Wilmette Public School District 39 approved earlier this morning a 5-year contract with the teacher’s union. The new contract increases salaries 5 percent in the first two years, and 5.5 percent in each of the remaining three. 20 minutes have also been added to the day for kindergarten through fourth grade. School Board President Alan Dolinko said: We are pleased that the negotiations concluded with a contract both sides have overwhelmingly approved. The community benefits......

Would a public school that caters to gay and lesbian teens be a welcome addition to CPS? That was the question at hand during a meeting of about 200 people yesterday at the Center on Halsted who discussed The Social Justice High School – Pride Campus with leaders of the Gay Liberation Network. The idea for this new school, born of a push from Greater Lawndale Little Village High School for Social Justice, is that......

Ah, high school, home of arbitrary rules and acting silly. Because there's nothing teenagers respond better to than things they deem unfair. Some suburban schools are considering a ban on letting students paint their chests at sporting events, saying it's a distraction, that students with painted chests tend to be too rowdy, and that it's hard to decide what dress codes should apply to male students and what should apply to female students—if it's OK......

CPS unveiled a pilot program today that would give freshman and sophomores at 20 schools a cash incentive to earn good grades: As are worth $50, Bs $35, and Cs $20. Students are graded every five weeks in math, English, social sciences, science and physical education, and they get half the money up front and half upon graduation. Wait, you can get $20 for getting a C in gym? The money for the program comes......

The Chicago Tribune launched its high school–focused paper The Mash yesterday, distributing 100,000 copies to Chicago Public School students. The print and online edition are mostly written by high school students, who are paid between $10 and $25 for articles, with guidance and oversight by Trib staff. [CBS 2, Editor and Publisher]......

State Senator Reverend James Meeks called for the end of the CPS student boycott last night after two days, instead of the planned four days, of protests. "The governor stated that he would not meet until the boycott was called off, so we are going to not only call his bluff but trust that he keeps this word," Meeks said. "We trust that the governor is a man of good will and good sense." Meeks......

A program at the Art Institute uses art to help nursing students strengthen their observational and visual perception skills. "The Discerning Eye: Visual Observation Skills from the Art Museum to Patient Diagnosis" is a 90-minute presentation meant to be incorporated into the patient-analysis section of the nurse residency program at the University of Chicago. The program aims to increase students’ awareness and ability to filter visual stimuli, while helping to challenge the perception that......

State Senator Reverend Jame Meeks's controversial school boycott is underway today, with should-be CPS students bussed to New Trier Township High School and Sunset Ridge School. Protest organizers were hoping to have 3,000 students participate in the boycott, intended to highlight the funding disparities between CPS students and their wealthy suburban counterparts. According to WBBM, the actual turnout is more in the hundreds than the thousands. Mayor Daley and CPS chief Arne Duncan aggressively denounced......

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals bought 65 shares of Chicago-based DeVry University last week, part of a plan to escalate its campaign against the technical school's veterinary program. PETA plans to show up at DeVry's November 13 shareholders meeting to stage a protest and appeal to the board. According to the animal welfare organization, the St. Kitts-based Ross University veterinary school requires their students to operate on healthy animals. PETA charges that "healthy......

Thanks, Lisa!......

Illinois is the third state to require incoming kindergarteners get full eye exams, but some worry that it's a burden on parents and on little kids, especially when students are already required to get a physical, which typically includes a vision screening. But...going to the eye doctor is the best! Reading the chart, using the paddle-y thingie to cover one eye, getting your pupils dilated, and when they shine that super bright light through the......

Rev. Al Sharpton joined the call for CPS students to boycott the first day of school. State Senator Rev. James Meeks suggested the boycott, which includes taking CPS students to schools in the suburbs to highlight the funding disparity, at the end of July. Sharpton, preaching at New Landmark MB Church on the West Side Sunday, said that Illinois's education system violates Brown v. Board of Education. "Whether it will be funding or graduation rates,......

A new school has opened in Chicago’s Medical District. The Easter Seals Therapeutic School and Center for Autism Research, a $32 million project, is specifically designed to meet the special needs of students with autism, emotional behavior disorders and severe learning disabilities. The school will also double as a research facility; classrooms are equipped with unobtrusive viewing centers, and scientists will be studying the causes of and developing successful intervention techniques for the disorder. This......

The Sun-Times interviewed hundreds of first-through-eighth graders and found that "half of all fifth- through eighth-graders said their 'greatest fear' was gun- or shooting-related." According to the report, "nearly three-quarters" of fifth-through-eighth graders said they heard gun shots in their neighborhood, and nearly two-thirds of fifth-graders "specifically listed guns or a shooting as their biggest fear." The students surveyed attend schools in Lawndale, West Town and Woodlawn, and the Sun-Times says the survey "offer[s] a......

A special education teacher in Naperville is suing the school district because she says administrators let a violent child stay in school despite repeated dangerous behaviour. Paula Jackson alleges in her suit that the student eventually seriously injured her. She was first introduced to the student on the first day of the 2005-06 school year when the child got out of his mother's car and began to punch, kick and bite her outside the school,......

Princeton Review released its college rankings yesterday, and some Illinois schools have a lot to be happy about. Others....not so much. The results are from student surveys, so you have no one to blame but the kids at your alma mater. Bradley: 4th worst library DePaul University: 10th most diverse student body, best college town Illinois Institute of Technology: seventh least popular professors, second for least accessible professors, 11th for most red tape, seventh least......

Photo by Stuck in Customs Trib says four, Sun-Times says three people were taken to area hospitals when when a car driven by an elderly woman plowed into a West Rogers Park Starbucks. There is no evidence the driver of the car was intoxicated, or hyped up on cafinated beverages. [S-T, Trib] Get this, a male skeleton -- in full clothing -- has been found near the water processing plant near Stickney. [Trib] Chicago......

Citing the poor economy, Daley announced yesterday that the city wouldn't raise property taxes to fund education, in spite of his threats to the contrary. "Does this plan mean that we are able to expand all the programs we'd like to next year? No. Like every student and parent, I had hoped we'd be able to do more next year," Daley said. "But Chicago taxpayers have been generous and supported our school improvements, and they......

Chicago Public Schools gave a car to a 12-year-old for perfect attendance over a three-month period. This is the first time the schools system has given away a car to encourage attendance. By attending school every day within any one of three time periods, a total of 189,115 students were eligible for the Dodge Caliber. Of those, about 150 names were randomly selected, and those students and their parents were invited to a dealership on......

Mayor Daley delivered his much-talked-about commencement address at Northwestern this weekend, and....thud. Students said the speech was generic, which it kind of is. From all corners, you’re told that you have to rein in your hopes and dreams – that the problems we face are beyond your control. Well, I’m here to tell you: don’t believe it. You can always do something to make our world better. After he encourage the grads to take an......

Today Northwestern University will announce its new accelerated law degree program in which students will be bar exam-ready in two years instead of the usual three. At the heels of the University of Dayton and Southwestern Law School, NU is the third school in the nation to attempt this, but the first that is considered top-tier. The program also breaks from tradition by incorporating practical skills such as leadership, teamwork, project management, and accounting into......

Chicago schools are out for the summer, but education reporting gets no such vaycay. A new study shows the revamped SATs don't do a better job of predicting college grades than the old SATs. The new test, which includes a writing portion, is, like the older test, a better predictor for women than men and for whites than minorities. What the study fails to mention is that the new SATs have also created an uncrossable......

Let the annual commencement-speech fervor begin! Oprah delivered a quite charming pep talk yesterday to Stanford's graduating class, which includes her goddaughter. The speech covered some well-worn O biography territory and platitudes, but inspirational, empowering stories are what Oprah does best. Quoth she: ...forget about the fast lane. If you really want to fly, just harness your power to your passion. Honor your calling. Everybody has one. Trust your heart and success will come......

A report from the Brookings Institute today examines "metropolitan areas' progress toward achieving productive, inclusive, and sustainable growth that drives national prosperity." How's Chicago doing? Our GDP average $99,313 per job, which is above both the 100 largest metro areas' average and the US average, but the 7.8 increase between 2001 and 2005 is below average 31.6 percent of Chicagoans 25 and over have attained a bachelors degree or higher. Nationally, the average is 27......

The Chicago Tribune is teaming up with CPS to form a weekly high school newspaper and website, written for and mostly by high school students. The Mash, as the new paper is tentatively titled, should eclipse the Red Eye in terms of quality and worthwhileness almost immediately. From the press release: "We want to redefine what a high school newspaper can be, so we put a lot of thought into how we can improve the......

Police officers will be going undercover as pedestrians to bust drivers who don't yield in crosswalks. [Trib] Today's the fourth anniversary of Riley Fox's murder, and the case remains unsolved. [Southtown Star] More cops are riding bikes. [Trib] Eastern Michigan University has agreed to pay $350,000 in fines to the Department of Education after violating the Clery Act, which requires that schools accurately release campus crime information. School officials lied about how a student died,......

Non-stories Paging Sandi Jackson! CBS 2 wonders if airlines could start charging people based on their weight. Why would they wonder that? Because "it's an idea floating around in cyberspace." Someone somewhere had a terrible idea. Experts say it'll never happen. But could it? Still, the story's not a complete waste, because it contains this line: At O'Hare International Airport Thursday afternoon, traveler Kathy Michalski said, "Oh crump! Not now. 20 years ago I would've......

R Kelly's defense called private investigator Jack Palladino today, who said one of the prosecution's star witnesses once attempted to extort Kelly. [Trib] Nine people were shot last night and this morning in seven separate incidents. [S-T] A Joliet bar is being punished for violating liquor codes that ban certain forms sexually-oriented entertainment after a guy in a G-string and chaps performed. "Undercover police said they saw the dancer take money from women at the......

Newsflash: Teenagers like drugs and fucking! Sun hot, water wet, Jolie attractive, Hawking smart. And so on. But seriously folks, this year's Youth Risk Behavior Study says that 56.9 percent of Chicago teenagers have had sex, 4 in 10 are currently sexually active*, and 44 percent have tried smoking pot. Other stats: 18.7 percent of boys report having intercourse for the first time before age 13; 5.8 percent of girls say they have 17.8 percent......

Photo by little pretty The University of Chicago Medical Center will be opening a physicians' office downtown, which the Trib says is "another attempt to compete with Northwestern Memorial Hospital on its home turf." [Trib] A Wisconsin man found what he says is $1,700 in Depression-era currency when he tore down an old shed on his property. [AP] Lisa Van Allen testified today that she had sex with R. Kelly and an underage girl,......