Chicagoist: Emanuel Looking Outside Chicago for CPS CEO

So we know who the Mayor-elect wants to lead CPS:

Emanuel is looking to bring stability to a position that has seen three men fill the role in the past three years, who can address the major issues facing the school system - balancing a $750 million budget deficit; improving test scores; improve its own morale problems and be able to deftly negotiate a new contract with a teachers union that didn't back any mayoral candidate in the February general election. Emanuel prefers someone with experience in handling any or all of these issues and high on his list is Baltimore City schools CEO Andrés Alonso.

Alonso and Emanuel have similar ideas about reforming troubled school systems. Before Alonso's 2007 arrival in Baltimore, that city's school system was in a state of decay so bad the state of Maryland was poised to take over parts of it. Alonso diverted millions of dollars in education funds from the system's administration offices directly to the schools, slashed the central office staff by a third, closed schools that were failing and replaced ineffective principals, gave principals at other schools more fiscal autonomy, and the dropout rate decreased by fifty percent. Alonso's sweeping reforms for a school district that was graduating less than half of its students was the subject of a detailed New York Times article last December.

Interim CPS CEO on Chicago Tonight March 8th

[VIDEO] He talks about testing. That was an issue at the LSC meetings I attended at Bennett as it was believed it was an overemphasis. Of course there are other "metrics" that could be used to measure student success such as the grades a student makes. I may disagree with that however a standardized test alone shouldn't determine whether or not a student should be promoted to the next grade. That isn't what Terry Mazany was referring to however.

Mayor-elect selects education transition teams

Crain's has a list of names for Rahm Emanuel as he appoints a 14 member team consisting of business, community, & non-profit leaders for making recommendations for improving education:

• Ellen Alberding, President of the Joyce Foundation.
• Rev. Byron Brazier of the Apostolic Church of God.
• Don Feinstein, Executive Director, Academy for Urban School Leadership.
• Sharrod Gordon of the Target Area Development Corp.
• Zipporah Hightower, Principal of Bethune School of Excellence.
• Liz Kirby, Principal, Kenwood Academy High School.
• Tim Knowles, Director, University of Chicago Urban Education Institute.
• Mike Milkie, Superintendent and CEO, Noble Street Charter School.
• Natalie Neris-Guereca, teacher, Dr. Jorge Prieto Elementary School.
• John Price, Principal, John J. Audubon Elementary School.
• Diana Rauner, President, Ounce of Prevention Fund.
• Celena Roldan, Executive Director, Erie Neighborhood House.
• Monica Sims, teacher, John J. Pershing West Middle School.
• Elizabeth Swanson, Executive Director, Pritzker Traubert Family Foundation.

Safe to assume this team will concern themselves with the Chicago Public Schools. This is what a mayor transition does and it's been 22 years almost since Chicago has inaugurated a new mayor. Imagine that!

Also noted is a 17-member transition team for improving the city's financial plan (budget).

Chicago 8th-graders score near bottom in national science tests

Chicago 8th-graders score near bottom in national science tests - Chicago Sun-Times

The city’s African-American eighth-grade performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress was particularly disturbing.

CPS black eighth-graders tied their Baltimore counterparts in producing the worst African-American eighth-grade science scores among the nation’s large urban districts.

“The big effect is that these kids may have limited futures,’’ said Barbara Radner, head of DePaul University’s Center for Urban Education. “We need science for kids to go to college.’’
...
In eighth grade, a stunning 71 percent of CPS students scored below the most basic science level. Chicago’s eighth-grade results were subpar across virtually all racial and economic groups, except for Hispanics, whose scores were similar to those of Hispanics in other big cities.

Overall, CPS eighth-graders outscored Detroit, tied Cleveland, but fell behind peers in New York, Miami, Houston and Boston. But among African-American eighth-graders, Chicago’s science scores tied for the worst.

“As an African-American male, that make me sad and angry,’’ said Walter Taylor, a former CPS eighth-grade science teacher who now serves as a Chicago Teachers Union teacher facilitator.

Taylor noted that many heavily African-American CPS schools are on academic probation, so teachers there are pushed to emphasize reading and math over science and social studies because of the huge factor reading and math test results play in whether a school is closed. Even in science class, students may be reading about Madame Curie rather than doing experiments, Taylor said.

In elementary school I have always found science to be intimidating. While Mrs. Ellis presided over an LSC meeting they talked about creating a science resource room. Hopefully it'll be a lot more hands on than I had the luxury of during my time there.

Grassroots effort to restore recess

The Shedd School backlot

Tribune:

 In the nearly five years since Lynn Morton helped begin an effort to restore recess to Chicago elementary schools, she says, she has never come across anyone who doesn't like the idea.

From parents to principals, teachers, Chicago Public Schools leaders and lawmakers, everyone seems to agree that the city's youngest students need time in the school day to play, exercise and socialize.

"In its essence there is no one who is opposed to recess," said Morton, 41, one of an estimated 300 parents organized to work on the issue by Chicago's Community Organizing and Family Issues, or COFI.

When it comes to turning it into policy however, recess in Chicago is more of an obstacle course than a playground. Once a routine part of the school day, it has been squeezed out by curriculum demands, crowding and safety concerns. And what seemed like a step toward restoring the practice — a recent decision by the General Assembly to appoint a task force to look into it — was the victim of what state Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Chicago, called legislative red tape.

Over the years, Morton and fellow parents, mostly from the city's Austin, Englewood, West Town, Humboldt Park and North Lawndale neighborhoods, have lobbied principals, CPS officials and legislators for the restoration of recess. Their campaign mirrors a national push led by groups ranging from the National PTA to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The movement has gained additional currency in recent years from the focus on childhood obesity.

 Read the whole thing!

If I recall correctly, recess was fazed out before I left for Bennett after the 6th Grade. I thought part of it was the fact that during the year before I left Shedd, we started having a breakfast/lunch program. Before that students were usually expected to bring a lunch from home.

We'd have recess at 10:30 AM and then we'd eat lunch at 12 Noon. Also at 12 Noon once upon a time we were able to leave school and go home to eat lunch. Eventually that policy would change and we would have to eat lunch at school.

Either way in that picture above, a lot of time was spent in the backlot at Shedd School during recess, once upon a time. :)