catalyst-chicago.org

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan acknowledged Monday that African American students receive disproportionately harsher discipline than white students in schools nationwide — and especially in Chicago.

Duncan, who left the post of Chicago’s Schools CEO in 2009, said the “most alarming findings’’ in a new analysis of school equity issues involved “the sad fact’’ that minority students face “much harsher discipline” than non-minorities and “some of the worst discrepancies are in my home town of Chicago.’’ (Sun-Times)

Catalyst began writing about this issue in May 2009, reporting that both elementary and high schools were suspending and expelling students at alarming rates and that African-American male students bore the brunt.

In a press release Tuesday afternoon, the Chicago Teachers Union responded to the suspension report by saying that "the data lends further credibility" to its belief  the CPS "status quo policies amount to educational apartheid for a significant number of students." The federal study found, in school year 2009-2010, Chicago’s African American students made up 45 percent of total enrollment but 76 percent of school suspensions, and, most of them are male, the release stated.

CTU President Karen Lewis on Tuesday criticized Chicago Public Schools chief Jean-Claude Brizard for remarks made a day earlier that he supported public dollars being invested in scholarships for students at private schools. (Tribune)

Parents in Beverly and Mount Greenwood who are against Mayor Rahm Emanuel's 7.5-hour school day, scheduled to be implemented at all schools in the fall, announced a community forum for 7 p.m. Thursday that is being organized and hosted by Ald. Matt O'Shea, 19th. CPS officials have been invited to Morgan Park High School to answer questions, including the source of funding for the longer day initiative.

IN THE STATE
Evanston-Skokie School District 65 gets $52,000 from Race to the Top. (Skokie Review)

Nearly all Barrington Unit District 220 board members Tuesday approved retaining a Chinese language immersion program that recently lost its federal grant. (Daily Herald)

IN THE NATION

New nationwide data collected by the U.S. Department of Education's civil rights office reveal stark racial and ethnic disparities in student retentions, with black and Hispanic students far more likely than white students to repeat a grade, especially in elementary and middle school. More than half of all 4th graders retained at the end of the 2009-10 academic year—56 percent—were black, according to the data, which account for about 85 percent of the nation's public school population. In 3rd grade, 49 percent of those held back were black. (Education Week)

Work has begun on an education-centered community featuring three charter schools and affordable housing for teachers in Newark’s decayed downtown. The development, called Teachers Village, is receiving millions of dollars in government subsidies in various forms, with $14.2 million being provided in equity by the developers. (The New York Times)

A teacher who faces molestation charges continued to work in Los Angeles schools despite a record that should have raised warning flags. He was tried, but not convicted, in an alleged molestation in 1997 and he previously left a job at a private school after alleged remarks made during a sex education class. (Los Angeles Times)