As CPS prepares to close a record number of schools, the fate of students and communities is in question.
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In the News: IL districts fall short on crime reporting
By: Cassandra West / June 15, 2012
Today's Tribune reports that school districts across Illinois are failing to disclose thousands of drug, weapon and teacher assault incidents to the state as required by a long-standing state law created to give the public a clear picture of crime at neighborhood schools.
Chicago's taking the partnership between public and school libraries to the next level by building its first public library as part of a school. The pilot project between the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Public Library is expected to save the city about $15 million, or the cost of building a new public library, the mayor's office says. The nearly $64 million school will have a public reading garden and a Silver rating under the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED for Schools Rating System. ( School Library Journal)
Chicago Public School officials and the system’s second largest union Thursday announced the ratification of a contract that will give 5,500 custodians and other workers two percent raises for each of the next three years and save thousands of jobs.
CPS and Service Employees International Union Local 73 Thursday announced that a new three-year agreement has been ratified by the SEIU Local 73 membership. SEIU Local 73 is the second largest union in CPS, representing 5,500 custodians, child welfare attendants, watchmen, special education classroom assistants, children and family benefit liaisons, school bus aides, parent workers, security officers, security aides and security officers working in CPS. (CPS News release)
During the second night of his weeklong residency in Chicago, Conan O'Brien visited first graders at Frances Xavier Warde elementary on the city's Near West Side. (Huffington Post)
IN THE STATE
Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 approved a three-year contract with its teachers union that lengthens the school day for some faculty members and provides raises in each year of the pact. (Daily Herald)
Palatine Township Elementary District 15 releases teachers’ two-tiered salary schedules. (Daily Herald)
IN THE NATION
The trailer for “Won't Back Down,” an upcoming film starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Holly Hunter and Viola Davis, shows parent power triumphing over bad teachers and claims that the film is “inspired by actual events.” But members of Parents Across America say the film will tell a false story and is funded by right-wing forces to spread an anti-public-education message, according to a news release issued Thursday. The groups offers a comparison of the film version to reality.
At a hearing Tuesday, Judge James Chalfant said the Los Angeles Unified School District violated California's Stull Act, a 41-year-old law that requires teacher evaluations to take into consideration the performance of students. The ruling is a victory for the anonymous group of parents and students who last fall sued the LAUSD for the changes. It also is a win for the district's superintendent, John Deasy, who has been pushing the teachers' union to accept a new evaluation system that includes student performance on standardized tests. (The Wall Street Journal)
CPS-Sponsored ALL-CAC Meeting
CPS-Sponsored ALL-CAC Meeting
. . . will be held SATURDAY, JUNE 16th at 8:30 AM at Drake Elementary School, 2722 S. King Drive. CPS CEO J C Brizard will address all of the neighborhood planning councils. Will he "drop the other shoe" on the rumors that CPS' is gearing up to close dozens of "under-utilized" schools NEXT YEAR? See the attached CPS flier - CAC members who received it, report that CPS staffers instructed them that each CAC was to "submit a question for CEO Brizard . . . by Wednesday" [06/13/12 - but this may have been extended until tomorrow, the deadline for CAC members to RSVP]. Not exactly setting the tone for an "open" dialogue .
Chicago Educational Facilities Task Force
General Assembly Chicago Educational Facilities Task Force
. . . will meet in open public session
MONDAY, JUNE 18th, 3 PM - 5 PM
Eckhart Park Field House, 1330 W. Chicago Avenue
The CEFTF wants to hear from YOU: What's happened since the CPS Board approved School Actions and Turn-Arounds? What is your response to CPS' new "Space Utilization" reports, labeling nearly half of Chicago's public schools "under-utilized"? Does CPS' plan for spending on facilities address YOUR SCHOOL's needs? What are other pressing facility-related concerns that you have?
Crime? What stiiiinkin crime?
If CPS has time to change legislation downstate and belittle teachers in the news all day, why doesn't it have time to report violence in their schools to the state? This information is VITAL, for the safety of their students. I thought they cared about Children First. CPS has proven, once more, they really don't care about the children as much as you think. Isn't the safety of their students more important than teachers having to have 75% to strike? How many times have kids gotten away with "attempted murder" at CPS. How many older and smaller teachers fear for their lives daily? How many students fear for their lives?
CPS is too busy with it's Humberman, Dunca, and Jean-claude Birzzard crocodile tears to have time to report the TRUE tragedy of CPS, VIOLENCE AND CRIMES.
Crime? What stiiiinkin crime?
This commentator, like the Tribune reporters, miss the real issue here.
There was never any need for this separate, State school crime reporting system to begin with, other than to ensure that some politician's cousin gets the contract to build that reporting system. The most important, and very necessary, item in that legislation was the requirement that schools report these designated crimes to the Police. Its intent was to prevent the "hiding" of crime, which is exactly what that "spokeswoman" was describing in the article, about how they "take care of it internally", at that Will County high school. Taking "care of it internally", essentially means that favorite sons and daughters (politicians' kids, school council members' kids, sports stars, etc.) get a break, while less favored kids get tossed in jail. Taking "care of it internally", also means that less favored teacher-victims' plight gets ignored. What is ignored, by school leadership, is the fact that the State Legislature never gave Principals the authority to decide what is a crime, and what is not, nor to decide what crime should be reported and what crime can be taken "care of it internally".
Police departments state-wide report crimes to the State and to the Feds, so all of the necessary information about school crimes have been captured and reported to the State. Now, instead of creating another "unfunded obligation" for schools to comply with, ISBE and State politicians should reach out of their "silo", and simply ask the State Police to report school crime information received from local police departments. It is stored in their State computers, already.
But, then, some politician's cousin wouldn't have gotten the job to create this new reporting system, and our State Legislators wouldn't have been able to crow about how they're fighting crimes in schools.
Crime stats reporting
Thanks for the "research-based" comment, Anonymous.
Research Based
I agree with anonymous. However, if CPS is so desperate about crime in its schools, why isn't reporting these crimes? They have time to report about how horrible their teachers are, but they dot report 80k violent and drug related crimes (Per Tribune). Why isn't Brizzard talking about this issue? This is STUDENT created crimes. He, nor Rahm, even make it sound like it is a factor. I don't care if they report it to the state! However, it is a reality and they need to address it!
This crime is AFFECTING test scores and student performance as much as anything else! I think the research has been DONE ....CPS schools are violent. How, are the EXTRA HOURS going to address this problem? I suspect there will be more crime if something isn't done . My soon! CPS is so sure of themselves, yet they can't control the crime? They must accept the responsibility of increased crime when the day is extended.
School Crime
Anonymous above suggests that, "...all of the necessary information about school crimes have been captured and reported to the State." However, he earlier in the same posting notes that the high school mentioned "takes care of" crime reporting by underreporting it. He also suggests that someone is making money for creating an unnecessary reporting system.
There are several factors involved here in my opinion. First, it is in the interests of school administrators to under-report in order to prevent parents and area administrators from becoming alarmed by their school mismanagement. (Obviously, if crime is under-reported at the building level, all the "necessary information" has NOT been captured.)
Secondly, it is in the interests of local polticians for school crimes to be under-reported, because they would like to remain in office.
Finally, under-reporting is in the interests of the police, who do not want to concede that school crime is at high levels.
It is not clear exactly how the preceding obstacles to truth-in-reporting can be overcome. Constructive suggestions and/or further analysis are welcomed.
One more thing
In my prior posting, I cut CPS area administrators too much slack. The area ads know which of their schools are high in crime and low in order and safety. Their subordinates regularly visit their schools and they can see for themselves what's happening. I know, bcause I worked at one such school this past year, and the principal was never contacted by the area ad or his/her representatives to render assistance/mentoring. Let me be even more clear: the responsibility for order and safety in schools ultimately lies with the CEO, and for years, CPS administrators and their political allies in the city of Chicago have essentially ignored--despite rhetoric to the contrary-- the high crime rates in many of our schools. They will continue to do so until parents unite for the common good of their children and speak up. (Whatever happened to the PTAs?)
One MORE thought
It is also in the interests of news agencies to avoid investigative reporting (here, on crime) that for any reason is embarrassing to CPS administrators and/or city officials. (Has anyone noticed the paucity of stories in Chicago papers critical of CPS?) Why is this? Because to do so would immediately place that person/agency on the CPS/City Officials "enemies list," and that reporter's CPS/City of Chicago sources (upon whom reporters are heavily dependent) would quickly dry up. So, whom does that leave to deal with this problem? NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) and ordinary citizens--many of whom have children attending CPS.
So this is what we call "democracy"
We have people with little power (because they are not organized and they are minority poor) whose children suffer every day because of inadequate schools. Instead of subjecting the entire school system to critical scrutiny, we find one or two corrupt administrators, a parent whose child was wrongly denied special education services, or a teacher that sexually abused a student, and then trumpet how great and vigilant we are to have uncovered such. We then virtually ignore the lower level "neglect" we see every day in many of our schools that kids are afraid to attend. H. L. Mencken often referred to the average American as "Boobus Americanus." How right he was. So long as our politicians, school administrators, and media keep us focused on the "trees," we will never see the ugly reality of the "forest." Democracy and social justice, where art thou?
School Crime
Lobewiper missed the main point of that Anonymous posting, and I repeat: "The most important, and very necessary, item in that legislation was the requirement that schools report these designated crimes to the Police." "Taking care" of crime on their own, and not reporting to the Police, is the main problem at many schools. The Tribune article fails to focus on that core problem, and instead focuses on the failure to report crimes, a second time, to a redundant system.
"...all of the necessary information about school crimes have been captured and reported to the State" pertains to the needless, costly, wasteful, duplication of effort in reporting crimes a second time, when it may have been reported to the Police, and then to the State by police departments, already.
We're of one mind, though, on all of the problems associated with underreporting of crimes. What you sweep under the rug today, may bite you tomorrow.
Missing the main point
O.K., Anonymous, I stand corrected. (It's not the first time I've missed the main point of something!).Thanks for the clarification. Let me add that teachers themselves are partly to blame for this under-reporting, because they know their administrators would prefer to, as you say, "sweep it under the rug," and they do not want to take risks that could threaten their jobs and/or privileges.
teachers themselves are partly to blame
Not really, they are encouraged to file a grievance against the administration for an unsafe work environment, when crimes are committed especially when it involves that teacher. When the grievance is filed, it is reported to CPS and CTU.
To Teachers (preceding post)
Teachers,
I'd like to hear from some additional teachers about this matter. While what you say may be true, I continue to think that there are powerful disincentives for teachers to file such grievances--at least in many schools. Also, some schools are so out of control with respect to student conduct, teachers can soon feel that any push-back on their part is pointless and hence, they take no action.
Re: Grievances
From what I understand about principals, they tend to take grievances personally and can hamstring a teacher if they complain too loudly. Among teachers, a grievance is thought of as "going nuclear" because you can't really count on the principal supporting you in anything if you go there and you need administrative support for conferences, field trips, maintenance requests, and just about everything outside of a classroom.
One other thing too, discipline offices know their numbers. If they understand the meaning of accurate data and the underlying reasons for trends in disciplines, they can use it to their advantage to explain and intervene in school problems. If they are lazy though, they will simply use it to adjust suspension numbers so that it *looks* like a school is getting safer when exactly the opposite is happening. This is a problem generally with CPS administration right now. They think that getting everyone to panic about numbers is effective governance because from their position, it looks like it's working. It's not working.
Reporting or Grievances?
I was suggesting that teachers often may wish to avoid making a formal report to the police because that could upset their principal. I wasn't commenting on the issue of grievances. Nonetheless, I appreciated CBW's posting, above.
All this talk about school violence and teacher assaults suggests another view of schools where such are frequent. Several years ago, the NYC police found that a very effective way of reducing serious crimes was to crack down vigorously on minor ones. It seems that ignoring minor stuff leads often to the more serious. If we take high crime/violence schools and assume something of the same sort happened, it suggests that part of the problem is letting kids get away with minor infractions. When students see this, it emboldens more serious misconduct. This suggests that prevention of school violence/crime may require fairly strict enforcement of even relatively minor infractions, instead of merely focusing on the serious ones.
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