Month: April 2016

I’ll Tell You What Parents Resist: Low-Performing Schools

The Walton Foundation won’t be funding charter work in Chicago any time soon. That news came to charter school and school quality advocates as an undeniable setback for a movement that has engaged thousands of parents and provided access to college and careers for multiplied thousands of students in Chicago. But it also seemed to set anti-charter advocates like Diane…

Turns Out Karen Lewis and Bruce Rauner Have a Lot in Common

Yesterday at a City Club of Chicago luncheon, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis equated Governor Bruce Rauner with Islamic State terrorists. She suggested that his behavior is equivalent to “acts of terror on poor and working-class people.” That’s a very harsh comment. Even if it is being directed at a governor who seems content to watch the lives of…

Great Schools, Not “Neighborhood” Schools Make the Difference for At-Risk Youth

Generation All, a newly formed education advocacy group released a report last week to bring attention to what they believe is a need in the city of Chicago to reinvest in “neighborhood high schools” (attendance boundary schools with no admittance requirements or enrollment forms).  The underlying concept is that the proliferation of schools of choice (selective enrollment, magnets, charters etc.)…