As CPS prepares to close a record number of schools, the fate of students and communities is in question.
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In the News: State slips in higher ed credibility
By: Cassandra West / November 29, 2011
A report from the Institute for Research on Higher Education looks at Illinois' decline from being a top-performing state in preparing students for college, enrolling residents in college and keeping college affordable.
Chicago Public Schools is giving a top-to-bottom overhaul to 10 low-performing schools, with all staff at the schools to be replaced at the end of this academic year, WBEZ reports.
According to the Sun-Times: Six schools targeted for turnarounds are overseen by the Academy for Urban School Leadership, an organization touted by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and that counts School Board President David Vitale as its former board chairman. They are: Casals, Fuller, Herzl, Marquette, Piccolo and Stagg Elementary. Marquette, a massive school with more than 1,400 students, is the largest CPS elementary school to ever face a turnaround.
In its story on the turnaround proposal, the Tribune wrote, "the record 10 schools for 'turnaround' next year reflects how poorly many city schools are preparing students for college and the workforce, officials said."
From Catalyst: Chicago Public School leaders are proposing “turning around” 10 schools next year, more than ever has been done before in the district, which popularized the process of replacing the principal and most of the staff of a school.
Chicago teachers add principles of arithmetic to early-childhood education, laying base for higher-level skills later on.
Chicago Teachers Union will host a "Teach In" against the proposed closings of more Chicago public schools two days after the Board of Education announces its 2012 "Hit List" of schools slated for termination, according to Substance News. The CTU Teach-In will be held on Dec. 3, at Martin Luther King Jr. High School, 4444 S. Drexel Blvd., beginning at 10 a.m. The union and the groups are demanding that no additional schools be closed and privatized in Chicago.
IN THE STATE
District 300 is satisfied with Sears incentive bill changes. (Courier-News)
IN THE NATION
President Obama and his signature education program, Race to the Top, along with John B. King Jr., the New York State commissioner of education, deserve credit for spurring what is believed to be the first principals’ revolt in history, The New York Times reports. Earlier this week, 658 principals around the state had signed a letter — 488 of them from Long Island, where the insurrection began — protesting the use of students’ test scores to evaluate teachers’ and principals’ performance.
Occupy L.A. offers a hands-on civics lesson for students, who are getting a firsthand look at the movement while others learn in the classroom about what is seen as history in the making. (Los Angeles Times)
Wooden blocks are making a comeback as some elementary schools focus on unstructured play. (The New York Times)
Kansas teen not required to issue apology for tweet, district says; governor offers apology.
Michigan to fine Detroit Public Schools for high truancy.
The New York Times looks at the dwindling power of a college degree.
How many college graduates does Illinois really need?
The report by Laura Perna and Joni Finney on the decline of Illinois higher education was deeply disturbing. Also the data on Illinois record on poor performance of minority students in Illinois colleges was equally upsetting and reinforces my own cynicism about the CPS college graduation push. But the report makes an economic assumption that I believe is not valid anymore. The authors write that Illinois must increase its production of associates and bachelor's degrees by 5.4% annually to keep up with workforce demands in Illinois.
I think this projection is absurd, Peter Orszag, President Obama's former budget director earlier this month wrote a very good piece titled Winds of Economic Change Blow Away College Degree. In this article Mr. Orszag explains what should now be obvious based on the under employment of new college graduates. That it is wrong to assume that the "critical labor-market distinction is, and will remain, between highly educated (or highly skilled) people and less-educated (or less-skilled) people -- doctors versus call-center operators, for example. Instead, the crucial distinction is between those tasks that are easily digitized (and thus subject to substantial competition from workers abroad) and those that are not."
The economist Paul Krugman said essentially the same thing in an article titled Degrees and Dollars that appeared back in March. He wrote " technological progress is actually reducing the demand for highly educated workers." Seen from this perspective the decline in funding for Illinois higher education is simply put rational and responding to likely future demand for college graduates.
If we want our children to go to and graduate from college our reason for doing so better not any longer be based on assumptions of the big economic returns. Maybe a college education should be seen as part of human development to create educated citizens and not more highly educated proletarians. Maybe if education was not looked at as part of the economic production process, but as a human right the Illinois General Assembly would see funding for it in a different light.
Rod Estvan
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