Current Issue

School closings

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

testing and accountability

November 15, 2010

On the eve of a February meeting where the death knell was set to sound for five Chicago schools, CEO Ron Huberman granted Paderewski Elementary on the West Side an 11th-hour reprieve.

The decision had nothing to do with education or finances. Instead, Huberman said he changed his mind after walking to Mason Elementary, where Paderewski’s students would have been sent. Mason wasn’t close by, but had higher test scores than Paderewski. Huberman had promised not to repeat the mistakes of the past: closing one bad school only to send students to another one.

June 23, 2010

Elementary school standardized test scores inched up again as they have each year since the big jump of 2005, but continued to fall short of meeting the federal benchmark set by No Child Left Behind.

This year, 71.7 percent of students met or exceeded standards, up from 69.8 percent in 2009 but short of the 77.5 percent needed to meet the federal goal.

[Download the school board's presentation on ISAT scores]

May 20, 2010

Chicago posted flat reading scores in today’s release of the 2009 Trial Urban District Assessment, which stacks up 18 big-city districts based on results from last year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the “nation’s report card.” Chicago tied Baltimore and outscored six other districts on 4th-grade reading tests, but fell short of 10 other districts—including Atlanta, New York and Boston.

Chicago performed somewhat better on 8th-grade tests, outscoring eight urban districts but lagging behind nine others.

Chicago’s average 8th-grade score of 249 is three points lower than the average for all large-city districts and 13 points behind the national average. The city’s average 4th-grade score of 202 is eight points lower than the urban district average and 18 points behind the national average.

These scores signal that Chicago’s students are performing behind many of their counterparts in other large cities, and more than a year behind students nationwide. NAEP officials estimate that a 10-point difference on the assessment’s 500-point scale is equal to a year’s worth of learning.

February 03, 2010

This Friday, CEO Ron Huberman will address school leaders at the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association’s annual conference. His topic: performance management, one of the hallmarks of his year-long tenure as head of Chicago Public Schools.

January 06, 2010

Some principals and school staff should be sweating right now, while others can breathe a sigh of relief: CPS officials could announce, as early as this week, which schools to close or turnaround this year.

At the Dec. 16 School Board meeting, the district laid out its clearest criteria yet for closing and turning around underperforming schools. The turnaround process sends the principal and staff packing.

Our analysis at Catalyst Chicagoshows that some 35 elementary schools and 25 high schools could qualify, leaving district administrators plenty of discretion about where to intervene. Historically, CPS has closed or turned around about 10 schools a year.

July 13, 2009

As Education Secretary Arne Duncan goes around the country touting Chicago’s turnarounds as a model for improving the nation’s worst performing schools, he may want to warn districts that it is no quick fix. 

And that there is yet no evidence that they can fix high schools at all.

 

May 13, 2009

The Consortium on Chicago School Research will host a forum next week for school districts that are interested in creating similar research institutions in their cities. Teams of district officials are expected from New York; Baltimore; Newark; the Kansas City metro area; Louisville; Providence; Boston; Dallas; California, including Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Diego, San Francisco, Fresno and Garden Grove; Detroit; Denver; Milwaukee; Washington, D.C.; and Philadelphia.

April 16, 2009

More evidence that Education Secretary Arne Duncan is exporting what he did as CEO of Chicago schools across the country. News comes that he is open to letting states report five-year graduation rates in their quest to make adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind. New NCLB regulations announced in October by former education secretary Margaret Spellings calls for all districts to implement a four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate by 2011.

 

April 03, 2009
By: Staff

John Q. Easton, executive director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research, will be nominated by President Barack Obama to head the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education. The Institute was created in 2002 to provide rigorous research and evaluation on education programs and policies and to report a wide variety of data, including data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Easton will oversee four national research centers. Easton's successor at the Consortium has not been named.