Today's education news (besides the Noble Street coverage below): CNC's Becky Vevea notes that CPS can't make up its mind about the value of ISAT scores. Not everybody took the furlough they were supposed to last year. They're meeting in Mt. Greenwood about longer school days today. The Interrupters is on WTTW tonight at 9.
Turnaround Results Under Fire, CPS Reverts to State Tests CNC: On the day the Consortium released its report, district officials quickly cited the dramatic gains made by turnaround schools on the ISAT “meets and exceeds” standard.
Nearly 400 CPS staffers didn't take furloughs Tribune: Chicago Public Schools failed to enforce its mandatory furlough policy last school year, costing the cash-strapped district at least $460,000 when nearly 400 employees — principals, assistant principals and central office staff — did not...
Meeting about longer school day in Chicago slated for Wednesday Sun Times: Many parents with children enrolled in the city’s Mount Greenwood community-area schools have protested, saying they prefer a 6.5-hour school days.
‘The Interrupters’ on WTTW CMW: If you missed “The Interrupters” in the theaters, or want to see it again, the documentary (covering the work of three violence interrupters with Chicago’s CeaseFire) will be broadcast on Frontline on WTTW Channel 11 on Tuesday, February 14, at 8 p.m. and Friday, February 17, at 10 p.m.
Filed under: Daily News Roundup
Something Ms. Vevea missed in her interesting article is that student populations change when a schools is handed over to the AUSL turnaround process.
For instance, at Morton and Howe (the two "top performing" AUSL schools) students showed dramatic increases in test scores. But those dramatic increases happened between the spring of the neighborhood school closing and the fall of the turnaround opening - before AUSL had ever taught a student.
CPS to present new sick day policy to Board next week that will end annual $30 million-plus payouts in unused sick days. P.S.- Go the the Chicago Public Schools website under News and click onto Press Releases and you will see the full press release. CPS CEO Jean Claude Brizard says "This is one in a series of steps we have taken since my administration started last May to put STUDENTS FIRST in all that we do by ELIMINATING WASTEFUL SPENDING and policies that have diverted resources away from the classroom."
The presentation is only for NON-UNION employees. Anything related to Union employees has to be negotiated in the contract.
Dear 30-yr Vet, true. However CPS is telling the CTU, take this offer or strike!
Dear 30 yr, Why should it matter that it is only non-union employees? Principals are non-union employees. Why should they loose their sick days? No one who has already earned sick days should have them taken away.
Your statement is not true. Please check your facts. After Morton's first year as a turnaround the scores actually fell. That principal and AP were removed and the current principal was brought in to lead the school. It was only after the change in leadership that the scores began to increase. Howe also only saw an increase after the turnaround. If you don't believe me please go to ISBE website and look up both schools interactive report cards. There it clearly shows the % of students meeting/exceeding on the ISAT year by year. If you disagree with turnarounds that's fine but please don't distort the facts or belittle the hard work that is done there everyday.
I should have been more specific about AUSL boosting test scores before teaching students.
Source: U of C Consortium via Catalyst-Chicago, February 8
"At Morton and Howe —the two highest-performing AUSL turnaround schools—students at the schools in the fall of the first year of the turnaround had significantly higher reading performance than students from the prior, according to the Consortium."
Jean-Claude Brizard #28 on Chicago magazine list of 100 http://ow.ly/94y39
Karen Lewis #47 on Chicago magazine list of 100 most powerful http://ow.ly/94yme
the media should look at the new progress reports. there is no test security with nwea, scantron, and mclass. isat is flawed but at least it has safeguards in place.
CPS posts AUSL hearing officer reports, claims support for all 10 proposed turnarounds ow.ly/94PxM #casals #crane