Current Issue

School closings

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

high schools

June 28, 2011

Eight Chicago public high schools are each in line to get $5.6 million in federal money to use over the next three years for transformation work from within.

June 20, 2011

Facing a strong undercurrent of tension between traditional schools that feel threatened by new ones, Chicago High School for the Arts is once again at the center of a controversy over space.

May 19, 2011

School watchers may have noticed something missing from the list of school actions proposed by CPS officials this year: No schools were selected for the turnaround program, in which the district fires virtually the entire staff at a school and replaces them with new teachers and administrators.

March 21, 2011

In the month that Tyese Sims has been principal of Orr High, she has dropped 44 students from the rolls, she acknowledges. But one community group is accusing her of turning away as many as 150.

December 06, 2010

As he does almost every year, Jack Wuest of the Alternative Schools Network brought out lawmakers, state officials and advocates to rev them up to focus more resources on the often-invisible young people he champions.

October 29, 2010

Jazmin Barajas is only 14, but she knows that she wants to go to college and one day become a teacher. She won’t have to wait that long to rack up some teaching experience, though. As part of the new Teachers Academy program at Wells High School, Barajas will begin to teach mini-lessons to younger students in just a few weeks.  

 

October 25, 2010

Another North Side elementary schools is poised to extend into a high school. On the agenda for the October School Board meeting is a proposal to expand Audubon Elementary School in Roscoe Village so that it will now include a high school. The Audubon High School follows behind Alcott High School for the Humanities and Ogden International High School, both of which opened in fall 2009. Alcott Elementary and High School are in Lincoln Park and Ogden Elementary is on the Gold Coast, although the high school is located in West Town. 

October 06, 2010

Most schools ban students from using cell phones at school, but teachers should realize that they have hidden potential as learning tools, says a recent report from the student-led Mikva Challenge Education Council. 

October 05, 2010

Chicago Public Schools will use a $14.9 million federal grant to create a program focused on bringing dropouts back and helping students on the edge of getting a high school diploma to finish up.