Tag: Chicago

To Maintain a Culture of Trust, CPS Must Ensure Data Privacy and Safety For Undocumented Students

This op-ed is co-authored by Olivia Albrecht, youth organizer for the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, and BPNC President Anita Caballero.   Last year, the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council supported undocumented students from across the Southwest side as they organized Coming Out of the Shadows assemblies at their schools. The celebrations were beautiful moments of resistance, where students chose to speak…

Applying for School in Chicago? Your Odds May Have Just Changed.

Originally posted on Chalkbeat by Cassie Walker Burke on October 25, 2018. One of the key factors in Chicago public school admissions, tier numbers assigned by a student’s address serve to more equitably distribute seats in test-in and magnet programs. The numbers, on a 1 to 4 scale, reflect a neighborhood’s socioeconomic status. The school district has issued new tier…

From Chicago to Connecticut, Moms Are Fighting for Equity

From Connecticut to Chicago, moms of all backgrounds are starting a conversation about educational equity. In Connecticut, mom Gwen Samuel and parents like her are fighting to open empty seats in magnet schools to Black and Brown children. One of Connecticut’s greatest challenges in creating diverse magnet schools has been building bridges to white and affluent families who have multiple…

Black Communities Everywhere Should Be Stepping Up Like This for Our Kids and Schools

Outrage: “Whites Only” Seats The Connecticut Supreme Court made a ruling in Sheff v. O’Neill that was supposed to integrate schools. Instead, it capped the number of students of color who can enroll at magnet schools, saying that 25 percent of each school’s seats must be occupied by White students. And while some of those magnet schools are holding seats…

At Embarc, Sending Kids to College Is Not the Holy Grail

Meet Embarc, a youth-serving organization that bucks conventional wisdom and is deliberately reducing the number of its grads who enroll in college. We’ve already discussed their unconventional approach to social-emotional learning; in this post, Embarc co-founder Imran Khan describes their groundbreaking perspective on life after high school. In a time when too many students leave college with debt but no…

To Boost College Admissions Equity, Let’s Support High-Achieving Freshmen of Color

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…