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$50 Million A Year For Unused Days

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UPDATED:  Ducan got $50,000, denounces practice after the fact. Today’s education news includes coverage of a report from the BGA about over-spending at CPS on sick and vacation days, as well as a couple of other items (Phyllis Lockett on the hot seat for disrespecting neighborhood schools, concerns among high school parents about the longer... Read more »
By Alexander Russo,
today at 8:30 am
• 15 comments

Longer Day Concerns Some High-End HS Parents

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Better-performing schools and parents who are focused on sending their kids to college are asking new questions about longer school days, as you can see from these three stories from WBEZ and the Sun Times.  These issues and constituencies come on top of the issues already raised by CTU — what will the response be... Read more »
By Alexander Russo,
today at 8:26 am
• Leave a comment

Brizard Brings YouTube Back

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Brizard in the classroom.  Drummond parents surveyed on longer day.  An end to the YouTube ban. A light schedule for Springfield.  That’s the highlights of today’s education news, as reported by the mainstream media.  I’ll add more as I come across it.  You can, too.  That is, unless you’re too busy getting ready to use... Read more »
By Alexander Russo,
Thursday at 7:53 am
• 4 comments
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Why Aren't You A Principal Yet?

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It’s long been said on this blog and elsewhere that CPS schools were increasingly being run by out of town, alternatively prepared principals who ingratiated themselves with area (network) officers, rather than good old CPS principals who worked their way up from the classrooms they’d run masterfully for at least a decade.  Well, according to... Read more »
By Alexander Russo,
Wednesday at 3:33 pm
• 13 comments

A Full Day At Fiske ES

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Today’s education news coverage:  Catalyst takes an in-depth look at the longer day. Springfield rumbles to life. The Sun-Times editorial page calls for transparency on paid protesters.  Seven hundred IL schools recognized for excellence. Matt Damon is in the house! Fiske’s longer day Catalyst:  Jacquelyn Sticca, a 1st-grade teacher at Fiske, says it works for her... Read more »
By Alexander Russo,
Wednesday at 7:42 am
• 2 comments

Emanuel Skirts, Fans Controversy

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The paid protesters story is finally approaching City Hall — as is the Mayor’s appearance in a pro-charter video.  Check out all the education coverage here.  Scroll down to the previous post for coverage of the Casals and Piccolo hearings. Mayor skirts sticky patronage questions Tribune:  Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday declined to say whether it’s... Read more »
By Alexander Russo,
Tuesday at 7:48 am
• 18 comments
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Not Enough Time For Casals*

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Veteran reporter Paul Bowker was at tonight’s hearing on what to do with Casals Elementary, one of the most controversial of the proposed turnarounds and closings on the 2012 CPS list.  It sounds like a pretty frustrating event: More than 100 people attended the Casals hearing tonight, which consisted of 45 minutes of testimony from... Read more »
By Alexander Russo,
Monday at 10:30 pm
• 22 comments

It's Monday, Everyone

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Bart and Lisa say “good morning.”  Today’s news includes stories about this weekend’s new schools expo, continuing coverage of the paid protesters scandal, and a few other bits about school closings, raising the dropout age, and the like.  There are also a couple of items from over the weekend if you scroll down or check... Read more »
By Alexander Russo,
Monday at 7:52 am
• 12 comments

How Reform Lost Seth Lavin

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There were no kids in class on Friday, for better or worse.  During the week ahead, there are more hearings about school closings and turnarounds.  Then report cards get sent home and it's February.  Most of you who comment here are angrily (or, it seems, gleefully) opposed to most everything Emanuel and Brizard are trying to do.  (It's much the same at the national level.)  But there are many others, readers and those too busy or turned off by the fighting to read or comment, who see the obvious need for change and want to believe that Emanuel and Brizard can deliver at least some of the improvements for kids that have been promised. (Seriously, Chicago schools have really got to get better, and not everything that's gone wrong with them can reasonably be blamed on Vallas, Duncan, Huberman, or Brizard, or poverty, or NCLB, or whatever.)  But it's not an easy thing to believe in change, to hope, to leap, and sometimes the folks leading the charge for change don't make it any easier by being, well, a little full of themselves, or picking unlikely or unwise strategies for making things better.  They make it easy to doubt, or even reject the notion that change -- this kind of change, at least -- can work. Why am I bringing this up now?  Well, one of those reform-curious people going through the process of belief and doubt is former teacher Seth Lavin, who writes Chicago Schools Wonks.*  In the excerpt below, you can see Lavin is struggling in a way I think many people like him are struggling.  He's not saying anything particularly new -- you read and hear this all over the place these last few months in particular - but he's articulating a thought process that I think is important for everyone to understand, reformers and counter-reformers alike. You can be gleeful about his doubts -- I have no doubt you will be -- but it would be so much more interesting if you shared your own instead, mirroring his self-re... Read more »
By Alexander Russo,
January 29, 2012 at 12:16 pm
• 13 comments
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Paid Protesters Not A New Thing

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Here’s an interesting bit of contextual information on the rent-a-protester scandal:  Capitol Fax’s Rich Miller notes that this isn’t the first time that anyone’s paid random people to fill a room — the big ComEd debate in Springfield is one example — and that Rev. Watkins was involved way back then, too [here.] See also... Read more »
By Alexander Russo,
January 27, 2012 at 8:07 am
• 2 comments