Results tagged “chicagopublicschools”

In an effort to quell further violence between students from different communities who attend Fenger High School, the Chicago Board of Education announced it may open up Carver Military Academy on the Far South Side to interested students. Board President Michael Scott told parents of the Altgeld Gardens public housing complex this morning that 120 of their students could choose to go to a "dual school" within Carver, which is closer to their house. Mayor Richard Daley and Rev. Jesse Jackson also attended the meeting.

Chicago Public Schools cut after-school tutoring for less than half of the children who applied for the service, according to Chicago Breaking News.

Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are in town today to meet privately with Mayor Daley and select Chicago Public School students and parents to discuss youth violence.

Just as the president of a major university was forced to resign for clout admissions, Mayor Daley defended a rule for some elite Chicago Public Schools that allow principals to handpick five percent of the students admitted, practices that have resulted in at least two aldermen getting their children admitted after calls to the principal. Reacting to accusations of unfairness, Mayor Daley said:

It's been three weeks since (most) Chicago Public Schools kicked off the new school year, but in some schools, like Amundsen High School, there's still a heavy need for teachers. WBEZ has the details.

The Chicago Public School system announced that this year's first-day attendance at its school was a new record at 94.1 percent attendance, topping last year's record of 93.7 percent. Maybe inspiring children with the guy who sings a song called "Birthday Sex" wasn't such a bad idea?

It shouldn't be a surprise at all: teachers pressured to change grades for students. A Sun-Times investigation revealed reasons such as:

"to avoid parental conflict. The parent is a CPS teacher."

"graduating senior who needed to pass and parent pressure."

"principal wanted graduation rate to increase so she would not be reprimanded."

However, unlike the hair trigger closings that happened in May, the CDC this fall is recommending closure only in the event of a "major outbreak." They've also revised the guidelines as to how long a sick child should stay home, reducing the previously advised seven days to the usual time length for kids with a fever -- the student can return to school 24 hours after the fever breaks.

Dushon Brown, principal of Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep, had to take 20 unpaid days of leave this summer for renting out the school without the Chicago Public School system's permission, according to the Tribune.

After the kerfuffle at the University of Illinois, it's the Chicago Public School System's turn to earn some scrutiny regarding clouted students and admission practices. Today, the Tribune is reporting that U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin wrote a letter on behalf of a student who was rejected by Jones College Prep. The student was a relative of a Durbin staff member and, lo and behold, the student eventually was admitted via a process "that allows principals to handpick 5 percent of the incoming class." Though, as the Tribune points out, Durbin has done nothing wrong, those handpicked selections require letters of recommendations and are at the principal's discretion, and while the student's test scores were below Jones College Prep's requirements, they weren't that far below. So is there really an issue of clout here or is the Trib just trying to see what sticks?

• The tragic story of a 9-year-old boy who died while visiting a South Side construction site with his father today.
• Chicago Public Schools are pushing for a $43 million property tax increase; that breaks down to about $18 more a year for property owners.
• That fuel surcharge on city cabs goes back into effect on Thursday.

Today is a bummer of a day for 90,000 students across Chicago: the school year has begun. 132 schools across the Chicago Public School System are on the system's Track E schedule which is a year-round calendar. The students on Track E still have the same number of school days of other students but instead of the typical 10-week summer vacation, they'll have shorter breaks several times throughout the year. Chi-Town Daily News has more on the evolution to the year-round schedule.

• Chicago Public Schools head Michael Scott announced he has been subpoenaed by a grand jury in connection with the investigation into admission practices at some of the system's more elite schools.
• Remember the guy who had his wife, mistress, and two other women glue his penis to his body? Now he's going to jail.
• CTA workers caught yammering on cell phones when they should be working will be fired, according to a new edict handed down by the agency.

An internal memo revealed non-union Chicago Public Schools staff will “have to take six unpaid furlough days this year,” adding to CPS’ woes on a local level. Earlier this week, Mayor Richard M. Daley encouraged the city’s agencies to make “such cuts,” according to a Chi-Town Daily news report. CPS Chief Executive Officer Ron Huberman was behind the July 28 memo, confirmed CPS spokeswoman Monique Bond, the report said. The memo states:

The Chicago Public School system now finds itself under scrutiny from the federal government for alleged shady admissions practices at some of its more elite schools. The CPS has already launched its own internal investigation, but a source told the Tribune that the feds have served the CPS with a grand jury subpoena looking for admission process information. According to the Tribune:

• First Clout College, now this: the Chicago Tribune reports that the Chicago Public School system has launched an internal investigation looking at how students are selected to admittance for some of the more elite schools after, according to CPS CEO Ron Huberman, information showed, "that existing policies may not have been followed."
• Several media outlets report today that Brian Dugan is ready to plead guilty to the 1983 murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico; Dugan is already in prison serving two life sentences for two other murders.
• A section of the outbound Bishop Ford Expressway was closed for around eight hours today after a tanker truck spilled corrosive coal tar in the road early this morning.

We've all heard about the Clout List in the admissions office at University of Illinois. But it's never been clear where the students came from. The Trib's database project, the first that we've seen from Olde Chicago Journalism lately, lets you check out your metro-area high school's clout statistics - while encouraging tutt-tutting and tsk-tsking from, well, everyone else.

• The Chicago Public Schools are holding hearings this week on a potential new set of schools, including a pair of live-in schools.
• The number of state worker layoffs coming from Gov. Quinn's budget cuts? 2,600.
• Weird Science story of the day: using Facebook to crack Social Security Numbers.

We mentioned it yesterday, but the numbers are in and they aren't pretty. In the first round of cuts meant to save money, the Chicago Public School System has cut 557 jobs. The cuts lower the CPS deficit by about $100 million, from $475 million to $375 million with even more cuts expected in the near future. According to the Sun-Times:

• R.I.P. acting legend (and Chicago native) Karl Malden.
• Bail was denied for Harold Turner, the blogger from New Jersey currently in jail for threatening several Chicago-area judges over their upholding of Chicago's handgun ban.
• Layoffs began today at the Chicago Public Schools.

A new study by the University of Chicago has revealed a disturbingly high rate of turnover among Chicago Public Schools teachers. According to the study, within five years, the CPS loses half of its teachers and almost two-thirds of new teachers. The study, conducted by the U. of C.'s Consortium on Chicago School Research, also showed that turnover was even heavier at poorer, predominantly African-American schools where half the teachers left within three years. The study focused on 35,000 public school teachers in 538 elementary schools and 118 high schools over the course of five school years, from fall 2002 until spring 2007. For more information on the study, check out stories by the Sun-Times, the Tribune, and, of course, the entire study itself.

In a move that actually makes sense, Chi-Town Daily News reports that Chicago Public Schools will soon begin offering students STD testing with help from the Chicago Department of Public Health. Cook County is number one in the nation in gonorrhea cases and third for chlamydia cases and teens make up 60 percent of Chicago's new cases. No word, though, when testing will become available to students.

• Charges have been brought against the woman who abandoned her baby in a Wheaton yard last week.
• The Sun-Times investigates the use of "company cars" by employees of, ironically, the CTA.
• Chicago Public Schools are going into overdrive this summer to make sure students come back next fall.

• The Trib takes a look at the operation of regional airlines, and ponders whether their increased flights and lower pilot salaries are eroding safety standards.
• Feel good story of the week: a 5-year-old previously confined to a wheelchair after being shot in gang crossfire was able to switch to a walker to go on stage to receive his kindergarten diploma.
• Want to know what Cardinal George had for lunch or what Youtube video is making the nuns LOL? Check out the new Archdiocese of Chicago blog.

Situated in the Gold Coast steps away from the new Barneys store, Ogden International Elementary is considered one of Chicago’s finest public schools where students of well-off parents from the neighborhood can choose from a curriculum of after-school activities such as yoga and drawing classes.

• Six more confirmed cases of Swine Flu have the grand total in the state of Illinois up to *drumroll* .... Nine.
• Meanwhile, Governor Quinn echoed the sentiment of common sense in saying that riding public transit did not pose any additional health risks.
• Chicago Public Schools and the teachers' union are squaring off over potential changes to the retirement plan.

The death of a tenth-grade Chicago Public School student on the Southwest Side Saturday afternoon raises the number of students killed this school year to 35, surpassing the 26 students who died last year.

Chicago Public Schools will be increasing its number of "year-round" schools this fall to 132, a move CPS CEO Ron Huberman says is being made because the extended schedule was requested by many parents and educators. "Year-round" is a misnomer (although we're sure the students don't feel that way) -- there's still a 6 week break as classes will end in mid-June and start again the first week of August, and additional breaks are added throughout the year making the total number of days spent in a classroom similar to other schools. Huberman says the new schedule reduces "the amount of learning forgotten over the long summer break and give[s] children a 'safe environment' for most of the summer, when violence levels tend to spike." We'll give him the safe environment part, but if kids are really forgetting what they've learned in 3 months, then they haven't really learned it in the first place -- which would mean something else is broken besides summer vacations.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan joined Pat Quinn in visiting Andrew Jackson Elementary School on Chicago's West side Tuesday. Duncan discussed the $3 billion in funding that the state would get as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. $2 billion of those funds will go to the state's Fiscal Stabilization Fund, which Quinn wants to use to make general aid payments to the state's school districts. The remaining $1 billion in funding will go to support programs and operations in public schools around Illinois. "These funds allow Illinois to pay its bills to schools quickly, which keeps our teachers teaching and protects our children," Quinn said.

The mother of a former Coolidge Middle School student has filed a lawsuit claiming that in March 2008 a counselor and a social worker punished her son by forcing him to hold a squatting position while holding two heavy books. He then urinated on himself and was forced to return to class soaked in urine. The boy and his friends were being punished for making a mess in the lunchroom and were told to run laps. He couldn't finish, though, so he was taken to the counselor's office, which other students referred to as "the holding cell." The counselor and social worker mentioned in the court documents are no longer working at the South Holland school. The woman says her son has since suffered from extreme anxiety, panic attacks, recurring nightmares, frequent flashbacks and sleepwalking.