Community Renewal Society

Twelve elementary schools and more than 40 community-based preschool providers around the city will lose preschool funding under the city’s “Ready to Learn” preschool competition, an effort to shift preschool seats to high-quality programs in neighborhoods where they are needed.

Except for Hampton Elementary in Ashburn, all the schools that lost preschool programs are in Lincoln Park, the Near North Side, the Near West Side, or the Loop.

But most of the community agencies that are were not funded in the contest, roughly 25, are on the city’s South Side. About five are on the West Side, and just ten are on the North Side.

As part of the grant competition, all schools and community agencies that had been offering preschool had to reapply for their funding. They were judged on neighborhood need as well as factors like communicating with parents and reaching out to the neediest children.

In the application, schools also were asked to provide evidence of their quality from teacher observations and assessments like Teaching Strategies GOLD and the Kindergarten Readiness Tool.

Where schools with preschool programs are closing due to this year's school actions, their respective welcoming schools will all have preschool programs. Mays, Cullen, Burnham, Wells, Mollison, and Gompers elementaries will all be getting new preschool programs.

In one area, Englewood, the city is stepping in because it says there weren’t enough qualified providers who applied for the program. The city plans to open a birth-to-5 early learning center to serve 370 children in Englewood, because of a lack of quality applications to meet need in the area.

It is unclear how many children currently attend the programs that are losing their funding. Also, CPS did not provide information on how many seats each of the programs funded for next year would have, or on where the new community-based preschool programs would be located.

CPS also announced it will begin charging some families for preschool programs in CPS schools. The 97 percent of preschool students who qualify for free or reduced price school lunches will be able to attend for free, but others will be required to pay between $160 and $4,250 a year depending on income.

All families must now submit proof of income when applying for preschool, under a new application process with a deadline of May 3. Low-income families will get the first shot at available slots.

New programs in elementary schools, other than welcoming schools

Dubois Elementary

Frazier Prospective IB

Faraday Elementary

Green Elementary

Neil Elementary

Orozco Elementary

Tonti Elementary

Vick Village

White Elementary

 

New programs in community agencies

Archer Ave. Learning Station, Inc.

Chance after Chance

Chicago Lighthouse for People who are Blind or Visually Impaired

Developmental Institute

Home of Life Community Development Corporation

Little Achievers Learning Center

Montessori School of Englewood

One Hope United – Northern Region

 

Elementary schools that will lose their programs

Alcott Elementary

Bell Elementary

Drummond Elementary

Galileo Elementary

Hamilton Elementary

Hampton Elementary

Oscar Mayer Magnet School

Newberry Math and Science Academy

Ogden Elementary

Skinner West Elementary

South Loop Elementary

Suder Montessori Magnet Elementary

 

Community agencies previously in CPS Community Partnership Program that will not receive funding

Abraham Lincoln Centre

A-Karrasel Child Care Centers

Black Rhino, Inc. / Building Blocks Learning Academy

Bunnyland Developmental Childcare Association

Caring Hands A Step Ahead Learning Center

Chesterfield Tom Thumb Day Care Center

Children’s Development Corporation

Children’s Garden Child Development Center

Children’s House – Lake Meadows

Chipper Preschool and Kindergarten

Creative Mansion Children’s Academy

Ezzard Charles School Day Care Center

First Start Child Care Academy

Fresh Start Daycare

Happy Kids Learning Center

Institute for Positive Education (New Concept)

JFH Educational Academy / Jolly Fun House Playschools

Jones Academy

Keeper’s Institute Infant / Child Care

Kenyatta’s Day Care Center

Kids Place II

Kidwatch Plus

Kimball Day Care Center

Kove Learning Academy

Lava Inc / Chatterbox Preschool

Lee’s Cuddles N Care

Les Finch’s Learning Tree

Little Giant Child Care Center

Little Hands Child Creative Center

Little Leaders of Tomorrow

Little People Day Care and Kindergarten

Loren Children’s Learning Center

Love Learning Center / Day Care

Lutheran Day Nursery

North Kenwood Day Care Center

Pinks Child Care Academy

Precious Little Ones Learning Center

Ravenswood Community Daycare

Small Stride Academy

South Harper Montessori School

Tigloth

Tiny Tot Villa 

As news of the recommended school closings has settled in, parents have raised two logistical concerns: The distance that children will have to walk to their new schools and the impact of adding new students on the utilization of receiving schools.  

On both fronts, some scenarios present reason for concern.

A Catalyst Chicago analysis of CPS utilization data shows that in eight instances, the receiving school will be more than 100 percent over capacity if the current enrollment of the closing and receiving schools combines. In another eight cases, the building will be at more than 90 percent at capacity. (See school-by-school info in an Excel file below)

However, CPS officials might be anticipating that a certain percentage of students will not attend the designated welcoming school. (The spring issue of Catalyst In Depth found that less than half of students ended up at the designated welcoming school last year, but only four schools were shuttered at the time.)

Attached to the letter informing parents of the proposal to close their schools was an application to open enrollment and magnet cluster schools, leading some parents to believe that CPS wants them to go elsewhere. However, CPS officials said they just want to give parents options.

Using Mapquest, Catalyst also analyzed the walking distances between the closing and receiving schools. Twenty-nine of the 54 schools are more than half a mile apart. Nine are more than 0.8 miles apart—the length at which busing will kick in.

The nine schools are Bethune, Bontemps, King, Overton, Lawrence, Canter, Kohn, Ericson and Trumbull.

There’s a big caveat about busing, however: Transportation is only guaranteed to the children who are currently at closing schools, not future students who will be assigned to the receiving schools from the old attendance areas of the closing schools.

This week, parents and activists gathered on the 5th floor of City Hall to invite Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett to walk with them from closing schools that are particularly far from welcoming schools, past vacant buildings and corners that are hubs of drug dealing.

“We are asking Mayor Rahm Emanuel to walk the walk so he can see the distance,” said Cecile Carroll, co-director of Blocks Together, an advocacy organization in West Humboldt Park. Every Tuesday, the group will walk from one school to another, starting at King Elementary on the Near West Side. King students will be reassigned to Jensen in East Garfield Park, 0.8 miles away.

When Ryerson parent Torrence Shorter implored Emanuel on Tuesday to walk with parents from one closing building to another, he noted that even if every student shows up at their newly assigned school, accommodating all of them would require the school to get rid of amenities, like a fitness room that was installed by the Chicago Bulls.

Ward, he notes, is the bigger building. Yet, under the school district’s plan, Ryerson students are staying put—even though their school program is shutting down—and Ward’s students are coming to Ryerson’s building—even though their school is not closing. According to district utilization data, Ryerson’s ideal design capacity is 690 students.

Currently, Ward and Ryerson have a combined enrollment of 797 students. The 8th-graders will graduate, but one would expect new kindergarteners to arrive and take classroom space.

In addition, Ryerson sits on a stretch of Ohio Street where drug-dealing happens on a regular basis.

Parents also balked at some of the sweeteners promised by CPS. LaTonya Butts said Bret Harte, in Hyde Park, will need an air conditioner when the 7th- and 8th-grade students from Canter arrive. (Harte is already considered efficient by CPS utilization standards.) “They will be packed in,” she said. “Our children are not cattle.”

 

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday he is “100 percent hand-in-glove” with Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett, who “spoke eloquently” in rejecting the notion that racism is behind the announced school closings. (Sun-Times)

CRITICISM FOR CTU: Mayor Rahm Emanuel backed schools chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett Thursday amid charges that the plan to close 54 schools is racist, and criticized the Chicago Teachers Union for what he said was its inability to articulate an alternative to continuing with a failed status quo. “Fifty-six percent of African-American males are dropping out” before high school graduation, Emanuel said at an unrelated news conference. “The status quo is unacceptable. And that’s what Barbara spoke to.”

NEIGHBORHOOD BUS TOUR: The Chicago Teachers Union gave a busload of aldermen and other elected officials a first-hand look Thursday at neighborhoods that would be affected by plans to close more than 50 public schools, CBS 2′s Dana Kozlov reports. Safety concerns for students headed to a new school were highlighted by a mile-plus walk between Genevieve Melody Elementary School – slated to be closed – and Edward C. Delano Elementary – the receiving school about a half-mile away. The walk included a stroll past gang lines, drug deals, and horrible blight.

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT: Michael Miner of The Reader calls out the Tribune for its use of "an estimate" from Andrew Broy of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools in an editorial overstating the number of students who are waiting for spots in the city's charter schools.

IN THE NATION
PROTESTING DOE: Teachers, students, parents, researchers and other activists on Thursday started the second annual “Occupy the DOE” event on the grounds of the U.S. Education Department to protest corporate-based school reform. Among those attending the four-day event, sponsored by United Opt Out, an organization dedicated to the elimination of high-stakes standardized testing in public schools, are Diane Ravitch, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, veteran educator Deborah Meier, early childhood expert Nancy Carlsson-Paige and language acquisition expert Stephen Krashen. There is a scheduled march to the White House on Saturday. (The Washington Post)

PHOTO DOCUMENTATION: A dozen or so teens, who hail from some of the Washington D.C. area’s most troubled neighborhoods, are using photography to document and protest the kind of school security issues that have taken center stage in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shootings.

As he walked along the path from one West Side school building that is slated for closure to one that will stay open, Congressman Bobby Rush ducked into an abandoned building with its windows and doors gaping open.

Congressman Danny Davis remarked, “I bet you there are people living in there.”

“It is easy for sex offenders to snatch kids up and drag them into the building,” said Shakeena Sturgen, who has an eight-year-old and seven-year-old at Delano in West Garfield Park.

Later, after passing more vacant buildings and lots strewn with garbage and glass, Rush said: “It reminds me of a third world country, where children have to walk miles and miles for an education.”

Rush made the statement at the end of a CTU-sponsored tour intended to give politicians a sense of the schools CPS wants to close and to provide the union’s perspective. About 15 lawmakers, including state legislators and aldermen, came on the tour.  Also, several lawmakers sent their staffers.

At the end of the tour, Rush and Davis said they plan to hold a Congressional Joint Forum on CPS school closings from 9 a.m to 1 p.m. April 20 at Quinn Chapel, 2401 S. Wabash Ave.

In a written statement, CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll responded by reiterating that children will go to better, higher-performing schools as the result of school actions. Welcoming schools will have air conditioning, a library and CPS will hire community members to watch over students as they travel from school to school.

CPS is proposing 54 schools be closed in the largest district shakeup ever.

The bus portion of the tour also stopped at Guggenheim School, which was closed last year. Former Guggenheim student Jasmine Murphy said she misses her school and only has about three friends at her new school. Her mother Chavell Donley said that when a child’s school closes, it sends the message to the students that they aren’t smart.

“It sticks with them,” she said. “It tells them they are not worth it.”

Politicians seemed the most struck by the walk from Delano to Melody. Under the plan, Delano will be closed and Melody and its staff will move to Delano. Another school, Goldblatt, is closer to Delano. But Goldblatt also is slated for closure.

Many of the politicians remarked how long the walk seemed and how treacherous it was, especially with the presence of drug dealers looking on. However, the distance from school to school is only 0.6 miles. CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett has only promised busing for students whose closing school is more than 0.8 miles from the new location. Therefore, students traveling from Melody to Delano won’t have a shuttle.

State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, a Democrat from the North Side of Chicago, said that she couldn’t help thinking about her children with their “big heavy backpacks” as she walked down the street. “I can’t imagine as a parent how I would ever let my children take this walk,” she said.

She said she wishes other lawmakers were on hand to hear from students and parents, and to witness first hand the trek that young children will be forced to make. “This tells us more than a spread sheet ever could,” she said.

But the power to close schools rests entirely in the hands of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the school board. When asked what other lawmakers could do about it, Cassidy responded: “That is a good question.”

 

Chicago Public Schools chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett on Wednesday took umbrage at critics who have called the district's plan to close more than 50 schools racist because most are in predominantly African-American neighborhoods.

"These proposals have caused community anguish, and I understand that," Byrd-Bennett said during the district's monthly board meeting. "But when status quo is not working, change is inevitable. What I cannot understand, and what I will not accept, are charges that the proposals I am offering are racist." Byrd-Bennett went on to say, "To refuse to challenge the status quo that is failing thousands of African-American students year after year, consigning them to a future with less opportunities than others, that's what I call racist."

Byrd-Bennett said most CPS students are black or Hispanic, so naturally the closings will affect “children of color.” (Sun-Times)

CLOSINGS CRITICISM: City school officials got a double dose of criticism Wednesday during simultaneous meetings regarding the proposal to close 54 public schools. The Chicago Board of Education meeting drew morning protesters and a packed house, while down the street, the City Council education committee held a hearing to discuss school closings. (WBEZ)

CONSTRUCTION OVERSIGHT: Mayor Emanuel has ordered the Chicago Public Schools to funnel through the Public Building Commission he chairs all of the construction projects that must be completed by fall for what he calls “welcoming” schools for new students, according to the Sun-Times. CPS has set aside $155 million for an array of enticing physical and educational improvements at 55 schools designated to receive students.

PRESCHOOL PROCESS: CPS has launched a new centralized enrollment process that will ask families who want their children to attend preschool programs in CPS schools to apply by May 3. Previous preschool application instructions (last updated in November) do not note any such deadline; the deadlines varied from school to school. (Catalyst)

A BROTHER'S ADVICE: Zeke Emanuel, the oldest brother of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, had some advice for the Chicago Teachers Union Wednesday during a video intereview with the Huffington Post. If you're fighting his brother Rahm, it's better to lose. "Give in now. Give in now. Rahm will win. Rahm always does win," Zeke Emanuel told online news outlet, when asked what advice he'd give the teachers union. Zeke Emanuel, a bioethicist, is promoting his coming-of-age memoir, "Brothers Emanuel," about growing up the eldest sibling of the Chicago mayor and Hollywood superagent Ari Emanuel.

IN THE NATION
DIPLOMA REQUIREMENTS: Some Texas lawmakers are working to rewrite the state's high school graduation requirements with plans to change the default course of study and lower from 15 to five the number of end-of-course exams most students must pass to earn a diploma. (Education Week)

POPULAR ALTERNATIVE: Restorative justice, which encourages young people to develop empathy for one another, is increasingly offered in schools seeking an alternative to “zero tolerance” policies. (The New York Times)

LEAVING CLASSROOMS: Milwaukee Public Schools reported this week that 503 teachers and 31 administrators have so far given notice of retirement or resignation by the end of the school year. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

CPS hasn’t announced yet which schools will be able to keep offering preschool programs in the fall. But the announcement is likely coming soon, because the district has launched a new centralized enrollment process that will ask families who want their children to attend preschool programs in CPS schools to apply by May 3.
 

The previous preschool application instructions (last updated in November) do not note any such deadline; the deadlines varied from school to school.

Families will be able to apply online; in person at 13 sites around the city during business hours and at three sites on Saturday mornings; or at their local schools, but only during designated sessions where representatives from the program will be present.

The application form asks families to list their top three school choices, and for proof of family income and government benefits (a common eligibility measure for early childhood programs).

Before, parents filled out a less-detailed application – with questions only about students’ language, a family’s income range, and whether a student was homeless – and gave them to individual schools. With the new applications, CPS could potentially prioritize families system-wide based on need.

It was not immediately clear whether parents will be able to get spots in pre-K programs after the May 3 deadline. Families who apply by May 3 will receive offer letters by early June, and will be asked to register at their schools in person by June 17, according to the application booklet.

For years, early childhood advocates have criticized the maze of applications families must navigate to enroll in preschool.

Yet one principal contacted by Catalyst, who asked that her name not be used, says she is concerned the new application process will make it harder for schools to form a relationship with parents from the time that parents start looking into programs.

It might be hard on parents, she says, to go to a school but then discover they have to go somewhere else to register.

“It is probably in the long run easier to have a more centralized process, but in the short term (for) parents who have done this before and applied at the schools, it will be a change,” says another principal, Tatia Beckwith of Ray Elementary.

Separate systems for CPS, city

And even with CPS’ registration new process, it appears there will still be at least two separate application processes: one for CPS schools, and another for city-funded programs.

Gloria Harris, co-vice chair of the parent organization POWER-PAC, says that “we were in on some of the conversations” about the application process, “but we are still confused about it.”

“POWER-PAC parents have been advocating for a coordinated application process for early childhood programs for years,” Harris says. “(But) we are concerned that the sites are primarily focused on the CPS application process and would not be that helpful for parents who are trying to navigate all the different CPS and (city-funded) center-based programs. What we would recommend is that a (city) representative also be available at each of those sites.”

Harris adds that she is concerned many families will slip through the cracks because of the early-May deadline.

“We know from experience, from door-knocking in the summer, that in many cases families are not focused on enrolling their 3- and 4-year-olds until school starts,” she says. “We encourage a plan to reopen application sites either late in the summer or at the beginning of the school year to take another round of applications.”

She is also worried parents may not want to provide detailed information and proof of income for the application.

“It is just a short period of time. April 3 is today, so now they have less than a month,” Harris says. “I’m hoping it works and doesn’t confuse people.”

Matt Smith, a spokesman for the city, notes that the Department of Family and Support Services launched an online portal last November to streamline information about various preschool programs. But enrollment is still done program by program.

Giving priority to neediest communities

The move comes as program providers and advocates are anxiously awaiting word on who will keep preschool programs, given a new selection process, known as Ready to Learn, that aims to give more spots to high-quality programs and those that operate in the neediest areas of the city.

Final decisions were originally expected in February or March, but have been put on hold due to the school closings process.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Beckwith had not heard whether her school was one of those picked to offer a program. She says she has no idea if the school’s application will be successful.

The preschool program serves many children of University of Chicago graduate students. Many of the children, Beckwith points out, come from low-income families and do not speak English as their first language.

The plan has come in for criticism from some who fear it could make programs close and put teachers’ jobs at risk.

Brynn Seibert of SEIU Healthcare Illinois Indiana, a union that represents some preschool and child care staff, says the process has lacked community input.

“There’s no evidence that competition leads to higher-quality programs or better outcomes for young children. Some communities may lose Head Start and preschool slots, which will only further destabilize low-income communities,” Seibert said in a statement.

The Latino Policy Forum is also keeping an eye on the potential shift in early childhood seats. Education Director Cristina Pacione-Zayas says she’s been working to get Chief Early Childhood Officer Beth Mascitti-Miller “up to speed” on demographic trends in the district.

“Our concern is trying to make sure the resources align with the demographic shifts,” Pacione-Zayas says. “Latinos are only enrolled [in preschool] one-third of the time,” largely because of a lack of access to programs in Latino neighborhoods.

Tom Layman, vice president of program development at the child care advocacy organization Illinois Action for Children, says he hopes the new process will make the funding process more transparent.

He says there isn’t much new about the concept that early childhood programs should go to where the need is.  “I don’t think it should have been news to agencies but it was of course a new step” to say their funding would depend on it, Layman says.

“The city contracted with Chapin Hall to develop a ‘heat map,’ a map of communities that had large numbers of families in poverty and with other risk factors for children,"  Layman says. “At this point we believe the city went in the right direction, and we believe everything is in place for them to make their decisions."

New providers are also hoping they get funds.

Andrew Broy, president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, says that “a small handful” of charter schools applied to be part of the district’s new pool of early education providers.

Before the Ready to Learn process, Broy says, charters were often frustrated by the red tape required to offer programs.

This article has been updated to reflect Tom Layman's correct title and to include additional information on the preschool application process.

About a dozen members of the Business Leadership Council, an association of high-level, well-connected African-American business executives, delivered a letter to Mayor Rahm Emanuel in support of the school closures announced recently by CPS, which are taking place mostly at schools serving black children. At the same time, a group of mostly African American parents are calling on Emanuel to try out the often dangerous routes between the schools that Chicago Public Schools officials aim to close and the schools where their children will be sent instead. (Sun-Times)

PUBLIC OUTREACH: The next round of public meetings on school closings begins Saturday. The schedule of meetings was not prominently posted on the Chicago Public Schools website until Tuesday evening, and no news release on the meetings had been sent out. CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll said the district has made a "significant" push to publicize the meetings on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook and that letters that included locations and times of the meetings were sent home with students and mailed to parents. "Relying on press release alone is not the most proactive or modern tool that can be used to reach parents in today's digital age," said Carroll, who added that a news release on the meetings will go out Wednesday. (Tribune)

SCHOOL TOUR: Chicago Public Schools opened the doors of Willa Cather Elementary School on the West Side to media as its example of the underutilization “crisis.” Now the Chicago Teachers Union is set to counter the school district with a tour of its own. Thursday the CTU will host a bus tour for media and elected officials to areas where the union says school closures have led to destabilization. (Chicago Defender)

MEDIA MESSAGE: Matt Farmer, a Chicago lawyer, songwriter and Local School Council member, has a catchy rap-style song and video titled "It's time to Fight Back! (against Chicago's school closings)" getting attention on YouTube.

ELECTED BOARD SUPPORT: On this week's "Chicago Newsroom," on CAN-TV, Gov. Pat Quinn offered support for an elected Chicago school board. "It would serve us well to have an elected school board," Quinn said.  Listen and view here. He also said that closing so many elementary schools all at once can be "dangerous." (Huffington Post)

IN THE NATION
EDUCATION EXPERIMENT: Some of the worst-performing schools in Tennessee, notably in Memphis are in the midst of a radical experiment in reinventing public education being called achievement districts. Most of the schools will be run by charter operators. All will emphasize frequent testing and data analysis. Many are instituting performance pay for teachers and longer school days, and about a fifth of the new district’s recruits come from Teach for America, a program in which high-achieving college graduates work in low-income neighborhood schools. And the achievement district will not offer teachers tenure. About 97 percent of the students in the achievement district schools are black, compared with fewer than half the teachers. (The New York Times)

TFA BACKLASH: A group of Teach for America alumni and students of TFA teachers who are critical of the organization are holding a summit this summer in an effort to organize against the organization that is popular with school reformers. (The Washington Post)

About a dozen members of the Business Leadership Council, an association of high-level, well-connected African-American business executives, delivered a letter to Mayor Rahm Emanuel in support of the school closures announced recently by CPS, which are taking place mostly at schools serving black children. At the same time, a group of mostly African American parents are calling on Emanuel to try out the often dangerous routes between the schools that Chicago Public Schools officials aim to close and the schools where their children will be sent instead. (Sun-Times)

PUBLIC OUTREACH: The next round of public meetings on school closings begins Saturday. The schedule of meetings was not prominently posted on the Chicago Public Schools website until Tuesday evening, and no news release on the meetings had been sent out. CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll said the district has made a "significant" push to publicize the meetings on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook and that letters that included locations and times of the meetings were sent home with students and mailed to parents. "Relying on press release alone is not the most proactive or modern tool that can be used to reach parents in today's digital age," said Carroll, who added that a news release on the meetings will go out Wednesday. (Tribune)

SCHOOL TOUR: Chicago Public Schools opened the doors of Willa Cather Elementary School on the West Side to media as its example of the underutilization “crisis.” Now the Chicago Teachers Union is set to counter the school district with a tour of its own. Thursday the CTU will host a bus tour for media and elected officials to areas where the union says school closures have led to destabilization. (Chicago Defender)

MEDIA MESSAGE: Matt Farmer, a Chicago lawyer, songwriter and Local School Council member, has a catchy rap-style song and video titled "It's time to Fight Back! (against Chicago's school closings)" getting attention on YouTube.

ELECTED BOARD SUPPORT: On this week's "Chicago Newsroom," on CAN-TV, Gov. Pat Quinn offered support for an elected Chicago school board. "It would serve us well to have an elected school board," Quinn said.  Listen and view here. He also said that closing so many elementary schools all at once can be "dangerous." (Huffington Post)

IN THE NATION
EDUCATION EXPERIMENT: Some of the worst-performing schools in Tennessee, notably in Memphis are in the midst of a radical experiment in reinventing public education being called achievement districts. Most of the schools will be run by charter operators. All will emphasize frequent testing and data analysis. Many are instituting performance pay for teachers and longer school days, and about a fifth of the new district’s recruits come from Teach for America, a program in which high-achieving college graduates work in low-income neighborhood schools. And the achievement district will not offer teachers tenure. About 97 percent of the students in the achievement district schools are black, compared with fewer than half the teachers. (The New York Times)

TFA BACKLASH: A group of Teach for America alumni and students of TFA teachers who are critical of the organization are holding a summit this summer in an effort to organize against the organization that is popular with school reformers. (The Washington Post)

When CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett narrowed down the initial list of schools targeted for possible closure, she put out this challenge to communities: Explain why your schools are underutilized and low-achieving. Byrd-Bennett said she wanted to hear about issues of school leadership, teacher turnover and professional development. “I want to know, how do they expect to address these issues?” she said in February. “I do not want to be interpreted as saying they are at fault. I just want them to explain their current situation.”

Catalyst Chicago and its sister publication, The Chicago Reporter, analyzed social and economic indicators in the areas within the attendance boundaries of the 54 schools recommended for closure. The analysis reveals that these schools faced far greater challenges than other district schools. In fact, much of the public money spent in these neighborhoods pays for services that are damaging, such as incarceration, rather than education.

Where are all the children who should be crossing 71st Street?

The bell has just rung at Bond Elementary School in Englewood, and students are coming out of the front door. Some older children linger, talking and chasing each other on the sidewalk in front of the school.  But it is a blustery winter day and most of the children rush home.

Bond was the designated welcoming school for about 200 students from Guggenheim, which was shut down last year. Guggenheim’s attendance area was to the south of 71st Street, while Bond’s boundary was to the north. So in theory, several hundred children should be headed south at 71st and May, where Bond is located.

Anticipating the new students, CPS hired a crossing guard to help them get across 71st Street, a major artery that is typically quite busy. The district also brought in community people to watch over the students as they made their way home in the rough South Side neighborhood, with its mix of vacant lots, boarded-up bungalows and some nicely kept homes.

One young woman, a former Guggenheim student now in high school, walks with her younger sister across the street, heading south. Rose Traylor grabs her granddaughter’s hand and heads that way too. Only a few others follow.

The answer to the question of why so few students trek south across 71st is simple: Not many of the former Guggenheim students ended up at Bond.

“We all scattered,” says Traylor, whose husband and children attended Guggenheim.

For more than a decade, the mayor and school district officials have shuttered schools under the basic premise that, in their place, new schools will flourish in impoverished communities like Englewood and give children a better chance at a good education.

But some activists and parents found fault with that premise from the beginning. Critics said they saw scant evidence that most students would be better off, right away or in the future, if a school closed.

A comprehensive study on the impact of closings found that most students displaced by shut-downs between 2001 and 2006 landed in new schools that were not strong enough to help them raise their academic achievement. The study was done by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research.

The critics also feared that children would fall through the cracks and get “lost in the system” during the upheaval. That fear has particular importance this year as CPS prepares to close 54 schools—the most ever closed in a single year by a major urban school district.

The latest announcement of closings has thrust Chicago into the bright glare of the national spotlight. Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and New York City have closed dozens of schools in recent years and plan to close more this year, but not as many, at one time, as Chicago.

As Philadelphia’s school officials were considering more closings this winter, a local organization, Research for Action, issued a paper that analyzed the impact of closings. All but one study found negative or insignificant academic impact, according to the brief. The review also underscored that not much is known about what happens to students who are displaced, says Kate Shaw, Research for Action’s executive director.

“There is not enough comprehensive information about how this affects a city, a neighborhood, a student,” Shaw says.

Answering these questions is important, she says, because so many closings take place in districts grappling with other problems. Therefore, there’s little guarantee that a closing will mean a student will end up in a better school and community. 

Nationally as well as in Chicago, most school closings are slated to take place in African-American communities that are already struggling with poverty, crime, the aftermath of the housing crisis and long-term racial segregation.
Since the Consortium study was released, CPS officials have provided minimal specific information about the displaced students.

But this year, under some duress, they presented data about students displaced by closings and other actions in 2012. Activists and lawmakers on the Chicago Educational Facilities Task Force, a committee created by legislators, repeatedly asked for the information over several months before getting it.

Once the task force members saw the data, they said the plight of displaced students confirms fears about the negative potential impact of closings. They found the information particularly distressing given what, at the time, was expected to be a record number of closings.

In 2012, CPS closed only four small elementary schools that altogether enrolled about 500 students. In June, 467 kindergarten through 7th-grade students were at the closed schools. Of those, it’s unclear what happened with 51 children.

CPS officials acknowledge that they don’t know where 23 of those students ended up and did not provide definitive information for another 28; 23 of those 28 were from Guggenheim.

Catalyst Chicago requested details about the 28 children for three weeks. Spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler finally said they were “Grade 20,” a limited-use code that denotes “profoundly disabled” students for whom a grade-level assignment is inappropriate.

“Grade 20 students would not necessarily be projected to a particular welcoming school if the services they required were not available at said school,” Ziegler wrote in an e-mail.

But special education experts and former teachers say this explanation does not sound plausible and would mean that virtually all of the special education students at Guggenheim were profoundly disabled. Citywide, only 1 percent of students are designated in that category.

Former Guggenheim staff say they did not have any students who were profoundly disabled. “It is a lie,” says Kimberly Walls, who now teaches at Fulton Elementary. “They don’t care like they say they do. If they did, they would track these students the correct way.”

Walls says that students should have had a transfer school on their records at the end of last year, and that transfer school should have been held responsible for finding the student in September.

“They should have been knocking on the child’s door trying to find out where they went because [CPS] caused the instability in this child’s life,” she says.

Counting the students whose whereabouts CPS does not know, and the “Grade 20” students, some 11 percent of students displaced by closings in 2012—children who are still in elementary school—are not accounted for.

Patricia Rivera, who previously ran the department in CPS that serves homeless students, acknowledges that the number of missing students isn’t large given the size of the district as a whole. But she worries about a possible multiplier effect: large numbers of missing children when dozens of schools close.

“Projecting into the future, this could result in a huge number of children lost to the system,” Rivera said at a meeting of the facilities task force, where the results of this analysis were first announced. “Instead of closing schools, we need to look for students.”

Among students whom CPS successfully tracked from 2012, fewer than 45 percent enrolled in their designated welcoming school.

Todd Babbitz, chief transformation officer for CPS, pointed out that parents can basically take their children where they want. 

“Families do exercise choice,” he told the facilities task force.

But though the district’s mantra is one giving parents the chance to choose a better school, few students landed at one. Nearly 56 percent of displaced students wound up at low-achieving, racially isolated, underutilized schools. Fewer than 10 percent went to high-performing schools; just 15 enrolled in a magnet school and only one got a spot at a selective enrollment school.

Consortium researcher Marisa de la Torre says the ground-breaking 2009 study showed that significant academic improvement only occurred when displaced students transferred to the best schools—those in either the top or next-to-the-top quartile on state standardized tests. “That is when you see big things,” she says.

To get to these schools, students mostly had to travel outside their neighborhood, de la Torre adds.

The timing of the closings announcement hampers the ability of parents to get their children into significantly better schools, says Cecile Carroll, an organizer for Blocks Together and a member of the facilities task force. Last year, the announcement came in December, just weeks before the deadline to apply for magnet and selective enrollment schools.

This year the announcement was made on March 21, well after applications were due and acceptances sent out.

“They don’t have this timing right,” Carroll says.

At Guggenheim, Walls says many parents simply enrolled their children at the school nearest to them or the one most convenient for them. Some principals, worried about low enrollment, recruited students.

“A lot of our parents were uninformed and just went with the flow,” she says.

A major problem is that schools most likely to be closed because they are underutilized and low-performing are most likely to be in neighborhoods that don’t have better choices for families and children.

A case in point: The closure of Price Elementary in Bronzeville, a neighborhood that has been hard hit in various rounds of school actions. CPS made the National Teachers Academy, a Level 2 school that is run by the Academy for Urban School Leadership, the designated welcoming school. (AUSL is a non-profit teacher training organization that operates turnaround schools.)

At 10 years old, the Academy is in a newer building by district standards. But it is 22 blocks away from Price, in a different neighborhood—far enough away that CPS took the unusual step of providing buses for students. This year, Byrd-Bennett says she will provide transportation for displaced students when the designated receiving school is more than 0.8 miles away.

Activists with the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization say busing has been problematic. At first, the students were waiting outside Price. When winter set in, activists convinced the district to allow students to wait inside Robinson Elementary. Then, after some conflicts with the Robinson children, CPS moved the former Price students to King College Prep nearby, where they now wait for the bus in a classroom.

Jitu Brown, KOCO’s education organizer, says he and other activists also had to push CPS to provide supervision on the bus.

“We have had to pressure them every step of the way,” Brown says.

Some parents or guardians might see the shut-down of a neighborhood school as an opportunity to get their children to a better school. But even with these intentions, the task is not always easy.

Tonya Beckman was determined she would find a better choice for her grandchildren.

They had attended Guggenheim, which is around the corner from her house. She liked the school because it was small and teachers reached out to the family when they had concerns about the children. Beckman volunteered at Guggenheim and served on the local school council.

But once the decision to close Guggenheim was made, Beckman set out to find a markedly better school. “I wanted schools that were scoring above 70 percent [meets or exceeds] on the ISAT,” says Beckman, a retired teacher.

She found two schools nearby that met that requirement: Mays, a neighborhood school with nearly 79 percent of students meeting or exceeding standards in 2011; and Kershaw, a magnet school. Beckman won the lottery and got a seat at Kershaw for her granddaughter Katrina, who was heading into 4th grade.

Beckman then went to Mays and tried to get them to take her grandson. As is the case with all neighborhood schools, if there is space, principals can decide to take children in. Mays is considered underutilized under CPS standards.

But Beckman’s grandson is in special education and she suspects Mays’ school staff looked at his education plan and avoided registering him. “I had a meeting set up with the principal and they called and cancelled the meeting and never rescheduled,” she says.

Beckman did not know where her grandson was going to attend school until August, when the Kershaw principal offered him a seat there.

Beckman likes Kershaw because her grandchildren have been able to go to tutoring and the teachers and staff are “professional.” The children have struggled a bit, but generally they are doing okay academically. 

However, Beckman is concerned about Katrina’s social development. Back at Guggenheim, she was outgoing and had a lot of friends. “The teachers would tell me that she’s bright and articulate,” Beckman says.

But at Kershaw, Katrina is quiet and reserved.

“She feels like the students don’t like her,” Beckman says. “The teachers say she sits off to the side and doesn’t say much. I keep telling her to give it a chance.”

This speaks to one of the significant problems with closing schools, Beckman says. “It is just very disruptive to kids’ lives.”

Another issue with closings and choice is school dynamics. Just because a school is doing well one year doesn’t mean those dynamics won’t change. That’s what happened with Guggenheim and Bond.

In a letter to parents, CPS officials wrote: “By transitioning the students currently enrolled at Guggenheim to Bond, CPS believes that these students will be given access to an improved educational environment.”

At the time, CPS touted the fact that Bond was a Level 2 school—the mid-level rating given by CPS based on a number of measures, including test scores and teacher and student attendance. But this year (based on its performance last year) Bond fell to a Level 3, the lowest rating CPS gives.

Perhaps sensing that Bond was not all that much better than other choices, parents didn’t flock there. But the fact that so few Guggenheim students went to Bond had consequences. Last spring, anticipating an influx of newcomers, CPS gave Bond 14 additional teachers and money for six parent workers—workers the school didn’t have before, according to the school’s budget.

But when only 94 students showed up, Bond ended up with 162 fewer children overall than expected. The school had to eliminate 8.5 teacher positions and two of the parent workers. Bond got so few students that it is still considered underutilized, and the one factor that saved it from landing on this year’s potential school closing list is the fact that it was a receiving school last year.

Current Bond Principal Valesta Cobbs declined to comment for this article.

Traylor is not convinced that Bond is better than Guggenheim. Her granddaughter says she likes her teacher, and the little girl has received awards for being a good citizen and wearing her uniform every day. But the classes seem large to Traylor, and the school seems more hectic.

“It is over-packed,” says Traylor. 

Traylor and her husband, Derrick, didn’t want to see Guggenheim closed. “Everyone knew everyone,” he says. His brothers created a petition and collected signatures to try to keep it open.

Though Derrick Traylor says the neighborhood has gotten worse, he notes that there was a closeness among the staff and families at Guggenheim that doesn’t exist at Bond. He is particularly unhappy that sometimes the school opens 45 minutes late, leaving children waiting in the cold.

“On those days, I just take my granddaughter back home,” he says.

He also doesn’t trust that his granddaughter will get all she needs academically at Bond. After school, he says he “home-schools” her, giving her extra work to make sure she is staying sharp.

Six months into the school year, Rose Traylor says she still hasn’t gotten used to Bond. On the playground that blustery afternoon, she pulls her granddaughter close to keep her out of the pushing and shoving, running and chasing that the older students are doing.

“It is rough here,” Traylor says, pulling the child, dressed in a purple winter coat, along with her. “It was nothing like this at Guggenheim. They had more control over the kids.”

Tell us what you think. Leave a comment below, or email karp@catalyst-chicago.org.

As the saying goes, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Unfortunately, that saying does not bode well for the thousands of children who will be displaced when 54 schools shut down this year.

It’s also a bad omen for communities. The last thing Englewood, Austin or any of the neighborhoods—most of them poor and black—that stand to lose schools need is another boarded-up vacant building. (CPS says it is “working with community and city departments on a comprehensive planning process to determine the best use for unused buildings.”)

With CPS losing enrollment, officials insist that the closings are needed to “right-size” the district, to save money and to provide more resources in schools that will stay open.

But many long-time observers and community activists aren’t buying that. They see no evidence that mass closings, the largest ever in a major urban district, will bring anything but more chaos and turmoil to communities that already struggle with social and economic woes. Our chart on page 10 gives readers some hard statistics on the challenges faced by the 54 schools and their neighborhoods.

As we report in this issue of Catalyst In Depth, members of the Chicago Educational Facilities Task Force, which was created by lawmakers, are already sounding the alarm about children “falling through the cracks.”

That fear is based in part on what happened last year, when CPS shut down four small elementary schools and displaced 467 students. CPS now cannot account for the whereabouts of 51 of those children, slightly more than one in 10 students. Yes, that’s a small number. But as task force members point out, what about the multiplier effect with 54 closings instead of four? If CPS can’t adequately track 467 children, why believe they can track thousands?

Critics also are skeptical of the promise that children will end up in high-achieving schools, which is the only way to make closings pay off academically. The district simply doesn’t have enough top-notch schools. And a University of Chicago Consortium on School Research study found that most students displaced in previous closings over five years ended up at schools that were only marginally better academically.

That’s what happened to Rose Traylor’s granddaughter when Guggenheim Elementary in Englewood closed last year. Guggenheim students were assigned to Bond, a Level 2 school that has since fallen to Level 3, the lowest performance rating. Traylor characterizes Bond as “rough.” Her husband says he has no confidence in its academics. 

CPS has promised to opeN new specialty programs at some receiving schools—in International Baccalaureate, arts and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) studies. But high-quality programs won’t happen overnight. Without ongoing teacher training and resources, the promise will end up as nothing more than public relations “spin” to sell closings as a sound educational idea.

“This is a group of people who historically have not done what they said they were going to,” says one knowledgeable observer. “For me to trust them, without vigilance, would be foolish on my part.”

The district has promised that none of the closed buildings will end up housing charter schools. But as part of this year’s plan, CPS has co-located charters with existing traditional schools. That practice has caused friction and controversy in the past.

Some 40 percent of previously shuttered schools now house charters or contract schools, and CPS plans to open more charters in coming years. Barring charters from closed buildings would be a 180-degree change of course from previous practice. Charters wouldn’t benefit either, as facilities are their top need. 

One promise that communities can likely have confidence in is that this year’s mass closings won’t be repeated next year. When CPS lobbied lawmakers for a bill to extend the deadline to announce this year’s closings, sources say the district refused to include in that law its five-year commitment not to close more schools. But there’s another factor: Mayor Rahm Emanuel is not likely to want more upheaval over closings next year if he plans to seek re-election in 2015.

Despite the anger and anxiety, one activist says communities are driven by an over-arching goal: “The bottom line is how do we keep them from destroying our children in the [closings] process?”

Charter advocates and the Chicago Tribune editorial board say 19,000 kids are on charter school waiting lists in the city, but a WBEZ analysis found that the figure counts applications, not students, meaning if a student applies to four schools, he or she is counted four times. It includes kids who have turned down charter seats and are now enrolled in other schools.

TEST REVOLT VICTORY: Seattle Public Schools will not punish educators who staged a boycott of a widely used standardized test in January and has loosened testing requirements, in a victory for a local revolt that stoked the national protest movement over assessments in U.S. public schools. (Reuters/Tribune)

TURNING THEMSELVES IN: The first of more than 30 defendants expected to surrender Tuesday in Atlanta's school cheating scandal have turned themselves in to authorities. (The New York Times)

COMING TO CHICAGO: Doresah Ford-Bey, executive director of Philadelphia School District's Charter Schools Office, is resigning to take a position with Chicago Public Schools. "I was presented with an opportunity I could not turn down," she wrote in an email to colleagues. (Newsworks.org)

TENURE TENSION: The two largest teachers unions in California filed a motion in L.A. County Superior Court last week to intervene as defendants in a lawsuit that would drastically change tenure for public school teachers. (Neon Tommy)

BOARD CONTROL: Developments in the Missouri state legislature suggest that Kansas City Public Schools may get another chance to show it should be allowed to continue under the control of its current elected board and administrators. (Kansas City Star)

COMMON CORE COSTS: It will cost about $56 million to buy new textbooks and other materials to help New York City public school students meet rigorous academic standards, known as the Common Core, adopted by most states, city officials say. (The New York Times)

Gov. Pat Quinn’s executive inspector general has opened an investigation into the politically influential United Neighborhood Organization’s use of a $98 million state grant for new charter schools, in the wake of a Chicago Sun-Times report that UNO gave millions of dollars in contracts for the schools to companies with ties to the organization’s top officials.

IN THE NATION
GRADE INFLATION: New teacher evaluation systems were intended to provide useful feedback and weed out weak performers, but the reluctance to set a high bar has led to scores that seem impossibly rosy. (The New York Times)

THE PRICE OF CHEATING: After a 2½-year investigation, Beverly L. Hall, a former Atlanta superintendent who won fame and fortune for her performance, was charged with racketeering, theft and other crimes in the doctoring of students' test answers. (The New York Times)

JUICING THE SCORES: A Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury accused Beverly Hall, former Atlanta Public Schools superintendent, other administrators, teachers and even a school secretary of participating in a criminal conspiracy to juice the district’s standardized-test scores for financial gain and professional recognition. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)

CHARTER BUDGET DISPUTE: Atlanta’s charter schools are increasing class sizes, reducing staff and trimming budgets because nearly $3 million is being withheld from them in a legal dispute with the city school district. One judge has ruled the charters should have the money. Because Atlanta Public Schools appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court, the money is tied up until until the case, which involves APS’ pension cost, is decided. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)

With Mayor Rahm Emanuel on hand, the all-male Urban Prep Academy on Thursday celebrated a 100 percent college acceptance rate—again—for its graduating seniors. “Let us start celebrating as a city the kids who graduate and make it to college,” just as the city celebrates big sports championships, the mayor said in the gym of the Englewood campus. (Sun-Times)

CONFLICTING NUMBERS: The Chicago Police Department radically underestimated the number of protesters that marched against the closing of dozens of public schools, putting the number between 700 and 900, according to the department's chief spokesman Adam Collins. But a Chicago Sun-Times analysis Thursday found that number could not possibly be right, counting 2,750 people in a photo of the protest at Daley Plaza. The Chicago Teachers Union's crowd count, on the other hand, was too high. The union said Wednesday between 5,000 and 6,500 people protested the closing of 54 schools.

LOSING HISTORY: Craig Allen Cleve, a Chicago Public Schools teacher at Columbia Explorers Academy, wrote an essay about the CPS schools targeted for closing that are named after African American historical figures. "It begs the question:  Where do African-American children go for inspiration, when the institutions bearing the names of such eminent individuals are eradicated? When these schools opened, they were touchstones of possibility and promise."  (Chicago Now)

CTU ELECTION: More than 5,000 signatures have been collected and submitted to put current CTU president Karen Lewis, who is running for a second term, and the entire CORE slate on the ballot for the May 17 CTU election, according to Substance News.

IN THE NATION
ALGEBRA PUSH: Many states are pushing students to take Algebra 1 in middle school to prepare them for advanced math in high school. A new analysis, however, suggests that increased enrollment hasn't led to higher math performance for states on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. (Education Week)

IVY LEAGUE ACCEPTANCE: It was a little more difficult this year to get admitted to an Ivy League school, as tens of thousands of college applicants learned Thursday evening. Seven of the eight colleges and universities that make up the Ivy League have lowered their acceptance rates since last year. (The New York Times)

GOVERNOR SUED: Three consulting firms are suing the state of Connecticut, asserting they were never fully paid for the work they did to help Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's administration launch its education overhaul. (Hartford Courant)

Black ministers broke with Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday on the volatile issue of school closings and warned that the political firestorm could burn Emanuel’s re-election chances, according to the Sun-Times. Calling it a “land grab” that puts children in danger, they urged Emanuel to call off or scale back his plan to close 54 elementary schools.

RALLY AND ARRESTS: Thousands of teachers, parents, students and supporters marched against school closings Wednesday, and more than 100 were arrested when they sat down on LaSalle Street in front of City Hall. (Catalyst)

STANDING GROUND: On the day when Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the time for negotiations on school closings was over, Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett said in a statement Wednesday that she supports the community's right to express its opinion — but she said the school district's decision was "putting children first." (Tribune)

SOCIAL MEDIA REPORTING: Get the full story of Wednesday's protest and rally against school closings, told in tweets and photos.

CIVIL AND DISOBEDIENT: Organizers including the Chicago Teachers Union made good on their pledge to put their “bodies on the line” yesterday during a march to City Hall, where Mayor Rahm Emanuel has proposed closing the schools to help erase a $1 billion deficit.  (Bloomberg)

DETAINED AND TICKETED: More than 100 of those protesters were detained and ticketed Wednesday after staging a sit-in outside City Hall to protest the Chicago School Board’s plan to close more than 50 schools. Union leaders, education activists, Rev, Jesse Jackson, and even students criticized Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the board and the process for selecting which schools should close at the end of the school year. (CBS Chicago)

SURVEY ON SCHOOLS:  The Chicago Tribune continues its focus on charter schools with an editorial praising the state charter commission for overturning a CPS decision denying a proposal by Des Plaines-based Concept Schools to open two new schools in Chicago, and taking shots against CPS and city officials for considering moves that could still scuttle the proposal. Earlier this week, the paper called for more charters in the city as part of its series of editorials on a public opinion survey done in partnership with the Joyce Foundation. The survey of 1,010 Chicagoans covered attitudes about public schools, teachers, charters and other education issues. The editorials highlighted some of the survey findings, pushed CPS to be more aggressive in opening charters and pushed principals to use a new teacher evaluation system to “cull mediocre teachers” from the classroom. In an op-ed also published in the Tribune, Joyce Foundation President Ellen S. Alberding focused on teacher evaluation and why it’s critical that CPS’ new evaluations be rolled out in a way that is fair and provides support for teachers to improve instruction. The foundation also has a page with some of the results. The survey was conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. The full report includes an explanation of the survey design and methodology.

IN THE NATION
ARMED RESPONSE: Educators in a Texas school district will soon be permitted to carry guns in the classroom, assuming they get approval from the school superintendent, pass a training course and obtain a concealed-handgun license. The Levelland Independent School District instituted the policy in response to last year's deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., as well as the shooting at the Aurora, Colo., movie theater. (ABC News)

Thousands of teachers, parents, students and supporters marched against school closings Wednesday, and more than 100 were arrested when they sat down on LaSalle Street in front of City Hall.

Valerie Nelson, who has two children at Lafayette Elementary in Humboldt Park, said she came to the rally because she is concerned closing the school will make her 6-year-old daughter who has autism "regress two years."

"Our school potty-trained her and she has started to talk," Nelson said. She is concerned that whatever school her daughter ends up at will not offer the same inclusive program that Lafayette does.

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis urged protesters to "show up at your real school" come fall, signaling that the uproar over closings could continue all summer. 

In a statement, schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett said that "this is not easy for our communities. But as CEO of this district, I need to make decisions that put our children first. For too long, children at underutilized schools have been cheated of the resources they need to succeed."

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Karen Foley has been named CEO of The Hope Institute for Children and Families. Previously, Foley was the president of Chicago Scholars, a mentoring program that supports students from high school through college graduation.  Chicago Scholars board member Steve Wohl, a mentor and a retired partner from the law firm Chapman and Cutler, will serve as interim president.

 Cristina Pacione-Zayas is the new education director at the Latino Policy Forum.  Previously, Pacione-Zayas was the culture of calm coordinator at Roberto Clemente Community Academy. Before that, she was the community schools director at Enlace Chicago. 

 The Chicago Math and Science Academy earned second place in the senior division at the 10th Annual Concept Schools Science and Engineering Fair in Cleveland, Ohio.  In addition, Academy students Cesar Ayala and Safa Slote received gold medals for their environmental science projects; Teliane Bakala and Winifred Obanor received gold medals in physics. Amanda Hyde (zoology), Muhammed Aftab (physics), Milosz Tomaszewski (chemistry), and Ayesha Mirzakhail (botany) won best in their category. Michelle Lopez and Anthony Lazcano received silver medals.  Over 500 students from the Midwest competed. 

 Nine Chicago Public School teachers have been named finalists for Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching, which this year are recognizing high school teachers:  Scott Galson, Payton College Prep; Joanna Hoglund, Solorio Academy; Elizabeth Copper, Lindblom Math & Science Academy; Katherine Dube, TEAM Englewood Community Academy; Dennis Kass, Infinity Math, Science and Technology High; Sandra Shimon, Prosser Career Academy; Ronald Towns, Fenger Academy; John Lydon, Epic Academy and Ernesto Salvidar, Jones College Prep. There are 32 finalists in all. 

The Chicago Teachers Union is planning a rally and potential acts of disobedience Wednesday to protest school closings and CPS plans to be ready, telling principals to report the names of any teachers and students involved in protests and to document the information if any media outlets show up, according to a memo sent last week and leaked by the CTU, WBEZ reports.

READY FOR RALLYERS: Preparing for a large rally against school closing to be led Wednesday by the Chicago Teachers Union, CPS issued a memo warning of the potential for civil disobedience with instructs on how to handle protests and civil disobedience actions. (FireDogLake.com)

SCHOOL GARDENS GROWING: Up to 50 of the 80 new gardens to be installed at Chicago Public Schools will go to schools designated to receive displaced children, the latest sweetener emerging from CPS’ decision to close 54 schools for good in June, according to the Sun-Times.

'SAFE PASSAGE' PATROLS: Chicago Public Schools officials said Tuesday they will spend $7.7 million to hire local community groups to patrol consolidated schools in their own neighborhoods, announcing an effort to hire more “Safe Passages” vendors. (Sun-Times)

IN THE NATION
VOUCHER SUPPORT: The Indiana Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously upheld the nation's broadest school voucher program, which gives poor and middle-class families public funds to help pay private school tuition. Opponents, including the state teachers' union, had sued to block the program on grounds that nearly all the voucher money has been directed to religious schools. (Reuters)

TEACHER SHORTAGE: Colleges of education across Oklahoma have graduated fewer and fewer teachers over the past few years and that has forced school districts to scramble to fill vacancies with qualified teachers. (News9.com)

Continuing its editorials on the results of a Joyce Foundation-Chicago Tribune poll, the newspaper writes about "the power of a teacher," saying that parents, too, need to be "full partners" in a child's education.

ANTI-CLOSING RALLY: The Chicago Teachers Union is planning a rally against the Board of Education’s decision to close 54 schools — and against plans to close any more, or convert them to charters. The anti-school closings march and rally is planned for 4 p.m. Wednesday at Daley Plaza, where demonstrators will gather before marching to City Hall and the Board of Education. (NBC Chicago)

RAISING VOICES: Students from Chicago Public Schools slated to close at the end of the school year and other opponents of school closings rallied in the Loop on Monday to voice their outrage over plans to close or consolidate 53 schools and 61 buildings. (Catalyst, CBS Local)

ARCHITECTURAL LOSS: WBEZ architecture critic Lee Bey takes a different look at the school closings debate: What will happen to the remarkable examples of the city's finest architecture that some of the schools represent.

IN THE NATION
COMING TO TERMS: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and legislative leaders said on Monday that they had reached an agreement to help New York City and its teachers’ union settle on a teacher evaluation system and save the city from losing hundreds of millions of dollars in future education financing. (The New York Times)

POLICE PRESENCE PUSHBACK: Hoping to head off a push to expand police presence in the nation’s 100,000 public schools, a national civil rights group plans to issue an alternative this week to beefing up school security. The plan focuses on counselors, campus safety teams, secure entrances and communication. It does not support adding more armed police. (The Washington Post)

TAKING CONTROL: The 13,700-student Camden school district in New Jersey will be put under the state's control, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Associated Press report. (Education Week)

RETIREMENT WAVE: Miami Valley school districts are expecting a wave of teacher retirements this year brought on by changes to the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio that became law in January. Thirty school districts reported a combined 250 teacher retirements by March 8, compared to 297 for all of last school year, according to data the newspaper collected from those districts. (Springfield News-Sun)

A student-organized march against school closings drew about 30 protesters to CPS' 125 S. Clark St. headquarters today.

The group marched to City Hall and delivered a letter for Mayor Rahm Emanuel as they chanted slogans like “Students united will never be defeated” and "Whose schools? Our schools."

Students involved said that closings will force them to cross gang lines, resulting in violence. They are also demanding an elected school board and reforms to tax-increment financing district (TIF) funds.

Allen Maris, a graduate of Little Village Lawndale High School, said she was protesting because her younger sisters are still in school and she fears that closings could spread to more schools in the future. (CPS has pledged a 5-year closing moratorium after this round, but the district’s pledge is not legally binding.) 

“This can spread to more than just the schools they are closing now. It’s a snowball effect,” Maris said.

CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll wrote in a statement that school consolidations will allow the district "to redirect those resources and move children safely to a higher-performing welcoming school" with better facilities.