A raft of past programs have failed to substantially improve the reading skills of middle grade and high school students. CPS is trying once again, as part of a federal project that aims to help teens learn how to analyze complex non-fiction.
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In the News: CPS facing $700 million budget deficit
By: Cassandra West / March 28, 2012
Despite severe cost cutting, scores of layoffs and wholesale restructuring last year, Chicago Public Schools faces a budget deficit estimated at $600 million to $700 million in 2013, with the cost of a longer school day still unknown, the Tribune reported officials said.
CPS officials say using the Google Apps system to provide a single email system for all staff and students will save more than $6 million over three years. The school board is expected to approve a $1.8 million three-year contract for the system at its meeting Wednesday. (Tribune)
A group of Chicago Public School students Tuesday demanded that student opinions about the effectiveness of their teachers be slowly folded into a new teacher evaluation process due to start this fall. (Sun-Times)
Two citywide youth groups packed CPS headquarters Tuesday afternoon to ask the district to incorporate student surveys into teacher evaluations. Voices of Youth in Chicago Education joined with students from the Mikva Challenge, an organization dedicated to youth civic engagement, in making their request. (Catalyst)
School leaders confirmed at Monday night’s LSC Candidates Forum that 14 Lane Tech parents are now running for six available seats on the council. (Roscoe View Journal)
IN THE NATION
Though Colorado is more than a year away from implementing its new teacher-evaluation system, doubts have surfaced about the state's ability to launch such a sweeping initiative on time and with adequate resources for professional development. Educators from some of the 27 districts piloting the new system say that effort has turned out to be a complex and time-consuming task heaped upon demands of other education reforms. (Denver Post)
S. Dallas Dance, chief middle schools officer in the Houston school district, has been chosen as the next superintendent in Baltimore County. Dance, 30, had only two years of teaching experience in public schools, and therefore needed and received a waiver for the position. (The Baltimore Sun)
Go after deadbeat Property Tax payers
The city and the county really need to go after the banks, businesses and home owners who don't pay their fair share of the property tax burden. If I'm not mistaken the amount of unpaid propert taxes in Cook County was 700 Mil last year.
Deficit
Re: Trib story
Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah should check her facts on the pension holiday. She is premature in reporting that the Board has a 4 year pension holiday. Though I am sure they would like to extend it another year or ten, it is still a 3 year deal.
The legislature, as is its wont to do, was very irresponsible and cowardly in allowing CPS to abrogate its fiscal duties. Somewhere down the road, someone is going to have to pay.
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