Lewis Elementary teachers agreed to have their school turned around but only if Strategic Learning Initiatives (SLI) is leading the action, they said at a Chicago Public Schools (CPS) hearing Thursday night.
Under CPS' proposal, Lewis' teachers and staff are slated to be fired and the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL) would take over the school in the fall.
But
teachers at Lewis say they have been used as "guinea pigs" for various
programs that begin to show improvement after a few years, such as the Teacher Advancement Program, but are then abruptly ended by the district.
"We all know that when you introduce a new program it takes time for the staff and students to adjust," said Corliss Wade, a first-grade teacher at Lewis. Read more »
A plethora of teachers, parents and students attempted to counter Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) claim that Thomas Chalmers Specialty Elementary is “chronically underperforming” Thursday night at the school’s final public hearing.
Attributed
to “low performance” and “insufficient progress”, a proposal by CPS has
suggested replacing Chalmers’ entire staff with the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL), a school turnaround contractor, by next year.
But
since school Principal Kent Nolen was hired in 2010, Chalmers has
seen significant growth, according to Thursday’s speakers. If the West Side school were permitted to continue on its current course, presenters said
it would surely close achievement gaps.
“We pray that this
hearing officer holds the current faculty, staff and administration
accountable for the work they’ve accomplished, not penalizing them for
work under the former administration,” said W. T. Harris, a parent of
one Chalmers student, member of the local school council (LSC) and one of approximately 75 attendees.
Under CPS' plan, Delano's teachers may be fired at the end of the academic year and the school turned into Melody Elementary as part of the the district's plan to address its reported underutilization problem. CPS says Delano is half full.
Although
both of the West Side schools have CPS' second highest, Level 2,
academic performance rating, Melody is on academic probation and Delano
is not.
"I understand that there may have been higher levels of
growth from Melody school, but guess what, they had a low point to come
from," Ervin said at a public hearing last night regarding the proposal.
"It’s conceivable that you will make greater gains, because you have a larger distance from where you can make gains from." Read more »
Chicago Public Schools plans to close 54 schools in June, but a new Chicago Teachers Union
study raises questions about whether the district has the capacity to
close that many in such a short time, given its issues with closing at
least one of four schools last year.
Once Englewood’s Simon
Guggenheim Elementary closed last year, only 37 percent of its
non-graduating students enrolled at the designated receiving school, Carrie Jacobs Bond Elementary, according to CTU’s “A Tale of Two Schools” study.
Also, CPS has yet to account for 23 former Guggenheim students, the study added.
“To
lose any student, let alone that many ... it’s just dangerous, and it just
baffles me how CPS thinks that this is a good plan, when for the past
10 years or so, when these school closings started, they’ve never been
able to get it right, because it’s not right,” said Action Now Executive Director Katelyn Johnson.
Members of Action Now and the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) protested outside of the Chicago Urban League Thursday, demanding its leader and Chicago Board of Education member
Andrea Zopp sit down with them and examine the civil rights impact of
school closings.
They also called on Zopp to support a one-year
moratorium on the Chicago Public Schools’ recent round of proposed
school actions and work with them on a sustainable education
transformation plan.
“Civil rights organizations are supposed to
work with the community organizations and the people on the ground to
get clarity on what is happening in our neighborhoods so that their
advocacy is in touch with our daily lives,” said protestor Cathy Dale, a
Local School Council member at Mollison Elementary and King College Prep. Read more »
Thomas Chalmers Specialty Elementary School on the West Side isn’t
slated to shut down at the end of the school year, but its entire staff
could be replaced by the Academy for Urban School Leadership if the Chicago Public Schools has its way.
Chalmers
Principal Kent Nolen and a few hundred parents, students, teachers and
Local School Council members made it clear at the State of the School
Address last night that they won’t sit back and let that happen.
“We
have been showing significant growth in reading and math and science,
so then we should not be touched,” said Chalmers third grade teacher
Louis Lane before the meeting. “At first it was space utilization, now
it’s turnaround. We’ve turned around. Maybe they should turn around and
go back to where they came come.“
For the second time, a judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by parents on Chicago Local School councils to undo Chicago Public Schools closings and so-called turnarounds.
Lewis Elementary
A plethora of teachers, parents and students attempted to counter Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) claim that 
Supporters of 
Chicago Public Schools plans to close 54 schools in June, but a new 
Members of Action Now and the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) protested outside of the 
Thomas Chalmers Specialty Elementary School on the West Side isn’t
slated to shut down at the end of the school year, but its entire staff
could be replaced by the 