Current Issue

School closings

As CPS prepares to close a record number of schools, the fate of students and communities is in question.

elementary and K-8 schools

June 07, 2011

Kindergarten teacher Kate Durham of Chicago International Charter School in Bucktown pulls out files and starts reading out loud information about her students’ previous educational experience. 

Seven of the children never went to preschool. Some attended preschool at one of a dizzying array of elementary schools—McAuliffe, Yates, Henry, Belmont-Cragin, Mozart, Cameron, Burbank and Schubert. Other children went to one of at least nine different child care centers or community-based Head Start programs.

June 06, 2011

Research has linked a host of benefits to full-day kindergarten, which education advocates and policymakers say should become the new standard. These benefits include:

Fewer English-language learners held back More time engaged in reading and math lessons and greater gains Teachers have the time to plan better lessons

In general, CPS forwards to schools only enough money for them to offer half-day kindergarten. It forces the majority of schools to use their own discretionary money if they want to have a full-day program.

June 06, 2011

When Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the new $500 million Early Learning Challenge Grant competition in late May, educators weren’t the only ones who joined him at the event. Duncan was accompanied by an array of leaders from outside the education world who endorsed Duncan’s call for increasing investment in early education.

April 13, 2011

Maria Elena Orozco’s 6-year-old son Abraham, a native Spanish speaker, spent two years in preschool programs Orozco says were mostly in English.

This fall, he started kindergarten at Edwards Elementary. He was identified as a non-native English speaker, and put into a native-language class that is taught almost entirely in Spanish.

January 18, 2011

Rasheed Jackson is one of hundreds of young children who have fallen through the cracks of special education in Chicago Public Schools: His evaluation for services has been severely delayed, far longer than federal law allows.

In his case, three years longer.

“He talks like a baby,” says Rasheed’s mother, Shavon Kalfus. “If he had the help prior to age 6, it wouldn’t be a problem.”

July 17, 2009

One by one, the three young boys walk into the cozy office and sit around a small round table. It’s mid-morning on a school day, but rather than learn about reading and math, these boys will spend some time learning about self-control.

June 25, 2009

When Lorenzo Russell walked into West Garfield Park’s Ryerson Elementary School in 2007, the impeccably dressed, soft-spoken man got a sinking feeling. The walls were pale beige and had no bulletin boards. The hallways were noisy and chaotic. Stretched across one wall were old class pictures in wood frames, many showing boys with bowl cuts and girls with blond ponytails. The pictures were an obvious disconnect from the students—most of them black, save for one or two Latinos.

February 12, 2009

December 19, 2008

Schools CEO Arne Duncan has had seven years to make his mark on public education in Chicago.

In this last installment in a three-part series, Catalyst explores his legacy in tackling teacher quality, elementary education and preschool.

Teacher quality Recognizing that teachers are the frontline to student success, Duncan has taken a number of steps to infuse the system with high-quality teachers. 

go here for more