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School closings

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

high schools

October 13, 2011

Tamoura Hayes started high school with big dreams for college that she already knew would be tough to reach. “C’mon,” she said. “I go to Marshall High School.”

Obviously, Marshall’s long-standing academic failings weren’t lost on Tamoura, who went on to say that she “wasn’t even supposed to be here.” Marshall was her last option. Her family couldn’t afford the private school that was her first choice, and she wasn’t offered a slot at Raby, one of the newer high schools sprouting up on the West Side.  

May 13, 2013

This spring, I got an unexpected tardy pass from the office at my school, telling me that I had been late to my homeroom. As it turned out, I was marked as late because my homeroom had been changed--I was assigned to a sophomore homeroom instead of a junior one. No one had talked to my mom or me about this. I only found about my demotion because I got a tardy.

February 04, 2013

The sign taped on the door says “No Boys Allowed.” Inside the room, donuts and small, white Styrofoam cups of orange juice and water sit on a desk.

Several young women slowly walk in with a look of consternation on their faces. “It is critical down there,” says one.

“That is crazy,” says another.

Teacher Magen Kilcoyne, whose curly, sandy-colored hair is pulled back and who is dressed in black cargo pants and a black “Bowen Class of 2012” T-shirt, shakes her head as she plops down copies of author Nathan McCall’s book “Makes Me Wanna Holler” on everyone’s desk.

January 22, 2013

Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Tuesday that the old Jones College Prep building, standing in the shadow of a gleaming new school, won’t be demolished, but that it also won’t be the neighborhood school some nearby residents want.

January 18, 2013

CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett agrees with the recommendation of her hand-picked Commission on School Utilization to include school performance among the criteria for school closing decisions, but she may still close one or two high schools and could veer from other recommendations.

December 10, 2012

Driven largely by an increase in calls from schools, the number of calls to the state’s mental health crisis hotline for children has soared by 37 percent over the past five years to nearly 42,000 calls in 2011—about 115 calls per day.

December 10, 2012

Not only did teens and young adults without high school diplomas experience steeper declines in their employment than any other age group during the recent recession, they failed to capture any substantive share in job growth during the recovery and many were totally withdrawn from the workforce by the time they reach their late 30s.

November 13, 2012

Only one-third of Illinois students are proficient in reading at 3rd grade, begin high school academically on-track to graduate and leave high school ready for college, according to the latest Advance Illinois report on education in Illinois.

November 12, 2012

CPS elementary schools, whether they are run by the district or by charter operators, perform about the same overall: A third are doing great, a third so-so and a third perform poorly, according to an analysis of CPS school ratings that were released Monday.

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