In the News: School honoring slain officer dedicated; divide on merit pay, tenure, Race to Top Mayor Daley and Chicago Public Schools and police officials joined in the dedication Wednesday of the new Eric Solorio Academy High School (5400 S. St. Louis Ave.) that honors a Chicago police officer who was killed in the line of duty several years ago. About 300 freshmen will begin classes at the school next week. It's the first public high school named after a police officer killed on duty. The school cost taxpayers $100 million cost and will be managed by a private company (WBEZ and CPS press release)

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In the News: Limited success with turnarounds; value-added evaluation model exploding A survey released by the Washington-based Center on Education Policy finds that few school districts are familiar with the four federal models for turning around low-performing schools and even fewer have implemented them.
More than a third of school districts reported they had no familiarity with the models that are part of the $3.5 billion Title 1 School Improvement Grants heading to school districts this fall, according to the report.

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Four Chicago neighborhoods to give input on school improvement To try and get community buy-in for school closings and new school openings, CPS has chosen four neighborhoods in which officials plan to develop a school improvement plan. The communities--Englewood, Grand Boulevard, Humboldt Park and Austin—all have struggling schools that are prime targets for some type of action from the district.




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In the News: Funding for New Teacher Center; advice on fixing public schools Last year, the Chicago New Teacher Center provided training and mentoring for all new CPS teachers. But the $3.5 million program collapsed in June after the School Board laid off its 54 teacher coaches to help balance the CPS budget. Now, the Center may be coming back but with a scaled-down program. With funding from five foundations — The Boeing Company Charitable Trust, Crown Family Philanthropies, Finnegan Family Foundation, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation and The Joyce Foundation — the Center has re-hired seven coaches, who have provided two two-day-long orientation sessions open to all new teachers in CPS.
 

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In the News: CPS embraces online learning; charters recast New Orleans education Tribune reporter Azam Ahmed takes a look at online learning programs in Chicago Public Schools, which supporters say are inexpensive, flexible and have the potential to revolutionize education. Critics call online learning untested. CPS now offers a battery of online programs, ranging from math and reading enrichment, to a virtual charter school with students learning almost entirely from home. Two years ago, online courses were offered in only a handful of CPS high schools. This year, all high schools will have them.

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In the News: City Colleges open admissions; Chicago State's high dropout rate Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell decries the end of open admissions at Chicago's City Colleges, saying "would mean that many of these students could end up being denied access to higher education. If that is our intent, then things are going to get a lot worse before they get better."

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College-prep for all no guarantee of higher achievement Do more rigorous courses raise student achievement? Not necessarily, according to a study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research. A new policy brief from the Consortium, in effect, sounds a warning about the national push for tougher learning standards for all students.
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In the News: 'Two worlds' at school board meeting; support for Obama's education agenda slipping The Sun-Times reports on the "two different worlds" of Wednesday's Chicago School Board meeting, as board officials calmly insisted they would be ready to open schools Sept. 7 with a balanced budgets and hundreds of jobs restored — while teachers and principals called CPS budget-balancing chaotic. The president of the Chicago Principals Association also said the idea of asking principals to retire in January  — eight weeks before critical state tests are given — is "stupid."

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CPS passes budget, union demands rehiring of laid-off teachers

At Wednesday’s board meeting, CPS officials announced plans to restructure some of the district’s debt obligations to balance the system’s budget, rather than draining all of the district’s stabilization reserve funds, as had earlier been proposed.

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In the News: CTU charges 'education on the cheap'; East Coast dominates Race to the Top The Chicago Teachers Union on Tuesday accused Chicago Public Schools officials of hiring "baby sitters" to provide "education on the cheap," in reference to a plan to use non-teachers for online, after-school classes that will extend school days for 5,500 students.

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Illinois doesn't win Race to the Top grant Despite many last minute changes to state law to make the state more competitive, Illinois fails to win a piece of the 3.4 billion of federal education grant money.

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In the News: More longer CPS days; turnaround plans in doubt Chicago Public Schools plans to add 90 minutes to the schedules of 15 elementary schools using online courses and nonteachers.

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In the News: Rehiring CPS teachers; TIF money for schools; Teach for America expansion

CPS officials might use federal teacher jobs funding to re-hire roughly 300 to 400 high school teachers and cap core high school class sizes at 28, according to a statement issued Friday by Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis.

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In the News: 1st public charter high school for suburbs; CPS' executive chart

Despite opposition from Rich Township High School District 227, Southland College Preparatory Charter High School, the first public charter high school in suburban Chicago, officially opened Thursday in Matteson.

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Public hearings on CPS budget, facility use; chasing turnaround money Two state lawmakers, State Rep. Cynthia Soto and Sen. Heather Steans, are urging taxpayers to attend public hearings on the Chicago Public Schools' decisions on facility use.

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Judge sets date for hearing on teachers' union lawsuit

During Wednesday morning’s hearing for the Chicago Teachers Union’s  lawsuit over layoffs, Chicago Public Schools chalked up a preliminary victory on the question of scheduling.

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In the News: ACT racial gap persists; Duncan endorses public data on teachers

The average ACT score of Illinois seniors dropped this year, fueled in part by a widening achievement gap, the Sun-Times reports. And, nationwide the gap persists among racial and ethnic groups, Education Week also reports.

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Union to ask federal judge to reverse layoffs

Lawyers for the Chicago Teachers Union will go to federal court Wednesday morning to ask a judge to issue a temporary injunction reversing the layoffs of about 1,400 teachers and instructional coaches.

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In the News: Black male graduation rates; free summer lunches A report released today reveals a 36 percent gap in the high school graduation rates between black and white males in Illinois. In Chicago public schools, the black male high school graduation rate is only 44 percent.

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Board chair's clients, law firm get business from City Colleges: BGA investigation

Since being named chairman of the City Colleges board in March, Gery Chico has abstained from seven votes—all involving his law firm or clients doing business with the community college system, according to a review by the Better Government Association in partnership with Catalyst Chicago.

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