Last-minute recruiting brought the number of candidates for local school council elections next month to 7,059 by the Mar. 17 filing deadline, according to data from Chicago Public Schools.
The candidate count is higher than the last election in 2004, when nearly 6,900 parents, community representatives and teachers filed to run. This year, 62 schools will have fully contested elections.
Meanwhile, the longtime head of the district office that oversees elections announced he is leaving his post.
Last-minute recruiting brought the number of candidates for local school council elections next month to 7,059 by the Mar. 17 filing deadline, according to data from Chicago Public Schools.
The...
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Only four of the 18 schools tagged for chronic low performance will be closed or phased out next fall. Among the 14 spared are elementary schools with new principals and those that have already taken in students displaced by previous closings. Also allowed to remain open are elementaries that had no nearby school options for children who would be displaced. Schools that are partnered with the Chicago Teachers Union under the "Fresh Start" improvement program will remain open as well.
Only four of the 18 schools tagged for chronic low performance will be closed or phased out next fall. Among the 14 spared are elementary schools with new principals and those that have already taken...
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As the Illinois General Assembly races toward an April adjournment so lawmakers can hit the campaign trail before the November election, serious talk about education funding reform has been put on the back burner until 2007.
A+ Illinois, a coalition of organizations that support funding reform, is using the election season to start building support for legislation that could be before the General Assembly as early as next year. To expand its outreach, the group has hired three community organizers to work in Chicago, the collar counties and downstate Illinois.
As the Illinois General Assembly races toward an April adjournment so lawmakers can hit the campaign trail before the November election, serious talk about education funding reform has been put on...
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Under pressure from community groups and schools, CPS issued new guidelines for school closings to deploy extra staff to help ease transitions for kids displaced by closings, and provide temporary relief for schools that are taking in those students.
Guidelines issued in January outline new supports, such as counseling for concerned families, but not in much detail, some school reform advocates observe.
Under pressure from community groups and schools, CPS issued new guidelines for school closings to deploy extra staff to help ease transitions for kids displaced by closings, and provide temporary...
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Twice in the last two years, Herbert Elementary in the gentrifying West Haven neighborhood has taken in students displaced from nearby schools that the district closed.
The first wave came in the fall of 2004, after Suder Elementary's doors were shut. This past September, a second wave came from the shuttered Grant. A few more strayed in from closing schools outside of the community. This fall, Herbert's student body includes some 91 children who transferred in from closing schools, some 22 percent of total enrollment.
Twice in the last two years, Herbert Elementary in the gentrifying West Haven neighborhood has taken in students displaced from nearby schools that the district closed.
The first wave came in the...
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Back in the 1960s, the University of Chicago was Public Enemy No. 1 in Woodlawn, the feisty neighborhood just south of campus. With help from famed organizer Saul Alinsky, more than 100 churches, block clubs and other grassroots groups formed the Temporary Woodlawn Organization in 1960 (now The Woodlawn Organization, popularly known as TWO), led by Arthur Brazier. Its main goal: Stop the university from expanding south and displacing residents.
Back in the 1960s, the University of Chicago was Public Enemy No. 1 in Woodlawn, the feisty neighborhood just south of campus. With help from famed organizer Saul Alinsky, more than 100 churches,...
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At the Bessie Coleman Library in Woodlawn one Saturday morning in February, more than 50 parents and children showed up to hear about the University of Chicago's new charter school and pick up applications.
Although the idea of a neighborhood attendance area was still undecided, Woodlawn parent Jacqueline Topps was delighted at the prospect.
At the Bessie Coleman Library in Woodlawn one Saturday morning in February, more than 50 parents and children showed up to hear about the University of Chicago's new charter school and pick up...
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As parents lined up outside Hyde Park Career Academy for a special end-of-semester report card pickup day in February, four students flanked the front door, handing out fliers color-coded for each grade level.
Senior Aaron Jackson later estimated that over 300 parents received the fliers, with letters outlining the school's expectation for attendance, dress, grades and behavior. "We wrote the letters ourselves," says Jackson, who heads a new student group formed last December in the wake of an assault on a popular teacher.
As parents lined up outside Hyde Park Career Academy for a special end-of-semester report card pickup day in February, four students flanked the front door, handing out fliers color-coded for each...
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When a group of Chicago Public Schools teens decided that lack of college guidance was the biggest problem they faced in school, the discussion eventually led to the making of a documentary on the inequities between college prep and neighborhood schools. The film, with the working title "CPS Preparing Students for College," was financed with a private grant; the non-profit Street-Level Youth Media provided technical help. Soktheary Nak, a graduate of Roosevelt High who hopes to enroll in college next year, directed and produced the film and also appears in it.
When a group of Chicago Public Schools teens decided that lack of college guidance was the biggest problem they faced in school, the discussion eventually led to the making of a documentary on the...
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School closings never go down easy. When Chicago Public Schools announced it would be closing three elementary schools and phasing out one high school at the end of the school year—the fifth round of closings in as many years—it again ignited a firestorm of community protest and controversy.
But this time, the backlash extended to black and Latino state lawmakers, who are demanding to be part of any future discussions on school closings.
School closings never go down easy. When Chicago Public Schools announced it would be closing three elementary schools and phasing out one high school at the end of the school year—the fifth round of...
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Last summer, when Chicago Public Schools staffer Patrick Haugh told a group of administrators that the district planned to launch a new test, administer it three times a year, and get scores back to schools within two weeks, they laughed.
Rarely has the district demonstrated such quick turnaround. Typically it has taken at least two months for schools to receive scores from the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, and even longer for the ISAT (Illinois Standards Achievement Test).
Last summer, when Chicago Public Schools staffer Patrick Haugh told a group of administrators that the district planned to launch a new test, administer it three times a year, and get scores back to...
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MOVING IN/ON Susan Woodward, previously the vice president of recruitment and assessment affairs for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, is now the director of development and communications for the Chicago Public Education Fund. The Fund has also elected Susan Crown, a principal of the Chicago firm of Henry Crown & Company, and Kimberly Querrey, corporate director of operations and environmental health and safety for IMCO Recycling Inc., to its board of directors.
MOVING IN/ON Susan Woodward, previously the vice president of recruitment and assessment affairs for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, is now the director...
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Chicago's decision to scrap the Iowa test makes the state's revamped ISAT—generally considered a tougher exam—the sole high-stakes test students take each spring.
The ISAT will now be given annually in reading and math to grades 3 through 8 (and in 11th grade) to meet testing requirements set by the federal No Child Left Behind law. Science tests will continue to be administered in grades 4 and 7.
Chicago's decision to scrap the Iowa test makes the state's revamped ISAT—generally considered a tougher exam—the sole high-stakes test students take each spring.
The ISAT will now be given annually...
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In 1994, residents of Woodlawn Avenue between 61st and 62nd streets came together to develop an affordable housing cooperative in the area. But it wasn't long before the Woodlawn Development Associates, as they called themselves, made the connection between housing and schools. Pat Wilcoxen, a founding member of the group, recalls their reasoning: "If we're going to develop housing, people are going to want to have schools to send [their children] to."
In 1994, residents of Woodlawn Avenue between 61st and 62nd streets came together to develop an affordable housing cooperative in the area. But it wasn't long before the Woodlawn Development...
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