catalyst-chicago.org

As the district prepares for the second year of its ambitious High School Transformation project, an important piece is just now getting attention: How to teach special education students and English-language learners the new curricula.

"We should be further along on this than we are," says Allan Alson, executive director of the project.

MOVING IN/ON Charles Payne, a leading scholar in research on urban school reform and social inequality, has been named the Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration. He will also serve as a member of the university's Committee on Education. Payne most recently was a professor of history and African-American studies at Duke University and was previously on the faculty at Northwestern University. ...

When the Chicago Board of Education announced that 775 probationary teachers would be let go, the general impression was that these individuals were unworthy and inept. Even Chicago Sun-Times columnist Monroe Anderson wondered how CPS could "hire so many incompetent employees in less than five years?"

Posted July 12, 2007-- Teachers don't like it. Principals rush through it. Schools CEO Arne Duncan says it's ineffective. Yet Chicago Public Schools' version of teacher evaluation persists as little more than busy work, having resisted reforms dating back to the 1980s.

In fact, some critics contend Chicago doesn't even meet the minimal teacher evaluation guidelines set by the state, which recently earned a "D" from the National Council on Teacher Quality.