Bearden, now associate director of ST(2), a teacher support program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Bearden talked with researcher John Myers about unions and professional development, teacher leadership, the need for National Board certification and why teachers quit.

Why should unions care about teacher leadership and professional development?

MOVING IN/ON Deborah Lynch, former president of the Chicago Teachers Union, has joined the faculty at Gage Park High School as a special education teacher. ... Karen Daniels, a former principal from Boston Public Schools, is now a regional officer for the Renaissance 2010 project. She was formerly headmaster at Excel High School, a small school within South Boston High School.... Chastity Lord, former mid-Atlantic regional director for The New Teacher Project, which helps school districts address teacher shortages, is now director of Posse Chicago, a college scholarship program.

El mes pasado, la escuela autónoma Perspectives celebró la gran apertura de su nuevo edificio de siete millones de dólares, y declaró que estaba lista para lanzar hasta ocho escuelas más en los próximos cinco años.

Estas escuelas podrían evitar los problemas más grandes que Perspectives encaró, como encontrar y mantener unas facilidades apropiadas. Bajo Renaissance 2010, la Junta Escolar está prometiendo a operadores autónomos y contratados que tendrán una oportunidad para un espacio en facilidades de la CPS.

In February, the School Board adopted a policy giving itself wide latitude to close schools for academic and non-academic reasons. The only brake is the district's desegregation consent decree, which averts closing schools when integration would be reduced. However, the decree could be lifted as early as 2006.

Reasons for closing schools:

Poor academic performance (a year or more on probation)

Poor physical condition

Underutilized space

Converting to a charter

Changing educational focus

Reassigning school faculty, staff

New York City is rolling out small schools at breakneck speed. But depending on who's doing the talking, the initiative is either a bold undertaking or a recipe for turmoil. Both views provide lessons for Chicago.

June 1995 Sweeping amendments to the Chicago School Reform Act become law. They include a clause permitting CPS to contract for services with any party, including services performed by union members. The clause was used immediately to privatize some janitorial services.

February 1996 Illinois law provides for charter schools: 15 each in Chicago, collar county suburbs, and downstate.