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Huberman claims progress in creating "culture of calm" in schools
By: Sarah Karp / May 26, 2010
Fifty fewer CPS students have been shot and 10 fewer killed this school
year, according to Chicago Public Schools officials. Fifty fewer CPS students have been shot and 10 fewer killed this school year, according to Chicago Public Schools officials.
“Are we happy? No,” says CEO Ron Huberman, but it is one of the statistics he is touting as he makes a case for the success of his major initiative—improving the safety and security of students.
In September, Huberman announced that he was going to spend $60 million of federal stimulus funds over two years to try to stem the violence that victimizes and is sometimes perpetrated by CPS students.
A powerpoint released Wednesday shows that Huberman has scaled down his plan substantially in some areas and has only started to get the money out to the schools and communities. Several of the key components are in the Request for Proposal stage.
However, the allocation of funds should speed up soon. The $30 million devoted to the project this year must be spent by September. At the June Board of Education meeting there will several contracts awarded, Huberman says.
And how the money is being spent has changed over the school year. For example, Huberman originally said he was going to award 38 schools “culture of calm” grants to do what principals thought was needed to lessen violence among their students. The powerpoint reveals that Huberman and his team instead decided to “pilot” culture transformations in six schools. The pilot schools are Robeson, Manley, Farragut, Harlan, Julian and Clemente.
The chief area officers are leading smaller-scale transformations in the other 32 schools, but it is unclear what kind of resources the CAOs are being given and what they are doing.
Yet Huberman says the project is already making a difference. Between January and April, the six pilot schools have seen dramatic changes. According to Huberman, about 46 percent fewer students were shot from these schools, 77 percent fewer students have committed misconducts and 14 percent fewer are failing. He also claims there is a slight improvement in attendance.
It is worth noting, however, that there’s no way to fact-check this information. Also, officials have been vague about what they are doing at these schools to spur a change. The culture of calm vision includes such things as "students are enthusiastic to come to school" and "the activities include positive behavior reinforcement."
Another new part of the plan is the student safety center. This is a central location where principals, school security and police can get safety-related information in real time.
Mike Shields, head of safety and security, says that this year the department has spent a lot of time working on “gathering intelligence” about gangs and potential violent behavior.
The other crucial part of Huberman’s plan is to provide mentoring for those students deemed most at risk og being shot. Between 1,500 to 2,000 students were to get mentors through community agencies. CPS officials and a blue ribbon committee are still in the process of deciding which community agencies will get contracts to do the work.
But without a request for proposal, within weeks of his September announcement, Huberman put $5 million in the hands of Youth Advocacy Program, an organization from Philadelphia, to provide mentoring for 200 students deemed at the highest risk.
Huberman, a former police officer, had determined who these students were through a statistical model. One question Huberman has yet to answer: how accurate was this model in predicting who was shot?
Huberman claims progress in creating "culture of calm" in school
this guy twists the truth at every turn. the reports i get from schools is the violence is up some are up for grabs on a daily basis but teachers and staff have been threaten with termination if they come forward. just look there are no citations to any of the data quoted in the Power point. You would think with such great news huberdata would be quoting statistics and real reports from independent agencies.
we know that he lies and so does most everyone else in the spin machine of CPS communications.
I did not get a raise! I need two CPS paid cars!
why not release police arrests and/or state mandated reporting
this guy is a fool that believes everyone is as dumb as he is.
one example is that CPS refuses to release violence data that i requested through FOIA in Feb 2010, saying they are not required to report such data.
another is the murder of a Hyde Park student two months ago that took three days for CPS to confirm citing the privacy rights of the family to grieve that publishing a teenagers murder would further upset the family and that is why they did not report it.
John Kugler
kuglerjohn@comcast.net
ANOTHER COVER UP at Prosser Career Academy High School??
Huberman is misleading the City of Chicago taxpapers and its not his fault as many principal fail to have students arrested and cover up information sent in to be analyzed by CPS and CPD.....Case in point, the following 'COVER UP' at Prosser Career Academy High School on surveys given to teachers to evaluate their principal, Kenneth Leon Hunter:
Is there yet another 'cover up' at Prosser?
Prosser, which has a history of problems with grade changes, LSC voting fraud, 'clout' hiring, principal intimidation of teachers, and teacher surveys of the principal {altered/thrown away/replaced and turned into the University of Chicago's Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR)}.
At Prosser Career Academy High School, teachers are given a survey to evaluate Principal Kenneth Hunter and are told to 'anonymously' turn them in to the Assistant Principal Dr. Raul 'Mr. Magoo' Luna and not in a SASE to Univ. of Chicago.
However, 'SEVERAL' Prosser's teachers have complained that their 'honest' and 'somewhat negative' surveys of Principal Hunter were not included and replaced by 'positive' surveys and sent in instead.
What's the point of having teachers fill out surveys if the assistant principal has the opportunity to throw them away and replace them with favorable surveys?
The (CCSR) was created in 1990 after the passage of the Chicago School Reform Act that decentralized governance of the city's public schools. (http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/content/page.php?cat=1)
CCSR survey results are now available exclusively online. To access the current survey results, go to
Understanding Your School: Survey Results
In 1991, the Consortium began to regularly survey all Chicago public school principals, teachers, and students to learn their views on and experiences in our public schools. In the spring of 2005, nearly 130,000 students, teachers, and principals across the system participated in the Improving Chicago's Schools survey. The next survey will be administered in spring of 2011
Improving schools
Today's Sun Times has an article relating to CEO Ron Huberman's claims that in the Chicago Public Schools "student behavior problems have droped 77% at six targeted schools (May 27). Huberman credits this fantastic improvement with the $60 million federal
stimulus dollars received over two years, due to his anti-violent plan.
If all it takes is money, I say, start passing the hat. I give Huberman credit. I'm sure that everybody wants to stop violence in the schools--and in and around school grounds. His first effort, according to the Sun Times, was "to identify 1,700 high school students most likely to be shot in the next two years, based on similarities to prior CPS shooting victims. What?
Huberman also implemented a "culture of calm" plan in 38 troubled high schools. However, only 6 high schools received coordinators to help in this program. The results, again, were startling. According to Huberman, "Serious behavior problems are down 77%, 46% fewer students have been shot, 14% fewers have received D's and F's, and attendance is up 7%. This sounds fantastic, but having been a teacher involved in testing statistics, without knowing the N number of students involved, the numbers may not mean much.
Some of the student "rules" of behavior were listed, which Huberman belives helped. Safety and Security Director Michael Shields thought that student's behavior improved due to the "Hawthorn effect"--because they knew they were being watched
In any case, anything that improves behavior in schools is to be commended. The only thing I am still seriously concerned about is the part of Huberman's plan which calls for "establishing 'safe passage' routes at 12 high schools in high-crime areas." That is another problem altogether.
Sylvia Bush
Huberman claims progress in creating "culture of calm" in school
ATTENTION - Chicago Teachers Union Election Investigation
Anyone who attends a Stewart school meeting needs to collect evidence so we can report it to the proper labor agencies for possible union election fraud and misuse of union resources.
I need:
Location of Meeting
Date and Time of the Meeting
Names of all union staff and Filed Representatives at the meeting
Names of Faculty and Staff at the meeting
Notices from the meeting - 24hr prior posted notice to all staff
Examples of evidence: pics, video, audio, documents
Especially we need documentation of union staff doing election work!
This is an ongoing investigation.
Please contact me directly.
john kugler
kuglerjohn@comcast.net
Huberman claims progress in creating "culture of calm" in school
The Culture of Calm grant from the Federal Government (out of stimulus
funds) was $60 million dollars over two years. So even if "incidents"
at 6 schools went down -- that is 10 million dollars for each school
with a drop in incidents....
My question is: was the presentation including all the schools in
which incidents have gone up in violence, or did it just talk about 6
schools that have gone down?
Huberman claims progress in creating "culture of calm" in school
We are being told by the area msd to LOWER suspensions and calls to the police. It is the end of the school year when student assaults in and just outside of school are happening. CPS does NOT want us to suspend according to SCC. They want stats/data to show these incidents are falling down, which they are not. Problem kids figure this out in a hurry and become predators more since they know we need to keep the stats down. And we cannot suspend without putting it in writing, because if a parent complains, we are in trouble for NOT having the paper work.
Huberman claims progress in creating "culture of calm" in school
Sad... all that money for what? Pay some cronies for services rendered... ok.
Huberman claims progress in creating "culture of calm" in school
The timing of this "news" -- the day following 5,000 protesters in the streets railing against CPS budget cuts and policies -- seems suspect. With all due respect, it seems Catalyst buried the lead -- unsubstantiated claims by Huberman down in paragraph 9 -- and took the bait to knock out the real news -- the protest.
"It is worth noting, however, that there’s no way to fact-check this information. ...
Huberman claims progress in creating "culture of calm" in school
What a sham! With the dumbed down CPS Student Code of Conduct, school administrator's have their hands, feet, lips, and everything else tied. Teachers, staff, and good students are forced to endure physical and verbal attacks from both students and parents and a slew of other insults. Learning, teaching--where? when? how? We need real help not just b.s. Put some more effort into creating a safe environment for all. Stop pretending to create positive change. Just do it! It is so frustrating to get flack from students and their parents, as well as Central Office. Come down from the mountain and see what is really going on. Maybe then you will understand what is needed to get CPS on track. No Education Without Strong Discipline. And that math question is insulting.
Huberman claims progress in creating "culture of calm" in school
My question is that where does all this money go to? I just don't understand. I think there are inexpensive solutions, but no one seems to be addressing the right things.
Huberman claims progress in creating "culture of calm" in school
Here's the answer to your last question: http://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/aer.101.3.288
wtheck...
wth(eck).....is a "CULTURE OF CALM COORDINATOR"???? thats a weird title!!! whats their job? Our coordinator at our school is busy 24/7 and i think shes "bangin'" the dean...OOOOOH! IM SERIOUS....they always have the door locked together....they are bangin' i KNOW ITTT!
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