catalyst-chicago.org

The CPS Board of Education Wednesday approved the appointment of interim chief of staff Nora Cargie Moreno. Moreno is currently director of Boeing's global corporate citizenship department, and Boeing will continue to pay her while she works for CPS. In a press release, board president Mary Richardson-Lowry  thanked Boeing for donating Moreno's time and salary. 

A University of Illinois-Chicago researcher was awarded a $730,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to study why adolescents bully. Stacey Horn, UIC associate professor of educational psychology, will look at the prevalence of bullying around gender and sexuality and how teens use it to impose social control. She will survey and interview Chicago area teens. Horn also will work with the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance on a public service campaign.

In the state 

The Daily Herald follows Catalyst reporting on the hearings being held Thursday by a committee on school reform put together by House Speaker Mike Madigan. The Herald obtained a copy of the committee's proposal that calls for teacher certificates to be revoked after frequent negative performance evaluations. Also, it says new positions should be filled based on merit and ability, not seniority. 

A school spirit video starring two musically gifted students from Oak Park and River Forest High School has gotten 22,000 hits on YouTube. 

In the nation

Parents at a school in Compton, California are using a new law, called the Parent Trigger, to impose sweeping changes on their school. The law gives parents of failing schools the power to close down their schools, convert it into a charter school or replace the entire staff. The parents want a charter operator to be given control of their school. 

The debate over whether Cathie Black is qualified to run New York City schools continues on Huffington Post. In an op-ed by Steve Nelson, the head of Calhoun School in Manhattan. He says her problem is not a lack of educational experience, but the lack of any evidence that she has "intellectual heft or has any sophisticated understanding of the philosophical, psychological or biological considerations that should inform good educational practice." 

Related: City Limits poises 10 multiple-choice questions for Cathie Black, including what are the most pressing questions for a new teachers contract?