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Current Issue

Adolescent Literacy

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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Catalyst Notebook

Monday, May 20, 2013 - 8:20am

In the News: 3-day marchers make way to City Hall

By: Cassandra West
Tags: school closings

A three-day series of marches through neighborhoods with schools on the closure list was part of a final push organized by the Chicago Teachers Union and community groups before the Chicago Board of Education votes Wednesday on the closure plan. The marches will culminate Monday afternoon with a rally outside City Hall.

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Friday, May 17, 2013 - 9:45pm

Karen Lewis wins second term as CTU president

By: Rebecca Harris
Tags: Chicago Teachers Union

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis has announced that she won a second term in Friday's election, garnering 80 percent of the votes in preliminary results.

The election was a referendum on how well Lewis' leadership and the Caucus of Rank and File Educators handled the fall's teacher strike and contract negotiations.

The opposition caucus, Coalition to Save Our Union, charged that Lewis put style and big-picture promises over substance and results.

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Friday, May 17, 2013 - 12:04pm

Union election: Karen Lewis vs. challenger, strike gains vs. contract losses

By: Rebecca Harris
Tags: Chicago Teachers Union, Karen Lewis, teachers strike

Almost buried in the whirlwind of news on school closings is the Chicago Teachers Union election, in which challenger Tanya Saunders-Wolffe is seeking to oust current President Karen Lewis.

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Friday, May 17, 2013 - 8:09am

In the News: CPS' use of selective data questioned

By: Cassandra West
Tags: school closings

A Chicago Tribune review of documents related to Chicago Public Schools closings raises questions about how district officials used information to promote and defend its plan. In many cases, the district appears to have selectively highlighted data to stress shortcomings at schools to be closed, while not pointing out what was lacking at the receiving schools.

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Thursday, May 16, 2013 - 8:48am

In the News: Thousands of CPS classes over size limit

By: Cassandra West
Tags: school closings

More than 1,560 homerooms in Chicago public elementary schools are over the school district’s class size limits, according to numbers obtained by WBEZ and Catalyst Chicago Magazine from Chicago Public Schools. The revelation comes as Chicago is proposing to shut down a historic 53 grammar schools. Activists have raised repeated concerns that the massive restructuring will result in more overcrowded classrooms.

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Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - 6:43pm

Lawsuits filed over school closings

By: Sarah Karp
Tags: school closings

In the two lawsuits filed in federal court Wednesday to try to slow down or stop school closings, the central charge is that special education students will be disproportionately hurt by the actions.

This, according to the lawsuits, is a violation of the American Disabilities Act. More than 5,000 students are enrolled in either the 53 schools slated for closure or the ones set to receive them.

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