catalyst-chicago.org

Limited educational opportunities for young Latinos — from declining access to preschool to high school dropout rates — will pose challenges to Chicago area’s ability to compete in a global, tech- and information-driven marketplace, says a new study by DePaul University and released Thursday by the New Journalism on Latino Children project.

“The workforce gaps revealed in this study are set in motion before Latino children enter kindergarten,” said Bruce Fuller, a University of California professor who advised the project. “Chicago’s economic competitiveness will continue to decline until young workers display more agile cognitive and social skills. We know quality education early on is a key piece of the puzzle.”

Occupiers, teachers and parents halt Bd of Ed meeting

The global public protest movement known as Occupy landed in the middle of the Chicago Board of Education meeting Wednesday, halting CEO Jean-Claude Brizard's PowerPoint presentation and forcing board members to move to a closed session before returning more than two hours later. The Tribune's story focused on the disruption that denounced the "board, its policies, charter school expansion and systemic failures of the city's public school system."

The Sun-Times reporter saw "a band of screaming protesters" who took over a Chicago School Board meeting "with a tag-team of chants that charged the system’s school closing policy with failing Chicago’s children and producing 'chaos.' ’’

In the Chicago News Cooperative story CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll said she and others anticipated that protesters would try to shut down the meeting, but the decision to move to closed session occurred only after “it became obvious they were going to continue to [shout].”

Wednesday’s board meeting was the first time that protesters effectively shut down a meeting, Catalyst reported.

The latest post on Fred Klonsky's blog says "demagnetizing" LaSalle Language Academy, a magnet school in the middle of one of Chicago's richest neighborhoods, where Mayor Emanuel also happens to life, could shift the school's current racial makeup of 33 percent white students to 63 percent white students.

Between Sept. 18 and Dec. 5, Chicago police nabbed 4,740 children for being out after curfew, according to Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office. During that period in 2010, there were 4,106 such violations, the mayor's office said.

IN THE STATE

Barrington Unit District 220 officials have again been forced to take the rare action of disenrolling an out-of-district student whose residency information had been falsified. (Daily Herald)

IN THE NATION

A growing number of community colleges nationwide are taking special steps to attract and accommodate students who are 50 and older. (USAToday)

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to consider a bill that would require those seeking Unemployment Insurance to have a high school diploma or GED—or be working toward one—in order to receive those benefits. The provision is part of a push to extend unemployment benefits while revamping the program, in part by shortening to 59, from 99, the number of weeks people are eligible. (Education Week)

Academica has become Florida’s largest and richest charter-school management company, running more than 60 schools in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. (Miami Herald)

In Florida, 86 percent of charter schools do not have any students classified as severely disabled. (State Impact/NPR)