catalyst-chicago.org

One of every 4 African-American public school students in Illinois was suspended at least once for disciplinary reasons during the 2009-10 school year, the highest rate among 47 states examined in a national study released Tuesday, the Tribune reported.

Chicago Public Schools, in particular, had the widest gap in suspension rates between black and white students in Illinois, according to the report, underscoring concerns by many educators that African-Americans face harsher discipline than their classmates.

Activists led by a group called Teachers Solidarity Campaign have scheduled a Wednesday protest at the construction site in Hyde Park where a new Hyatt Place hotel is being built—and has become a symbol of anti-TIF sentiment aimed at Board of Education member Penny Pritzker. (Catalyst)

A pocket of suburbs southwest of Chicago have a blue-chip salary schedule that rewards starting teachers as well as the most veteran, highly credentialed ones with some of the steepest teacher pay in the state. Their beginning and ending teacher salaries are among the top 15 in Illinois. (Sun-Times)

A new law required a neutral fact-finder to consider teacher salaries in other big cities before recommending what Chicago Public Schools should pay teachers whose contract expired June 30. But in making a recommendation that both parties ultimately rejected last month, fact finder Edwin Benn decided that looking at other big cities wasn’t fair. (Sun-Times)

IN THE STATE
Springfield public school students in grades 5 through 12 will participate this fall in a Gallup poll designed to measure three variables that can have an impact on educational outcomes. (State Journal Register)

IN THE NATION
More on the suspension rate racial gap:

Nearly one in six African-American students was suspended from school during the 2009-10 academic year, more than three times the rate of their white peers, a new analysis of federal education data has found. (Education Week)

Students with disabilities are almost twice as likely to be suspended from school as nondisabled students, with the highest rates among black children with disabilities. According to a new analysis of Department of Education data, 13 percent of disabled students in kindergarten through 12th grade were suspended during the 2009-10 school year, compared with 7 percent of students without disabilities. Among black children with disabilities, which included those with learning difficulties, the rate was much higher: one out of every four was suspended at least once that school year. (The New York Times)

New research suggests that cyberbullying "is a low-prevalence phenomenon, which has not increased over time and has not created many 'new' victims and bullies, that is, children and youth who are not also involved in some form of traditional bullying." (Education Week)