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With money tight, Chicago Public Schools' summer Safe Haven program will be scaled back and serve fewer students. (Tribune)

Chicago Public Schools and Chicago’s faith community  announced the “Safe Haven, Safe Summer” program, a partnership between Chicago Public Schools and churches throughout the city. "Safe Haven, Safe Summer" will provide an estimated 2,000 young people with various programs and activities following the end of the regular school year this Friday. The program launches June 25. (CPS release)

Three high school and two middle school students have been chosen by The Illinois Network of Charter Schools to represent the charter public school class of 2012 as part of a multimedia Graduation Celebration recognition program.  The representatives were nominated by their schools and have been featured in a Facebook campaign.  Other recognition includes a video and cash prizes ranging from $75 – $200. These students are headed to Yale University, Howard University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Complete profiles of the representatives are available here.

CTU President Karen Lewis responds to a Sun-Times editorial that she says "unfairly depicts the Chicago Teachers Union in its representation of Chicago Public Schools and CTU contract negotiations." In her response, Lewis writes, "The truth is that the Board of Education has refused to bargain on issues of vital importance to students, parents and teachers. They have outright refused to negotiate about class size, even though Chicago has some of the highest class sizes in the county and the state.

Chicago’s new Back of the Yards High School will be devoted exclusively to the rigorous International Baccalaureate diploma program tailor-made to prepare students for college and house a new community library that will be open to the public. (Sun-Times)

Julie Woestehoff, executive director of Parents United for Responsible Education, says former Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Paul Vallas needs to apologize to about 125,000 Chicago Public School students who have been flunked because of the high-stakes testing policy he started in 1996 as CPS CEO.  (Examiner.com)

IN THE STATE
A former Maine West High School orchestra teacher has filed a federal lawsuit against Maine Township High School District 207 school board claiming that he was fired because of his gender. (Daily Herald)

A gifted education expert said she would like to see more schools offer a gifted program that separates students who have developed proficiency in English as their second language from their native English speaking peers for core subjects, similar to the one at the center of a federal bias lawsuit against Elgin Area School District U-46. (Daily Herald)

IN THE NATION
The Washington Post's Valerie Strauss, who has written several times in recent months about a growing movement by parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, students and others to protest the use of standardized tests for high-stakes purposes, offers ten ways to oppose high-stakes standardized tests.

More K-12 girls than ever are involved in sports since passage of the 1972 law, but the gap between boys and girls remains huge. (Education Week)

A growing number of after-school programs for boys and girls that draw on students' interest in applications for mobile devices are evolving throughout the country. Such programs can be a gateway to learning computer programming, as well as business and marketing lessons, which educators believe equip students with lifelong skills to succeed in college and the workforce. Some of the programs aim especially to engage girls. (Education Week)

Two months after announcing her $10 million “Proving What’s Possible” grant competition to spur innovation in D.C. schools, Chancellor Kaya Henderson still won’t say which programs and “interventions” were scrapped to finance half of the initiative. (The Washington Post)