tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-315146412024-03-13T10:17:58.253-05:00Chicago MamaThree kids and me in the city of big shouldersChicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.comBlogger518125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-37071368886112842962014-08-10T14:59:00.000-05:002014-08-12T10:52:55.238-05:00Summer, SAHM, and the Illusion of Choice<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I love that Mongo DB CEO <a href="http://upstart.bizjournals.com/entrepreneurs/hot-shots/2014/08/07/mongo-db-ceo-max-schireson-quits-for-his-kids.html">Max Schireson told the world that he quit because of his kids</a>. But as even he acknowledged, he isn't walking away from everything. He's just dialing back his work. He wrote, "<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.80000114440918px;">I choose to spend more time with my family and am confident that I can continue to have an meaningful and rewarding work life while doing so."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.80000114440918px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As a run-of-the-mill, college-educated, tech-savvy, but not technical woman with three kids, I don't have that option. Tomorrow, I return to SAHM status after an 8-month stint working part-time. </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The company was (is) great, although the job itself gradually required full-time availability or face time.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am not particularly happy about it. Part of it is that <a href="http://littleshoulders.blogspot.com/2013/07/i-hate-summer.html">I <i>still </i>hate summer</a>. Part of it also is that I feel like Elephant in the Mo Willems story, <i>We Are in a Book</i>. Replace "book" with "job" and the sentiment is the same: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As I have <a href="http://littleshoulders.blogspot.com/2010/07/work-life-balance.html">written previously</a>, work-life balance is an issue among parents in my generation. (I recognize that this may have been an issue for parents in the pre-Internet days, but I do not know such things in the way that I know it affects modern parents. Or maybe just me.) I don't think it's unique to women / mothers either, but I've yet to meet a full-time SAHD in my travels through Chicago parenting circles. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I feel like I should have figured this out by now. Some of my frustration may be tied to that self-judgment. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I often think of various challenges in my life or work as puzzles. It's a matter of fitting the correct tab into the right slot, or finding the word that matches the clue and the little boxes. I'm still struggling with finding the piece that fits my desire to contribute something significant to this world, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">in my skill set,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">for an organization, on a regular basis, with recompense, without sacrificing my existing relationships (with my children). </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Put simply:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I want to use my writing/communication, analytical, and organizational skills. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I want to be home for my children in after-school hours. </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This doesn't seem like it should be so hard to find. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And yet, it is. At least in the modern U.S. economy of competition and drive. Politicians in the media often give lip service to the "importance" of raising children, usually as they justify why their wives don't work. They don't talk about the minutiae and repetition of parenting, but of the</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 17.920000076293945px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Hallmark moments that allow us all to give lip service to the importance of child care. </span></span></div>
Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-92203520766406623822014-04-11T23:32:00.003-05:002014-04-17T23:31:23.378-05:00Sore Feet, Equity, and LSCs<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am <i>tired</i>. I had a crazy afternoon on Tuesday. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was the first day of spring park district classes for all 3 kids, the second day of LSC elections, and I had a meeting for a few of my projects scheduled with a stakeholder. I spent the day walking from my house, to the second campus, to Athletic Field Park, back to campus, back to Athletic Field Park, and then a little jog over a few streets for dinner, and back to campus again. In <i>flats</i>. The kind that look cute, but have no sole support on hard Chicago sidewalks.<br />
I've spent nearly two years on the Disney II Local School Council, and decided to seek re-election for the next term. In the last election, there were seven parents and one community member running for six and two spots, respectively. We didn't have a second campus and an expanded grade set. The District hadn't just closed 49 neighborhood schools in one fell swoop. And the reformy fervor that is the public (and private) dialogue about public education hadn't yet reached a fever pitch. (Perhaps it has not yet reached its apex, and perhaps it had in 2012 and I just wasn't as aware of it as I am now.) In 2012, <a href="http://littleshoulders.blogspot.com/2012/03/lsc-candidacy.html">I ran because I want to know how stuff works</a>. That remains true today.<br />
I actually thought about <i>not</i> running, but I realized that even if I don't sit on the council, I'd likely attend all the meetings anyway, so I might as well have a metaphorical and physical seat at the table. Even The Girl knew this, and she helped me to "electioneer" outsize the second campus on Tuesday afternoon, handing out cards with my name and asking them to vote for me. The candidate pool was wider this year, with 10 parents and three community members running for six and two spots, respectively. Everyone told me not to be, but I was worried. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It's times like these when my insecurities cloud my (limited) ability to see the situation clearly. The Boy believes that writing comes naturally and easily to me. Sometimes it does come easily. At other times, like writing about how I <i>feel</i> about something, such as my fear of not being re-elected to the LSC, a position of importance in my life, writing is difficult. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I tend to think of the qualities that make me a good council member: persistence, information-gathering, information-sharing, and critical thinking in negative terms: stubbornly annoying, nosy, critical. Although a persuasive writer by trade, self-promotion is not my strong suit. That may be why this blog is still at 7 followers despite nearly 8 years of writing. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the end, I gained enough votes to re-gain a seat on the council. Seventy-one people voted for me. I attended the ballot count at the second campus on the night of the election, because going to the source is the fastest way to get the information you seek. It definitely felt like a popularity contest as the election judges read out and recorded the ballot tallies by ballot number. My two fellow council members running for re-election also gained a seat on the council, while the remaining parent spots went to one 7th grade and two 6th grade parents. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At this point, I have two personal-organizational goals for the council: communications and budget. When I became a council member in 2012, the Office of LSC Relations was in the process of revising its budget training, and just recently got around to rolling out the revised editions to councils. I am perhaps unnaturally fond of puzzles and analytic situations, and a CPS school budget is an ideal example of both. Again, I find myself anticipating with glee both the budget training and subsequent budget analysis. </span></span></div>
Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-73343407860190877112014-04-09T22:44:00.000-05:002014-07-22T22:17:15.155-05:00A Fair System? CPS Tiers <div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's CPS elementary school admissions-offer letter time in Chicago, and Northside parents (and the Interwebs) can't get enough of the chatter. Everywhere I turn, whether online--<a href="http://www.cpsobsessed.com/">CPSObsessed</a>, <a href="http://www.npnparents.org/forums">NPN,</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/117581168258426/">Facebook</a>--or in real life--at the park, on the train, in the office--parents are talking about acceptances, waitlist numbers, school tours, first impressions, curriculum and teachers and principals, choices or options, possible moves to suburbia, and the odds. </span></span><br />
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It's actually kind of exciting to watch and read and hear about. I know that perspective is a luxury; a luxury that comes from satisfaction with my kids' school and therefore outside of this year's process.<br />
The acceptance date for first-round offers is fast approaching: April 11. I picture a flurry of activity and then silence, leaving new-to-CPS families to spend 5 days hand-wringing during the District's spring break. And as the date of family acceptance or rejection of offers approaches, the annual bitching about the unfairness of the system begins. (There's always bitching, but it gets worse around process dates.)</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />This is most often directed at the tier system, a method adopted by the Board of Education in 2011 to improve equity of access to magnet and selective-enrollment (gifted/IB) schools by using a formula of SES and other factors to assign each block in the city a tier.<br />
I don't think the tier system is perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I think it does as good of a job at striving for equity as it can do. T</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">he system is underfunded and under-resourced; sometimes I think the District makes asinine decisions, and sometimes I think the District is doing the best it can. The tier system of admissions in the second category.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There is a mindset among some city (and even some suburban) parents that it's "selective enrollment high schools or bust." This creates a lot of frustration, anger, tears, and threats because Chicago's nine SEHS simply do not have enough seats to educate everyone who wants to attend those schools, and a fierce competition for those seats is one of the results. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When the public discussion turns to how unfair the (tier) system is for SEHS, I always think of the gifted schools in New York City. <a href="http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/D6C63FDF-7A92-41DE-B42C-719634D9172C/0/SHSAT_StHndbk_20132014.pdf">There are also nine, And the NYC schools offer admission considerations for disadvantaged students as well.</a> My father attended one of the "Specialized High Schools," as NYC calls them, Bronx High School of Science. In 2013, according to the literature in the link above, the acceptance rate at Bronx Science was 5.3 percent.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When looking at Chicago's data, the complaints about how the system is unfair seem, well, unfair. The tier system </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">doesn't seem to give a hugely unfair or imbalanced advantage to kids who live on statistically less-advantaged blocks. I mean, it's like a 5%. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For SEHS, the current system gives 40% of seats to students in order of pure score rank. Then it takes the remaining 60% of students and divides them evenly among the tiers. Looking at the mean scores among tier 1 and tier 4 students from this year's applicant class, it doesn't look like there is a </span><em style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">huge</em><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> difference in achievement levels at any of the SEHS between tier 1 and tier 4 except at Lane (85.73% T1, 94% T4). And oddly, the mean tier 4 score at Westinghouse is the mean scores for tier 2 and 3, but the percentage difference between tiers 1 and 4 is miniscule - 80.84% (T1) v. 81.79% (T4).</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I do understand the frustration with the SE process. But I think it's misdirected at the tier system. I think we'd do better to advocate for stronger programs that serve the 80-92%-level achieving students within our neighborhood/magnet schools, but that isn't a popular opinion in the larger "SEHS or bust" mindset among parents who are engaged in and vocal about their children's education.</span>
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Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-63243863698659867292014-03-24T07:30:00.000-05:002014-04-20T14:15:53.274-05:00A few more thoughts on STEM<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Although I have not thought of myself as particularly mathy since about 7th grade, I want to be clear that my position on STEM education does not reflect a general dislike of math or science itself. The Dad is a software programmer. My father, Grandpa Texas, is a nuclear engineer. I <i>get</i> that having people with these skills is important and that people who have these skills often do important work.<br />
But I don't think they are important to the level of core subject matter. I don't think they are important to the detriment of other subjects or interests in the elementary grades. And, unfortunately, in CPS, focusing on STEM will be to the detriment of other subjects. The reality of an underfunded system such as CPS means that a focus on STEM necessarily means a subtraction of other art, music, world language, or social studies. Because with $4400/student, schools can't hire a classroom teacher <i>and </i>an engineering teacher <i>and </i>an art teacher. And the reality of a heavily prescribed system such as CPS means that a focus on STEM means the detriment of other subjects because there isn't <i>time</i> in the day/week to include a block of literacy, a block of math, 30 minutes of P.E. and 40 minutes for lunch/recess.<br />
And I want to be clear that I know that the perceived lack of qualified workers that is driving public policy on increased STEM education is fake. I went looking for the job growth statistic that CPS referenced in its <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9CgSxFQQ1jfdWxsQ2FyYllKTFJVTHRrd19KZ1dGNk5qNVZv/edit">press release</a>. I could not find it within the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) <a href="http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2012/01/art5full.pdf">report</a>, but I did reference to a lower number--778,300. Said the report, “Computer and mathematical occupations are projected to add 778,300 new jobs between 2010-2020.” Incidentally, this job growth makes this area the 6th fastest growing major occupational group, but it’s ranked 12th out of 22 occupational groups because of it’s relatively small size.<br />
The BLS also reported that <span style="background-color: transparent; white-space: pre-wrap;">heatlhcare support is projected to grow by 35.9% in 2020. The Boomer lobby is slacking on that one. Or perhaps even they are disgusted by the thought of their grandchildren sliding back into their own parents' job prospects. </span>According to the same report, community and social service occupations are expected to grow at a rate of 24.2% by 2020. Where is the lobby of social workers? Oh wait….
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My original guest-blogger post hit the Internet on Tuesday. I didn't realize it would be a primer to <i>The Atlantic</i>'s "<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/03/the-myth-of-the-science-and-engineering-shortage/284359/">The Myth of the Science and Engineering Shortage,</a>" published the very next day. (In the fantasy world where print journalism still exists, I would make an ideal <i>Atlantic</i> writer.) As writer Michael Teitelbaum reported about the STEM shortage, "<span style="line-height: 21.090909957885742px;">U.S. higher education produces far more science and engineering graduates annually than there are S&E job openings—the only disagreement is whether it is 100 percent or 200 percent more."</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 21.090909957885742px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 21.090909957885742px;">In light of this more factual reporting of the STEM landscape, it makes statements like Christopher Emdin's even more maddening. A recent <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/five-things-know-todays-report-unequal-education/">PBS article</a> quoted Emdin as saying, "Our STEM jobs continue to go unfilled, and our young people refuse to be scientists and engineers."<br /> Emdin was speaking in response to last week's DoE release of civil rights data, a report that showed unequal education. From PBS: "Yet the department found that there was a “significant lack of access” to core classes like algebra, geometry, biology, and chemistry for many students. That lack of access was particularly striking when it came to minorities.." I think of these classes as foundational. They should be in the core curriculum at all schools. I think Emdin's assertion that there are unfilled STEM jobs is false, but the inequality in education offered to minorities is well-documented.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In fact, for those interested in the issue of segregation on science education and other subjects, there is an upcoming lecture at DePaul's College of Education. From the email: <u>Lecture and Discussion with Richard Rothstein and Patricia Fron, Why Are Schools Still Segregated and What We Can Do About It, Monday, April 7 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Room (TBA)</u></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.epi.org/people/richard-rothstein/" style="text-decoration: none;">Richard Rothstein</a> is a Research Associate of the Economic Policy Institute and senior fellow of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at the University of California (Berkeley) School of Law, a widely published author and lecturer on education policy and the national education columnist for the New York Times from 1999 through 2002. 60 years after Brown v Board, our schools continue to be segregated. Rothstein looks at the intersection of school segregation and residential segregation. He argues that " Too quickly forgetting twentieth century history, we’ve persuaded ourselves that the hobbling residential isolation of low-income black children is only “de facto,” the accident of economic circumstance, personal preference, and private discrimination. But unless we re-learn how residential segregation is “de jure,” resulting from explicit, racially conscious and motivated public policies, implemented by federal, state, and local governments, we have little hope of remedying school segregation that flows from neighborhood racial isolation."<br /></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Patricia Fron, the co-chair of the policy committee of the Chicago Fair Housing Alliance will be a respondent to Rothstein, discussing some of the findings in their recent report, <a href="http://cafha.net/research-and-reports/">Chicago From Home to School: Why Segregation Persists and Current Reforms May Only Make Things Worse</a>.</span><br />
For more information, and to RSVP please contact Diane Horwitz at dhorwit1 at depaul.edu</span></span></div>Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-61035960329872447612014-03-19T07:49:00.000-05:002014-03-19T21:25:40.004-05:00CPS Brings STEM Curriculum to District<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">This post first appeared on March 18, 2014 at <a href="http://cpsobsessed.com/2014/03/18/stem-in-cps-guest-post-by-caroline-pollock-bilicki/#comments">CPSObsessed.com</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What’s up with CPS’s decision to introduce and ramp up STEM curriculum within district schools, as it <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9CgSxFQQ1jfdWxsQ2FyYllKTFJVTHRrd19KZ1dGNk5qNVZv/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">announced yesterday in a press release</a>? </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On its face, the district’s decision to </span><a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-cps-to-add-computer-science-as-core-subject-20131209,0,799638.story" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.15; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">add computer science as a core subject</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to city high schools seems like a good one. It’s not all that different than earlier administrators’ addition of typing classes to the curriculum. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is the district really trying to achieve by introducing a curriculum that is heavy on science, technology, engineering, and math? Is it trying to get ahead of a projected shortage of qualified candidates in those fields? Does it reflect a need at U.S. colleges and universities to matriculate students who are able to work at advanced levels of math and science, at a rigor that would make them able to “compete” with their global counterparts? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is driving this policy? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Despite the persistent idea that our schools are not preparing students for the kinds of jobs the market offers, a look to historical STEM trends suggests that the renewed emphasis on STEM within CPS may be another manufactured crisis. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Back in 1997, a Stanford-educated researcher named </span><a href="http://www.heinemann.com/products/E00594.aspx" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.15; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gerald Bracey</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> suggested that the National Science Foundation may have started what could now be traced to the current “inadequacy” in STEM education. When </span><a href="http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/20404979?uid=3739656&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21103797472933" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.15; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sandia Labs undertook a study of the issue</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in the late 1980s, they concluded that the biggest risk to education of U.S. students was the H.S. dropout rate—not the quality of STEM education or number of STEM degrees awarded. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The biggest driver of growth in STEM competitiveness may have come in 1957, with the launch of Sputnik. Yet even </span><a href="http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA474889" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.15; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Congress</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> agrees that the percentage of postsecondary science and engineering degrees awarded in the U.S. has remained steady at 17 percent. Is there job growth to justify this kind of subject-matter emphasis? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that </span><a href="http://www.bls.gov/ooh/fastest-growing.htm" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.15; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the fastest growing occupations</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> are largely medical and vocational—not high-tech. Will increased STEM fluency increase students’ ability to compete for jobs? Will it improve their chances at success?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perhaps the important question is not why CPS is pursuing this policy, but what it can hope to achieve? How will a renewed emphasis on STEM education affect our children? Will they be better off for having this kind of education? Or will this policy further cream or tier an already stratified system? Who does a STEM curriculum help? </span></div>
Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-49093254131579508172014-03-04T18:09:00.001-06:002014-04-20T14:26:51.722-05:00The Culture of Testing at CPS (or Why I Opted Out)<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Last year, I attended the <a href="http://www.ilraiseyourhand.org/" target="_blank">Raise Your Hand</a> coalition's community forum on the culture of testing at CPS. One outcome of the forum was <a href="http://www.morethanascorechicago.org/%E2%80%8E" target="_blank">More Than A Score,</a> a newish coalition of parents who are concerned about the <i>number</i> of tests and assessments given in CPS as well as the <i>purpose</i> of the testing itself.<br />
Last year, each of RYH's five panelists talked about his or her experience and opinions on learning and standardized testing, and then they responded to questions and comments from the audience.
Noah Sobe, a professor of Cultural and Education Policy at Loyola University, spoke about the history of standardized testing, the myth or misconception that American education has "always" used tests as a gauge of teaching or learning. What we've lost in creating this culture of testing is the definition of what we want our schools to do for our children, what we want our children to learn in the process of their education. He also pointed out the differences amongst (1) teacher-designed assessment, which he said is a critical part of teaching, (2) standardized testing, and (3) high-stakes testing.
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Later in the evening, there were "breakout" sessions of things we could do to prevent or arrest the standardized test momentum within CPS. That assumes that all of the attendees were there for a common purpose.
We were not. As Wendy Katten acknowledged in her opening remarks, forum attendees had different reasons for being there: (1) to gain clarity in our understanding of standardized tests; (2) to learn or understand the impact of standardized tests on our students and the system; (3) to learn how to opt your children out of standardized testing at their CPS schools.
I really only have two problems with testing and assessments. The first is the use of student growth or progress as a way to evaluate teachers. The second is testing that doesn't have a clear, demonstrable point: when data is not recognizably useful to students, parents, teachers, the school, or the District. For me, this year's ISATs are a perfect example of a test that doesn't produce useful data. I opted my children out of the test this year. I want to be clear that this wasn't a decision I made alone, or in a vacuum, or without the input and counsel of others I trust and who are knowledgeable about such things.
First, in late January, I asked our principal for information on this year's ISATs, their import to both the school and my children, and her take on things. Dear readers, she was not surprised that I was asking, nor that I had a fair bit of necessary background information on this. Our principal, like everyone else, I suspect, is somewhat used to me being the Person with the Questions. Not surprisingly, and also not to her detriment, she didn't convince me that the soon-to-be-obsolete AYP measure was enough reason to have my children take the test. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Then I had a serious and ongoing debate of the merits of this <a href="http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-public-fools/2014/02/its-almost-testing-season-in-chicago-opt-out-at-your-peril/" target="_blank">particular test in this particular instance </a>at length with The Dad</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">. The Dad's arguments for taking the ISAT were that it's good practice. Um, for what? <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Boredom? Waiting? Standardized tests? They have the NWEA and the STEP tests already; The Boy also took the now-defunct Scantron test; how much practice for standardized testing do they need? Also, the ISAT is a pencil-and-paper-scored-bubble-test; the only other </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;"> pencil-and-paper-scored-bubble test in the distant horizon is the ACT and it's distance doesn't provide </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">enough reason to take the last year of the ISAT.
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">I also thought about the results of the test. The Boy has two years of ISATs under his belt already, so it might be interesting to see how he scored comparatively this year compared to previous years. But the state messed around with the cut scores in 2013, and changed the test again in 2014; I couldn't muster enough support for this particular argument. There was even <i>less</i> of an argument for The Girl to take the ISAT for its ultimate and her inaugural year. </span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">Reaching for straws for reasons to justify spending 5 hours taking a test that didn't appear to have much meaning, I put it to the would-be test-takers themselves: I asked the kids. I laid down the pros and cons with them, letting them each know that there was no penalty either way. The Girl said, "Let me think about it." Then she came back and said, "No thank you." In preparation for the post, I asked her what went through her mind when making her decision. She said, "It's not going to be all math." (Some performance anxiety about reading comprehension there.) And "it's just like NWEA: test bubbles. I don't need any practice on test bubbles."
The Boy also wanted to think it over, but reached a similar conclusion to that of his sister: he'd rather have an extra hour of "sustained silent reading," to borrow a phrase from one of child lit's favorite characters/authors (Ramona Quimby, Beverly Cleary).
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">And so, I made the decision to opt my children out of this year's ISAT, submitting a hard copy letter stating such to our principal and my children's classroom teachers. That I had reached this conclusion surprised no one within the building.
I was and remain open about this decision, and have fielded a fair number of questions about it. So here's my own little FAQ about the opt-out process:</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-size: 15px;">Q. Will you opt out of next year's PARCC?</span><span style="font-size: 15px;">
</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Probably not, but it depends on the read about it I get from teachers and admin at school. For me, opting out of the ISAT this year is really a no-brainer. There is no point to this test this year, and the school doesn't really use the results for anything. I've heard from The TWN's teacher that she likes NWEA and other teachers like STEP as assessments because the data can be useful to good teaching practice. I've never heard a teacher say that about the ISAT.</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 15px;">
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #8e7cc3; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px;">Q. Who do you think is going to teach your kids while everyone else takes the ISAT?</span><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px;">Not everyone or every class takes the ISATs. I am confident that school staff will find something suitable for my kids to do every day for the 45-60 minutes it takes for the ISAT. </span><span style="font-size: 15px;">
</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px;"><span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Q. Why not just keep your kids home during the testing period? </span></span><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px;">I am not keeping my kids home for 7 hours each day because 45-60 minutes of the day will be spent taking the ISAT. Perhaps my kids can be helpers in younger classrooms (leadership), work on school auction projects (funding), D.E.A.R. (literacy), participate in another grade's art class (especially important because my 5th grader doesn't get art this year - integration*), complete homework (independent study), troubleshoot and do computer maintenance (5th grader's elective/technology). All of these are appropriate uses of time and provide opportunities for learning. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 15px;">
</span><span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px;">Q. Will you also opt your kids out of the selective enrollment testing?</span><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 15px;">I have two things to say on this subject. The first is that opting my kids out of the ISAT this year has never been an objection to all testing and assessments. The second is that I am letting my kids opt <i>themselves</i> into that testing if they want to pursue admission to a selective enrollment school. They have a few viable options for high school; if they want to go for the gold of the SE process in Chicago, I will encourage and support them, but at this point, I am not willing to push or nudge them into that direction. </span><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br />
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</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">* The explanation for this basically comes down to (a) budget cuts and (b) prioritization of student choice over 6 enrichment classes in a 5-day week. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-22256991710058899262014-02-17T23:56:00.000-06:002014-02-18T22:54:06.288-06:00Public Servitude<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Before the September Board meeting, I ran into our school's contact in the Office of LSC Relations in the lobby of the Marquette Building. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We spoke briefly about my ongoing request that the BoE include a teacher preference percentage into its admissions policies. Although he is a 20+-year veteran of CPS and his children went through the system under the previous policies, our contact told me that he doesn't support my request for several reasons, but chiefly because it is a requirement of public service that you don't give yourself perks. My changes, as proposed, would be "too much of keeping the best for ourselves."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We challenged each others' thinking for bit, exchanging ideas and beliefs about the issue, and then he went for coffee and I went up to attend the September BoE meeting. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But the more I think about it, the more this particular stance ticks me off. As I said to our contact. if it were true that public servants should consider personal sacrifice as part of their job description, why is it only the rank and file teachers who must adhere to this mindset? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Why does Tim Cawley get a residency pass to live in Winnetka? Why is there no outcry that the mayor sends his kids to Lab? On the current Board of Education, appointed by mayor Rahm Emmanuel in 2012 and 2013, there are are only a handful of members (Andrea Zopp, David Vitale, Mahalia Hines) who sent their children to CPS--and even then, only Hines's son attended a non-selective school (Luther High School South). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On <a href="http://www.cpsobsessed.com/" target="_blank">CPSObsessed</a> this week, there is raging debate about how much access individual schools should give to individual parents. Inevitably, the discussion in comments turned to teacher perks. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I don't get this us versus them mindset that seems to prevail whenever parents and teachers begin to bemoan the problems of a deeply imperfect and under-resourced system. I truly do not understand why we as a society</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> cannot view the school environment as a school environment (even if it is a work environment for teachers/administration) and </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">not </i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">as a corporate environment. As Dorothy Shipps chronicled in her book, <i><a href="http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/shisch.html" target="_blank">School Reform, Corporate Style</a>, </i>business has been trying to modernize schooling to corporate ideals for over 90 years. Now</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.19999885559082px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.19999885559082px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">the “free market capitalist” mindset toward public education has so infiltrated our collective psyche that the public is in on the cry for modernization as well. Even worse, we think it’s OK to compare every public service and agency to a private one. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.19999885559082px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As <a href="http://littleshoulders.blogspot.com/2012/07/finding-my-own-voice.html" target="_blank">I wrote last year</a>, I believe in the teachers union. Even more important, I believe in the teachers themselves, and in the strength and integrity of their <i>profession</i>. I have been extremely fortunate that I have met only a handful of</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> less-than-great teachers, and my children have been taught pretty much exclusively by good to great teachers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The mindset that teachers have it so easy--summers off, the laundry list of holidays, make more than the rest of us, automatic pay increases, work partial days, have funded pensions, to name a few things I've read about teachers lately--is farcical. It implies that there is only so much pain and suffering and general pain-in-the-assishness to go around, and that office workers have a lock on it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The teachers versus corporate workers comparison is reminiscent of conversations in the Great White Moose of an afternoon: does The Boy's loss of his favorite jacket trump The Girl having to be partners again with the boy next to her in line? Or does The Tot Who's Not trump them both because he's mortified that I told his uncle a story about The Tot and gummy bears? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The fact is: if you're not a teacher, you have no idea how much the work day or work week can stink. (And if you've never worked a crummy corporate job, you've likely no idea how much the work day or work week can stink.) That corporate America no longer gives the so-called white-collar knowledge worker a sense of purpose and control over his/her work environment is a great point of sociological discussion, but it has no bearing on what is happening systemically in public education or other public agencies. </span></div>
Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-5065616854034730502013-10-14T06:17:00.000-05:002013-10-14T06:17:00.825-05:00Performance Policy<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Claudinette (Didi) Schwartz, CPS Director of Assessment, also spoke to the PTA Advisory Council last week about her department's work. Her office sits within the CPS Office of Accountability under John Barker. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Her introduction, like most of her remarks, were heavy on the education version of corporate speak: Assessments are a reflection of learning expectations. Assessment is a constant process, not an end-game. It happens every day, in every classroom, with every student. At least in theory it does. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Like <a href="http://littleshoulders.blogspot.com/2013/10/teaching-and-learning.html" target="_blank">Annette Gurley</a>, she was short on time and most of her talk took the form of a Q&A session, which I've transcribed from my notes below:</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Q. Explain the reduction in number of assessments for this AC2013-2014 versus AC2012-2013.</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A. We reduced the number of assessments because </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">(a) we wanted to increase instructional time </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">(b) we wanted to emphasize that we assess students not on <i>one</i> measure</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Looking at data points are equally important. District eliminated fall NWEA tests except for those students who didn't take the spring test and tehrefore didn't have a baseline test. The NWEA baseline allowed us to diagnose interventions and ways to work on them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><i>Q. Can networks administer NWEA this fall anyway?</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A. No. The NWEA is not available except for students in the primary grades who didn't have a baseline test from last year. Schools do not have to use NWEA as a fall baseline assessment they can also use DIBELS or another assessment tool. Testing in January is optional, although schools determine whether or not to give the mid-year NWEA assessment which measures a midpoint progress of skills. The end-of-year NWEA assessments is given to all 2nd-8th graders in late spring. <i> </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><i>Q. Is there NWEA training in place for parents?</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A. No. The District doesn't have training for parents on how the assessments work and/or how they can help their kids through the assessment. We do have parent reports and strongly encourage teachers to print out these reports and share/explain them to parents. Assessment is not available at home. It asks skills-based questions, but those skills can be developed and practiced anywhere--not just on a PC. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">NWEA is a multiple choice test, starts at grade level and then gets easier or harder depending on how a student answers. Multiple choice in itself a bad thing. ACT is multiple choice and has been for 70 years, but when students can answer complex questions in this way, it can be a valid assessment tool. The NWEA asks a balance of questions between basic and stretch or complex questions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">PARCC will have multiple choice and construction response questions. Multiple choice may have multiple right answers or a matching activity. Constructive response is another term for "performance-based response." The District is looking at making the same components in a paper-based test in the lower grades. The PARCC is not a traditional timed test. It is an assessment meant to feel more like classroom work with the results given to teachers for help in developing tasks and interventions.</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Q. Are there accommodations for students with IEPs?</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A. There is so much we can do to accommodated IEP modifications with the PARCC. We can do more with font, size, color, and contrast. We can add a line reader. Some modifications, such as magnification, will be available to all students, while other modifications are set by the teacher. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The District is still determining what kind of read-aloud accommodations/modifications will be made for ELL students. It is a matter of determining whether the District is measuring English language or comprehension? </span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Q. Are any Illinois programs based on Massachusetts's protocols? </span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A. Yes. CCSS was developed by a coalition of states. Looked at what college students need, and what industry needs. Looked at the standards and then unpacked backwards down to K. </span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Q. Can you share the new CPS Performance Policy?</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A. Ryan Crosby, who manages the relationship with ISBE, also owns the performance policy. </span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Q. Can you explain the changes to the ISAT and the way that was communicated to parents? </span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A. CPS sent letters home to parents announcing the difference in ISAT cut scores. The bar is still higher and test content is still changing. Communications are coming. Schools' accountability based on NWEA--not ISAT--in FY2014-2015. In the first year of anything, there are challenges. The transition from ISAT to PARCC for accountability purposes won't begin until FY2015-2016</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Q. Are there sample questions from the NWEA?</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A. Yes. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span>Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-65049990148796929022013-10-10T23:09:00.001-05:002013-10-11T01:33:42.978-05:00Teaching and Learning<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Yesterday's PTA Advisory Council meeting was a bit disappointing. Our speakers, Annette Gurley and Claudinette Schwarz, each spent what felt like very short periods of time with us. It gave us just enough time for an overview, but not for the rigorous, deep dive discussion that I've come to expect from the monthly PTA Advisory meeting. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Annette Gurley introduced herself by saying that the title of her office (Office of Teaching and Learning) is actually quite descriptive and accurate of the work done by the office. What her office does is to enhance teaching to provide better learning for the students within the system, she said. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">All this talk of Common Core and emphasis on college, career, and life success is actually important. The rigor of teaching in the 21st century focuses on teaching students to think critically and solve problems--the kinds of tasks they'll need to perform daily in our post-modern, meta-data, information-obsessed economy. In other words, the very opposite of <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/10/my-daughters-homework-is-killing-me/309514/" target="_blank">what Esmee Greenfeld is apparently doing at the NYC Lab Middle School for Collaborative Studies</a>. Rote memorization--the kind of kill-and-drill learning environment that many of us grew up in--is no longer relevant, Gurley said. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This departure from the teaching methods that brought us through an industrial age is a game changer for everyone--from teachers to students to their parents. There is a renewed emphasis on experiential learning. Gurley quoted Richard Elmore's "task predicts performance" philosophy, saying that the professional development sessions her office are conducting focus on helping teachers to design tasks that help students think critically. (I've since read a bit on <a href="http://hepg.org/hel/article/434#home" target="_blank">Richard Elmore</a>, and it's nice to see a CPS Central Officer quote someone who <i>actually makes sense</i>. )</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Gurley also acknowledged that the current academic year is a<i> huge</i> transition year for her office. She suggested that parents take time regularly to learn more about Common Core and its ongoing implications for children and families. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">She spoke about the changes in cut scores for the ISAT, a state decision to mitigate the collective shock we'll all feel when the District switches to the <a href="http://www.parcconline.org/about-parcc" target="_blank">PARCC</a> assessment next year. I prefer to think of the PARCC assessment as a way to make sure our schools are teaching our children what they need to know--not as an opportunity to trip them up and spit them out. I suspect Dr. Gurley has a similar philosophy. She told us that she doesn't want children to get to the PARCC and then not be able to complete it. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">She told us that a sample 5th grade question on the PARCC tripped <i>her </i>up, and that her office has found the rigor expected of the PARCC to be "an eye-opener." </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In addition to preparedness for PARCC, Gurley reviewed the emphasis on the NWEA assessments, saying that these tests are diagnostic in nature and the baseline tests from last year are being used to develop Learning Maps that are aligned to each individual's learning growth targets. Only children who didn't take the NWEA in the spring last year had to take it this year, Gurley said. These Learning Maps allow a teacher to customize learning experiences to each child, providing time for acceleration or intervention (remediation) during times built into the school day for such work. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Gurley told us that CPS typically categorize learners into three tiers: ones get the lesson 80 percent of the time; twos need a little extra support to get the lesson 15 percent of the time; and threes still don't get it even with extra support. Gurley estimates that there are 3 "threes" in every classroom in CPS. Oy. The recommended intervention for those threes are 3x45-minute sessions each week. Although Gurley noted that good teachers differentiate anyway, I can't help but to wonder how any teacher with 37 kids in his/her classroom has the physical space or the head space to devote to 8% of the class, 5% of the time. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">With Greenfeld's article fresh in my mind, I asked Dr. Gurley about homework. She told me that the individual learning can take place in the classroom, but that it doesn't have to. Sometimes it takes place in a pull-out class, but sometimes it takes place at home via homework. What she said about homework is fuzzy within my notes, but I was left with the impression that the new Teaching and Learning paradigm is going to drag me into the role of after-school/homework tutor. Homework is an opportunity for students to reinforce and practice what they've learned at school, and for parents to preview and understand the concepts their children are in the process of acquiring. If I look at the bright side, it's possible that I may <i>finally </i>learn higher-level math. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br></span>
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<br>Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-45962912556195836232013-09-26T00:22:00.000-05:002013-09-26T11:09:06.683-05:00Education: a Muse<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Last week, I met with BoE member Deborah Quazzo about my <a href="http://littleshoulders.blogspot.com/2013/09/still-boring.html" target="_blank">pet project</a> <span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">during one of her board office hours slots. The meeting was not productive on my end, but as we were walking out, Ms. Quazzo paid me what I consider to be a compliment when she asked me what subject I teach. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">I don't teach, and don't think I'd make a very good classroom teacher. As <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/i-quit-teach-for-america/279724/" target="_blank">this TFA has-been</a> writes, </span><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">teaching is as much about classroom management as it is about teaching. Especially in many CPS classrooms. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">But I am a <i>learner </i>and consider myself an advocate for anyone else who follows a similar path. I am reminded of my days as </span><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">a lycéenne; in </span><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">French, the word for "teach" and "learn" is the same: </span><i style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">apprendre</i><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">. This is a conflation Americans could stand to make. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I guess you could say that Education is in my DNA. It's only now that my kids are in school in a debt-ridden, politically questionable system once deemed "the worst public school system in America," that I've realized how deeply and widely the theme of education--both as a journey and as a destination--ran through my childhood. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In my family, we talk about education a lot. </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">My parents were each the first in their families to go to college and as their parents' only children of the Baby Boomer generation, embraced the culture of the time that held that </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">formal education was critical to financial success. They were part of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/magazine/freebies-for-the-rich.html" target="_blank">the 6 percent in 1970 that has now become the 70 percent of degree-earning bottom/top quartiles in 2011</a>. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">But they were also part of the minority who were able to gain advantages despite their relative economic, political, and socially disadvantaged backgrounds when they landed in the college-bound HS track in NYC in the 1960s. My father was the youngest child of an orphaned, first-generation Hungarian Jew and a first-generation Roman Catholic Italian who learned to speak English only after she started school in Union City, NJ as a child. He graduated from Bronx High School of Science. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Bronx Science is considered by many to be one of the first specialized magnet schools in the country, let alone NYC. Interestingly, the <a href="http://schools.nyc.gov/default.htm" target="_blank">NYC BoE</a> counts nine SEHSs (or Specialized High Schools) in its "portfolio." Compare that to Chicago's 10 SEHSs, despite a significantly smaller student population (400,000 ish to NYC's 1.1 million), and the popular demand for </span></span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">more SEHS seats becomes murky. Why create more tracking for the top XX percent (or as Sue Serra in <a href="http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/cps-alternatives-suburbs-magnet-selective-enrollment-lowincome/Content?oid=11046489" target="_blank">this <i>Reader</i> article</a> states, the top 10 percent)? Where is the equity in creating echelons of HS within the public system? </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But creating echelons in the public system is <i>exactly</i> what we're doing when the Chicago Board of Education allows Ald. Michele Smith to cede her public comment time to two Lincoln parents who happen to agree with her development plans without enforcing its own rules about such tactics. And it's <i>exactly</i> what it's doing when Estella Bertran rushes the anti-development side off the microphone in later public comment. It's <i>exactly</i> what we're doing when Todd Babbitz makes system-wide decisions<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">—</span>behind closed doors</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And that's just (some of) the inequalities in CPS. State-wide, even nation-wide, the contrast between the haves and have-nots educationally is more striking. In Illinois, our property tax structure rewards rich districts and penalizes poor ones, and ISBE per-pupil foundational spending recommendations don't even come close to covering the extrinsic costs of educating Illinois's children. </span></div>
</div>
</div>
Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-35626092949351714332013-09-23T23:22:00.000-05:002013-09-23T23:22:17.528-05:00CPS's EFMP: A critique<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-63441dba-39cf-207b-f7c2-1b84e88f323d" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In early September, CPS embarked on a series of community engagement meetings ostensibly to gain feedback on its 10-year <a href="http://cps.edu/About_CPS/Policies_and_guidelines/Documents/CPSDraftEducationalFacilitiesMasterPlan.pdf" target="_blank">Educational Facilities Master Plan</a>, a draft of which the District published in May. Critics of the 458-page document maintain that it offers little substance about what, exactly, its “long range plan and current recommendations” are. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-63441dba-39cf-207b-f7c2-1b84e88f323d" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">They're right. I've read it. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-63441dba-39cf-207b-f7c2-1b84e88f323d" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There's very little of substance in the document, which I had somehow imagined would read more like <a href="http://www.cpsboe.org/content/actions/2013_06/13-0626-PR23.pdf" target="_blank">this June Board of Education Report</a>. Most of the EFMP reads like a group project paper, with the unifying theme taking the form of an oft-repeated refrain of its "educational goals" of who, what, where, and when the District teaches its students. </span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In 78 pages of summary text, the District makes exactly nine statements of what it will do, although it offers little--if any--plans as to how it actually will accomplish these goals. </span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">p. 49: "We will be constructing and replacing playgrounds for those schools
that have the capacity for them." </span></span></i>
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Except that CPS fails to mention which schools have the capacity for playgrounds, which schools need them replaced versus new ones, when these playgrounds will be constructed, and what and how the budget will be. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>p. 49: "We are expanding certain facilities to provide universal Full Day
Kindergarten. In our FY13 Supplemental Capital Plan, we have allocated
approximately $13.4 million in classroom build-out to prepare all
schools for Full Day Kindergarten. Another $2.0 million has been set
aside for kindergarten appropriate furniture across the district."</i></span></span></span></span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I wonder how K students in 1/2 day K managed without furniture all this time? I looked up the FY13 Supplemental Capital Plan and there are only 13 schools listed in the plan as receiving funds. One of them is <a href="http://schoolreports.cps.edu/capitalplan2013/2013-25401-ICR.pdf" target="_blank">Smyser</a>, w<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); line-height: 19px; white-space: nowrap;">hich lists its ideal enrollment as 860 and its </span></span><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px; white-space: nowrap;">actual AY2012-13 as over 1,000. How on Earth </span><br />
<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px; white-space: nowrap;">can CPS carve space out of an overcrowded 81-year-old </span></div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 19px; white-space: nowrap;">building? </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>p. 50: "We will expand Gifted/Selective Enrollment opportunities." </i></span></span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Because there will be more seats? Or is this an allusion to the work scheduled to be done at Walter Payton? </span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>p. 56: "We will expand our International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes."</i></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>p. 56: "We will expand STEM Elementary Schools and Programs, and Early College
STEM" </i></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>p. 62:
"We will expand Career and Technical Education....During SY13-14, CTE
academies or CTE programs will be added to 6 high schools (Roosevelt,
Southside Occupational, Prosser, Gage Park, and South Shore). Of these,
Roosevelt and Southside Occupational will require facility modifications
to support the expanded program offerings. In SY14-15, CTE academies or
CTE programs will be added to 5 high schools (Bowen, Farragut, Kelly,
Ray Graham, and Foreman). Of these, Bowen and Ray Graham will require
facility modifications to support the expanded program offerings."</i></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
Finally: some substance! But still: lots of questions remain about what sorts of facility modifications will be required to support expanded CTE options. Also, while computer science and drafting are included in CTE, it's unclear if those will be among the offerings at these 11 high schools. </div>
<div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>p. 67: "We will expand our Service Leadership opportunities....For SY2013, two
proposals were submitted into the Call for Quality Schools authorization
process to expand Rickover Naval Academy and Marine Math and Science
Academy to include 7th and 8th grades. While the Board of Education has
approved these grade level expansions, the schools will require new,
larger facilities to support the increased demand for both its existing
grades as well as the additional 7th and 8th grades. Furthermore, both
Rickover Naval Academy and Marine Math and Science are co-located
schools that will more easily achieve building efficiency standards once
in their own building." </i></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>p. 68: "We will be elevating Arts Education to a core subject." </i></span></span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Great, but no funding or capital improvements set aside at this stage,
which suggests that this is an afterthought, not an actual budgetary
priority. </span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>p.69: "We will provide innovative, bold and effective instructional practices
for students with diverse learning needs while being a credible,
supportive partner for schools, parents, students and the community at
large. All student s with disabilities have the right to access quality
public education options designed to meet their unique needs and prepare
them for postsecondary education, employment and independent living" </i></span></span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Again, no funding or monetary amounts mentioned in conjunction with
this. Another afterthought.
</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>p. 15: "We have protected and increased investments in programs that boost student learning such as full school day, early childhood development and maintaining class size, while at the same time expanding high quality school options across the district to give parents more choices." </i></span></span><br />
<br />
Would to know how CPS can justify maintaining class sizes of 28-38 students/classroom--if we use AY2013-14 numbers--as a good thing.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>"Expanding high quality school options to create nearly 6,600 new seats in high quality magnet, selective enrollment, Charter, International Baccalaureate, Science Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs"</i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How to discount "new" seats from seats converted from existing programs within an existing building? Indeed, p. 56 details new programs at existing schools: </span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>"In Fall of 2013 CPS will open 5 new IB high school
programmes (Farragut, Kennedy, Juarez, and Bronzeville), expand 6 other high schools to become Wall to Wall IB high schools (Hyde Park, Senn, Taft, Lincoln Park, Clemente, and the new Back of the Yards High School), and if recommended school actions are approved, will implement new IB in the following elementary schools: De Diego, DePriest, Ellington, Fiske, Jenner, Mollison, and Wells."</i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>p.17: "Similarly, we need a long term view into population trends in areas of overcrowding, particularly in areas where we may be contemplating capacity expansions.
"There are approximately 65,000 fewer students enrolled in neighborhood elementary schools in areas that are underutilized today than enrolled 10 years ago." </i></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Does this reflect a real population shift or increased enrollments in charter schools in some areas? The "schools of choice" argument suggests that many children go to school <i>outside </i>their neighborhood schools. I wonder how in-depth CPS got into the demographics? Did they perform any impact studies? </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">p. 39 <i>"If a principal enrolls out of area students, year after year, as the school’s capacity is increasingly utilized, a school can become overcrowded. Because of this, for elementary and high schools with traditional geographic attendance area boundaries (e.g., neighborhood schools), CPS measures the school’s actual enrollment efficiency, based on total enrollment relative to capacity, as well as the school’s notional enrollment efficiency, based on the percentage of enrollment consisting of students residing within that school’s attendance area boundary. The notional enrollment efficiency rating assists the District in determining the extent to which a neighborhood school’s efficiency or inefficiency relates to a high or low number of out-of-area students enrolled relative to the facility’s capacity."</i> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Translation: if you are overcrowded because you over-enrolled non-neighborhood kids as a school of choice, too bad. This suggests that the District thinks that only magnet, SE, and charter schools should be "schools of choice" within the District. Choice is an illusion. Indeed, if you look at the "notional utilization" rate assigned by CPS to each "overcrowded" District school, the utilization rate drops down to a more reasonable level. Belding's 139% becomes 110%, for example. However, Gray, Palmer, Prussing, and Smyser hold steady at utilization rates at 126% and up. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">p. 42: <i>"We believe that if these alternative methods of overcrowding relief were fully deployed, overcrowding could be solved with approximately $500-600 Million, but it is unrealistic to expect those other means could be successfully deployed to resolve each of these
situations."</i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There are only 13 schools targeted to receive additions to relieve overcrowding, (p. 46) although the authors of the document fail to include status (and cost) of the projects within this report. </span></span></div>
Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-91279796849698707282013-09-20T15:16:00.000-05:002014-07-22T22:18:29.756-05:00Price versus Value<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As anyone reading this blog in the past, oh five years, knows, I am a card-carrying <a href="http://www.pta.org/" target="_blank">PTA</a> member. But in the Internet age, it's difficult to be a member of a volunteer-based organization that also charges dues. A common thread in PTA membership recruitment is what units get from PTA. Why pay to join PTA when you can join advocacy groups like Raise Your Hand, Parents 4 Teachers, Common Sense Coalition, or More Than a Score for free? </span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Indeed, if you don't value membership in the PTA, there is probably little I can say to change your mind about the importance of the nation's oldest dues-based advocacy organization. But if you're on the fence, here are some reasons why PTA is a good value:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>PTA has longevity and staying power.</b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Unlike the other groups that have popped up in Chicago over the past five years, the PTA's history runs longer than a century. I am not questioning the validity and good created by these other organizations in calling attention to the problems of CPS. Nor am I saying that being older and better established means an organization is fail proof, as the recent collapses of Jane Addams Hull House and Catholic Charities have demonstrated. But, being old and well-established can have some advantages, like having a seat at the table in policy discussions, brainstorming sessions, and on advisory boards.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>PTA makes decisions democratically, using due process.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Unlike newer organizations that lack structure for--or worse, <a href="http://howtowalktoschool.com/" target="_blank">deliberately exclude</a> would-be stakeholders from--determining their organizational agendas, PTA follows a formal process to direct its agenda. Progress toward reform is made more by bottom-up movements than it is by top-down mandates.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">PTA's strengths come from within.</b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">We are (almost) all volunteers. Why pay $5 to volunteer? Because PTA gives you a structure in which you can channel your volunteer efforts. Since its inception as the National Congress of Mothers in 1897, PTA has sought to improve children's lives in the areas of education, arts, juvenile justice, bullying and conflict resolution, nutrition and wellness, child labor, and parent engagement. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>PTA has influence.</b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Because of the reasons above, PTA has some influence among local, state, and federal decisionmakers. PTA's standards for parent involvement formed the basis for the NCLB standards for parent involvement, and it helped in the adoption and rollout of Common Core. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b></b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>PTA has a relationship with CPS.</b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Since 1996, the <a href="http://www.cps.edu/About_CPS/The_Board_of_Education/Documents/BoardActions/2001_04/01-0425-RS4.pdf" target="_blank">PTA Advisory Committee</a> has enjoyed an insiders' view to CPS departments, programs, initiatives, and policies. Departments present and seek feedback at monthly meetings, and members of the advisory committee share their ideas for increasing family engagement at the school, network, and District levels. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>PTA advocates for <i>all</i> children and youth.</b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This is what it all comes down to. Although it does charge nominal per-capita dues, the PTA is <i>not</i> an elitist organization. It works to advocate for all children and youth. I am making a difference in my children's lives, but I also want to make a difference in the lives of their peers and classmates at their school and through the District. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As with paying it forward and exhibiting kindness and respect toward others, being a part of the PTA is the right thing to do. I fondly remember the Jaycee-sponsored carnivals of my youth. Rotary International sent me to Belgium and then to France on cultural exchanges when I was a high school student. Alternative Spring Break allowed my college self to support forestry service in Virginia. I subscribe to Malcolm Gladwell's hypothesis that successful individuals come from a cultural background that values hard work and seeks to lend a helping hand. The PTA mission seeks to improve the lives of children and youth; my mission in life is to improve the lives of all members of the society in which we live.</span></div>
Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-78722908199101250542013-09-11T14:57:00.000-05:002013-09-24T18:00:55.508-05:00It's Back<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">CPS is back in session and with it, the PTA Advisory Council. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I seriously don't understand why more parents don't attend this monthly meeting. Although like many open meetings in the city, it is held downtown during the workday, it is <i>absolutely</i> a wonderful pipeline to new initiatives and information coming out of CPS and a great way to network with other involved parents within the system. It is not limited to PTA members or member PTA representatives, although we encourage and support members of the group to join the PTA. Our CPS host is Carl Hurdlik, Community Coordinator within the FACE office, and our PTA moderator is Cassandra Eddings, a parent and volunteer who can be reached at ilptaadvisory at gmail dot com.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Our meeting today focused on a presentation from Andy Pickett and Jamie Tully with the <a href="http://www.learnwellcps.org/" target="_blank">LearnWell initiative</a>. Part of the overall Healthy Schools campaign, CPS's LearnWell initiative centers on physical education within CPS, and is functionally organized under the Office of Health and Wellness. Is CPS really listening to parents and community members? I couldn't tell you, although the existence of this entirely grant-funded department/initiative suggests to me that they are. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Andy and Jamie shared with us an overview of a new CPS Physical Education policy that covers everything from suggested instructional minutes and methods to individual waivers to inclusion techniques. A central idea is that children should have 60 minutes of physical activity <i>each day</i>, or 150 minutes of P.E. time each week. For this fall, the LearnWell team has started <a href="http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=9237838" target="_blank">a pilot program called 30/20/10 in 36 elementary and high schools</a>. Under the pilot, children have 30 minutes of P.E., 20 minutes of recess, and 10 minutes of classroom exercise each day. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Sounds great, right? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />Right. Except that right now, there are little to no funds to support this policy, which will become a mandate when the BoE votes on it in October 2013. As a Blaine parent articulated and the LearnWell team confirmed, <i>there are no budgetary concessions for this </i>within the restrictive per-pupil allotments under which all District schools must now work. And I believe Andy and Jamie when they said that they understand the physical and budgetary constraints under which the vast majority of schools must work. But I'm not concerned about my kids having to go through gym class in a field, on a sidewalk, or within a hallway--all (good) suggestions made by the LearnWell team. I'm concerned because this kind of unfunded mandate stuff from CPS is <i>maddening</i> and ongoing.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The
Boy has had daily recess and weekly P.E. classes since he started
kindergarten six years ago, so I get the importance of free play and
daily movement. Indeed, Andy pointed to research in the Kansas City schools that said behavior problems plummeted when children had daily physical activity. And his team's professional development meeting in August drew a crowd to its training and informational sessions. But even with the team's proposed three-year gradual policy rollout, the fact remains that school administrators must identify and budget for P.E. instruction within their schools. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">To encourage creativity and provide some financial support for schools that are willing to identify Wellness Champions, create Health and Wellness Committees, and really engage around student activity, the LearnWell team will release an RFP on October 1st under which schools can apply for small grants of up to $2500 to implement wellness initiatives in their communities. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In addition, the LearnWell team will work to educate parents, principals, and teachers about the role of P.E. in high schools. While elementary children in Illinois are only required to have gym once/week, the ISBE waiver permitting CPS to bypass gym requirements for its students in 9th and 10th grades will end at the conclusion of the 2013-2014 academic year. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span>Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-85100816508436175142013-09-10T21:29:00.001-05:002013-09-11T13:21:14.955-05:00Overcrowding on the NWside<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Last night, I attended the North/NWside Collaborative's community meeting at Taft High School. This was to provide feedback on the CPS <a href="http://cps.edu/About_CPS/Policies_and_guidelines/Documents/CPSDraftEducationalFacilitiesMasterPlan.pdf" target="_blank">Educational Facilities Master Plan</a>. Todd Babbitz conducted the presentation and took feedback. His employee, Portfolio Manager Ben Felton, co-moderated. <a href="http://littleshoulders.blogspot.com/2013/02/utilization-primer.html" target="_blank">Ben spoke to the PTA Advisory Council last year</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Irritatingly, the drafters of the CPS Education Facilities 10-Year Draft Plan have divided the city's schools in yet a new way, using some of the city's 17 community areas rather than the FACE designation of Networks or the Areas <a href="http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/notebook/2011/07/27/part-district-shakeup-brizard-hire-schools-portfolio-officer" target="_blank">previously established by our federal Secretary of Education. </a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This makes an apples to apples comparison difficult. Does CPS <i>deliberately</i> slice and dice the data a new way each time? In February 2013, we discussed overcrowding in the O'Hare Network, which contains 44 elementary schools, of which 21 were deemed above ideal utilization rates by CPS itself. In the Facilities draft, the O'Hare, Ravenswood-Ridge, and Fulton Networks were combined and then subdivided again into Albany-Irving, Sauganash, Ravenswood, and other community areas. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My comments here--and my comments last night--concern the Albany-Irving area specifically, as these students and their families are my neighbors and/or friends. Under the draft plan, Albany-Irving has 31 schools, 10 of which are overcrowded by CPS's 30-to-a-homeroom averaging formula. Tim Meegan, whose point often gets lost in his "everything is wrong with CPS" perspective, pointed out in his comments that the only school in the Albany-Irving area that is under-utilized is Aspira-Haugan Middle School--and this despite overcrowded conditions in the three schools nearest to the building. And yet, although CPS <i>owns</i> the <i>building </i>(or at least paid for it), it appears to have no plans to phase it out. (Perhaps as part of the "several" charters that CPS has closed, per Barbara Byrd-Bennett?) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Presenter Babbitz asked for directed feedback to the plan, asking participants their opinions on the "guiding principles" outlined in the draft plan, priorities, and suggested solutions. Of course, since the BoE and CPS provide most parents with only two minutes of speaking time, most people use public forums like these to vent all of their frustrations with CPS on the poor, but highly paid, Central Office soul sitting on the stage, while Network managers hover in a cluster nearby. Last night was no exception. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Ald. Smith droned on for nearly 15 minutes about the overcrowding at Lincoln Elementary, causing one parent in the back row to stand up with a "point of preference" that Smith had outrun even the most lenient timekeeping of a two-minute speaking allotment. Ald. Arena kept it briefer, highlighting three 45th ward schools with the worst overcrowding conditions (Hitch, Belding, and Prussing) and noting that 85 percent of 45th ward residential real estate are single-family houses. (And to his point: this neighborhood has enjoyed a steady, owner-occupied, mid-price range residency since 1942; contrast that with Census figures for Halsted and Fullerton for the same era. The data is available in the government records section of Harold Washington Library.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Two speakers--Decatur's principal and a parent of a 13-year-old--advocated for more SE considerations. Three speakers advocated for more space/additions/improvements for Taft H.S. One, a teacher and parent, William Angel, pointed out that the feeder schools for Taft have mostly received additions without thought to where these students will go for high school and where they can put them within Taft. Six speakers alternately challenged and agreed with Ald. Smith about Lincoln Elementary, suggesting that a neighborhood with $1.2 million SFHs didn't need an addition/expansion just because they were rich and demanded it. Others suggested instead that CPS de-magnetize Newberry and/or LaSalle (because the rich people demanded it? Oy vey.) Two speakers from Wildwood Magnet (is this a magnet or a magnet cluster? CPS.edu lists it as a magnet) spoke about <i>severe</i> overcrowding at their school. Jill Wohl from <a href="http://www.ilraiseyourhand.org/" target="_blank">Raise Your Hand</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ILRaiseYourHand" target="_blank">live-tweeted</a> it from the forum if you'd like more information from the forum.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I hadn't gone in to the forum intending to speak, but did want to provide feedback on on parts of the draft plan that I read:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>My name is Caroline Bilicki, and I have three children at Disney II Magnet School. I have three comments on the draft plan. One--really more of a question: How can CPS promote a 21st century learning environment without a science lab, like Scammon or Murphy, or without a tech lab, like Belding or Henry?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Two it's not so much that I'd like to see you offer </i>more <i>programs, but sustain what you have. As Ben knows, I sit on the PTA Advisory Council, and every year, we are introduced to new heads of new initiatives that disappear 12 months later. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>And three, another question: Why does CPS want to pursue choice as a strategy? Is this a method to reduce costs? Is this something that parents want? Because I'm pretty sure that most NWside parents don't want charters as a choice. Another comment on choice: with open enrollment, neighborhood CPS schools become "schools of choice" in ways that belie the Census projections used by CPS in the Albany-Irving areas and/or within the O'Hare Network. </i></span></div>
Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-33277573206981336462013-09-06T01:09:00.000-05:002013-09-06T10:27:23.477-05:00Down to the Nitty GRITty<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">At each of the past three BoE meetings I've attended, the budget looked large. Everyone from Barbara Byrd-Bennett to Laurence Msall to Tim Cawley brought up pension reform in August. Tim Cawley also brought up the need for additional revenue from Springfield. Pension reform is a sticky wicket as well as a straw man in my opinion. I think that reforms to the state pension should be forward-going only. That is, the Illinois General Assembly can move to a defined contribution plan for current teachers and civil servants (ahem, elected officials), but it may not strip pensioners of their restful, albeit meager retirements after 40+ years in the trenches of CPS.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">However, an increase in the state income taxation process is something I can get behind. And it's a common theme at the BoE. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">BBB brought it up. Karen Lewis brought it up. Even Henry Beinen brought it up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">At last: a common cause for education wonks in Chicago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I hope it works. I've attended several presentations put on by the <a href="http://www.lwvil.org/" target="_blank">Illinois League of Women Voters</a>, the <a href="http://www.ctbaonline.org/" target="_blank">Center for Tax and Budget Accountability</a>, and most recently, <a href="http://www.abetterillinois.org/" target="_blank">A Better Illinois</a>, about the subject of Illinois's tax mess. I have found the argument increasingly convincing each time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The more I learn about the campaign, the more I think it makes sense. Illinois was </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">one of the first states in the union to promote many child-focused initiatives. It would collectively do well to reclaim some of that positivity (as opposed to notoriety) by funding its state programs fairly and more appropriately. If that means that I pay more tax, so be it if that is fair. However, I'm inclined to think it would be <i>more</i> fair for corporations to pay their fair share of tax, rather than doling out foundation dollars to the CEO/Board of Directors' pet causes. (If corporate foundations still want to do so, great, but the public good should not depend on private monies to survive/exist.) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">According to information provided by Advance Illinois, Illinois ranked 48th in state funding of education, as a percentage of total funding, in 2009-2010. The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) allegedly funds schools at a rate of $11,634 per pupil per year, which puts Illinois in the middle of the pack. But given that my kids' school received just over $4,000 per pupil for the 2013-2014 academic year, I'm not sure what accounts for the nearly $7K per pupil difference. Pension payments? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As this <a href="http://www.blogger.com/:%20http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/20/school-funding-practices-_n_1612572.html" target="_blank">HuffPo analysis of the NEA stats</a> says, Illinois is the most regressive in its education funding.</span><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; white-space: nowrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> And<a href="http://illinoisissues.uis.edu/archives/2012/09/educationinequality.html" target="_blank"> this (downstate) reporter explains</a> how the published numbers are not the same as what school districts actually get. </span><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; white-space: nowrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So now that I've established how </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">low</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> the rate at which Illinois funds its schools actually </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">is, </i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">back to my point: </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">this is unacceptable. </i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now a base state ranking means that one state </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">has got to be last, but there is last by a neglible amount (Illinois versus Utah or Idaho) snd there's last by a ridiculous amount (Illinois versus New York or Massachusetts). This difference is revolting, it's disgusting, it's criminal, it's base. And I don't see how we can raise future productive citizens of the world if our students aren't getting the support they so desperately need. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I want to move to Iowa like I want a hole in my head, but Iowans know how to breed--and educate--a thinking body politic. And they do this in part by funding their education system from a fair and equitable income tax structure. As do 33 other states that follow a graduated rate income tax (GRIT) structure. In fact, <i>all</i> of the other Midwestern states follow GRIT--except Indiana, which appears to be only steps ahead of Illinois in shady educational policymaking. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Under GRIT, the plan is simple: increase revenues by changing the income tax in Illinois from a fixed rate flat tax (currently 5 percent, will sunset down to 3.75 percent in fiscal year 2016 and drops again to 3.25 percent in 2024) to a graduated rate. That means that those with a higher income will be taxed at a higher rate and those at a lower income will be taxed at a lower rate. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There are several models floating around about what this might look like in Illinois. According to one of these models, those at the top income brackets would see only a 3 percent increase in income tax payable to Illinois. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I daresay they (we?) can afford it. What do you think? </span></div>
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Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-91982172637424734652013-09-03T09:56:00.001-05:002013-09-03T17:48:31.859-05:00Still BoringLast week, I attended the August Board of Education meeting, mercifully without my children, who would not have sat through another <a href="http://www.littleshoulders.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-bored-of-education.html" target="_blank">two-hour filibuster masquerading as the CEO's Report.</a> Public participation began at nearly 1 p.m. and as speaker #58, I was one of the last people called to the podium.<br>
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This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Board members were more willing to interact with me. Except David Vitale--he still looked bored (or, as <a href="http://www.littleshoulders.blogspot.com/2013/06/thinking-about-teachers-again.html" target="_blank">The Boy said in June, like he had to pee</a>). Or maybe it was my promise to come back every two months until the Board responds to my request. Andrea Zopp complied, although she questioned my premise. </div>
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My public comment was about a little-known issue that has become increasingly important as the Board has codified its enrollment and admissions policies, and discontinued long-held admissions practices:</div><div><br></div><div><i>Illinois general superintendent of schools Ted Kimbrough wrote, </i>"The most important instructional resource is staff, particularly teachers." <i>This is as true in 2013 as when he wrote it in 1992 in an analysis of the first 7 years of state report card data. </i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i>I believe that the Board of Education recognizes on some level the instructional importance of CPS teachers. But teacher salaries are only one part of the resources our teachers and our schools need. </i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i>That is why I am here today, again, to urge the Board to reconsider its magnet and selective enrollment admissions policy #602.2. As you may recall, I was here in June to address the Board on the same topic. And I will return every two months to speak to this issue until the Board takes it for the serious matter that it is. </i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i>The current policy as it is written is exclusive by omission. There is no policy concerning teachers' children within the system, and there is a perception among parents and the general public that teachers have some kind of clout list to get preferential treatment, like children of returning Rhodes scholars. That's just not accurate. </i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i>Chicago is often a pioneer in its policies and practices. Sometimes that has produced positive results and sometimes that has produced negative results. From my research, I can't tell if magnet schools around the country grant admission to their teachers. But I can tell you that if Chicago embraces a policy for teachers' children, it will be a mark on the positive side of pioneering programs.</i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i>So I stand here today to ask you to what I need to do, what you will do, to ensure that great teachers are retained in the schools where they teach. I know it is not the Board's practice to respond to public participants, but I'm speaking to with respect and an expectation of accountability, and I expect that you will do the same. </i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i>Please make this process more transparent for parents, teachers, students, LSCs, and other citizens of Chicago. </i></div>
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For the record, as far as I can tell, there is no clout list for teachers and administrators within CPS. I can't say whether Mayor Rahm Emanuel maintains his own clout list (given the way politics in Illinois works, it wouldn't surprise me if he did), but I'm fairly confident that Barbara Byrd-Bennett does not. (If she did, perhaps Tim Cawley would be a Chicago resident.) I know Jean-Claude Brizard did not. These stories may be anecdotal, but I can name at least five CPS teachers and administrators who have played--and lost--the admissions lottery, like everyone else now fleeing the City for more educationally and financially sound pastures. </div>
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Also, for the record, I'm not asking for automatic entry for teachers' kids. The only admissions that are guaranteed are those at one's <i>own</i> neighborhood District school. Charters, magnets, gifted, classical, and out-of-boundary neighborhood schools all require some type of admissions filter and I am not advocating for a change. </div>
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What I'm ultimately asking for is the following: </div>
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<i>Amend the BoE policy 602.2, Board Report #11-0824-PO2 to include enrollment for elementary-aged children of teachers+* after siblings in both entry and non-entry@ years. Sample wording is provided below in bold: </i></div>
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<i>“Elementary Magnet School Lottery Selections – Entry Level: </i></div>
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<i>– All sibling applicants shall be offered seats to the extent space is available. Lotteries will be conducted as necessary if the number of sibling applicants is greater than the number of available seats, and a designated sibling wait list shall be established if there are more sibling applicants than available space. To be eligible, the enrolled sibling and the applicant sibling must reside in the same</i> household and must be attending the same school at the same time for at least one school year. For the purposes of this policy, the term sibling means natural siblings, step siblings, foster siblings and adopted siblings, as evidenced by documentation required by the CEO or designee. A sibling of a student who will be graduated, or who is scheduled to transfer to another school, prior to the enrollment of the sibling who is applying for admission, shall not be eligible for this priority. </div>
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<b>-- After placing siblings as described above, all teachers’ elementary-aged children shall be offered seats up to ___ % of the remaining seats. To be eligible, teachers must have worked at the magnet school for at least one year prior to application. The applicant and the teacher must reside in the same household and must attend school and work at the same school at the same time for at least one year</b>. </div>
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<i>b. c. Proximity Lottery</i></div>
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<i>– After placing siblings <b>and teachers’ children as described above</b>, 40% of the remaining seats will be allocated to the proximity lottery and the balance to the citywide SES lottery. Proximity determinations will be made by the CEO or designee through a geocoding-based proximity analysis conducted prior to the lottery. All applicants will be placed into the proximity or citywide lotteries based on the application address. If the number of proximity applicants is less than the number of seats allocated for the proximity application process, those applicants will be given offers and the remaining seats will be filled through the citywide SES lottery. </i></div>
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<i>Where there are more proximity applicants than available seats, computerized lotteries may be run for applicants residing within a 1.5 mile proximity radius of the elementary magnet school and a 2.5 mile proximity radius of the magnet high school. The proximity radius is determined by a straight line method that does not consider driving distances. A sufficient number of offers will be made in lottery order to fill the seats allocated to the proximity selection process. The remaining proximity applicants will be placed on a proximity wait list. In an effort to ensure ongoing diversity in these programs, if more than 50 percent of the entire student body, according to the current 20th day file, is comprised of students within the proximity and if more than 50 percent of the student body is any one racial or ethnic group, no proximity lottery will be held for that school. Where both conditions are met, all applicants, including those living in the proximity area, will be placed into the citywide SES lottery.”</i></div>
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<i>+Q: How will this work for elementary-aged children of H.S. teachers, like those at Ogden, Alcott, etc.?</i></div>
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<i>*Q: Should this include aides, administration, office staff, and/or custodial staff? </i></div>
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<i>@Q: Should this include both entry and non-entry years? </i></div>
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Early critics of this plan include part of the Chicago PTA (the P in PTA), who believe that teachers have a secret in. This perception persists despite system-wide changes to the admissions policy in 2011, 2010, and 2009. The District needs to confit its admissions policy for neighborhood schools as well as for magnet and SE schools. Policy by omission isn't transparent. </div>
Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-29726205144573250332013-08-25T23:18:00.000-05:002013-08-28T22:09:47.211-05:00Hello, Hello<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I don't know if it's HuffPost's editing or poor writing, but many blog posts on the site seem to be cut off before the author explains his/her significant discovery, revelation or point. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Take for example Debra Pickett's recent post, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/debra-pickett/goodbye-to-all-that_1_b_3806188.html?utm_hp_ref=tw" target="_blank">Goodbye to All That</a>, which is making the rounds among my online Chicago communities. At the risk of boiling down it even further, Pickett's message is "Some CPS schools are elitist within the system. I am moving to Wisconsin."</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Swap out "the suburbs" for "Wisconsin" and you've just defined one of the main messages of Chicago's well-to-do urban middle-class parents, especially as they justify their flight outward. My response to this sentiment remains unchanged, and I've become almost deadened to any emotion whenever I hear of <i>another</i> family moving in protest to outside of city boundaries. I'd make a comment about asses and doors here, but as a hardened city resident, I've no longer got the time to invest in fair weather Chicagoans. Real estate in <a href="http://www.gipna.org/" target="_blank">my neighborhood</a> is like a revolving door as young families with a toddler age into young families with a kindergartener, look at CPS, freak out, and move out. </span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">You see, I'm too busy donating my time to making my kids' magnet school able to continue to provide its students with a top-notch public education. A K-college graduate of public school, albeit mostly very good ones, I've no idea what a private or parochial school looks like. I can only assume it doesn't get Title I monies or state aid.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">However, Pickett's charge of ludicrous parent-led fundraising did resonate. I've have read enough policy papers and statistical analyses to know that the kind of money raised by Picket's former school makes the process of educating <i>everyone </i>better. Even the "poor kids" will benefit from the time, resources, money, and effort put in by Pickett's peers at Oscar Mayer. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But the problem is not in the fundraising itself. It's in the control and the direction of funds by those who've raised them. I think <i>this</i> is what CPS's legal department is struggling--and failing--to regulate as it attempts to tighten the reins on school-based fundraising. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Raising funds in a challenging economic climate is, at best, challenging. San Franciscans have panhandler-fatigue; Chicagoans have nonprofit-with-a-cause fatigue. In a four-block span in the Loop yesterday, I avoided representatives from Illinois PIRG snd Children International. I'll sign a petition on the street, but I'm not giving a 22-year-old my credit card number to lobby my congressperson. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br></span></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif">A few months ago, I attended a series of workshops on grant writing and the grant making process. The series was well-run, well-attended, and informative. What I learned was also rather revolting: corporations have found a way to privatize nonprofit giving, using large sums of tax-free cash to influence organizations directly, rather than paying their fair share of taxes and letting state and federal social service agencies decide which programs and initiatives to advance. If I wasn't so horrified, I'd think it a rather brilliant interpretation of the one-per centers' golden rule. </font></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif">I much prefer Aesop's version. </font></div>Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-41043881609292481472013-08-23T22:09:00.000-05:002013-08-23T22:20:06.336-05:00And then what happens?<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It's no doubt a function of being a plugged-in mother of three, but it seems to me that American culture is divided on the subject of children in the public space. I've had many a conversation with childless individuals in which they offer advice on how to rear children or simply complain about their behavior.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I, too, had a lot of ideas about parenting before I become one. Things that were once horrifying (babywearing) became daily practices. Things that once seemed reasonable (spanking )_ became not so reasonable. But one that hasn't changed over the past 11.5 years is my relationship with and attitude toward risk.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I generally think of myself as risk-averse. I don't gamble, take out ARMs, or cross against the light. But I d have a basic trust in society and my fellow humans. Some would say that's naive--and maybe they are right--but as an anxiety sufferer with its swirling thoughts and worst-case scenarios, I have come to embrace this basic human trust rather than become crippled by my fears.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">While stories like <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/07/betty-brewer-chicago_n_3719973.html" target="_blank">this</a> are increasingly rare, they do reflect my larger belief that it's OK to teach my children to <i>embrace</i> the world rather than flee from it. That<i> less</i> harm can come from teaching them to trust themselves than can come from teaching them to fear everyone and everything.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I feel I should point out that I am not teaching them to <i>ignore</i> their fears. Although I have not read Gavin de Becker's <i>Gift of Fear</i>, it is a practice that my children--and myself--employ instinctively. After all, The Girl, now 8, has run into the house on more than one occasion to report to me that there's a creepy guy sitting in a van with the motor running on the street outside our house. Each time this happens, I've responded with a reassuring hug for my daughter and a trip outside myself. The guy, as it turns out, is our next door neighbor's father, an aging general contractor and lifelong smoker who is now suffering renal failure. He looks a little different (and a little creepier) than when The Girl first met him. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Letting my children loose in the world so that they can explore it safely is my job as a parent. To me, teaching my children to interact with other people, to become self-sufficient and self-reliant, to build and build upon life experiences, and to trust themselves is probably the third most important thing I can teach them, just after unconditional love and treating others with kindness and respect. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In May, I attended <a href="http://ftcnsfreerangekids.eventbrite.com/#" target="_blank">a talk</a> given by the Free-Range founder herself, <a href="http://www.freerangekids.com/" target="_blank">Lenore Skenazy</a>. That experience--being in a preschool classroom with 30 other mothers (and a smattering of fathers) who shared my philosophy on letting kids be kids, even in the big, bad city--gave me the high of a shared connection or a great deal at the Treasure Store. So I spent the summer giving my kids increasingly longer leashes. The Girl walked to the corner store and back with a friend. Five times. The Tot Who's Not, age 6, <i>finally</i> learned to scooter and started doing scooter laps around the block. The Boy got a new bicycle and began roving around the neighborhood on his bike. Except for 2-3 neighborhood boys whose parents share my philosophy, the only other kids he met were 6th and 7th grade boys from <a href="http://www.disneyiimagnet.org/" target="_blank">his school</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Earlier this week, after dropping The Girl off at the movies with her girl scout troop, I found myself with 90 minutes to kill in a Barnes & Noble, where I settled in with a stack of magazines and a cup of coffee. Among the mags was <i>Real Simple Family</i>, which featured a <a href="http://www.realsimple.com/work-life/family/kids-parenting/overprotective-parents-00100000107227/index.html" target="_blank">cover story on helicopter and overprotective parenting</a>. The first page of the story featured wisdom from, yet again, Ms. Skenazy, who reiterated the difference between taking risks and engaging in risky behavior.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It's a good reminder for us all. There are risks in merely <i>existing</i> in our world, but <i>risky</i> is walking home through an unlit secret passage in the dark, accepting a drink in an open cup from a stranger, or waiting until your kids are in college before you let them leave the house without you. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">After the first time I let The Girl go to the corner store and The Tot Who's Not scooter around the block, <span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I asked each of them if anyone had approached or talked
to them. Giving me the look that clearly said, "Mom, you are Looney
Tunes," they reported that no, no one had talked to them, approached
them, or motioned them to get into a car. I answered with a what-if, and
each of them gave me the withering look and said, "Scream and run like
hell."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It's the same look they give me when I repeat, for the gazillionth time, some warnings before sending my boys into the men's restroom: </span>"Remember: don't talk to anyone and if anyone tries to touch you, scream as loud as you can and run like hell." The Boy has heard this so many times that I don't even bother to repeat it to him. He recently told me, "Mom, this is imprinted on my brain!" The Tot Who's Not has heard it less often, but he'd risk peeing on the floor rather than enter the ladies' room with me in public under any circumstance. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This is how I prefer it. And I think this is how most girls age about 8 and older would prefer it as well. I can't imagine having to fumble with an early period in a public restroom while sharing a stall wall with your 3rd period classmate. <i>This</i> is why it's a problem for a mother to bring her 8-year-old son into the ladies restroom with her, as one mother wrote that she did when the question of allowing opposite sex children use the opposite sex public restroom arose recently </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">on a <a href="http://www,npnparents.org/" target="_blank">popular Chicago message board</a>. Other answers </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">to the question ranged from age 5 to age
34. I am not making this up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My boys were 6 and 4 when I began encouraging them to use the restroom designated for their gender. Part of this was laziness on my part as The Boy would invariably ask to pee just as we sat down to eat something. But then part of me realized that the fear of using the Target restroom is, essentially, a phobia: irrational and not statistically likely. Since then, I've <i>trusted</i> my boys to use the men's public restroom and <i>trusted </i>the world to let them do their business without comment or incident. And so far, the public restroom public has been worthy of that trust. And that's been true at K-Mart, Target, the library, tollway oases, O'Hare airport, the grocery store, the park, and the beach. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">On a related note, I found myself facing another "Am I crazy?" moment this week while I listened to two parents at a school event discuss how to get crossing guards in place to protect their 4th-7th grade children while they walked 1/2 mile or less to school. When I said that The Boy walks the same route with 50+ morning commuters, they said that they didn't feel comfortable letting their children walk the same route alone because of a nearby SRO and shelter, and exit-ramp vagrants. They then went on to say that because they work in public service, they have a different perspective than I do. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I've been reflecting on this conversation all day and mostly I want to know<i>: What do these parents know that I do not? </i>Should
I be more concerned about exit-ramp vagrants? I've passed these folks
many a morning on my way to work and they usually look as if they are
sleeping it off. Whatever it is. I can't imagine any one of them rising
from their cardboard-backed slumber to bother me <i>or </i>my kid. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In
two years of commuting the
same route, I've had 1 person ask me for money, which I would call
neither harassment nor particularly damaging an experience. Yes, I am an
adult and these types of interactions should be no big deal to me. But
how did they get to become no big deal to me? Experience and exposure. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I understand that law enforcement sees the underbelly of Chicago, and I, in my safe NWside neighborhood and mostly daytime roving, don't have much exposure to it. But I've looked up the crime statistics for my police district and I still don't get it.</span></span> <span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What am I missing? What do police officers and public servants see happening in our area that I do not? Does the department issue crime alerts for only <i>some</i> of the incidents that happen in our precinct? Do police and fire departments track the crimes that they were able to <i>prevent</i> from happening? Do these departments redact crime reporting? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I'm pretty sure that despite a lot of anecdotal, on-the-job experiences, the statistics--at least those reported by our police precinct--do not bear out the idea that great harm comes from school-aged children being approached by strangers on the street in our area. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In the highly unlikely scenario that an exit-ramp vagrant, SRO or shelter resident approached my kid on a well-lit, well-traveled public street, the question I wanted to ask, but didn't is: and then what happens? And how do you know? </span></span>Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-12249297642967864122013-08-03T11:26:00.000-05:002013-08-03T11:26:09.980-05:00Nickeled and Dimed<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Lately, it seems that CPS parents leap to righteous indignation at the slightest provocation. Or no provocation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Take for example the discussion about school fees that is currently raging on the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/117581168258426/" target="_blank">Raise Your Hand Facebook page</a> and at playgrounds across the city. School or student fees are a common way for school districts to supplement their costs for disposable instructional materials (like workbooks and subscription services), technology upkeep, and even the basic implements required for classroom learning. School fees are not new, nor are they unique to the city of Chicago. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I <i>remember</i> paying fees during my <a href="http://www.hfhighschool.org/" target="_blank">high school</a> years in a Chicago suburb 20+ years ago. And these fees included everything from the essential to the ridiculous, such as the mandatory suit rental for the ugly, ill-fitting, black nylon swimsuit uniform we were all required to wear during our annual swimming units in gym. Yes, I know (in retrospect) that we were lucky to even <i>have</i> daily P.E., let alone an indoor swimming pool or instructors who <i>could </i>teach us how to put our pants around our shoulders to prevent ourselves from drowning. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Now, I know that few parents <i>trust</i> anything that comes out of CPS these days. Perhaps justifiably so. And one of the problems in this one-size-fits-all district is that school/student fees are left to the discretion of principals and LSCs. So the fees are as varied as the schools themselves. <a href="http://www.disneyiimagnet.org/" target="_blank">Disney II</a> asks its families to pay $160 per student in a combined supplies and instructional materials fee. For me, that equates to $480. I'm not going to lie: this amount presents a financial challenge for my family. Garage sale proceeds, lemonade-stand receipts, consumer survey payments, and birthday checks combine to meet our obligation. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">And it <i>is</i> an obligation. Like getting my kids to school each morning on time, well-rested, and with full bellies, I pay my kids' school fees because giving them the tools they need to learn is one of <i>my responsibilities as a parent.</i> It's the same reason that I sit down with them while they do their homework, feed them a healthful dinner, and read them books every night before bed. I pay my student fees in cash, in full, before school starts because I believe it is the <i>right thing to do.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Our school does make things easier for parents to pay school fees, giving parents the opportunity to pay fees by credit card or an installment payment plan, and offering parents a financial hardship waiver. But for every waiver, the school has to eat the cost of those supplies and those instructional materials, squeezing an already limited budget even tighter. I believe I also have a responsibility to improve opportunities for the collective as much as I can--and pushing school fees onto everyone else is shirking in that responsibility. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Out of interest, I researched school fees in some of Chicago's tonier suburbs. These are areas where home values, prices, and property taxes are high. <i>And </i>they must pay school fees. </span><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Of the four districts I checked, they all have 'em. In <a href="http://www.d181.org/index.aspx" target="_blank">Hinsdale</a>, students paid $200-$225 each in student fees in 2011-2012. In <a href="http://www.naperville203.org/assets/SchoolFees.pdf" target="_blank">Naperville</a>, student fees vary from $42 for PK and K students to a sliding scale that goes up to $145+ for middle and high school students. At <a href="http://www.oprfhs.org/Family-Packet/documents/FeePaymentInformation.pdf" target="_blank">Oak Park River Forest high school</a>, students pay $355-$540 before they can come to class. And in Lake Forest District 67? They'll <a href="http://www.lf67.org/district/about/misc_forms/Student%20Fee%20Philosophy2011.pdf" target="_blank">take families to small claims court</a> if they don't pony up the $230/student that is assessed each year by the district.</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At our school, the compliance rate for student fees payments has been about 75 percent. I am not sure how this compares with compliance rates at other schools within CPS, or those with similar student populations. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In determining whether to increase student fees from the </span><a href="tel:202-2013" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" x-apple-data-detectors-result="0" x-apple-data-detectors-type="telephone" x-apple-data-detectors="true">2012-2013</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> academic year or to keep them flat for 2013-2014, our LSC members asked everyone we knew for information on student fees. This list is by no means complete, but can give some idea of the variation in fees assessed by LSCs throughout CPS. </span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Murphy Elementary - $30/family. Source: June Murphy LSC meeting</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Taft High school - $275+/student. Source: Nadig Newspaper</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Belding Elementary - $35-40/student. Source: Friends of Belding</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Burley Elemenrary - $50-70/student. Source: Friends of Burley</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Inter-American - $55-110/student. Source: PTO</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Decatur Classical - $175/student. Source: parent</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Edison RGC - $250/student grades 1-8; $400/student K. Source: parent</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Have a school fee to add? Please leave it in the comments. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I realize that many families of CPS students cannot <i>afford</i> the student fees payments asked of them. If you live in Lake Forest, you expect to pay $800K for a house and $15K in property taxes and HOA dues each year. Paying an extra $300/student for school fees is chump change. But in Chicago, we persist in the notion that <i>public education</i> means <i>free.</i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It doesn't. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">However, given the ways in which people can (mis)interpret public and printed statements, it's easy to see how conflation occurs. The National Center for Learning Disabilities illustrates this beautifully with its Free and Appropriate Public Education <a href="http://www.ncld.org/parents-child-disabilities/ld-rights/what-is-fape-what-can-it-mean-my-child" target="_blank">(FAPE) Myths and Facts table</a>. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">After all, you cannot accurately judge intent from a pithy remark. This is probably why we pay lawyers $300/hour to write pages of legalese that clarify the intent behind every statement.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The idea of <i>free</i> public education is an interesting one, and will take more analysis than I want to make at this point in my day. It has been covered by <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/gs/brown/PublicEd.PDF" target="_blank">conservatives</a>, <a href="http://0-nces.ed.gov.opac.acc.msmc.edu/pubs93/93442.pdf" target="_blank">turncoats</a>, and <a href="http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/events/4279/fight_for_free_schools/473347" target="_blank">neutral parties</a> alike. Follow the links if you are interested to read more on your own. </span></div>
Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-37702456313414254402013-07-27T15:18:00.001-05:002013-07-30T21:48:33.379-05:00The Bored of Education<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">On Wednesday last week, I headed back to CPS Board chambers to listen to the budget presentation and student speakers from across the city.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I took The Tot (Who's Not) with me, having remembered to actually register him with the BoE site in advance. Before I get further into my report, I'd like to pause here and add some suggestions of how the BoE can make its meetings more hospitable to the <i>students</i> and <i>families </i>whom it allegedly serves. This is a direct response to Board President Vitale's request for feedback of this nature. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">First, put out a <i>detailed</i> agenda. So great to know all of the resolutions and amendments that you'll vote on after you close the meeting, but it'd be so much more useful to know that the CEO's report is going to take <i>three hours </i>before you give me 120 <i>seconds </i>to speak. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Second, if you are going to take away my water bottle, you should probably give me access to a water fountain on the 5th or 15th floor. Dehydration should not be a BoE requirement. Similarly, if Central Office employees can bring in a granola bar, maybe you should let me do the same for my 6-year-old. You know the one who hasn't eaten since security made us dump our lunch four hours ago. <i>C'mon, </i><a href="http://www.eatlearnlive.com/" target="_blank">Chartwells</a> would <i>never</i> allow this! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Third, I shouldn't need a press pass to record an open meeting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Finally, cutting the camera/sound in overflow during disruptions on the 5th floor doesn't make an open meeting. If you think the charge of trying to hide something is unfair, maybe you should stop trying to hide something? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">On that note, CPS began the meeting by congratulating seven District schools for their ISAT gains: Prescott, McDade Classical, Canty, Coonley, Dixon, and Webster Handberry. When given time to speak, only the Canty principal, Ms. Kopec, drew attention to her school's overcrowding and budgeting problems. Otherwise, it was mostly a mutual love fest between the BoE and the principals of these schools. Which is exactly what I would expect. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I have never seen a BoE meeting where Board members interacted with the crowd. Vitale alluded to a meeting with high school students just prior to the meeting--perhaps this was the reason for the bird wanting to appear more approachable. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The meeting then progressed to the CEO's report, which included many sub reports from the strangely named C-level staff hired by Barbara Byrd-Bennett. First up was John Barker, chief accountability officer, who reported an unsubstantiated causal relationship between better ISAT cut scores and the full school day. According to Barker, 65 percent of all elementary CPS schools reported improved meets and exceeds levels on the ISAT in math and reading. Pioneer schools outpaced average District growth in ISAT scores by three times. He did say that ISAT scores have shown steady growth since the test was first implemented in 2001. <i>I wonder what this test is actually measuring.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">However, Barker said in his report that cut scores are higher across the country. He also said that the higher scores in CPS suggest that teaching is effective within CPS and that the District is on the right track with its first pillar of effective education. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">At this point, Board member Dr, Mahalia Hines (<i>clearly</i> keenly interested in charters) asked Barker if the ISAT scores included high school or charter students. Even if Barker hadn't covered who takes the ISAT in his presentation, Hines should <i>know</i>, as a member of the Chicago BoE, what the ISAT is and who takes it. Barker did not admit any discrepancy in charter and District students' ISAT performance, but said that charter and District schools have been on the same trajectory since the inception of NCLB. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">BBB spoke briefly before introducing Tim Cawley and his budget presentation. She claimed that the CPS Central Office has made significant reductions in staffing for the fourth year in a row. <i>(Notice that no one reports when the CO </i>hires<i> new people.) </i>She also said that the District is challenged by inequitable and insufficient funding from the state and citywide<i> </i>and within this platform, asked for pension reform and increase in per-pupil funding amounts from the state. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As a resident of Chicago, it's hard not to be a bit distrustful of Tim Cawley, one of the chosen few who has been given <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-10-25/news/ct-met-cps-waiver-cauley-1025-20111025_1_residency-waiver-cps-president-david-vitale" target="_blank">a residency waiver</a>. In his presentation, which included a lot of hard-to-read, tiny type, info-dense slides, he presented the realities of a $4 million pension cliff. He highlighted the numerous problems of the budget: no financial benefit from closing schools due to reinvestment in welcoming schools, property taxes are at the cap in Chicago, the debt management load is high, must keep higher level reserves, no way to keep funding flat. The two problems that he mentioned again and again are low funding and outrageous debt service. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Cawley did say that despite this gloom and doom, CPS did <i>increase </i>funding to some programs: </span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">increased spending to magnet, SE, and STEM programs <i>(as a magnet school LSC member, I wonder how they calculated this </i>increase <i>in spending)</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">further investments in PK through the Ready to Learn program </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">investments in early intervention</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">extended Safe Passage program</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">increased all-day K for everyone in CPS</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">investments in programs to recapture dropouts and reduce truancy </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Cawley was interrupted by a heckler who was escorted out of the room by security. The heckler asked about toxic swaps, which later elicited some follow-up questions by Board member Henry Beinen and which were answered by Cawley and CFO Peter Rogers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As BBB returned to the floor, Dr. Hines made a comment about asking adults in the room to provide a better example for students of respectful behavior. At least, that's what I think she was trying to say. She was barely coherent and I wondered if she wasn't on medication. Rosemary Vega, a parent who had erupted at June's board meeting, erupted again at Hines's comment, complaining that the only thing students would learn from BBB and her staff at a Board meeting were how to be liars. At this point, I was listening to Vega as she walked around the room ranting and avoiding security, but watching BBB's staff as they sat to the left of the BoE, behind the tribunal gate. <i>Is it difficult for them to go to BoE meetings? It probably feels like a waste of their time, to them. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">At this point, The Tot (Who's Not) was losing what was left of his patience for the "bored" meeting. BBB finally concluded her remarks, but public comment was delayed further by a short speech from Karen Lewis and much longer presentations by two aldermen. The teenage students from schools such as WY, Lane, Kelly, and the CSOSOS organization who surrounded us in the audience were also losing patience, but managed to hold it together for another hour or two until they had their 120 seconds each of comment. We left before the sitting behind me could speak, but I saw her impassioned speech on <i>Chicago Tonight</i> later in the day. </span></div>
Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-85431956877964266952013-07-27T14:41:00.001-05:002013-07-30T21:49:04.997-05:00This Girl Stuff Is Going to Kill Me<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This week, The Girl went off to sleep away camp for the first time. I chose a Girl Scouts camp for her, while her big brother went to YMCA camp. I did this for several reasons, but the most important of these were (1) because it was shorter and less expensive than the YMCA camp, and (2) because the camp came highly recommended among Girl Scout leaders in our area.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">That it was a Girl Scout camp is of no small importance. As a child, I loved visiting Juliette Gordon Low's Savannah home. In theory, Juliette Gordon Low was one of the first feminist role models for girls, basing her version of scouting on the idea that girls are <i>not</i> inherently neater, cleaner, prissier, or more careful than boys, however much society would like to make it so. I always got the impression that JGL thought that girls can and should enjoy similar pursuits as those of boys. As a girl, this appealed to me. As a woman, as a feminist, and most importantly, as the <i>mother of a girl</i>, this is of critical importance. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My hope is that GS will help reinforce what I try to teach my daughter (and my sons): that a girl's self-worth should have less to do with what she looks like, what she wears, and the grades she earns in school and more to do with <i>who she is as a person</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I will readily confess that as The Girl spent 5.5 days at camp, I enjoyed a wee vacation from my middle child. It's a break I really needed as The Girl is super smart, fiercely analytical, somewhat attention-seeking, extremely perceptive, and often overwhelmed by her own emotions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It is <i>exhausting</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I recognize that it's part of my job as a mother to listen to her and help her to navigate those emotions. But it may surprise everyone (or no one, depending on your view of blogging) to learn that <i>I</i> struggle to maintain my voice and authentic self. This adds another layer of work--and another source of fatigue--to the process of mothering a girl. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Because, really, our society sends such mixed messages to girls and women. We are <i>bombarded</i> with often conflicting information about how to act, how to dress, what and who to like, what to say and how to say it, and what defines femininity, beauty, popularity, and intelligence. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">And the messaging starts early. In the 18 months since I last wrote about this, my girl has spent the intervening time struggling--and failing--to come to terms with the idea that she is "not popular." As her mother, I see both the positive and negative sides of her behavior and interactions with her peers. She feels excluded and she reacts by pouting. But as her mother, I wonder how an 8-year-old comes to feel regularly excluded by her peers?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As a friend pointed out recently, how are such concepts introduced to 7- and 8-year-olds? And how is popularity determined at this age? Is it self-selection or self-declaration? </span></div>
Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-5506604195255433662013-07-26T10:44:00.001-05:002013-07-30T21:50:17.680-05:00I hate summer<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It's time for my annual rant about how I hate summer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I hate summer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Why? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">First, it's hot. I am pale-skinned, pale-eyed, pale-haired. I can feel my skin burning in the sun and the heat. I don't feel endorphin-induced euphoria from running around in the sun or relaxing on the beach. I can "lay out" for a grand total of 10 minutes before I flee for the shade. When I was a kid, my mother never sent me to the park district's day camp. I always thought it was because (a) she never remembered the registration date or (b) she didn't work and didn't need the day care element of day camp, but now I wonder if it's because she knew I would come home complaining of a day spent in the sun. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Second, and more importantly, like those economically disadvantaged children discussed in study after study, <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/07/summer_learning_loss_summer_vacation_hurts_kids_in_school_and_is_especially.html" target="_blank">article</a> after article, I experience brain drain. I feel myself getting stupider by the day as my brain melts out my mouth with the heat and humidity of an archetypical July day in Chicago. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This is, of course, hyperbole. The very fact that I am <i>writing </i>this post, <i>reading</i> articles like <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/education/" target="_blank">these</a>, and plowing through my stack of both non-fiction books and novels suggests that I remain engaged in the process of learning even through the dog days of summer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">But it seems a lot harder to <i>do</i> anything in summer. My countdown to the first day of school (30 days, by the way) usually begins on the first week of summer vacation, as my tendency toward <a href="http://www.freerangekids.com/" target="_blank">free-range parenting</a> kicks me in the ass when I realize that my summer plans for my children of playdates and <a href="http://clubs.lifetimefitness.com/Old-Orchard/11218/" target="_blank">pool</a> have been dashed by that over which I have no control: day camp, vacations, and the weather.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It's July 26th and I am out of ideas. I cannot seem to muster the kind of "isn't this great?!" cheerleading that seems to accompany most child-centered activities. A few months ago, I read a book on organizational psychology called <i>Drive</i>, by Daniel Pink. <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html" target="_blank">Pink's theory</a> is that individuals are <i>most</i> motivated by doing things that are intrinsically satisfying rather than "incentivizing" individuals to perform certain tasks. Modern parenting, it seems to me, is one giant game of carrot-and-stick. One that I am not particularly interested in playing today. </span>Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-58340702449023870232013-06-26T23:02:00.001-05:002013-06-29T10:43:09.487-05:00Thinking About the Teachers Again<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Yesterday, I took The Boy, The Girl, and The Tot Who's Not to their first Chicago Board of Education meeting. On the train, in the rain, despite the flooding, despite the no-food-in-chambers policy that made an over-lunchtime meeting difficult for children used to eating at 11:38 a.m.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">But I went because I had signed up to address the Board. And I took them with me because I thought it was important that they see how their government works. Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned lunch situation, we left chambers after my remarks, but before <a href="http://preaprez.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/this-is-what-chicago-democracy-looks-like-cps-students-try-to-talk-to-the-board-and-then-tossed-out/" target="_blank">a group of high school students demonstrated their displeasure with the system</a>. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I wish I were that brave. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Instead, I stayed on-point in my message to the Board of Education: asking them to reconsider their <a href="http://littleshoulders.blogspot.com/2011/09/teachers-and-students.html" target="_blank">2011 decision</a> not to amend magnet enrollment policy 602.2 to include teachers' children. My statements elicited no response from David Vitale or Barbara Byrd-Bennett, in marked contrast to the response that another parent received when he asked that CPS hold his kid's magnet school spot while they went to Bejing on a Fulbright scholarship. (According to The Boy, BBB was stone-faced and he thought Vitale looked like he had to pee.)</span><div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif">Here's what I said:</font></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif"><i>My name is Caroline Bilicki and I'm the parent of three children--who are here with me today--at Disney II Magnet School, which lost $270,000 in the transition to system-wide per-pupil funding and despite an expansion to high school. But that's not why I'm here today.</i></font></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif"><i><br></i></font></div><div><i><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif">I'm here today to ask the board to reconsider its 2011 decision, based on Blue Ribbon Comission rcommendations at the time, regarding admission of teachers' children. </font><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; ">My family has benefitted from the 2011 revision to policy#602.2 and I can report first hand the peace of mind I feel in knowing each of my children have an opportunity to share experiences, teachers, and community.</span></i></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif"><i><br></i></font></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif"><i>So I'd like you to consider amending the current policy to include a provision for magnet teachers' children. Such an amendment could include a percentage of the class and/or a length of service requirement. I've included sample wording in my handouts, which I provided to the board earlier. I believe a policy that supports enrollment of teachers' children in the schools where they teach is in the best interests of the board for three reasons: </i></font></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif"><i><br></i></font></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif"><i>First, it keeps families and school communities together, emphasizing the shared experiences of school and learning. </i></font></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif"><i><br></i></font></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif"><i>Second, it keeps great teachers in the city/CPS, which provides students with a stability that is so critical in today's times. </i></font></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif"><i><br></i></font></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif"><i>And finally: it is the right thing to do.</i></font></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif"><i>Thank you. </i></font></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif">There is more to this story that I did not share with the board: that one of our founding teachers, assistant principal, and indeed, a preschool parent, left system and the city because her rising K kid did not gain admission to <i>any magnet, SE, or neighborhood open enrollment </i>school where she, a top-notch educator, felt comfortable sending her child. That many people I've talked to about this initiative believe teachers have some kind of "in" to better schools or seats. Perhaps that was true during the principal discretion days, but I can name at least five CPS officials who I've met in various capacities whose kids played the lottery like everyone else. That the Board of Education should get its policy house in order for open enrollment/neighborhood/magnet cluster schools in the same way it did for SE and magnet schools. That the </font><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; ">inequities in Chicago education are not </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; ">only</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; "> around money.</span></div><div><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, serif"><br></font></div><div><br></div><div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></div></div>Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-64793449125912131332013-06-21T23:37:00.001-05:002013-06-21T23:37:18.188-05:00"We're listening" and other causes for skepticismThe last PTA Advisory meeting of the 2012-2013 school year was last week...right as parents, teachers, and principals were learning (or in my case, had yet to learn) about how badly their budgets had been slashed for the 2013-2014 academic year. Our primary speaker was Wendy Thomson of the Office of Family and Community Engagement (FACE).<br />
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She spoke about transition plans for closing schools. She said that iPads and other promised resources will be available at the welcoming schools. They are District resources for use by the affected students, but it's not a one to one distribution of materials to those affected. <br />
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She mentioned Jadine Chou's safe passage program, saying that the District put out an RFP that explicitly sought community-based organizations (CBOs) with ties to each community and plans to hire community members to deliver safe passage services. <br />
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For overcrowded schools, Ms Thomson said that the district will use its Education Facilities Master Plan (EFMP) to guide its work with overcrowded schools in the utilization process. The EFMP came out in May and the district plans to conduct community outreach and engagement around four areas or "buckets":<br />
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- Program placement - how and where to place STEM, IB, and other programs within existing buildings/school communities<br />
- Capital maintenance projects - CPS calls these capital improvement projects - determining how to prioritize its list of capital projects <br />
- Capital improvement projects - CPS calls these capital enhancement projects - determining how to prioritize improvements to buildings<br />
- Overcrowding/ over enrollment - she said, "nothing is off the table" when I asked about re-drawing the boundaries to improve overcrowding in some areas<br />
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For the 49-55 buildings in CPS that have been closed, the District is doing pre-RFP research to determine how best to repurpose these buildings. Carl Hurdlik, CPS moderator for PTA advisory, acknowledged that the city cannot likely sell the buildings because there isn't a lot of interest in them. Plans now to develop/formalize process to redevelop these buildings. A common idea is to use them as community centers.<br />
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Brenda Bell from the CACs spoke a bit about the process of transforming these buildings, the need for a formalized process, solid operational outlook, budgeting, etc. Get aldermen, small business partners, CBOs, CACs and parents involved in the re-development process. Use CACs to drive the process of conversion and then have communities themselves take over administration and project ownership of each community center or repurposing of buildings. Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31514641.post-44147576748591255882013-05-24T09:41:00.000-05:002013-05-24T09:41:28.969-05:00I'm Not Leaving<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">On Wednesday, I spent several hours of the morning at <a href="http://www.cps.edu/" target="_blank">CPS</a>, trying to gain admittance to the <a href="http://www,cpsboe.org/" target="_blank">Board of Education</a> meeting on the 5th floor, or the overflow observation room on the 15th floor. My patience and calm request paid off, and I was eventually allowed to sit in a rolling green chair with a crowd of other people in a large room that featured few windows, a set of fire doors, and two flat screen TVs and a sound system to view the goings-on of the board chambers 10 floors below. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It was a rowdy crowd up there on the 10th floor, and as anyone who has been around The Girl will tell you, hunger and thirst makes people especially crabby. By the time I sat through six aldermanic speeches, two <a href="http://www.ctunet.com/" target="_blank">CTU</a> addresses, and approximately 18 rounds of public testimony, I was no longer muttering under my breath, but joining my fellow observers in yelling at the screen. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">At least three people told the Board that they'd be forced to move to the suburbs if conditions in their schools didn't improve, get more money, or whatever. Up on the 15th floor, each of these comments elicited a response of, "Go ahead!" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">And I agree with their reaction. Since I became enmeshed in <a href="http://www,pta.org/" target="_blank">advocacy</a> for schools in Chicago, I've heard, "I'll move to the suburbs!" countless times. It is said like a threat, and perhaps it is meant as threat as well. But as a threat, it feels hollow. Threatening to move to the suburbs is a luxury afforded the generally white, generally affluent, generally mobile, and generally well-resourced parents of CPS, if not of Chicago itself. Every time I hear statements along these lines, The Tot (Who's Not)'s favorite line echoes in my head: <i>Aw, come on! </i>Seriously, if
you have the means and the desire to move out of the city, maybe you
should do so, instead of holding your residency up like you are a
precious gift you've decided to bestow on the city of Chicago. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I am not going to make that claim. Maybe it's because I haven't reached a level of frustration with CPS and the city that has me contemplating the move? Maybe it's because my kids attend a kick-ass <a href="http://www,disneyiimagnet.org/" target="_blank">magnet school</a>? Maybe it's because Grandma & Grandpa Texas just moved six blocks away? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">But if I want to move to the 'burbs and can afford to do so, I think I will just do it. And if I'm irritated with CPS and city politics and want to make a statement about it, I feel pretty confident that I'll have the means and outlet to do that as well. Certainly, I may be frustrated in my efforts to effect immediate change, as most of the speakers on Wednesday were. But as a chronic optimist, I'm neither ready to move to the suburbs nor to overstate my importance to the city by threatening to do so. </span><br />
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<span class="fullpost"></span>Chicago Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846684175685000712noreply@blogger.com0