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Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman is considering a plan that would allow parents to see how teachers measure up, as the district prepares to retool its teacher performance evaluations.

Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman is considering a plan that
would allow parents to see how teachers measure up, as the district prepares to retool its teacher performance evaluations. (WBEZ)

For the fourth year, the Museum of Science and Industry will give free family passes to CPS students in kindergarten through 12th grade as an incentive to drive first-day attendance. (Sun-Times)

Drugs and gangs are common problems at public schools in the United States, according to the 15th annual teen survey by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. The survey also found that 46 percent of teens in public schools say there are gangs in their schools and that 47 percent of teens say that drugs are used, kept or sold on school grounds. (Gannett News Service)

In the state

Enrollment in the Springfield School District at the start of the 2010-11 school year increased less than 1 percent over last year, according to figures released Thursday. (State Journal-Register)

Northwest Suburban High School District 214 school board unanimously approved a new cell policy that allows students to use their mobile phones in hallways and around school grounds. (Daily Herald)

In the nation

Over the next four years, two groups of states, 44 in all, will get $330 million to work with hundreds of university professors and testing experts to design a series of new assessments that officials say will look very different from those in use today. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said the tests will be computer-based and will measure higher-order skills ignored by the multiple-choice exams used in nearly every state, including students’ ability to read complex texts, synthesize information and do research projects. (The New York Times)

The Los Angeles Unified School District board has endorsed using the controversial system of using student scores on standardized tests as a way to measure teacher performance. The board also authorized the schools superintendent to start negotiating with unions to develop a new system to evaluate teachers and administrators that includes using so-called value-added data. (Education Week)

Vermont is tops in the country for the achievements of low-income students but ranks at the bottom of the list for education reform, according to a national group that promotes limited government. The Report Card on American Education by the American Legislative Exchange Council ranked the educational performance of the states and District of Columbia based on scores of low-income 4th- and 8th-graders on National Assessment of Educational Progress reading and math tests in 2003 and 2009. Illinois ranked 38th in achievement and 24th in reform, receiving a grade of C. (Boston Globe/ALEC)

The kindergarten class of 2010-11 is less white, less black, more Asian and much more Hispanic than in 2000, reflecting the nation's rapid racial and ethnic transformation. (USAToday)

Detroit prepares to open its first teacher-led school, which is modeled after similar schools in Boston, Milwaukee, Denver and Los Angeles.