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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

Thursday, June 6, 2013 - 4:18pm

Proposed school ratings: Scrap ISAT, close achievement gap

By: Sarah Karp
Tags: ISAT, performance

Chicago Public Schools is floating a new performance policy that would abandon the ISAT, grade schools on their progress in closing the achievement gap and create a five-tier rating system rather than the three-level system currently in place.

It also would make schools accountable for having 95 percent of students tested as a way to make sure the data is accurate.

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Thursday, June 6, 2013 - 9:07am

In the News: CPS eyes tax hike, bigger classes

By: Cassandra West
Tags: CPS budget

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday defended his failed attempt to ease pension payments bearing down on the Chicago Public Schools and did not rule out increases in property taxes or class sizes, according to the Sun-Times.

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Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - 5:31pm

Budgets given to principals, CPS taps 'reserves'

By: Sarah Karp
Tags: CPS budget, finance and budgets

Last summer in the midst of teacher contract negotiations and as they prepared to undertake massive school closings, CPS leaders said they were using one-time reserves to fill a budget deficit and were completely out of money.

But on Wednesday, district officials said they will once again use one-time reserves to fill a budget deficit projected to be close to $1 billion. District officials made this announcement as they were releasing school budgets to principals.

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Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - 7:58am

In the News: Parents cite chaos in CPS registrations

By: Cassandra West
Tags: charter schools, school closings

As Chicago Public Schools scrambles to get students at closing schools enrolled in new schools as soon as possible, about a dozen parents protesting outside Lafayette Elementary Monday deemed the enrollment push a “devastating registration mess” and lambasted CPS for giving parents just over one week after the vote to pick a new school, WBEZ's Becky Vevea reports.

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Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - 8:23am

In the News: A new moment of CPS parent activism?

By: Cassandra West
Tags: school closings

Parents affected—and in many cases angered—by the Chicago school district's decision to shutter 49 schools already are making decisions about how to direct their children's education, even as some who fought the closings vow to harness that momentum going forward. (Education Week)

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Monday, June 3, 2013 - 9:27am

In the News: Welcoming school registration at 78%

By: Cassandra West
Tags: parents, school closings

About 78 percent of Chicago Public Schools students from facilities set to close have now signed up for their new “welcoming schools,” the Sun-Times said school district announced today.

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