Proud you or your kid scored high enough to be a National Merit finalist or semifinalist?  Not so fast.  FairTest has posted a state by state list of National Merit cut scores showing that standards vary from state to state and has claimed that the program discriminates against women and minorities.  Check it out and decide for yourself.  Illinois' cutoff is roughly in the middle of the pack.  

The Healthy City Project focuses on LA County (expanding statewide next month) and has already done some fascinating work on education issues include one effort involving inequitable access to Early Education resources that led to $20M allocated to 32 high need zipcodes and over 1900 new licensed seats established, according to John Kim, the co-director. 

Study Shows Student Performance Affected by Teacher Absences WBEZ

Education Researcher Brian Jacob explains the study and how its results might reflect what's happening in Chicago.

Chicago public schools pile up lunch waste Tribune
Kids eating lunch in Chicago schools toss out nearly a quarter of a million foam trays every day -- and that's just the beginning

Alderman Latasha Thomas criticizes school closing plan Substance
Seventeenth Ward Alderman Latasha Thomas, who chairs the Education Committee of the City Council, told Substance that Ron Huberman's performance criteria to close schools are wrong and said she would like to have hearings in the Council to discuss the topic.

Fitch Rates Chicago Board of Education, Illinois' $206MM GOs 'A+'
Fitch Ratings assigns an 'A+' rating to the following Chicago Board of Education, Illinois' unlimited tax general obligation (GO) refunding bonds (dedicated revenues):

Students plan King memorial Tribune (Dawn Turner Trice)
Gage Park kids want to commemorate Marquette Park march.

Yesterday CPS announced a plan to recruit and select local mentors for its safe schools initiative, including a blue ribbon review panel, without directly acknowledging the move as a response to public pressure to fund local groups as well as national ones.

CPS Wants Local Community, Faith Groups in on Mentoring WBEZ
Mentors will be expected to improve kids' academics and behavior and try to engage their parents as well. The district will also be turning to the community for help in creating safe passages to and from high schools and a "culture of calm" within schools.

Chicago to offer $10 million mentoring program Tribune
Bell, a professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago and an expert on issues of youth violence, said Huberman convinced him that the panel is a genuine effort to select the best organizations, and not a political maneuver to assuage local discontent.

Area school districts work to lower truant rates Plainfield Sun
A Herald-News look at attendance rates--as reported in the 2009 state school report cards--for 41 districts across Will and Grundy counties found.

The press release is attached. Does this sound like a useful and legitimate process?  Why has there been so much delay for something that the Board could have done months ago?  Who's running this program, anyway?  And when will the mentoring actually begin? 

How will CTA cuts affect you? Sun Times

Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman Monique Bond says letters are going home to parents to advise them of the cuts. Longer waits for buses could mean more opportunity for trouble, so the schools are working with the police, Bond says, on areas "that may be of some concern." Some bus runs make special trips to 44 high schools at dismissal time. Those trips won't be cut.

South Loop School at crossroads Tribune
Should some students be moved out or should officials try to find a building large enough to house a growing student population? Should the gifted program be dropped to make more space?

Fallout from Foreman YourSeason.com
Wayne Blackshear transferred from Curie to Morgan Park at the end of January, the end of the first semester. He had to sit out the rest of his sophomore season and then was ruled eligible to play at Morgan Park this year, his junior season.

Chicago media continue to ignore school closings and turnaround hearings Substance
Chicago Sun-Times education reporter Rosalind Rossi covered both the hearings on February 1, 2010. Three days after Rossi covered the Marshall and Phillips hearings, the Sun-Times still has not published a story.

A slew of interesting education news stories from other parts of the country for those of you who're interested -- lots of similar things going on outside Chicago.

Click below for the weekly roundup.

You can get national education news daily at my other blog, This Week In Education.

Did you know that Terese Zimmer, head of strategic initiatives at the Urban Education Institute at the UofC, is the now-separated wife of university president Robert Zimmer? 

I didn't - until I saw this blurb about the separation in the Maroon, which picks up on a recent' Crain's article about the split (here)

Zimmer has a PhD in political science and used to work with the Brown Education Alliance, according to this article.

I don't think I've seen her talk or heard anything about her work, though I do think it's interesting having more political science (and economics) types working in education.  Anyone know anything more? 

I missed out on noting this in the fall but it's not too late to post about EIA's "new" executive director, Audrey Soglin.  She's a former former Evanston teacher and local association president. 

She replaces Jo Anderson, who went to Washington to work with Arne Duncan. And perhaps most important, she worked since 2006 as director of the Center for Educational Innovation and Executive Director of the Consortium for Education Change, a network of Illinois school districts and professional organizations designed to "improve student achievement by assisting member districts and schools to become collaborative, high performing organizations."

CEC just hired Larry Stanton as its ED.

If you know (of) Soglin, the work of the CEC, and the current direction of the EIA, this is the place to weigh in and tell us all about it.