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School closings

As CPS prepares to close a record number of schools, the fate of students and communities is in question.

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Catalyst Notebook

Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - 12:35pm

Delays in special ed preschool placements spark more state monitoring

By: Rebecca Harris
Tags: early childhood education, special education

CPS faces more intensive state monitoring following a ruling that the district isn’t doing a good enough job helping students transition from Early Intervention services into preschool special education.

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Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - 7:51am

In the News: Jesse Owens' family decries closing

By: Cassandra West
Tags: school closings

The eldest daughter of the famous Olympian Jesse Owens attended the final hearing Tuesday evening in an effort to save the West Pullman school named for her father from the Chicago Public Schools’ closing list, the Sun-Times reports. Jesse Owens Community Academy is one of 54 schools proposed for closing, and at least a dozen schools named for prominent African Americans on the closing list.

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Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - 2:36pm

Re-using closed schools takes planning, community input

By: Sarah Karp
Tags: facilities, school closings

When Kansas City was faced with the prospect of three dozen empty school buildings, city officials there took the unusual step of lending the district a city planner.

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Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - 7:38am

In the News: CTU sets sights on ousting Emanuel

By: Cassandra West
Tags: Chicago Teachers Union, Rahm Emanuel

Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis Monday vowed to launch a “comprehensive and aggressive political action campaign” with the ultimate goal of defeating Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other local elected officials supportive of school closings. (WBEZ)

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Monday, April 15, 2013 - 8:16am

In the News: Chicago, NY, DC academic gains less rosy

By: Cassandra West
Tags: public education

The school improvement strategies highly touted by leaders such as U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and former D.C schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, have produced overwhelmingly disappointing results for the poor and minority children in Chicago, New York, and the District of Columbia, a forthcoming report written by a national group that favors a more holistic approach to improving public schooling, contends. (Education Week)

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Friday, April 12, 2013 - 8:30am

In the News: Top-performing school lands on closings list

By: Cassandra West
Tags: school closings

Calhoun North Elementary in the East Garfield Park neighborhood has logged some of the best math scores in the city, but CPS says it's significantly underenrolled and should be closed next fall in a sweeping cost-cutting effort pushed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

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