Chicago news

 

Press alert

GEM press conference

For immediate release – October 27, 2009

Fenger parents, LSC members, will join with the Grass Roots Education Movement (GEM) coalition representing groups from across the city to demand that CPS “Stop Renaissance 2010 – stop endangering student lives, disrupting communities, and wasting public dollars

Who: The Grass Roots Education Movement (GEM), parents, teachers, students and LSC members from Fenger and other schools and communities disrupted by Renaissance 2010

What: Opponents of Renaissance 2010 will speak prior to the Board of Education meeting where they will demand an end to turnarounds and other failed R2010 strategies

Where: Chicago Board of Education headquarters, 125 S. Clark Street, lobby

When: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 9:30 am

Why: For five years, the Chicago Public Schools, under Mayor Richard M. Daley's leadership, have ignored consistent community warnings that closing schools, changing boundaries, firing staff, disbanding Local School Councils, and replacing neighborhood schools with charter, contract, military and other restrictive enrollment schools would lead to increased violence. It has taken the videotaped murder of one student to bring attention to a more widespread crisis- the disintegration of neighborhood schools, the erosion of educational opportunity for thousands of our children, and increasing, sometimes fatal, student violence all across Chicago.

Contact: Julie Woestehoff, PURE and GEM 312-491-9101

WBEZ is reporting that a decision has been handed down by Federal Judge Charles Kocoras that the 29-year-old Desegregation Consent Decree is ended.

This means that the Chicago Public schools will no longer be monitored by the Justice Department to assure that the system does not segregate by race.

No, I'm not sure what universe Judge Kocoras lives, in either.

Here's some background on the issue. 

 

UPDATE: I wasn't very clear when I wrote about what happened with SB 612 - guess I was just too mad -- but here's a little more detail:

SB 612 is what they call a "shell bill" - they leave the bill open and then at the last minute they add a lot of amendments to it. One amendment that was added to SB 612 was to section 5/34-2.4 b of the school reform law called the "small schools exemption," which allows CPS to eliminate LSCs in certain small schools.

The new amendment in SB 612 is an attempt to allow CPS to eliminate LSCs from more school. That is very bad news. Our legislators allowed them to sneak this amendment in at the last minute so that no one knew they were doing it and we had no way to stop it. 

The best thing to do now is ask the Governor to veto the bill. You can call his office at 312-814-2121.

**** 

Some time on Saturday, May 30, legislators sneaked in an amendment to SB 612 that will allow CPS to create turnaround contract schools without real LSCs. SB 612 passed both houses on Sunday.

CPS: Ha, ha! We have paid lobbyists and you don't!

It was a nasty twist that this betrayal of LSCs was slipped in as an amendment to a bill that will add 45 more charter schools in Chicago. Charter schools are also not required to have LSCs. This will make it easier for CPS to move ahead with what we have been trying to stop in our small schools lawsuit, that is, ban LSCs from most if not all Renaissance 2010 schools.

Take a look here to see how it all happened at the last minute., and who was responsible.

This is just one example of how CPS takes advantage of the fact that grass roots advocacy groups can't afford to have full-time lobbyists to keep track of all the game playing that happens in Springfield.

It's also an example of the kind of bad law that gets passed in the final hours of the session.  

The lawsuit will go on, and we will win, but this new law will make it harder for parents to have a voice in the future.       

Unless Governor Quinn decides to veto it. After all, shouldn't Chicago parents and others have some say in laws that affect us before they are set in stone?

Springfield

Office of the Governor 207 State House Springfield, IL 62706 Phone: 217-782-0244 TTY: 888-261-3336

Chicago

Office of the Governor James R. Thompson Center 100 W. Randolph, 16-100 Chicago, IL 60601 Phone: 312-814-2121

Chicago parent, teacher and foe of high-stakes testing Wade Tillett gets a big chunk of space on Daily Kos thanks to this post by Kenneth Bernstein, who adds some kind words about PURE's ongoing effort to educate folks about the dangers of Arne Duncan's schemes.

Be sure to check out bubbleover.net for the latest in the local fight against high-stakes standardized testing.

It will only be a few days before flunking notices go out for Chicago 3rd, 6th and 8th graders. Few parents will be prepared for this - please call (312-491-9101) or e-mail us if you need help or if you hear of anyone whose child is affected this year. We are preparing some new legal strategies and would like to include more families.

"Flunkin' Duncan" might be gone, but thousands of children will continue to be harmed by the current CPS promotion policy.   

Thanks to Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie's office for forwarding a letter from CPS CEO Ron Huberman to me with an attached school closings report (both documents are here). I guess our copy is still in the mail.

It's good to read in CEO Huberman's letter that he intends to post this kind of information on the CPS web site at some time in the future. That will make our four-month journey to get this report no longer necessary. He also states that, while there was no report done last year, he has asked for a report on last year to be included with this year's report.

General comments about the report

It's a disappointment that the report is not about students; the CPS school closing policy requires a report on "the impact school closings have on CPS students." This report is clearly labeled as a report of "whole schools."

It includes fairly basic data about the closed and receiving schools including enrollment, attendance, misconduct reports, student transfers under NCLB, test scores, graduation rates, and "on track" rates. 

Some comparisons can be made. A rough eyeballing of the data suggests that more indicators improved in those comparisons than worsened, but it's impossible to say that the closed schools would not also have improved with the rest of the system.

The report will certainly give advocates (and reporters) a lot of information to work with. For example, this is the only CPS document I've seen that gathers together the closed schools with their receiving schools from 2002-2007. 

What's missing?

Well, we thought the point of this report was to monitor any harm that might come to individual students as a result of school closings. For example: 

• How many students dropped out instead of going to their receiving school?
• Did any students lose academic ground as a result of their transition to a different school?
• Did any students experience bullying or other acts of violence, or report feeling less safe in their receiving school?
• Did students in the receiving schools experience problems?
• Where's the demographic data???   

There is nothing like that in this report, and I have shared these concerns in a response to Mr. Huberman.

It may be up to HB 363 to assure that the safety and well-being of CPS students is monitored and protected.   

 

We've been waiting for CPS's report on the impact of school closings and other interventions/changes on students for a LOOOONG time now. The CPS school closing policy says the report will be made annually and will be available to the public.

Our first FOIA letter asking for the report went out on January 6, 2009. CPS asked for an extra 14 days to comply. When we didn't hear anything, we followed up on February 6 with a letter and on March 18th with an e-mail. 

We still didn't hear back from CPS, so on March 24th we complained to the Attorney General. We brought it to the attention of House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie's office on March 30. Later that week, CPS told Rep. Currie's office that the report would be in our hands in "a day or two."

No report. Last week I received another message from Rep. Currie's office that CPS told them the report had been mailed to us on April 9.

On April 6, I received a copy of a letter written by Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office to the Chicago Public Schools on PURE's behalf. 

The letter states, "The office of the Attorney General asks that you evaluate and respond to Ms. Woestehoff's request for records immediately in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act" (emphasis added...).

Still no report.

I'm not sure if they think we'll just give up and go away or if they are simply that unconcerned about having any credibility with legislators, much less the public.

The camp-out will now take place next Friday, April 17, beginning at 7 pm and ending Saturday 4/18 at 7 pm. The event scheduled to begin tonight has been canceled.

Carpenter parent leaders learned that Ogden, whose "West" branch currently shares their building, will hold classes Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week. The parents felt it would not be appropriate to camp out on school grounds while children were in class.

You remember that CPS just "gifted" Ogden with the rest of the Carpenter facility for next year, leaving the neighborhood without an open enrollment school.

Oddly enough, Ogden's web site makes no mention of this special schedule for classes during spring break, and instead indicates that school will be back in session on Tuesday, April 14.

I don't think it's paranoid to wonder if the Ogden classes weren't called in order to put the Carpenter parents in a bad light if they went ahead with their action.

We will share more details about the April 17th action as we learn them.

   

Maybe he'll whip out his badge and arrest himself. 

This morning's Sun-Times reported that CPS CEO Ron Huberman is firing and replacing two CPS principals.

Since there was no mention of using the lawful probation removal approach which requires due process, Huberman seems to be relying on an illegal 2007 CPS policy which gave the Board broad powers to fire any principal it wished.    

State law gives that power to LSCs only, unless CPS removes the principal as a part of probation.

We figured it would only be a matter of time before CPS tried to use the illegal policy and it would be challenged in court. We are glad to see that PURE's General Counsel, Elaine Siegel, is on the case.  

Here's the full CPS press release detailing how this move will "strengthen leadership" at the schools. 

A better leader?

Besides the illegal process, Huberman is sending a principal to Oglesby who currently oversees Reed school which actually performs significantly worse (about 40% meeting/exceeding ISAT standards) than the school Huberman is sending her to (Oglesby averages 51% in reading).

Since CPS just voted to phase Reed out, I have to wonder if this move is an effort quiet the Reed principal down or reward her for already having quieted down. 

In the case of Julian, parents, LSC members and students have complained loudly for a couple of years at least about CPS's hamhanded interference and undermining of the school. It's likely that the new "leadership" is being put in place to help the starvation process along, no doubt so that the building can be turned over to some charter operator.

UPDATE: Here's Rep. Soto's press release with details of the version of HB 363 that passed and why it is so important for her community and for the city in general.

*****

In a big victory fo CPS students, HB 363 passed unanimously today in the Illinois House! Here's the vote history.

Thanks to Rep. Cynthia Soto who is the sponsor and fought so hard for the bill in its original, stronger version, and to Designs for Change for their work developing the language of the bill and helping to get it passed.

CPS has taken a hit with HB 363. Passage of the bill makes it clear that the state legislature no longer trusts CPS to make fair, sound school facilities decisions, and they feel they need to step in to fix the mess CPS has made.

Stay tuned -we still need to get the bill through the Senate and we'll need everyone's help to do it.

 

PURE just joined a coalition dedicated to reform in state campaign finance laws. It's called Change Illinois, and it's a good start. Making the legislature respond to the voters and not political contributors is a key step in cleaning up the toxic mess of Illinois politics. If we fix things at the state level, we might have some real help mucking out Chicago.

And that's really what's going to have to happen before we have a chance of making our schools work for all children.

Change Illinois has a phone number - 1-800-719-3020 - that will hook you up with your state reps so you can tell them you want them to support HB24/SB1768 which calls for meaningful campaign finance reform.

I've written about astroturf organizers before. Tomorrow, with funding from by Bill Gates and in service of AUSL, a handful of them are putting on a conference as part of their campaign to give public schools a bad name so that groups like AUSL can move in and take them over.

This strategy has been thoroughly discredited, even by a former high-ranking official of the U. S. Dept. of Education, who said that "NCLB was a Trojan horse for the choice agenda — a way to expose the failure of public education and ‘blow it up’ a bit. There were a number of people pushing hard for market forces and privatization."

But BIll Gates has unlimited resources and if he wants to throw money at the choice agenda, there certainly are people in Chicago willing to run after it. Sadly, this includes some former school reform allies. But who knows? In retrospect, some of these folks could have been in it for the money then, too. There was plenty to go around in the early days.

Anyway, local Chicago funders say that these kinds of groups have "more impact" than "old style" school reform groups like PURE. Take a look for yourself at the partners list below and see if you think this is a dynamic, broad-based coalition, or perhaps just a Coalition of the Willing to be Paid 

Community groups to host Citywide Education Summit on Friday, March 27th

Convened by Target Area DevCorp and the following members:

• Action Now Albany Park Neighborhood Council (APNC)
• Ambassadors For Christ Church
• Association of Howe Elementary School Parents
• Coalition of African Arab Asian European and Latino Immigrants of Illinois (CAAAELII)
• Disciples for Christ
• Enlace Chicago
• Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN)
• Metropolitan Area Group for Igniting Civilization (MAGIC)
• New Birth Christian Center Organization of the NorthEast (ONE)
• People's Community Development Association
• West Town Leadership United (WTLU)

MEDIA ALERT

NEW SURVEY SHOWS CHICAGO PARENTS POORLY INFORMED ABOUT CRITICAL SCHOOL PROBLEMS Community groups to host Citywide Education Summit on March 27

WHAT: The Citywide Education Organizing Campaign will release Parent Perceptions, Student Realities in Chicago Schools, the findings of a citywide survey of parents and caretakers of Chicago public school students, at a Citywide Education Summiton Friday, March 27, 2009 to advance the debate about solutions to ongoing problems impacting education in Illinois.

WHY: Most Chicago parents receive inaccurate or incomplete information from unofficial sources about the current challenges faced by Illinois students. This knowledge gap disempowers parents from participating in district-level decision-making regarding significant school changes. The Citywide Education Organizing Campaign hopes to raise awareness about current education problems and groom parent and student leaders to participate in a dynamic, forward-looking dialogue on the next wave of Illinois school reform based on the latest available information.

WHO: Confirmed groups include: * Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, President, Enlace Chicago * Audrey Donaldson, Leadership Coach, Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL) * Robin Steans, President, Advance Illinois * Rev. Patricia Watkins, Convener PRISE Reform * Dea Meyer, Exec. V.P., Civic Com. of the Commercial Club * Anne Hallett, Exec. Dir., Grow Your Own Illinois * Rami Nashashibi, Exec. Dir., Illinois Muslim Action Network

WHEN: Friday, March 27, 2009 9:30 AM–12:30 PM (Registration and complimentary breakfast beginning at 8:30 AM)

WHERE: Ukrainian Cultural Center, 2247 West Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL

Today's print Sun-Times (I couldn't find it online) reports that Board of Education members will vote today on doubling what we taxpayers pay them for showing up once a month and voting yes on everything on the agenda.

Board member payments would go from the current $1,000 per month to $2,000. The Board president's payment will go from $1,600 to $3,000/month. 

This is not a reimbursement allowance, folks. No receipts necessary. That, according to the policy, would be too "cumbersome" for these seven intrepid souls. They need to save their strength to raise their hands to support all of those great mayoral plans for our schools.

Cost of living, schmost of living. The payment was $700/month or $8,400 annually in 2002 ($12,000 for the prez). Assuming the Board votes yes today (shall we?), the new annual payment for being a Board member jumps 350%, or 50% per year, to $24,000. The prez's loot triples over 7 years.

Just for showing up once a month and voting yes. 

Prior to the mayoral takeover of the schools, Board members actually engaged in school policy making through Board committees which met at least once a month and reviewed and received public input into issues prior to each monthly Board meeting. Every Board member sat on at least one committee.

This current group should be ashamed of themselves for even considering giving themselves a raise for doing nothing but rubber-stamping bad policies.

** Press release **

For immediate release

March 24, 2009

Parent group files FOIA complaint with Illinois Attorney General

CPS failed to provide required reports about impact of school closings on children

Contact: Julie Woestehoff, PURE executive director, 312-491-9101

Chicago, March 24, 2009: Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE) filed a complaint with Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan today charging that the Chicago Public Schools has denied PURE's request for copies of reports required under the 2007 CPS school closing policy.

Section V of the CPS policy states, "The CEO shall review the school closing process annually and report to the Board on the impact school closures have on CPS students. The report shall be made publicly available."

PURE initially requested copies of these reports under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on January 6, 2009. CPS immediately filed for an extension, but has since failed to respond to the request.

PURE's letter to Attorney General Madigan states, "The policy itself requires public disclosure of the reports, and disclosure is clearly in the public interest. We know that students who are moved from school to school can lose academic ground. There may also be emotional and social repercussions from such moves. We need to know what has been happening to our children, some of whom have been subjected to multiple school moves under Mayor Daley's Renaissance 2010 program. Parents, the general public, and the Board itself should have objective information about how school closings have affected children. This is especially pertinent in light of the Board's vote last month to close another eight schools.

“If these reports do not exist, the public has a right to know that the Board of Education is making decisions without having any information about the impact those decisions have on children, information that they themselves requested.”

According to PURE executive director Julie Woestehoff, “If Board members don't know how their school closure decisions have been affecting children, they should stop approving these proposals. In fact, if they didn't care enough about children to insist on having this information before they voted to close more schools last month, they should resign before they make one more irresponsible decision. This is yet another reason why Chicago needs an elected school board."

PURE letter to Attorney General

CPS school closing policy

Last month the CPS Board voted to close Carpenter Elementary, a school which has been performing pretty well and improving over the years, and whose students are 96.6% low-income. Next month the CPS Board is likely to hand Carpenter’s building over for an expansion of Ogden, a school with 25.3% low-income children.

The “hearing” on this latest example of Mayor Daley’s war on Chicago's low-income families will be tomorrow, Friday, March 20, 2009, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Children & Youth Services Building, 1615 W. Chicago. Sign up to speak between 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

We understand that the Carpenter school community was generally unaware of this hearing until they got the word from GEM members earlier this week. They are planning an action outside the hearing location beginning at about 5 pm. Come protest Renaissance 2010 and show your support for this active, courageous group of parents, teachers and students.

UPDATE:

Everyone can do something!!!

• Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 23 and 24 - Phone banking session from 4pm to 8pm at CTU headquarters (4th floor of the Merchandise Mart), working on turnout for the Wednesday Board meeting.

• Monday, 2/23, candlelight vigil at Carpenter, 1250 W. Erie, 5:30 pm
• Mondat, 2/23, candlelight vigil at Peabody, 1440 W. Augusta , 9 pm.

• Tuesday night, Feb. 24, candlelight vigil at the Board, 125 S. Clark St. 7 to 9 pm. Camp out begins at  9 pm. 25 tents will be set up along Monroe and Adams Streets. Call Wanda to get involved - 773-663-5420.

• Wednesday, Feb. 25th, Board of Education meeting when a vote is likely to be taken on school closings, consolidations, turn-arounds and phase-outs. If your school wants a bus, get reimbursed by calling Sandy Shultz of the Chicago Teachers Union at 312-329-6226. Sign up to speak beginning at 6:30 am; attend public testimony beginning after 10:30 am; join the rally and march at 3:30 pm.

Yesterday the Grassroots Education Movement presented two research reports which challenged the supposed success of CPS's turnaround and charter schools:

• The second "Data and Democracy Report", written by Pauline Lipmap et al for the UIC Collaborative for Equity and Justice in Education raises a number of significant concerns about CPS's school closing policy.

• "The Charter Difference", by Liz Brown and Eric Gutstein, compares charters with neighborhood high schools and finds that charters enroll fewer low-income, limited-English-proficient, and special education students, and their results are no better than the more inclusive neighborhood schools. 

CPS Chief Education Officer Barbara Eason-Watkins responded with the same tired, lame defense of Renaissance 2010 schools that CPS always makes -- "They have waiting lists." 

About the reports (from the Tribune):

"The (UIC) study found that while housing prices in many of these neighborhoods boomed, many economically disadvantaged families were priced out. The study also found this push-out may have led to decreased enrollment at Peabody and Carpenter."

"(The second study found) little difference between ACT test scores in charter high schools and in neighborhood high schools from 2006 to 2008. The report found charter high schools enrolled fewer low-income students, nearly half as many limited English speakers and "significantly fewer" students with special needs.

The Sun-Times story offered a defense of charter school fees by Noble Street Charter founder Michael Milkie. He claims that some regular schools charge fees, too, but failed to mention that state law requires regular schools to waive fees for low-income families, which charters don't do. 

Eason-Watkins can't provide any evidence that charters are any better either. Chi-Town Daily News reports "'The high demand for enrollment is an indication that charter schools are thriving, and we have an obligation to meet that demand by bringing even more quality options for education to families across Chicago,'” she said in a statement e-mailed to reporters.

I guess in Barbara's mind we don't need educational quality, we need "thriving choices."

  

From DFC:

We need your help to make sure that the "Equitable and Effective School Facility Development Process" Bill (House Bill 363, sponsored by Rep. Cynthia Soto), passes the House Elementary and Secondary Committee on Thursday at 8 a.m.

An overwhelming positive vote will be a big rebuke to CPS, as it completes its current charade of hearings and secret deliberations.

A decisive win in the first step of the legislative process will also create momentum behind House Bill 363.

We have to keep the pressure on; CPS is. They know how critical this bill is. Also, this is just the first of six votes that the bill will face.

Ir is critical to call or fax House Committee members in their home offices today and their Springfield offices on Wednesday. Here's the list of representatives where you can access their contact information. Talking points about the bill are below.

DFC is also looking for people to come to Springfield to lobby on Wednesday and, if possible, stay over for the  vote at 8 a.m. on Thursday morning.

• DFC is renting a 12-person van for Wednesday  that leaves the Home Depot at 5 a.m. at 87th and the Dan Ryan and the Dominicks at Roosevelt and Canal at 6 a.m.  There are a few spaces left.  Call Valencia Rias at 312-236-7252, ext. 241 for details.  You will be home between 7 and 8 p.m on Wednesday.

• Arrange your own transportation.  Drive down with a few other people and join the group to lobby.

We will meet at the statue on the ground floor of the Capitol at 10:30 a.m. and expect to lobby the House Committee members all day.

Lobbyists from the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Principals Association, along with Valencia, will be there to help.

Please make some calls on Tuesday or Wednesday or come to lobby on Wednesday.

Sincerely, Don Moore and Valencia Rias

Talking Points for Gaining Legislative Support for House Bill 363, Which Establishes a Fair School Facility Development Process in Chicago

  Key Message

I am calling to ask Representative [???] to vote for and co-sponsor House Bill 363, which was introduced by Representative Cynthia Soto.

Currently, Chicago’s facilities process is blatantly unfair. House Bill 363 will put a one-year moratorium on school closings, turnarounds, phase-outs, and consolidations in Chicago. This moratorium will give the legislature a chance to develop and pass a new state law that creates fair procedures for decisions about school facilities in Chicago.

Specifics

Currently, Chicago’s Chief Executive Officer announces a list of school of schools that the Board intends to close, consolidate, phase-out, or turnaround.

This plan is largely a plan for driving low-income families out of neighborhoods that the Mayor’s School Board wants to help gentrify.

Once a school is placed on this list, they are supposedly given a chance for a public hearing.  However, these hearings are a sham:   (1) the “independent hearing officers” are highly paid consultants to the Board and almost always support the Board’s initial recommendations; (2) Board members almost never attend the local hearings; (3) the Board never even sees the testimony introduced at the local hearings before they make final decisions, and (4) the original recommendations are rubber-stamped by the Chicago Board for virtually every school.

Sadly, high-achieving schools that serve low-income students are being closed.  For example, in Representative Soto’s district, Peabody and Carpenter Schools are both more than 90% low-income, yet they both have more than 60% of their students who meet state test standards.  Peabody and Carpenter are being closed. Amazingly, the school system’s highly-touted turnaround schools, which the Chicago Board cites as models, have only 40% of their students meeting state standards.

It is time for the state legislature to step in.  Please help our children by co-sponsoring and supporting House Bill 363.

For More Information, contact:  Valencia Rias (312-236-7252, ext. 241) or Elena Rios  (312-236-7252, ext. 234)

Wish I could have been there when some one hundred people picketed the Rock'n'Roll McDonald's and the Walgreen's across the street yesterday:

Footage on ABC, story in the Sunday Sun-Times.

Thanks and congratulations to the GEM folk who pulled off a great event!

It brings back memories of PURE's 1993 picketing of the Walgreen's at State and Washington in response to Walgreen's support for a lobbying campaign which helped defeat (in a squeaker) a statewide referendum calling for the state to provide at least 50% of school funding. 

CPS schools didn't open on time that fall because a state law required the district budget to be balanced before the doors opened. We protested at Walgreen's until, we were told, Mr. Walgreen called Gov. Edgar and told him to do whatever it took to get the schools open and get us off their backs. A day or two later, the schools opened.

We have to keep the pressure on Mayor Daley and the Board of Education, but the businesses that fund Renaissance 2010 that are its soft underbelly. They give big bucks to the Mayor's program because they think it will enhance their corporate image, in which they invest millions. It doesn't take a whole lot to tarnish that image. 

Especially businesses like McDonald's and Walgreen's, which promote themselves as family friendly, need to hear from families who have been hurt by Renaissance 2010. 

And the fun has just begun. More protests are on the way- stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to teachers for Social Justice for this good outline (somewhat updated for today) of actions we can all take TODAY and in the next days to continue ramping up the pressure on Renaissance 2010 before the Feb. 25th Board meeting.

1) Call your state rep and some of the others recommended by Designs for Change to get their commitment to sign on as a co-sponsor of HB 363 (more here).

2) Show your support by attending one of the two final hearing which are both tonight from 6 pm to 8 pm:

Dulles (Turnaround)

731. E. 63rd

Johnson Elementary (Turnaround)

Douglass Park Field House (south of Collins HS)

NOTE: The hearings for Dulles, and Johnson were JUST scheduled by CPS and AUSL (Academy for Urban School Leadership--they are the "turnarounders"). We suspect that CPS is REACTING to all the opposition, which is NOT being reported in the mainstream media. See http://substancenews.net/ for detailed news on school closings and hearings, and see the R2010 Talking Points, put together by PURE (Parents United for Responsible Education).

3) Attend a regional CORE (Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators, a caucus in the CTU) meeting. CORE's regional meetings are all online at <http://www.coreteachers.org>www.coreteachers.org, and they are all at 4:00 today, Wednesday, February 11.

4) Attend a public meeting organized by the school/community against the closing of South Chicago Elementary, on Wednesday, Feb 11, 5-7PM in Russell Square Park (3045 E 83rd St).

More upcoming events:

5) Thursday, Feb. 12th - 5:30 pm at PURE offices, 100 S. Morgan Street

GEM planning meeting for Feb. 25th, Open meeting to plan for next week's Board meeting

6) Saturday, Feb. 14th

Tentative date for boycott. Theme - "Have a heart" Details to follow.

I attended the final arguments in the CPS Desegregation case this morning.

Some observations:

This is the same old CPS - MALDEF attorney Rick Meza and U. S. Justice Department counsel Jeremiah Glassman both pointed out that CPS wants to blame anyone and everyone for CPS’s  failures. No textbooks? That’s an LSC function. Of course, they don’t mention that LSCs’ discretionary funds have been frozen for 13 years and that during that time, CPS has forced LSCs to use those funds to pay for resources that CPS used to provide.

The site visitors found violations of the consent decree? Well, CPS argued, they just picked bad schools to visit.  

Both attorneys also spoke of the strong outpouring of commentary from the public which had a consistent theme of distrust of CPS – none of this testimony favored lifting the consent decree.

As someone who has watched CPS lawyers in action quite a bit, I was not surprised when they pulled out a nasty little passive-aggressive argument -- they claimed that the fifteen students from Little Village School of Social Justice who testified at the hearing were evidence that CPS’s efforts to remedy the system's discriminatory actions are working. The students were diverse, were proud of attending a diverse attendance-area school in a brand new building, were taught by a non-minority teacher, were involved in an interesting learning process, and spoke articulately and thoughtfully.

See, Ma! We done good!

Fortunately, Rick Meza, the General Counsel of MALDEF, reminded the judge of what the students actually SAID, which was that they know of other students are who are not fortunate enough to live within the district of this brand new school and so attend a more typical CPS school which is under-resourced and unable to provide the kind of education that the consent decree was created to insist that CPS provide the same high-quality education for all students. 

CPS wants us to trust that they will make it all better if the judge just lets them run things on their own. Right.  

Judge Kocoras is not likely to make a ruling for some time. Stay tuned.  

Julie

Please try to attend the closing arguments in the CPS Desegregation hearings tomorrow, Feb. 6, at 10:30 am, in Judge Kocoras' chambers downtown at 219 S. Dearborn, Courtroom 1725. This will be a major education story no matter which way the judge rules.

We join Ricardo Meza at MALDEF in urging you to attend -- it is very important for the judge to see community support for the Consent Decree at closing argument.

The hearings, which were originally planned for one day, went on for several days as dozens of people testified about their concerns about the unequal state of our schools and the danger of letting CPS off the hook on its promises under the Consent Decree of a fair and equal education for all children. Please come show your support for our students and our schools.

State Representative Cynthia Soto announced today that she is sponsoring a bill that will place a moratorium on Renaissance 2010 school closings and other interventions.

House Bill 363 will also set up a legislative committee whose job it will be "to analyze past school district experience with respect to the closing or opening of schools, school repairs, school additions, school phase-outs, school consolidations, and school boundary changes; to consult widely with stakeholders about these facility issues; and to examine relevant best practices from other school systems for dealing with these issues systematically and equitably."

Soto sponsored a similar bill last year which passed the House. She agreed not to send the bill to the Senate after CPS offered to negotiate an improved school closing policy. 

Unfortunately, the policy changes simply didn't make enough difference in the way CPS went about the closings this year, and in some respects CPS failed to follow their own policy, so Rep. Soto is back with an even stronger bill. 

Many thanks to this caring and courageous state legislator! Now we need to support her and our schools by calling our own state reps and asking them to sign on to HB363.

Click on your state rep.'s name here to access his/her local telephone number. 

The data is clear - African-American teachers are being systematically pushed out of the Chicago Public Schools by Renaissance 2010.

This chart, prepared by PURE from data on the Interactive Illinois Report Card, shows that the percentage of African-American teachers in CPS has dropped by 1% every year since 2000, for a total drop of 9%, while the percentage of teachers of every other racial group has increased.  

This is unconstitutional. The CTU has said they will pursue U. S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights claims. The sooner the better! 

Update: Steinberg says that he has seen an LSC do this. OK - so why weren't charges filed? It is illegal. 

------

So far I have neither read nor heard any comments in the media from people who oppose the appointment of Ron Huberman on the basis of his sexual orientation. So why are columnists and bloggers raising the issue, and why is at least one of them associating such a position with local school councils?

Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg states that, of course, being gay isn’t an issue in terms of Huberman’s job performance, but he goes on to say, “But it will matter, perhaps enormously, to some he had to deal with, particularly those who object to some action of Huberman's and are searching for what they consider a fault to bludgeon him with.”

So, opposing Huberman is anti-gay. Bad enough.

Then he goes on to equate the anti-gay feelings in those who oppose Huberman with the LSCs which, according to him, have fired principals for being the wrong race.

Wow.

And there’s no evidence that these supposed race-based firings by LSCs have happened. On the contrary, we know that many principals have tried to keep their jobs by filing discrimination complaints and lawsuits, yet none has ever succeeded in those efforts. The LSC training material explicitly instructs LSCs about discrimination laws and what they may and may not consider in their principal contract decisions. 

Like most people who don’t keep up much with schools issues but believe everything written about them in the newspapers, Steinberg is most likely referring to the Curie LSC case, where the Mayor tried to conduct a media witch hunt when a family friend's principal contract was not renewed by an LSC. I've referred Steinberg to the You Tube clip which gives just one example of the type of unprofessional antics which actually led to the principal’s firing.    

If the Mayor didn’t plan the current Ron Huberman uproar, he certainly must be enjoying the direction it’s taking, with suggestions being made now that people who oppose the appointment are anti-gay and that anyone who questions the Mayor’s judgment is also questioning President Obama’s judgment in selecting Daley’s last appointment, Arne Duncan, to be Secretary of Education.  

Unfortunately, most of the media played the big anti-Renaissance 2010 demonstration last Wednesday as a form of protest against the Huberman appointment. While our coalition’s message was focused, and came across clearly in and of itself, the Mayor’s timing of the appointment placed the two issues side by side. Reporters get to write only one story, so the issues inevitably converged.

Let me state categorically that PURE does not consider Huberman’s sexual orientation to be an issue. We do consider his lack of experience in the field of education to be a major, legitimate area for criticism which we will not yield no matter what slimy tactics are attempted. We also consider his appointment to be just one more piece of evidence that the Mayor is not an education mayor, but the same corporate, real estate, and self-serving interest mayor that he is in every other area of city government.   

With respect to the idea that Vallas and Duncan were such great picks, we have to be clear that Vallas was able to address only some of the bureaucratic and budget problems at CPS, and that Daley himself said Vallas had to go because he had not done more to move the system academically. Vallas was even less successful in Philadelphia -- he did not improve academics and he left the system worse off financially than it was when he came. The jury is definitely still out on the job he is doing in New Orleans, but we have heard some dire reports about public schools being severely shortchanged in favor of charter schools.

It's a widely held opinion throughout Chicago that Duncan was selected to be the US Education Secretary because of his friendship with Obama and not for his track record as an education leader. Though the local media has hyped Duncan as a great success, and he himself has hyped his programs as "dramatic, tremendous" successes, the facts and the experience of people in the schools tell a much different story. The recent 500-person demonstration and rally against Renaissance 2010 displayed the anger and disgust people have for the damage Duncan's administration has done to our schools. The lackluster data coming out of Duncan's Renaissance 2010 "model" schools provide more evidence that the damage was not worth it.

It's legitimate for us to demand a different kind of school leader, one who has a better, not a worse, grasp on education, than previous picks.

Please copy and share this "Stop Renaissance 2010" flyer with your school and your community. We need everyone to join in the protest Wednesday at CPS headquarters, 125 S. Clark Street. 

• 6 am -- begin to "line up to sign up" to speak at the Board meeting (remember, if you spoke last month they will not let you speak this month, but you still need to be in line to get a seat in the Board chambers)
• 10 am -- gather in the first floor lobby for a press conference
• 3:30 pm -- rally and march starting at CPS headquarters 

We're going to have some fun as we carry out the very serious business of protecting our children, our schools and our communities from the destructive Renaissance 2010 program.

• Look for scary Board member masks...
• Check out the "New Market of Public Education" sponsored by Mayor Daley which will include the Public Ed. Bake Sale, $1 schools, etc. 

See you then!   

No, not Jan. 20 but another great day, the January 10 meeting at Malcolm X. If you weren't there (and even if you were) you will enjoy this video from Labor Beat:

The Struggle Against Renaissance 2010

View it on Google Video.

See excerpts from the Community Hearing at Chicago's Malcom X College on January 10, 2009, highlighting testimonies of teachers union members, community organizations, students and parents.

The hearing considered: At the current pace, 50% of all the Chicago Public Schools will be privatized by 2020. How will this impact students, parents, teachers, communities? The meeting was Sponsored by: Caucus Of Rank-and-file Educators (CORE); The Chicago Teachers Union; The Pilsen Alliance; PACT; CSDU; Substance News; Blocks Together; Kenwood Oakland Community Organization; Parents United for Responsible Education; Teachers for Social Justice; The Southwest Youth Collaborative. 

The video gives selections of speeches from Professor Pauline Lipman, Educational Policy Studies; Julie Woestehoff, Parents United for Responsible Education; Lourdes Guerrero, Teacher Representative; Jesse Sharkey, Social Studies teacher; Lanetta Thomas, High School student; Alina Mojica, former charter school student; Kristen Chapman, High School teacher; Marilyn Stewart, President, Chicago Teachers Union; Meg Sullivan, terminated charter school teacher; Lorenza Ramirez, parent of former charter school student; Carol Reynolds, charter school teacher; Lou Pyster, retired school teacher; Alfred P. Rodgers, Parents United for Responsible Education; and Debbie Lynch, Former President, Chicago Teachers Union. Lynch, with much audience support, expresses disappointment over President Obama's appointment of Arne Duncan, responsible for so many of these destructive policies in Chicago public education, to become the new Secretary of Education. Video is 29 minutes.

To order a DVD, indicate title "Struggle Against Renaissance 2010" and send a check for $15 to:

Labor Beat, 37 S. Ashland, Chicago, IL 60607.

Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat is affiliated with IBEW 1220. Views expressed are those of the producer, not necessarily of IBEW. For info: www.laborbeat.org / mail@laborbeat.org / 312-226-3330. For other Labor Beat videos, visit Google Video or YouTube and search "Labor Beat".

The list is the same as the one PURE posted last week with the following 1 change and (UPDATE) 4 deletions:

Carpenter is moved from the closure list to the phase out (which is, of course, the same as closing, just slower).  

Key (which was to be phased out) and Ross, Curtis and Lavizzo (which were to be turned around) are off the list entirely - George Schmidt suggests it was probably a call from Alderman Anthony Beale that accomplished the last two changes.

Alderman Beale does not play around when it comes to the Board of Ed. Last spring he requested a meeting of the City Council Education Committee for the express purpose of taking Rufus Williams to the woodshed. It may have been the most fun I've ever had at City Hall.

Targeted schools

From Tribune staff report

(Yes, PURE will attribute this list to the Tribune even though they would not attribute last week's list to us).

A lot of people have already commented on the fantastic CORE meeting on Saturday at Malcolm X College.

District 299 had a nice write up and there were major stories in the Sunday Tribune and Sun-Times and on WBEZ. More on that in a minute.

Nagging at me is how all these media outlets justify using the list prepared and first published by PURE, without saying where they got it. The Sun-Times even blared on their Sunday front page that it was their exclusive.

PURE posted the list on Thursday before noon. The facts were reported Friday in the Chi-Town Daily News. What we posted was not a scanned copy of a CPS report. The person who shared the information with us would not let us copy the list, and read the names of the schools aloud to us in a random pattern. I typed the list and organized it into the categories that every news outlet has since reprinted.

I’m trying to get some clarification from the Sun-Times and Tribune about why they are using this list without crediting PURE.

But that’s a minor irritation compared with the great pleasure of being with 500 fired up, angry, articulate, passionate students, teachers, parents and community folks on Saturday. The stories we shared are heartbreaking, but now that the truth about Renaissance 2010 is finally coming out in a major way, the stories will be our fuel for the fire.  

And if 500 came out on a Saturday morning during a near-blizzard, just imagine what will happen on January 28th at the next Board meeting? Plans are to begin challenging the Board during public comment in the morning and to stay in the Board chambers throughout the afternoon and until the Board members come out to vote on their next list of victims in the Renaissance 2010 War on our Public Schools. We’ll be doing other things, too, while we wait and after the vote. Stay tuned for details.  

I can't be in Washington D. C. for Arne Duncan’s confirmation hearing tomorrow, but I have a few questions I'm sending to panel members hoping they will be asked. 

1 - President-elect Obama campaigned against high-stakes testing and overuse of standardized tests. Under your leadership, Chicago has continued to place a great deal of emphasis on standardized tests, including using the state test scores to determine which students will be promoted or will graduate, and narrowing the curriculum to focus on a small set of tested skills. (See note 1) How will you help President Obama keep his campaign promise to improve the quality of student assessment and reduce the emphasis on standardized tests? 

2 - You were selected for this post in part because you have closed and reopened a number of schools in your district. What has been the impact of your school closing policies on children whose schools have closed? On children in those schools which have received students from closed schools? May we have copies of any reports your administration prepared tracking these students? Were these reports made available to the public? (See note 2)

3 - Please explain how you compare academic results of Chicago’s charter and other Renaissance 2010 schools to regular neighborhood schools when many of the Renaissance 2010 schools have advantages over traditional schools such as parents who are motivated enough to negotiate challenging entrance procedures, significant private funding, and restricted enrollments? Do you take these differences into account in analyzing and comparing results? If there are successful programs in Renaissance 2010 schools, how have they been shared with traditional neighborhood schools?

4 - We understand that you have removed democratically elected, parent-majority local school councils from most of your new schools and replaced them with bodies that are appointed by the Board of Education and have by some reports fewer than 5% parents as members. (See note 4) A lawsuit against the Chicago Board of Education to stop the dismantling of these governing bodies was recently allowed to move ahead by a Cook County Circuit Court judge. (See note 5) How does this reflect your commitment to public accountability and parent engagement, particularly in school decision making?

A final concern: Since state law changed in 1995, the head of the Chicago public school system (and no other system in the state) is allowed to be a non-educator. Parents, teachers and the community strongly object to this situation and believe that having a non-educator heading the school system has led to some of the questionable policies and practices referenced above. When President-elect Obama named Arne Duncan as his choice for education secretary, a sense of betrayal and keen disappointment rippled throughout the education community, and particularly among African-American educators. We urge you to consider voting no on this unfortunate choice, and that you demand a nominee who has intensive, authentic education experience and the highest quality education credentials.    

Note 1 - For example, “Intensive prep for the ACT exam in Chicago's public schools not only failed to boost ACT scores, but actually dragged them down, according to a University of Chicago study to be released today.”

Note 2 -  “There has always been a gap between African-American and other students in terms of mobility, but data show that this gap [is] widening,” says senior research analyst Marisa de la Torre. De la Torre is conducting a follow-up report on mobility, updating a 1994 study that provided the first in-depth look at the problem in CPS. De la Torre speculates that public housing demolition and school closings, which hit hardest in low-income black communities, are to blame.” (Catalyst Magazine, March 2007)

Note 3 - “A close look at Sherman (a Renaissance 2010 “model”) shows less than exciting results, which also are compromised by a significant alteration in the student population as evidenced by the enrollment drop and the drop in the school's low-income rate, from 99 percent in 2006, the year before the takeover, to 84.2 percent in 2008....in science -- where there is less opportunity for teaching to the test -- (state test) scores dropped dramatically. The percentage of students meeting and exceeding state standards in science dropped from 32 percent in 2006 to 20 percent in 2008. Keep in mind that Sherman has more resources than typical CPS schools. These perks are unlikely to be economically feasible on a larger scale, which is one more reason to question its usefulness as a model.” (JW op ed, Sun-Times, Dec. 27, 2008)

Note 4 - “Fifty-seven schools or charter networks were contacted. More than two-thirds of these Renaissance 2010 schools failed to respond either to our first or second FOIA request or to a letter from the Illinois Attorney General. We conclude that these schools have no governing bodies, which violates the law and CPS policy. Within the smaller set of 18 responding schools/networks, we found more reason for concern: Only 7 of the 152 board members of the responding charter schools are parents, or less than 5%. This indicates a major lack of legally-mandated parent involvement in school governance.” (PURE report, Accountability and Renaissance 2010)

Note 5 - “Cook County Circuit Court Judge Sophia Hall denied a Chicago Board of Education motion for summary judgment which asked her to throw out the small and alternative schools Local School Council (LSC) lawsuit filed by a number of LSCs, LSC members, parents, and advocacy organizations. LSC attorneys Elaine K. B. Siegel and Associates argued that the Chicago Public Schools’ broad practice of closing schools and reopening them without elected LSCs violates the school reform law.”  (report on PURE Thoughts)

Parents, teachers, students and the general public have a right to know who is behind Renaissance 2010, a Chicago program that has led to the closure of some 30 public schools, the wholesale firing of school staff without due process, the dismantling of democratically-elected local school councils, and the disruption and dislocation of thousands of children which are associated with academic setback and increased violence.

Funders of Renaissance 2010 have contributed up to $50 million to the Renaissance Schools Fund. 

Who are they? See the full list here.

Many of these corporations and businesses give huge donations to Renaissance 2010 in order to profit from the positive publicity they expect to get from their support for these new schools. Included are businesses which seek to portray themselves as family-friendly, and which need your family budget dollars to make a profit.

Examples are McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, Sears, Microsoft, Walgreen’s, Sara Lee, Kraft, Azteca, Chase Bank, Bank of America, and Allstate. Also on the list are public utilities like People’s Gas and Exelon.    

It is up to us to decide whether we want to patronize businesses that support Renaissance 2010. We might also want to ask why profits from our gas and electricity usage are being used for this purpose.

PURE was given this list in a meeting with a CPS staffer this morning. We were asked not to share the list so that the staff of schools on the list would not panic. We informed the staffer that we would not agree to that condition, and that we felt PURE was not a more important stakeholder in this process than the staff of affected schools. We have already been called on the carpet by a high-ranking CPS official for posting this list.   

According to CPS, this list is still fluid:

Closing

Las Casas Occupational - closed (don’t want to renew the lease, building not in good shape) - students will go to home schools

South Chicago Elementary (under-enrolled), students going to home school

Peabody Elem 1440 W Augusta - receiving schools Ogden, Talcott, Lozano

Carpenter - receiving schools Ogden, Talcott, Lozano

Nia Foundation -

Princeton - students go to home schools

Consolidation

Abbott - consolidated into Hendrix

Schiller - consolidated into Jenner

Medill - consolidated into Smith-Joyner

Global Vision consolidated into New Millenium

Davis Developmental Center 91st Jeffery - will consolidate with Hughes into new building being built for Hughes (which burned down)

Phase out

Key - Ellington receiving

Lathrop - receiving schools Johnson and Lawndale

Hamilton - receiving Blaine, Burley, Audubon

Best Practice 

Reed - receiving Banneker Parker and Nicholson

Turnaround

Dulles 

Johnson 1420 S. Albany

Bethune 3030 N, Lawndale

Ross - 6059 S. Wabash

Holmes - 955 W. Garfield

Yale

Curtis

Lavizzo

Fenger HS

“Reforms” Touted in "Chicago Miracle" Lack Success; Schools with Locally-initiated Strategies Produce More Learning

   

A report released today challenges key strategies of the federal No Child Left Behind law by demonstrating that similar initiatives in Chicago failed to improve student learning. At the same time, significant academic progress was made in many Chicago Public Schools (CPS) which relied on locally-initiated reform strategies focused less on high-stakes standardized exams.       

Local political and business leaders have long claimed that top-down CPS initiatives have been successful and applauded their incorporation in the federal “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) law. But the new report, Chicago School Reform: Lessons for the Nation, found more progress in Chicago schools that developed strong curriculums, ensured professional development of classroom educators, and shared leadership among parent councils, the principal and teachers independent of the CPS central office.     

The report is based on a review of academic studies of Chicago schools, which show, for example, that Chicago’s retention program harmed rather than helped students, CPS test scores flatlined in schools where central office controls replaced local decision making, and top-down interventions over 10 years did not work. The report was sponsored by Designs for Change and Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE) along with the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest).

Read the Press Release here and the Executive Summary here.

Testing in Chicago has been a high-stakes business since 1995, when newly-appointed Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Paul Vallas instituted student retention and school intervention policies based on single year test scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) at the elementary school level and the Tests of Proficiency (TAP) at the high school level.

Since then, retention and probation policies have been modified, but only a little, and new stakes have been added with the aggressive CPS school closure program and the looming consequences of failure to make Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Here's summary of some of the programs that combine testing and high stakes in Chicago, and evidence that they don't work!

What are some of the most effective school improvement strategies? Research in Chicago indicates the following:

1. A holistic approach to reform, not a top-down or “reform -of-the-month” approach 
2. Site-based management
3. Interactive instruction

Here's a summary of these aspects of the real Chicago model for school reform.

Has Chicago's Mayor really worked a miracle in our public schools? Take a look at what the Mayor says ("truthiness") and the real truth (according to research).

Read a summary of new reports highlighting what works and what isn't working in Chicago School Reform!

CPS announced four new school closures and a school takeover on January 26, 2006, with a magical flourish of data that seem to show that they are closing the bad schools, moving children to better schools, and turning another bad school over to better operators.

Hogwash.

This is not to say that the schools slated for closure have been providing the high-quality education that our children need and deserve. But the hype and spin coming out of CPS in order to promote Renaissance 2010 simply does not stand up to scrutiny. 

Here's PURE's analysis. 

Do CPS students have equal access to high-quality instruction? Researchers say no.

Read more here. 

Click here to learn how CPS has been rewriting the school reform act through policies which disempower, remove and marginalize LSC legal authority

Click here to read PURE's full testimony on the Modified Desegregation Consent Decree of the Chicago Public Schools.

A summary version of this presentation was filed prior to a planned May 2006 public hearing which was cancelled after CPS and the U. S. Justice Department came to a resolution.  

Research is showing that LSCs are effective school reform agents.

Read the good news here! 

CPS has a new program called the “Power of 5" which refers to five students selected in each classroom for extra services. Here’s a quote from an AIO memo:

“The Power of 5 are the Quartile 2 students who should be receiving additional support to enable them to move to the next Quartile. The additional support are (sic) the instructional practices that a teacher uses to teach the enabling objectives, such as questioning skills, grouping strategies, and informal assessment strategies.”

The memo goes on to list 9 categories with at least 7 sub-topics detailing the support these 5 students are supposed to receive. 

We’re pretty sure the Power of 5 refers to the power the Mayor gains if test scores go up. Moving 5 students in bunch of schools from “does not meet” to “meets” with special targeted help may accomplish that. So much for educating “every child.”  

What's Wrong with CPS's Renaissance 2010 Plan? (PDF) 

The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has developed a six-year plan called “Renaissance 2010" which will create 100 new schools by closing existing schools and reopening them as charter, “contract,” or “performance” schools.

 

The major problem with Renaissance 2010 is that its central operating principle – closing and reopening schools – creates forced transiency of thousands of children. We believe that CPS has deliberately chosen this harmful strategy in order to avoid federal, state, and local accountability and scrutiny.