Tag: Chicago Public Schools

We Don’t Give a Damn About Equity Initiatives Without Intentional Investment in Our Kids

It’s been a year since this piece was written and since CPS chief education officer (then chief equity officer) Maurice Swinney committed to developing the CPS Black student achievement task force. In that year, there’s been significant leadership transition, with Pedro Martinez stepping in as CEO, and it’s recently been announced that Patti Salzmann will replace Swinney as chief education officer.

Chicago Public Schools student reflects on the death and life changes of the pandemic and finds hope

Fast forward to the beginning of 2020, a year we all intended to be great; instead, it turned out to be the worst year we could ever imagine. On every news channel, the anchors would talk about the outbreak of Covid-19, and how rapidly it was spreading. The bold red letters “a virus,” “a disease,” or sometimes even a “killer machine” at the bottom of the TV screen clearly emphasized how bad it had gotten over time.

User Experience Problems Plague GoCPS, Too

Last Spring, CPS announced that they were making some big changes to the competitive admissions process for selective enrollment high schools, elementary schools and academic centers. Chief among those changes was the decision to no longer use the NWEA MAP  test scores as a factor in the applications for those schools. In CPS schools, all students will sit for the…

NYC May Make Dramatic Changes to Its Gifted Program—Should Chicago Do the Same?

New York City’s Bill de Blasio announced recently that the NYC Public School system will phase out the Gifted and Talented Program. Beginning next fall, no new kindergarteners will be enrolled into gifted elementary school classes, which accounts for about 16,000 students.  Of those students, about 75 percent are white or Asian American (who make up about 25 percent of…

Dear Mr. Martinez, CPS needs a better U/X for parents

Dear CEO Martinez, I’m the kind of parent you worked hard to attract as CEO of San Antonio schools. I’m new to CPS. After years of sending my children to Catholic school, followed by pandemic homeschooling, my children (now in 5th and 6th grades) are enrolled for the first time at Kozminski Community Academy, our neighborhood elementary school.  While our…