An independent investigation into spending by Chicago Public Schools’ board presidents has uncovered more than $800,000 in questionable expenses in recent years, including thousands spent at lavish restaurants and hotels at a time when teachers and the district’s rank-and-file were being asked to cut expenses.
It’s worth the click to read this brief story at Chicago Breaking News.
So someone tell me, how much more money should we be spending on CPS?
An Associated Press-Stanford University Poll on education found that 68 percent of adults believe parents deserve heavy blame for what’s wrong with the U.S. education system — more than teachers, school administrators, the government or teachers unions. Only 35 percent of those surveyed agreed that teachers deserve a great deal or a lot of the blame. Moms were more likely than dads — 72 percent versus 61 percent — to say parents are at fault. Conservatives were more likely than moderates or liberals to blame parents.
If only it were this simple. Assign blame and kick someone in the rear to get moving. I can’t believe the Gates Foundation spent good money on this.
Of course some parents are to blame, as are some students, some teachers, lots of administrators, and nearly all politicians. Parents who think that school is a baby sitting service are dropping the ball. Same goes for those parents who are generally uninvolved in their children’s lives outside of school.
My take is that the vast majority of parents are doing the best the can with the skills and financial resources they have. Naturally there are a few who are not. But the real question is how to improve everyone’s schools whether or not the parent is involved?
Rahm Emanuel made a campaign promise last week that if elected mayor, he would install a new math and English language curriculum in Chicago’s public schools by the end of his first term.
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Mr. Emanuel made clear that he meant no disrespect to Mayor Richard M. Daley, who assumed control of the city’s public schools 15 years ago and has said changes in public education are his proudest accomplishment. Gery Chico, the mayoral candidate who was city school board president, recently angered Mr. Daley by saying that the efforts to improve schools have stalled. Mr. Emanuel instead echoed Mr. Daley’s mantra about the schools. “There is no doubt we’ve made great strides,” Mr. Emanuel said, “but you don’t rest on your laurels.”
Kudos to the Chicago News Coop for getting this story. I think it’s hilarious. Rahm just simply refuses to say anything bad about da Mare. At first it was just a little odd; now it’s straight-on entertainment.
The city’s broke and broken. We’re out of money and have no plan to get out of debt or bring much needed jobs back. But I digress.
Did anyone ask Rahm what this “new curriculum” is called? Who sells it? How are we going to pay for it? How are we going to train our existing teachers to use it? And, how are we going to make sure the teachers are not just slipping back to teaching the “old way?”
Further, much like Chico’s plan (my comments here) how are we going to measure the success or failure of the new curriculum?
In Chicago we don’t worry about measuring success. We just move the chairs around, talk about how much we “care”, have our picture taken with smiling kids from the West or South side, and continue on as if there is no problem.
It’s embarrassing that the electorate stands for it. People get the representative democracy they deserve; we deserve better that this.
This gent here has a new take on education. The video is not short attention span theater, however it is an interesting… no compelling, look at what is wrong with our educational system.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkPvSCq5ZXk&w=640&h=385]
With tales of cannibalistic giant squids and endangered leatherback turtles that travel thousands of miles to lay eggs on the beaches where they were born, Philippe Cousteau, grandson of famed oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, tried to capture the imaginations of children at a North Side school Friday.
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“It’s not about textbooks anymore,” said Cousteau, TV’s Animal Planet chief ocean correspondent. “If you want to be relevant in education, you need to use technology for kids to understand, to bring it alive.”
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The U.S. ranked 29th in a 2006 international survey looking at literacy in science and math among 15-year-olds. President Barack Obama has pushed for improvement and greater interest in those subjects, hosting a White House Science Fair and appearing on the Discovery Channel’s “MythBusters” program in October.
John Loehr, Chicago Public Schools’ science director, said the city needs to try new things to boost science education, noting that, according to their ACT scores, only 9 percent of 2010 graduates showed post-secondary readiness in science.
So the entire country is failing, ranking 29th in math and science performance. The city is even worse! Nine percent of of students were ready to move on in science? At this rate the Republic cannot sustain itself.
We have to admit that our schools are a failure in order to make them better. A problem well defined is half solved.
[Providence St. Mel] The lauded West Side high school — profiled in “The Providence Effect,” a documentary that hit the big screen last year — has long been considered a national model for urban education, sending 100 percent of its low- to very low-income students to college for 30 years. Its uniformed students each morning recite a mission statement that emphasizes strength of character.
Simple enough.
The National Women’s Law Center filed complaints against 12 U.S. school districts where district data showed a double-digit gap between the percentage of female students and the percentage of female athletes. According to the complaint, that gap is 33 percentage points in Chicago high schools, the highest among the cited schools.
According to the center, that places CPS in violation of Title IX, the 1972 law that prohibits sexual discrimination in federally funded education programs.
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Among the data cited was a decrease in girls sports teams in Chicago from 830 in 2004 to 132 in 2006.
This is crazy! It just seems like Mayor Daley was treating the schools like everything else; robbing Peter to pay Paul. Sports is an integral part of the educational process. Gery Chico said as much when he talked about his transformational plans for CPS.
Sports not only builds character and gives students something productive to do after school, it is something colleges look at when they are evaluating applicants. How can CPS students compete (no pun intended) with those coming from schools offering more extra-curricular activities? Well, they can’t.
Another fine example of how CPS fails our students.
Just got back from Gery Chico’s presentation of his plan to revive CPS. The 15 page plan handout can be found here if you’re interested.
For those just looking for the bullet points:
Well then, this certainly seems like a good start. But there are concerns:
The bottom-line is that Chico presented a plan. It’s light on details and has a few rough spots to smooth over but overall a decent plan.
It’s clear that Chico knows something about education. He may just be the guy able to pull sometime like this off. Definitely something to watch.
Eight of 10 public high school juniors in Illinois weren’t considered ready for college classes in all subjects based on ACT testing last spring — and many students missed the mark even at posh suburban Chicago schools that graduate some of the state’s brightest kids.
At Lake Forest, Deerfield, Northbrook and Hinsdale high schools, more than 40 percent of students didn’t meet all four “college readiness benchmarks” — ACT scores indicating they could do at least average in key freshman classes.
In Lincolnshire and Naperville, more than half of juniors scored too low to reach the targets in English, reading, science and math, though several hundred met three of four benchmarks, usually missing in science.
This is just proof of the epic failure of the State’s educational system. Even the best schools are not fully preparing our students for the future. Students at the poorest schools don’t have any chance.
Surely not every student needs to go to college. There is nothing wrong with walking right over the union hall and signing up to become an electrician, plumber, crane operator, etc. But the mission of high school should be to give all student the chance. It is the opportunity being denied to generations of Illinois students.
It’s time to say that we’ve had enough.
Two months into the school year, Chicago Board of Education officials Tuesday were already estimating next school year’s deficit at $700 million.
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Chicago Board of Education officials Tuesday were already estimating next school year’s deficit at $700 million.
During the meeting, officials revealed the state still owes CPS $164 million from last school year and has been late on an additional $206 million so far this school year.
CPS is not only broke, but broken. It’s time to look at all of the options available to fix, not just the politically expedient ones.
We should be looking at what I call the “Clean Sheet of Paper” solution. If you put 25 educators in a room what kind of system would they build. We should also be looking at the “Grey Paper” solution, how can we take what we have and make it better. These are not mutually exclusive; they can be done in a parallel path.
