The first year of high school is a challenge to everyone. CPS has increased supports for high school freshmen, but high-achievers are still shorted. A new report suggests this has lasting consequences for district equity in college admissions. In a district where many students may have attended the same school from kindergarten through eighth grade, ninth grade means finding a…
Tag: Chicago Sun-Times
This Week In CPS: Talking Local Education Reporting
If you’re reading this post, please join City Bureau and Chalkbeat Chicago this Thursday night at Public Newsroom 75 to talk about local education reporting. The event will be held at the Mikva Challenge offices, 200 S. Michigan, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Here are the key questions for conversation: How can journalists cover schools in a way that is…
Progress, Problems and Politics in the Chicago Public Schools
Last weekend, I bought a subscription to the Chicago Sun-Times, which recently instituted a paywall. I love the gritty, bare-knuckles reporting and cut-through-the-noise columnists of the self-described “Hardest-Working Paper in America.” I’m even getting home delivery. Monday morning, the paper arrived with a lengthy story on “fiascoes” in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) that could become a headache for Mayor…
Teachers Unions Need to Stop Playing the ‘Class Card’
I’ve heard it too many times. As I’ve worked to create greater access to high quality schools for the children in the most underserved communities in Chicago, it’s one of key arguments they use: “The big corporations are trying to make a profit off of our children…” “The big dollar school reformers don’t really understand what’s going on in poor…
Chicago Public Schools Is Bleeding Out But Neither the Teachers Union Nor the Governor Will Help
Chicago teacher and award-winning blogger Marilyn Rhames paints an awesome illustrations of “Mr. CPS” dying. Yesterday, I woke up to the news that 292 people were shot and 51 people murdered in Chicago in the first month of the New Year. Then later in the day, I learned that the tentative offer Chicago Public Schools (CPS) made to the Chicago…
AstroTurf or Hypocrisy? CTU Please Let Us Know
The term “AstroTurf” comes to mind. You know, that’s what they call it when the financial resources behind a certain set of political activities are intentionally hidden in order to make it seem like the messages, ideas and activities originate from and are supported by the grassroots. And it certainly came to mind when I read the Sun-Times article…