Chalkbeat

Chicago student homelessness is rising. Could a tax change backed by the mayor help fix that?

2024-03-14T19:55:36+00:00

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Derrianna Ford lived with her grandmother on Chicago’s north side growing up, but when the older woman lost her home, Ford and her siblings had to relocate to the south side for about a year.

They moved from the city’s West Ridge neighborhood to the South Side during her freshman year at Mather High School. Ford said she had to wake up at 4 a.m., take a bus to the southernmost stop on Chicago’s Red Line, ride almost the entire 26-mile route north, and then get on another bus in order to get to school by 8 a.m.

During the week, she would occasionally stay with a friend closer to school to avoid the long commute.

“This is so normal to us,” Ford said. “You don’t see yourself as struggling because you’re used to it. You don’t see it as homelessness.”

These days, Ford, now 20, is searching for a place of her own. But she has another goal. She’s knocking on doors to help pass a ballot referendum in Chicago on March 19 that advocates say could put a real dent in reducing homelessness.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teachers union organizer and middle school teacher, promised in his education platform and transition plan to house the city’s homeless, with a focus on more than 20,000 students in Chicago Public Schools currently facing housing instability. In the last year, the number of CPS students in unstable housing situations — which can disrupt or derail students’ academic progress — has risen by roughly 50%.

To address that, Johnson and his allies are pushing to increase a real estate transfer tax on sales of property sales worth more than $1 million to generate an estimated $100 million annually to fund services for the homeless and affordable housing.

Some progressive groups, including the Chicago Teachers Union which helped propel Johnson to office, have been advocating to increase the city’s real estate transfer tax to help the homeless since Rahm Emanuel was mayor. The effort — dubbed Bring Chicago Home — is something Johnson emphasized often on the campaign trail last year.

“The people of Chicago voted for me because I said that I’m going to address homelessness,” Johnson said Wednesday. “Bring Chicago Home is an opportunity to address homelessness.”

A document obtained by Chalkbeat outlining Johnson’s first-term goals suggested his administration hopes to help house 10,000 students and their families.

But opponents of the initiative challenged the ballot question’s legality in the courts, even asking the Illinois Supreme Court to block the measure, which the court declined to do Wednesday. Still, some groups, including the nonpartisan budget watchdog Civic Federation, are concerned the mayor and City Council have not been specific enough about how the money would be used.

“This is the mayor’s signature item,” said Ald. Brendan Reilly, who represents much of downtown and opposes the referendum because it lacks specifics and could have unintended consequences on rental property and commercial real estate. “He’s put a lot of political capital into it and right now the Chicago electorate gets to give him a report card. I think this is as much about the policy as it is about a commentary on his agenda.”

Chicago Public Schools would not directly get any of the estimated $100 million in revenue that a change to the real estate transfer tax would generate. CPS officials did not comment on the ballot initiative, but said the district will continue to support homeless students and protect their rights under federal law.

More Chicago Public Schools students identified as homeless

The number of students in temporary living situations enrolled at Chicago Public Schools has hovered around 5% for at least the last decade — twice the national average. Recent data indicates the problem is getting more acute as the numbers climb.

District data shared with Chalkbeat from the end of February indicated 21,855 students currently enrolled at CPS were considered Students in Temporary Living Situations, or STLS. That’s up from more than 14,317 such students last February. CPS data includes any student categorized this way at any time during the school year, and once a student is marked as such, they keep that status for the remainder of the year.

The vast majority — around 16,000 students — are classified as “doubled up,” meaning they are living with another family temporarily, like Ford was while a freshman in high school.

But the number of CPS students listed as living in a shelter, hotel or motel, or living out of a car, park, or other public place more than tripled in the last year — from about 2,000 last February to nearly 8,000 as of Feb. 29. The jump has coincided with the ongoing influx of migrants arriving from the southern border.

Chicago grappled with students facing homelessness or housing instability long before the COVID pandemic and recent wave of migrants. A 2021 study from the University of Chicago Inclusive Economy Lab analyzed nine years of district data between 2009 and 2018 and found that, over the course of their K-12 experience, about 13% of CPS students experienced housing instability.

The report noted that research shows homeless students come to school less often, have lower academic achievement, and are more likely to drop out. At the same time, school districts like CPS “have limited capacity to connect students to housing supports.”

Cook County Commissioner Tara Stamps, the daughter of a longtime housing activist, saw this “heartbreaking” reality up close during the more than two decades she spent as a classroom teacher, including working alongside Johnson at a school serving the Cabrini Green public housing complex.

One time, she said, a single mom of one of her students had no place to stay, so Stamps and the school’s security guard “called and called and called around” to help them find housing.

Stamps, who now also works for the Chicago Teachers Union, said past administrations have emphasized academic achievement and improving test scores without prioritizing the conditions students faced that affected those scores: “There is no [academic] progress … if a baby doesn’t know where they’re going to sleep at night, if they don’t know where they’re going to eat.”.

Federal law requires school districts to support students facing housing insecurity. Some districts also get money through competitive grants to support homeless students. Students identified as such are entitled to transportation, the right to enroll without a permanent address, and the right to continue attending the same school through the end of the academic year even if they move.

But few districts have been directly involved in finding families housing.

With the help of federal COVID money, some schools across the country have added staff to help families with housing, others have provided emergency hotel stays and even propped up shelters inside schools.

Alyssa Phillips, an education attorney with the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, which has been advocating for Bring Chicago Home for several years, said the city needs a consistent revenue stream to tackle homelessness, along with input about what works from people experiencing homelessness and service providers.

“I think the most important thing is having that continuous funding,” Phillips said.

Federal COVID money for homeless set to expire

During the COVID pandemic, housing instability rose across the country. Homeless students were disconnected from schools and districts struggled to identify how many students were entitled to additional support and resources.

Chicago Public Schools received about $10.1 million in federal pandemic aid to serve homeless students, as part of roughly $800 million distributed nationally to states and school districts.

The city and school district created a program to give $500 stipends to families in Students in Temporary Living Situations, using money from the initial 2020 wave of federal COVID relief dollars. It’s not clear how many families received the money, and district officials deferred to the city, which administered the program.

Ald. Maria Hadden, who represents Chicago’s north lakefront and is a supporter of the Bring Chicago Home initiative, said the city also used some of its share of federal COVID dollars to provide rental assistance to thousands of people. She recounted helping one family in her ward with a CPS student with epilepsy avoid an eviction because they were able to get six months of rental assistance.

But soon, federal COVID money is drying up. Expenditure data obtained by Chalkbeat shows most of the school district’s share of federal COVID money has been spent, primarily for school staff.

If the ballot initiative to raise the real estate transfer tax on property over a $1 million is approved, Hadden said, the city could revive, continue, or expand pandemic-era programs, like rental and mortgage assistance and rapid rehousing efforts for people living in tent encampments.

Mayor Brandon Johnson is greeted by supporters after he spoke while dozens rally for the Bring Chicago Home resolution outside the Thompson Center before a City Council meeting on Nov. 7, 2023.

Political ‘slush fund’ or nimble revenue stream?

Ford and others continue to knock on doors to garner support from voters who will ultimately decide whether Chicago should have a graduated real estate transfer tax.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Teachers Union is gearing up for another round of contract negotiations with a mayor more amenable to their views than his two predecessors. During contract negotiations in 2019, the union pushed to include provisions around affordable housing. But then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the union contract was “not the appropriate place for the City to legislate its affordable housing policy.”

Leaked contract proposals for upcoming contract talks include two focused on affordable housing: mortgage and rental assistance for teachers, and a vocational program that would have students build affordable housing.

Whatever happens with the teachers union contract, Johnson is forging ahead with a plan to borrow $1.25 billion dollars to fund affordable housing and other development. On Wednesday, the mayor said he’ll soon name a new chief homelessness officer. And he directed the city’s Department of Family Support Services to work with CPS to match the district’s most vulnerable students with housing. The two agencies meet weekly, a spokesperson confirmed.

If voters approve the ballot initiative, the City Council would still need to pass an ordinance spelling out how to appropriate the revenue.

Reilly, the downtown alderman, said that “anyone who has a soul” cares about the homeless and wants to find solutions. But he worries that if the tax is approved, the revenue could quickly turn into a “slush fund” for political allies of whomever is mayor.

“There’s no guarantee that any of this money lands with helping the homeless people,” Reilly said. “It’s just going to be a big stack of money that a whole lot of people are gonna wanna fight over.”

Emma Tai, campaign director for the Bring Chicago Home Ballot Initiative, said the revenue would be legally dedicated to fund affordable housing and services for the homeless. A draft ordinance for implementing the change to the transfer tax would create a 15-member panel appointed by the mayor and approved by City Council to make recommendations annually based on the “most pressing needs.”

“The idea is for the funds to be nimble,” Tai said, noting that during the height of the pandemic, there was a critical need to provide housing to domestic violence victims, whereas now that pandemic-era eviction moratoriums have ended, there’s a need for emergency rental assistance. The idea is that the panel’s recommendations would take such shifts into account.

For young people like Derrianna Ford, who experienced housing insecurity as a student and is searching for an affordable apartment now, the issue boils down to one thing: “stability.”

This story has been updated to more accurately characterize Tai’s comments about how housing needs have shifted in Chicago.

Chalkbeat reporter Reema Amin contributed reporting.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools wants ideas for how to improve outcomes for Black students

2024-03-12T21:27:04+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools will host a series of meetings over the next two weeks to hear about how it can improve the school experience for Black students.

The first of eight meetings is taking place at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Uplift Community High School in Uptown.

The public meetings are part of the district’s new Black Student Success Working Group, which CPS created in the fall to provide district leaders with recommendations for its upcoming “Black Student Success Plan.” That blueprint will then be folded into the district’s overall five-year strategic plan, which is expected to be finalized this summer.

CPS, like other districts across the nation, has long reported academic disparities between Black students and their peers, who make up 35% of the school system. In Chicago, 79.7% of Black students graduated on time last year, a rate that has gradually improved but is still behind the graduation rate for all other racial groups, according to district data. And 12.6% of Black students dropped out last year, the highest percentage for any racial group.

“We’re meeting as a working group because historically and today, Black students are situated furthest from opportunity,” said Fatima Cooke, CPS’s chief of equity, engagement and strategy.

“There is so much more work that still needs to be done to create those holistic systems that foster environments where Black students are empowered, that they feel seen, and that they have a sense of belonging.

The working group is made up of more than 60 members, including parents, students, educators, district employees and other community members, according to a CPS press release. The group has been meeting since December and has also convened focus groups of students, families, and staff, Cooke said.

While the working group has already drafted some recommendations that that focus on academics, the members don’t want to present those ideas to the community yet because they want “authentic” input, said Ayanna Clark, a CPS parent who is a member of the working group and also serves as assistant chief of staff to the City Council’s education committee under Ald. Jeanette Taylor.

“We don’t want to go into a space where we’re once again telling people what to think and giving them a set of options and telling them to choose from the set of options,” Clark said.

State legislation that paves the way for Chicago’s first elected school board creates a “Black Student Achievement Committee in response to advocacy from longtime community advocates. Cooke said this work “is parallel to that” and won’t “impede” a committee.

The district working group is focused on three priorities. These are Black students’ daily school experience; “adult capacity and continuous learning,” which focuses on workforce diversity and professional development to ensure teachers are meeting student needs; and how community organizations can support Black students’ needs that “can’t be met by the school-based budget,” said Christopher Shelton, a former science teacher who now works for the district’s central office and is helping to facilitate the group.

The group has also discussed ideas to better support Black students, including providing teachers with more professional development; focusing on conflict resolution practices; diversifying the teacher workforce; and to “leverage corporate, government, and community partnerships to bridge resource gap,” according to a presentation posted on the district’s website.

‘Focusing on what the students need’

The group’s first meeting in December included a history of how city policies have impacted Black families and students. Some of the topics that members highlighted during that meeting were the Great Migration, the practice of redlining that drove racial segregation, and the closing of 50 schools — most of which were majority Black schools — under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The group also reviewed data on academic disparities. At the beginning of this school year, 62% of Black students in grades kindergarten to second grade were behind one grade level in reading, while 66% were behind in math, according to iReady data presented to the group at the December meeting. That’s higher than most other racial groups except for Hispanic students, who are behind in both subjects at the same rates, and the 76% of Haiwaiian or Pacific Islander students who were behind in math.

Chicago’s Black students are the least likely to earn early college credit, which can help offset college costs. And outside of academics, the group looked at data showing that Black girls received more than 7 out of every 100 out-of-school suspensions last school year, while Black boys received more than 10 — the highest rates for any racial group, which grew from 2022.

One bright spot that the group has heard about: Over the past six years, more Black eighth graders have enrolled at schools that offer algebra.

Then there are factors that can place an additional burden on Black students outside school buildings. For example, roughly 20% of Black students travel six or more miles to school compared with 11% of all students.

District officials have previously highlighted how students should not have to leave their neighborhoods to attend a school that fits their needs. In December, the Board of Education made waves when it announced that, as part of the creation of that strategic blueprint, it was planning to rethink the district’s school choice system and invest more in neighborhood schools. That system includes schools that require an application, including charters, magnets, selective enrollment schools, and gifted programs.

Jahnae Roberts, a junior at Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts and a member of the working group, said she hears the need for more support around mental health and social emotional learning for Black students. Her peers have also shared with her that they don’t feel some teachers know how to work with or teach them.

The working group is “focusing on what the students need, not just education-wise, but what are they receiving at school that they might not receive at home to make it a better place for them?” Jahnae said.

The working group and the ensuing community meetings are one component of the district’s development of a new five-year strategic plan. The district hosted meetings over improving school facilities, and it will have more community meetings around the broader strategic plan.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools is in new era for negotiations with the CTU. What could it mean for schools?

2024-03-06T22:24:06+00:00

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When former Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey thinks about the dynamics between City Hall and the union, he flashes back to 2011. That’s when then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel defended a decision to cancel pay raises for teachers by saying they got other types of salary boosts, while “our children got the shaft.”

The stinging quip illustrates how contentious contract negotiations and the relationship between the CTU and city officials were back then, ultimately leading to a weeklong teachers strike in 2012, said Sharkey, who currently sits on the union’s executive board.

After years of thorny relationships with district officials and mayors who did not align with the union on how to improve or support schools, the CTU is expected to begin bargaining this spring over a new contract with a district that now answers to Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former middle school teacher who rose to power as a CTU organizer.

“This is going to be a struggle because the culture in Chicago with the public schools and the teachers union is a culture of ‘No,’ and ‘Make me,’ and ‘OK,’” current CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said during a City Club speech Tuesday. “That’s different from what we are embarking on this time. We’re saying, ‘How might we?’ That’s a different question.”

In a statement, CPS spokesperson Damen Alexander said the district “looks forward to negotiating a fair contract that balances both the interests of the District’s hard-working educators and our duty to be fiscally responsible.”

A City Hall spokesperson declined to comment for this story.

The latest contract talks will come amid massive change for Chicago Public Schools. The first-ever school board elections will take place this fall and a 21-member partially elected board will take office next January. And bargaining will happen as the district attempts to fill a projected $391 million budget deficit for next year, after four years of being buoyed by $2.8 billion in federal COVID relief dollars that will soon run out.

Amid those challenges, the union has a strong ally in office.

The CTU was Johnson’s largest campaign donor, and Davis Gates introduced him at his victory party.

Before the union propelled one of its own into the mayor’s office, the teachers union regained some bargaining power in 2021 when state legislators passed a law that restored its right to bargain over a broader set of issues — such as class size or the length of the school day — which had been restricted since 1995.

Still, Johnson signaled on the campaign trail that he would face “tough decisions” as mayor in negotiations with the CTU and wouldn’t be able to meet all of the union’s demands.

“So who better to deliver bad news to friends than a friend?” he said during a mayoral forum last year.

But the Johnson administration has already overseen policy changes the union counts as victories, including expanded parental leave for CTU members, a promise to remove school resource officers by next school year, and a commitment to rethink school choice policies.

The union’s House of Delegates, made up of hundreds of educators across the city, is scheduled to vote Wednesday on proposals crafted by the union’s various committees and developed as a response to what CTU members said they wanted to see in the next contract, according to the union.

Those proposals include a wide range of ideas, from pay raises and housing assistance for teachers to providing affordable housing and support for homeless students and their families.

While union officials acknowledge that things are different this time around, they have also emphasized that Johnson does not “have a magic wand” and pushed back against the idea that the union will get everything it asks for.

“I think it is ridiculous for anyone to think that the Black man on the fifth floor who comes from the progressive movement has fairy dust to sprinkle to end this quickly,” Davis Gates said in an interview with Chalkbeat last month. “There is an entire bureaucracy that has been hired and trained to tell the Chicago Teachers Union, ‘No.’”

Joe Ferguson, president of Civic Federation, a nonpartisan government watchdog group, said the mayor can’t meet all of the union’s demands because “the money isn’t there for it.” He said the public deserves to hear from the board and the mayor on where they’ll draw the line.

“Where those boundaries are, nobody can say,” Ferguson said.

Past tensions between CTU and City Hall prompted strikes

Over the past decade, contract negotiations between CPS and the CTU have resulted in two strikes that garnered national attention and inspired education labor fights around the country.

In 2012, after months of simmering disagreement and the city skipping a raise for teachers, the union went on strike for seven days at the start of the school year. Emanuel had pushed for a longer school day and embraced education reform ideas sweeping the country at the time, including a new way to evaluate teachers, which the union strongly opposed. He also refused to bargain over issues like class size, which at the time, state law did not require CPS to do.

An 11-day strike happened in 2019 under then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who the union had initially expected to align with more than Emanuel. The union was fighting for “common good” ideas that exceeded the scope of a teacher’s daily duties but were meant to improve students’ and families’ lives, such as ensuring that every school had a nurse, social worker, and librarian. The contract ultimately locked in some of those demands, as well as other wins, such as a $35 million fund to help reduce class sizes, but ultimately, the long strike left many teachers and families frustrated.

Those sour dynamics appear to be gone with Johnson’s election, said Robert Bruno, professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who co-wrote a book about CTU’s 2012 strike.

“Both parties believe that the other party understands and would be respectful of each other’s perspectives, which certainly wasn’t the case with the two previous mayors or even the previous CEOs — and we’ve gone through a few of them in Chicago,” he said.

Sharkey noted that Johnson’s priorities include many ideas the union agrees with and gave rise to, such as creating more sustainable community schools that provide wraparound services to families. His campaign platform also closely mirrored a document CTU first put out in 2012 titled “The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve,” which was updated in 2018 and most recently, in 2022.

In general, the union has found that working with the district has been easier and more receptive since Johnson has taken office, according to Sharkey and Davis Gates.

But Davis Gates said she expects plenty of disagreement because she still feels that the agency has a bureaucracy “that cannot collaborate, that does not say yes, and has a difficult time understanding how to partner with us.”

Union again pushing ‘common good’ demands

The union is expected to push for cost-of-living raises that keep up with or exceed inflation and a more uniform overtime pay policy, according to proposals leaked to conservative think tank Illinois Policy Institute, which a CTU spokesperson confirmed are real. The union also wants changes to the teacher evaluation process, including to codify that evaluations cannot be used for layoffs.

Proposals also include codifying health care policies, such as gender-affirming care, paid parental leave for employees, abortion coverage, and access to weight loss medical care, such as bariatric surgery.

In a more novel demand, the union will also push for housing assistance for its members, but the leaked proposal doesn’t include more details on how that would be done. Under Emanuel, the city offered assistance to police officers who wanted to buy homes in the areas they worked in, but few officers took advantage of the program.

In the classroom, the union is expected to renew a push to give elementary school teachers more preparation and collaboration time during the school day, Sharkey said. That was a major demand in the 2019 contract negotiations that largely did not come to fruition – and could again be difficult to secure this time around given the complicated logistics of tweaking a school day.

Union officials also expect proposals around bilingual services for students, including on attracting staff and expanding access to bilingual training for teachers, and retaining more special education staff. Both bilingual and special education are teacher shortage areas.

Davis Gates said they’ll continue demanding a librarian and nurse be staffed at every school.

Separately, union officials are expecting to push for more common good items, Davis Gates said. This will include creating a career and technical education program that would involve building houses for homeless students and their families, according to the leaked proposals.

Common good proposals will also include creating more sustainable community schools, Davis Gates said. The union is also interested in pushing for more “green” – or energy efficient – schools, such as by installing more solar panels. The district is already planning to purchase 50 electric school buses.

CPS’s budget deficit could complicate negotiations

Contract talks will begin as the district plans for its budget next year, which is projected to be $391 million in the hole. That could make costly union proposals a tough sell for the district.

District officials have for months publicized the budget deficit as federal COVID relief dollars run out. The district can either cut programming or find more money, which officials want to do by demanding more funding from the state.

Bruno, the labor expert, said it is a good sign the union agrees that Springfield should provide more money, because that means all negotiating parties agree on a solution to a significant problem.

However, Ferguson, from the Civic Federation, has little hope that more money is coming, in part because of what appears to be a “frayed” relationship between City Hall and Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office. Pritzker recently proposed a budget that provides the same increase to K-12 funding as last year. And because CPS’s deficit is driven by the loss of COVID relief dollars, this year’s negotiations are “a fairly unique stew,” he said.

“There have been deficits being faced in the past [and] constraints on funding sources, but none that have come in this particular context, where not only is there a question of, where is more money coming from, but it also comes at a moment when we all know that recent existing streams are going to end,” Ferguson said. “And it has also been made abundantly clear by Springfield, by the governor, that there is no money to be gotten from the state.”

Union officials said they don’t yet know the price tag of their proposals, and they don’t expect to propose “money-saving” ideas. But Sharkey said they’ll have ideas on how the district can fund their proposals “and would expect the board to try to work with us on that.”

Asked how the district’s financial picture will impact its approach to negotiations, a CPS spokesperson pointed to the district’s budget deficit and said the district must be “fiscally responsible.”

Even with financial challenges, Sharkey said he expects the union and the district to work out disagreements in a more timely manner, unlike past negotiations that were “unproductive for months.”

Davis Gates said CTU continues to see its contract as “leverage for the common good,” has “high expectations” for upcoming negotiations, and is hoping for more agreement that will finally deliver on the CTU’s push to get schools more resources.

At the City Club speech this week, in a room full of business leaders, educators, and philanthropists, Davis Gates said she expects people to be skeptical that the mayor is going to “give CTU everything it’s asking for.”

“I hope he does,” she said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago is getting an elected school board. What questions do you have?

2024-02-06T22:22:30+00:00

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Less than a year from now, Chicago Public Schools will swear in its first elected school board members.

Chicago’s elected school board is coming soon. Here’s what you need to know.

But even with a firm swearing-in date of Jan. 15, 2025, many unanswered questions still remain about the election on Nov. 5 that would usher in those new board members — and how the board will function once in place. State law says 10 members will be elected this year, but lawmakers are debating whether to elect all 21 now. (Mayor Brandon Johnson recently asked the legislature to ensure that just half are elected this year, the Sun-Times reported.)

The state legislature must also finalize district boundaries for school board members. Lawmakers appear to have agreed on a third draft of the map last November.

Once members are sworn in next January, what’s next? How will the board work in comparison to the appointed board it will replace?

Chalkbeat Chicago wants to hear your questions about the upcoming school board elections and the elected school board. We’ll aim to answer your questions through our reporting as we follow campaigns and elections this year.

Answer the survey here or fill it out below. We will not use your name in our reporting without your permission.

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Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

The results are in. Here’s where four Chicago 8th graders plan to go to high school in the fall.

2024-02-28T22:35:00+00:00

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Nicole Watson began checking the GoCPS website early in the morning on Feb. 23, in case Chicago Public Schools released the high school enrollment results early.

Results were scheduled to go online at 5 p.m. that day, but she couldn’t stop herself from looking at the website every hour.

After months of touring schools, preparing for the High School Admissions Test (HSAT), and ranking school choices last fall, her son Daniel Watson was about to find out where he would be spending the next four years of his academic career.

Daniel’s grades in seventh grade were stellar and he did well on the HSAT — both criteria considered in the application process, alongside their neighborhood’s “Tier,” which is based on socioeconomics, and the order in which they ranked their preferred high school programs. The Watsons felt good about his chances of getting accepted at his top choice schools, but Nicole Watson was still anxious.

When she checked the website shortly after 5 p.m. and saw that he’d been accepted to his top choice selective enrollment school, Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep, she had to hold back tears.

“I knew he could get in, that the possibility was real, but seeing it felt really nice,” she said, letting out an audible sigh. “Not quite overwhelming, but a relief.”

Some families also felt that relief last Friday evening as they saw their results; the uncertainty and stress of the high school enrollment process came to a successful end for them.

But others found disappointment and further uncertainty staring back at them from their screens after their children were denied or waitlisted at their top choice schools.

“It worked out for us. But I think about all of the kids and families who were disappointed because they didn’t get an offer, or they didn’t get their first choice,” said Watson. “Break that news to a kid, and then how do you continue to build their confidence and let them know ‘it’s not you, it’s the system?’”

Students who are unhappy with their offers can apply for Principal Discretion, which allows selective enrollment high school principals to fill seats outside of the regular selection process. Students can also appeal the decision, or they can wait a few more months to see if they get off the waitlists and into their top schools.

But, after the Board of Education’s December vote to develop a new five-year strategic plan that would, among other things, shift “from a model which emphasizes school choice to one that supports neighborhood schools,” even families whose eighth graders were offered seats at their top choice high schools have a lot to think about. Some worry about how much the plan will impact the schools they chose while others worry about how the process and the schools will be different for their younger kids.

Last year, Chalkbeat followed four families as they went through the CPS high school enrollment process. Now, after results have been released, we’ve checked in with them to see how they fared, what they think of the process now that they’ve received results, and how they’re thinking about the future as the school choice system stands to undergo big changes.

Daniel Watson leaned on art techniques to help manage his stress during the enrollment process. His mother Nicole Watson has helped him apply to career-focused high school programs in hopes of broadening his options.

Daniel Watson

Daniel Watson played it cool when he learned he had an offer for a seat at his top choice schools, said his mother. But “he couldn’t stop smiling,” so she knows he was excited.

Nicole Watson said she wouldn’t do anything differently, but when the Watsons potentially have to go through the process again for her third grade son, she’ll do exactly what she did for Daniel and make sure that he is the one who picks his top choices.

“Because this is his high school experience,” she said. “I’m glad that I did that and that I just didn’t make the decision myself, that I really allowed it to be his decision.”

Now that the process is over, the Watsons will focus on the big transition to high school, but the fact that her youngest son’s turn will be coming up in the midst of the Board of Education’s next five-year strategic plan, which could de-emphasize school choice, is on her mind.

“That means that this particular kid potentially could be impacted by it,” she said. “We understand that strong neighborhood schools indicate a strong, thriving neighborhood. But at the same time, there’s nothing wrong with having a more rigorous academic setting for kids who need that.”

For Daniel and the Watsons, they’re already onto the next thing — thinking about college. Nicole Watson said that looking ahead she’s most excited about the potential for dual-credit and Advanced Placement classes for her son to help reduce the cost of college.

Katherine Athanasiou, left, and Chloe Athanasiou. Chloe Athanasiou hopes to one day help to repair some of the flaws in the youth mental health system. She hopes that attending a high school where she can take an Advanced Placement Psychology course will be a step towards that dream.

Chloe Athanasiou

When Chloe Athanasiou first began considering high schools, one of their goals was to attend a school where they knew people. For Chloe, that school was Walter Payton College Prep, her top choice.

So Chloe was relieved when they were offered a seat at Payton, but “it wasn’t happiness until I heard from friends that are important to me,” they said.

Chloe advises students going through the process this year not to worry about “what other people are doing. Worry about yourself first, then you can worry about others.”

Focusing so much on attending Payton to be with their friends, Chloe said, put even more pressure on getting into the school, “even if it wasn’t the best decision for me,” they said. “If I were to do it all again, I probably would have put a lot less pressure on myself.”

Even with their success in the process, Chloe still thinks the whole system needs to be changed.

“I think it’s a ridiculous amount of stress and pressure for you to deal with. And it’s not necessary,” they said. “We could figure out a different solution.”

Katherine Athanasiou, Chloe’s mother, also felt the pressure and said she would’ve tried to stay, or at least appear, calmer if she had to do it over again, which she will next year when her sixth grade son goes through it.

“But this is a really crazy process and I feel like we all have to show ourselves a little bit of grace,” said Katherine Athanasiou.

Even with the Board of Education’s move away from school choice to support neighborhood schools, Katherine Athanasiou said she’s still going to push her son to get straight A’s next year, because in the current process, “if you get a B in seventh grade, you’re pretty much locked out of selective enrollment schools,” she said.

But Chloe, who attended a neighborhood school through sixth grade before transferring to a selective enrollment elementary school, said they are hopeful that the board’s plan will improve things for everyone.

“It would have definitely changed my experience [at the neighborhood school] if more time and effort was put into making sure that those spaces were safe and that they were receiving a good amount of resources,” said Chloe. “I think it will, in the long term, benefit everyone.”

Selah Zayas, left, hoped to follow in her mother Andrea Zayas’ footsteps and attend her alma mater Lane Tech College Prep. Selah was accepted to one of her other top choices: Noble Street College Prep.

Selah Zayas

This year’s high school enrollment process has changed everything for the Zayas family.

Selah’s HSAT scores came back lower than expected. So they weren’t surprised when she didn’t get an offer at her top choice selective enrollment school, Lane Tech College Prep, but the family was disappointed.

The HSAT cut-off scores for Lane Tech were among the top five highest this year. Students who scored below that cut-off score did not get offers.

The other schools with higher cut-off scores were Walter Payton, Whitney Young, Northside, and Jones College Prep, all of which consistently rank as the top high schools in Chicago in the U.S. News & World Report rankings.

Students rank selective enrollment schools and “choice” schools — charter schools, magnet programs, and other non-selective enrollment schools — separately. Selah did receive an offer at Noble Street College Prep, which she ranked as her number one “choice” school, largely because it is where her brother attends — so she could take advantage of sibling preference. Although she is disappointed, Selah said she still feels relieved to “have some clarity” about where she’s going in the fall.

“At least I didn’t have to go to my neighborhood school,” said Selah, but she envies the kids who had more choices. “I just wanted the same opportunity and selection.”

Her mother, on the other hand, is questioning everything.

Andrea Zayas teaches at a dual-language charter school where Selah and her two younger sons attend, and now she’s worried that the school did not adequately prepare her daughter for high school and also may be underpreparing her younger sons.

Specifically, she no longer trusts the school’s grading system.

A low grade is supposed to be a “red flag,” she said. But Selah had a 4.0 grade point average in seventh grade. So Andrea Zayas was surprised when her test scores were low.

“It definitely makes me reconsider the elementary school that they’re currently at,” she said. “It’s kind of like the fruit of my discontent over the years with their instruction.”

“My children have not been acknowledged as having challenges, because they were always compared to their peers versus being compared to a standard,” she said.

To help her daughter cope with the disappointment, Andrea Zayas has been reaffirming that Noble Street is a good school, but she is really rattled and is questioning not just her daughter’s elementary school preparation but the school choice system as a whole.

“I feel like sometimes there’s an illusion of choice. The true preparation doesn’t begin in middle school or eighth grade, the true preparation begins in kindergarten, when you choose a school that is going to prepare your child for their next step.”

“There’s all these schools,” she said. “But do you have access? There might be options, but without access, what do options matter? And access is the instruction that occurs every day. It’s the elementary school that you’re going to and what they are doing.”

Elias Gray’s interest in engineering has him eyeing schools with strong STEM programs, but this process has directed his thoughts even further into the future as he considers college and beyond.

Elias Gray

“Three words,” said eighth grader Elias Gray three days after receiving enrollment results, “It’s. Finally. Over.”

Gray was genuinely surprised when he learned that he had an offer to attend Brooks College Prep, which was his top choice selective enrollment school. Although he did very well on the HSAT, he got a couple of B grades in seventh grade, bringing down his overall score on the high school enrollment rubric.

“I just feel excited because I never thought I’d be able to get into Brooks,” Elias said.

At school the Monday after results were released, however, his classmates had a mix of emotions, he said.

“Some are happy. Some are depressed because of how low they got.”

Either way, he said, he doesn’t know a single kid at his elementary school who will be attending the neighborhood school — Morgan Park High School.

“Our neighborhood school is like the final line, the last line,” said Elias. “It used to be good, but I don’t know what it is now.”

With the board’s plan to shift from school choice, Elias’s mother Shanya Gray wonders what that will mean for her younger son when he considers high schools.

“I just don’t want my kid to be a guinea pig,” she said.

But, she said, she feels much more prepared now that she’s gone through the process and understands how everything works. That’s the advice she has for families preparing for this year’s enrollment process — learn everything you can about the system.

“There’s no one place where you can go and get all the information, all the tips and so on,” she said. “There are these pieces that you have to find or have to know. The people who are most successful in this system are the ones who have cracked it. It isn’t necessarily the smartest. It isn’t necessarily the best. It’s the people who have cracked the system.”

Who’s the boss? Chicago principals report to many different people.

2024-02-27T20:48:12+00:00

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During Femi Skanes’ 10 years as a Chicago principal, her boss was primarily a district official known as a network chief, she said. Alan Mather, who was also a principal for a decade, says he answered to then-Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan.

Many principals in Chicago also feel their Local School Council, or LSC, is a boss, while others view the council as more of a partner.

Principals are the leaders of their schools and staff. But in Chicago, multiple entities have power over principals. Later this year, Chicagoans will begin electing school board members, marking another shift in control over the city’s school system, which has been run by the mayor and a hand-picked CEO since 1995 and by a decentralized system of elected LSCs since 1988.

The city’s principals have unionized in hopes of creating more job protections for a role that has seen high turnover in recent years.

“Right now it’s kind of the wild wild west,” said Cynthia Barron, program coordinator and assistant professor with UIC’s Urban Education Leadership Program. “We’re kinda all waiting to see what’s going to happen.”

Barron, who spent more than three decades at CPS, said she doesn’t foresee immediate changes as a result of unionization or an elected school board. But, given that details around the future principals union contract and the elected school board are still being ironed out, she said there are “so many unknowns.”

How Chicago principals ended up with many bosses

Those unknowns — as the principals union takes root and the city moves to an elected school board — may disrupt an already complicated hierarchy.

As it stands now, a Chicago principal’s direct supervisor is the head of their network — the geographic area their school is organized under — and they are also accountable to their Local School Council, or LSC, a unique-to-Chicago elected body at most schools made up of parents, teachers, students, and community members, that can hire principals. Both have different hiring and firing powers.

Local School Councils were created in 1988 under the state’s Chicago School Reform Act, which gave LSCs the power to hire principals, approve school budgets, and approve annual school improvement plans.

The state amended that law in 1995 in an effort to centralize and improve the city’s school system. Lawmakers voted to keep LSCs but mandated training for them. The changes also gave the mayor sole authority over appointing the school board and replaced the superintendent title with “chief executive officer” — which stands today.

Today, LSCs can hire a principal and offer them a four-year contract. They can decide to keep the principal or fire them when their contract is up for renewal.

Network chiefs, on the other hand, work for the district and are tasked with ensuring that schools are complying with district policies and meeting academic and instructional goals, according to interviews with school leaders. Network chiefs answer to district leaders who report to the CEO, the Board of Education president, and the mayor. School leaders can also turn to their chiefs when they need extra support.

Both chiefs and LSCs use a similar rubric to evaluate principals annually. Only network chiefs can fire principals at any time for just cause.

Though LSCs hold power over principals, they do not have the same connection to district officials and the school board that a network chief does. It’s also not clear how they’ll interact with the school board once it expands and includes elected members.

Froy Jimenez is a member of the city’s Local School Council Advisory Board, which the state created to advise the Board of Education. Jimenez, a teacher and LSC member at Hancock College Preparatory High School, said he believes that LSCs and principals are “co-leaders” with the shared goal of supporting students.

“When we look at [the] budget, when we look at curriculum, when we look at any specific need of our school,” Jimenez said, “we’re doing it like we’re collaborating.”

Principals balance multiple interests

Principals’ responsibilities have grown over the past two decades and especially since the pandemic. Today, in addition to being instructional leaders, they’re expected to maintain relationships with students, families, staff, and sometimes elected officials, said Jasmine Thurmond, director of Local School Council principal support at CPS.

Some school leaders appreciate the variety of voices, but others often feel torn between conflicting demands.

One principal, who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak candidly, was asked by parents who attended LSC meetings to “publicize or encourage things like picketing or public demonstrations” over a district decision this year to suspend bus service for 5,500 general education students, largely those at selective enrollment and gifted schools.

The principal agreed that the lack of busing has been challenging for many of her students. But she explained to parents and the LSC that publicly protesting the busing decision could put her in hot water with her other boss: the district.

“I have to figure out how I can advocate for the needs of my students and the needs of my families,” she told Chalkbeat, “but in a way that is very respectful of the people that are making these decisions — and that is a really difficult balance to strike.”

She has a good relationship with her LSC, which she said is “fair and reasonable” but also demanding. The council requests a lot of data and presentations. Meeting those needs and building personal relationships can be difficult along with all of her other responsibilities as a school leader, she said.

Ryan Belville, principal of McAuliffe Elementary School, said he has a close bond with his LSC that grew during the pandemic, when they worked hand-in-hand to make sure students and families had what they needed. Belville said the LSC has also held him accountable “to serve the school community effectively.”

“I really see why LSCs were developed and why they were put into action,” Belville said. “It’s something we’re very fortunate to have in Chicago.”

Sometimes the LSC wields its power, as Hancock College Preparatory High School did last year when it decided not to renew its principal’s contract in the face of student and teacher opposition.

But there are limits to an LSC’s authority.

At Jones College Prep, the LSC voted in 2022 to recommend the district fire then-principal Joseph Powers based on various allegations, including that he was ignoring problematic teachers and was not addressing issues around gender and racial discrimination. His contract was not up for renewal at the time, so the LSC could not fire him outright.

CEO Pedro Martinez declined to fire Powers, saying there wasn’t sufficient evidence. Later that year, CPS put Powers on leave after a student dressed in a Nazi uniform was seen goose-stepping in the school’s Halloween parade. Powers then retired.

One Chicago elementary school principal, who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak candidly, said that contract renewal time can sometimes feel political. She must ensure that she’s keeping “these X number of people happy or satisfied” so that she can keep her job. At the same time, she wishes she had “more robust” feedback from her LSC, which she thinks is lacking at her school because people often don’t have time to participate — an issue many LSCs face.

On Chicago’s West Side, the LSC at Oscar DePriest Elementary School is working on ensuring enough participation on its council. It is also figuring out how it will work with the school’s new principal, whom it hired in November after interviews and a candidate forum, said Wallace Wilbourn, a teacher and LSC member.

He wants the LSC to have a greater voice on the school’s curriculum, its culture, and how it approaches assessments.

But he’s already seen that many people are trying to hold the principal accountable. Ever since being hired, Wilbourn said, his principal has had to spend a lot of time in meetings with the network.

Network chiefs, top CPS officials hold power

Barron, with UIC, said the relationship between a network chief and principal more closely resembles a typical employee-manager relationship: The two work together on a leadership plan that has goals to hit throughout the year.

Skanes, who was the principal of Morgan Park High School until 2022, always viewed her network chief as her main supervisor. Feedback from the network chief was sometimes “attached to next steps, even in terms of promotion and opportunities,” she said.

The Chicago elementary school principal said the network chief is looking for things at the school that parents or community members may not have expertise in, such as best teaching practices, she said. Her LSC is more interested in school uniform policies or community events for families, she said.

“I think both of those perspectives are super important,” she said. “It shouldn’t be all one or another.”

A former Chicago principal, who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak candidly, said most of his network chiefs were good listeners and open to his ideas of how to improve his school. But he also felt pressure from the network to boost certain metrics, such as raising attendance by 10 percentage points, including by visiting student homes.

Those efforts resulted in a lot of pressure on staff and kids at his school who were already experiencing “so much trauma,” he said. After hitting the network’s goal, the principal eased up those efforts, saying it didn’t feel “worth the squeeze and my time and emotional energy.” Attendance rates dropped.

In that case, he decided to “take the heat from the network” because it meant more “sanity” for his school, he said.

A small share of schools have Appointed Local School Councils, or ALSCs, which don’t have the power to hire or fire principals but can provide nonbinding input on who they want to lead their schools. In those cases, the CEO gets final say on hiring a principal.

That was the case for Alan Mather, now the president of the Golden Apple Foundation. He became the principal of Lindblom Math and Science Academy in 2005 when the school was reopened as a selective enrollment high school. Mather was appointed by then-CEO Arne Duncan and the new school, which drew high-performing students from across the city, did not have an LSC. It wasn’t until his last year at Lindblom that an ALSC was formed, Mather said.

Mather considered Duncan to be his boss and was given a lot of autonomy to craft Lindblom’s culture and academics, such as adopting a year-round schedule during his time.

“It was the CEO who could have removed me at any time,” Mather said. “I was not working under a contract.”

As principals unionize, a question about management

When the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, or CPAA, decided to unionize last year, its president Troy LaRaviere promised to fight for better pay, less focus on bureaucratic tasks, more job security – including the ability to voice opinions publicly without punishment – and more due process when principals face accusations of misconduct.

LaRaviere did not respond to multiple requests for an interview for this story. Another CPAA representative declined to comment, including to confirm whether the union has started bargaining, and deferred to LaRaviere.

The unionization effort could impact how network chiefs discipline and evaluate principals. But huge questions remain.

“We don’t know what is to come,” said Thurmond, from the district. She added that they’re “looking forward to deepening the collaboration” with CPAA to make sure principals are supported, versus the district “being perceived as an enemy.”

Some observers have wondered how a union contract might impact the authority of a network chief or LSC. For instance, will it be tougher for the LSC not to renew a principal’s contract?

Changes to an LSC’s powers, however, would likely require a change to the state law that created them, said Barron, the expert from UIC.

For the district’s part, Thurmond said CPS will continue “empowering LSCs and ALSCs” so that “communities continue to have control of their schools.”

One former principal thinks an elected school board could make LSCs feel redundant or powerless, since board members will represent different parts of the city.

LSCs were created when there wasn’t an elected board and are seen by some as mini-school boards at individual schools. But come January 2025, the Chicago Board of Education will be made up of 10 members elected by their communities and 11 members appointed by the mayor.

“If we have an elected school board of 21 and you have them passing resolutions saying we’re doing this, this and this,” he wondered, “then what does the LSC have the autonomy to say and do if it’s all coming from downtown?”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Play about school-to-prison pipeline resonates with Chicago students who ‘live it in their neighborhoods’

2024-02-27T00:15:00+00:00

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The small theater is achingly silent after Niya Kenny’s desperate shouts echo across the room.

Nobody’s gonna help her? You did this! You didn’t even have to call the administrator!

Projected on the back wall, footage of a 2015 incident Kenny witnessed at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina plays: It shows a school resource officer violently throwing her classmate, the then-16-year-old student known only as Shakara, from her desk, then dragging her across the room.

Lights dim and Kenny fades back into darkness.

In the audience, students from Alcott College Prep High School in Roscoe Village are still and rapt. The restless energy and teenage snickering they’ve exhibited at other moments during the two-and-a-half-hour play suddenly quieted.

Kenny and Shakara’s story – portrayed by actors Adhana Reid and Mildred Marie Langford in a scene from TimeLine Theatre’s production of “Notes From the Field” by Anna Deavere Smith – struck close to home.

“Notes from the Field,” centered around police violence and the school-to-prison pipeline, is a particularly relevant subject for Chicago students right now. Chicago Public Schools are on the precipice of major change after the Chicago Board of Education voted last week to remove police officers from schools by the start of next school year.

“Notes from the Field,” which runs through March 24 at TimeLine Theatre in Chicago’s Lakeview East neighborhood, examines the school-to-prison pipeline in the U.S. through a series of monologues with various people affected by and working to combat it. It was drawn from over 250 interviews Deavere conducted on the subject, including with well-known figures such as the late civil rights leader and U.S, Rep. John Lewis.

This particular matinee on Feb. 14 was a special performance just for students at Alcott College Prep as part of TimeLine Theatre’s Living History Education program.

The program sends theater artists into CPS classrooms and brings students to the theater to engage them in productions steeped in history and current events that touch their lives.

The play’s themes – discriminatory policing and violent encounters with police – are all too familiar for Alcott students and faculty, who say they still occur in students’ communities outside of school.

In the 19th police district where Alcott is located, Black residents made up 54% of the subjects of police use of force incidents since 2019, according to the CPD Use of Force Dashboard. Citywide that percentage is 74.48%, while Black residents are about 28.8% of the Chicago population, according to 2022 U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

As Alcott junior Leo Sepulveda said in a post-show discussion at his school, “It still goes on. On your own time, out in the neighborhood.”

And as some Alcott students learned from “Notes from the Field,” such experiences can affect students’ futures whether they happen in school or in their communities.

Connecting theater to the classroom, students’ lives

Seeing the play is only one part of the Living History program. Before the students are ready to watch the story unfold on stage, they spend six to 13 sessions working with Living History teaching artists – learning more about the play and the social context around it and even acting out scenes from the play.

Then they attend a special matinee at the theater, followed by a debrief with the actors back in their classrooms the next day.

With a play like “Notes,” dealing with something so close to the students’ experiences, the teaching artists make sure to help students process the subject matter and express their feelings about it.

“It allows you to sit in a space and note that it is not your fault. It is the fault of the system failing people,’ said Living History teaching artist Marcus D. Moore. “It takes that burden off of them, because they are carrying already so much in the world.”

Alcott students understand violence at the hands of police officers “because they live it in their neighborhoods,” said Beth Pfeiffer, Sepulveda’s teacher at Alcott who coordinated the workshops with TimeLine.

And across Chicago, some students live it at school.

Although the number of calls to police in CPS have decreased in the past decade, police are still called on Black students in schools at a disproportionate rate, despite the fact that Black students do not commit crimes at a higher rate. In the 2022-23 school year, 68% of the more than 1,300 CPS students who received police notifications were Black, according to district data.

Black students also still make up a disproportionate number of in-school arrests, which have decreased overall by approximately 80% districtwide between 2012 and 2019, according to an August 2020 press release from CPS.

That is part of why Pfeiffer, who has coordinated with TimeLine’s Living History program for 15 years, decided the 80 students in her three English and general education classes needed to see “Notes from the Field.”

So, the first week of February, TimeLine teaching artists came to Alcott and took over Pfeiffer’s classes. Students did breathing and movement exercises, studied some of the monologues from “Notes,” and drew connections between the play and their own lives.

On day three of the six-session “residency,” as TimeLine calls it, the students stood in a tight misshapen circle crowded by the desks that had been pushed against the walls. Three teaching artists led them through an acting exercise in which they had to try to physically embody some of the characters from the play.

As they went around the room, most of the students were uncomfortable and shyly shrugged or fidgeted with the slips of paper with their monologues on them.

When they split into groups to practice stepping into their characters’ shoes and recite their lines, things livened up. Junior Felipe D. laughed as he lounged on a table, stood on a chair, and tried out increasingly unlikely postures to embody former NAACP Legal Defense President Sherrilyn Ifill.

When teaching artist and TimeLine company member Charles Andrew Gardner approached, he didn’t shut down the students’ antics. Instead he rolled with it, encouraging them to examine why they chose those postures.

“It’s very student-led,” he said after the class. “Like, what environment would you all work in best to do your best work? And then we just match that energy.”

Felipe D. tries out an exaggerated posture and gesture to embody the character in his assigned monologue on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024 at Alcott College Prep High School in Chicago.

A cluster of young women across the room giggled through their lines but also tried out gestures of support to portray their characters such as holding hands.

Nearby, another group was deadly serious as they rehearsed at a makeshift podium.

The students’ different approaches were welcomed by the three facilitators who floated around the room offering tips and adapting to each group’s different vibe.

It is, after all, uncomfortable work trying to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, said Gardner.

“One of the main transferable skills of theater is empathy,” he said. “It’s literally ‘how can I look at this script and try to understand this person who they may not share anything with?’”

But it’s not just about empathy for the characters, it’s about empathy for themselves and each other too, he said.

“I think that that’s the arts job to say, ‘We’re listening. So express yourself,’” he said

The Alcott students began their dive into “Notes” just a couple of weeks after four students in Chicago were shot and killed outside their schools. The shootings didn’t come up specifically during the residency, but Pfeiffer said students have brought it up separately in class.

“We’re fools if we don’t think that they’re absorbing what’s going on,” said teaching artist Lexi Saunders.

‘They see it in their own lives’

Pfeiffer doesn’t shy away from difficult subjects. In 2018, for example, she signed her AP Psychology students up for a residency with TimeLine built around a play called “Boy,” which took on topics such as gender identity and surgical transition.

Aside from programming with TimeLine, she has also introduced her students to Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a Montgomery, Alabama-based nonprofit that offers legal representation to wrongly-convicted prisoners, and she’s brought police officers into the classroom to shed light on their experiences.

“I like to take more risks than other teachers,” she said. “Sometimes I don’t think they are ready. But I want to get myself ready and get them ready, so they can get as much out of it as they can. And if you wait, we may never be ready.”

Beth Pfeiffer sits with her students during a post-show talk with “Notes from the Field’ actress Shariba Rivers at Alcott College Prep High School in Chicago.

When she signed her students up for “Notes,” she knew a two-and-a-half hour play full of monologues would be a challenge for restless high schoolers.

But the 11th graders in her classes have grown up amid high-profile police brutality cases, school shootings, nationwide protests for racial justice, and, of course, a pandemic.

“I think when they get it, they get it all too well, and they see it in their own lives,” said Pfeiffer.

When the house lights came back on after the matinee performance on Valentine’s Day and the play ended, one of TimeLine’s Living History teaching artists posed a question to the crowd of students: “What stood out to you?”

Without a beat, the first answer was shouted from the audience: “The girl who was thrown across the room.”

In written post-show reactions the next day, they reflected powerful insights and emotional connections to the play.

“The childhood a child has and the treatment they receive really affects them in their adulthood. It’s a full cycle that continues to happen,” wrote 11th grader Julia R.

Felipe D. wrote that he was particularly moved by the scene with Niya Kenny and Shakara.

“It seemed so deep and still sticks to my head,” he wrote.

“My takeaway was the theme of hate coming from police, not racism, but hate. That was a quote I remember. In almost each scene it was either about hate or the reaction to hate,” wrote Ismail C.

Two days after the Alcott students saw the play, two “Notes” actors visited Pfeiffer’s classes to debrief with the students and answer questions.

During the discussion, student Sammy C. noted how the play reminded her of Laquan McDonald, the 17-year-old Chicago high school student who was shot 16 times in the back by a Chicago police officer in 2014. She learned about McDonald last year when the class read “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas and then researched police brutality cases and shared what they learned with their peers.

These reflections demonstrate everything the teaching artists and Pfeiffer hoped the students would get out of the experience – empathy, emotional resonance, and greater understanding of the school-to-prison pipeline.

It’s Pfeiffer’s plan to take it a step further and turn those reactions into action.

“It’s very frustrating if you don’t focus on any glimmers of hope,” she said.

Actress and instructional coach Shariba Rivers talks to Alcott students two days after acting in a special matinee performance of “Notes from the Field" at Alcott College Prep High School in Chicago.

The energy from the students crackled to life when actor Shariba Rivers let some of her anger and raw emotion break through as she talked about the scene of the play that moved her most – Kevin Moore’s monologue about filming the brutal 2015 beating of Freddie Gray, a Baltimore man who died of a severe spinal cord injury sustained while in police custody.

Rivers, who spent almost 30 years as an educator in Chicago and is now an instructional coach on the South Side, recited his lines: “‘Can you crush your own larynx? Can you sever your own spine? Can you do this to yourself?’”

“The first time I heard the story that way, I was gutted,” Rivers said, before settling into a calm anger.

“He did not deserve to be treated like that,” she said. Nods and mumbles of agreement arced around the classroom. “He still deserved a day in court, he needed to show up alive. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing something wrong. You still should be allowed to show up alive in court.”

The school bell rang, cutting her off mid-thought. But the students paused their usual rush of packing up — and gave Rivers hearty applause.

Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified Living History teaching artist Marcus D. Moore.

Chicago Board of Education votes to remove police officers from schools

2024-02-23T03:12:51+00:00

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During a meeting in which tempers flared and community members argued over the merits of school police, Chicago’s Board of Education voted Thursday to eliminate all school police officers by the next academic year and create a new “holistic” school safety policy.

The board approved a resolution that directs Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez to draft a school safety policy by June 27 that explicitly bans school resource officers, or SROs, from campuses. These officers are trained and employed by the Chicago Police Department, but the district covers their salaries.

The district’s new school safety policy must instead emphasize more “holistic” approaches to student discipline, such as restorative justice practices, the resolution said. Such practices, which focus on conflict resolution instead of punishment, have replaced sworn officers in some schools over the past few years. The resolution approved Thursday will directly impact the 39 high schools that currently have a total of 57 SROs.

The board’s decision — which drew dozens of public speakers, including 20 elected officials — addresses a yearslong grassroots movement that has pushed the district to remove SROs from school campuses. Advocates instead want the district to spend more money on social workers, mental health resources, and practices focusing on conflict resolution. A recent study found that schools implementing restorative justice practices saw drops in student arrests. Students also reported feeling more safe.

But the decision drew significant pushback as well, including from several city aldermen, who argued that schools in their communities feel safer when officers are on campus.

At one point during Thursday’s meeting, former school board member and community activist Dwayne Truss sparred with audience members over his criticism of the board’s decision — causing advocates to chant “SROs, we want you out.” Truss was on the board when it decided to let Local School Councils vote on whether to keep their officers. He argued that was the most “democratic” solution at the time and still is today.

Truss, who is Black, accused the Board of Education of “telling Black folks, ‘We know what’s best for you.’”

In defending the board’s decision, Board Vice President Elizabeth Todd-Breland said it was fulfilling a 2020 promise from the previous board, which committed to phasing SROs out of schools. The board’s goal is to reduce disparities among those who are disciplined at school, she said. Calls to police disproportionately involve students with disabilities and Black students, who are also disproportionately suspended, compared to their peers, according to the resolution.

The board has discussed the policy change for several months with the district and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office, Todd-Breland said, noting that it’s “about more than just SROs.”

“This is a shift, and this shift to a model of holistic safety is really necessary for all of our schools, not just schools that currently have SROs,” Todd-Breland said. “Continuing the district’s progress in moving from a more punitive approach to a holistic, healing centered approach is evidence-based work.”

Board member Rudy Lozano Jr. said the district will still rely on the Chicago Police Department to help with arrival and dismissal and to respond to emergencies. In response to criticism about pulling power away from LSCs, board member Tanya D. Woods said state law requires the district to “deal with discipline disparities.”

Makayla Acevedo, a junior at Hyde Park Academy and a member of Southside Together Organizing for Power, or STOP, said officers at her school don’t stop the many fights that break out. She wants to see the funding for SRO salaries go toward more career programming at her school, such as for nursing training, as well as restorative justice programming.

“I just feel like we just really need those funds, to invest all of that money to get the programs in order for all students … to be successful in life and reach their dreams,” Acevedo said.

The district has spent nearly $4 million on “alternative safety interventions,” such as restorative justice, at 14 schools where SROs have already been removed, according to the resolution.

After the meeting, Martinez said, “We actually have not paid for any of these services for CPD for the last three years. We weren’t even going to pay for this year.” A district spokesperson later confirmed that although money was allocated, no payments have been made to the police department since 2020, when schools went remote during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Longstanding tensions come to a head

The movement to remove SROs grew in 2019, when the Chicago Police Department was placed under a federal consent decree. The next year, after protests over Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd, the district asked LSCs to vote on whether they wanted to keep SROs.

But the resolution has exposed long-simmering tensions.

At Thursday’s meeting, arguments erupted between Truss and audience members from organizations that have long pushed for the district to remove SROs. Those organizations include Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Good Kids Mad City, and STOP.

As they yelled at each other, the board called a brief recess and cleared the room for several minutes.

Truss cited recent shootings outside three Chicago schools that left four students dead, and argued that some communities may feel the need to keep police at schools in order to feel safe. That sentiment was echoed by several other speakers.

“The fact is that Black folks are tired of getting disrespected by folks who don’t live in our community,” said Truss.

Ald. Monique Scott, whose 24th Ward represents North Lawndale on the West Side, said the decision needs to be made by local communities. Scott’s brother and predecessor, Michael Scott Jr., replaced Truss on the school board in 2022 and served until the end of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s term last summer.

“Every school doesn’t have to have them, but some schools need them and I think that it should be based on the LSC to determine that,” Scott said.

The district’s Local School Council Advisory Board, charged with advising the Board of Education, “overwhelmingly” approved a resolution Feb. 12 that called for leaving decisions about campus police to LSCs, according to Froy Jimenez, a member of the advisory board and a teacher at John Hancock College Preparatory High School.

The advisory board members were concerned that stripping LSCs of that power chips away their right to make decisions about their schools, Jimenez said. Jimenez noted that his own LSC voted to get rid of the school’s campus police. However, Jimenez said he represents a part of the city “where some schools would want to have [them].”

The board’s decision was celebrated by several advocacy organizations that have rallied for years to stop staffing police in schools, as well as the City Council’s progressive caucus. Several speakers asked the district to spend more money on social workers and boost restorative justice.

Kennedy Bartley, executive director of United Working Families, a progressive political organization, credited Thursday’s vote to the years of advocacy from students and educators, which “built enough political power to elect a mayor with a mandate for transformative change.”

The Chicago Teachers Union, which also supports the change, has submitted a request with the district to bargain over the new school safety policy, CTU Vice President Jackson Potter told the board Thursday. Potter said the union wants several things to be considered in the new policy, including more “trauma supports” and training on restorative practices.

Becky Vevea contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s school board wants to remove police from all schools starting next school year

2024-02-20T19:32:03+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education wants to remove police officers from schools starting next school year, according to a resolution included in the agenda for Thursday’s board meeting.

The resolution directs CPS CEO Pedro Martinez to come up with a new policy by June 27 that would introduce a “holistic approach to school safety” at district schools, such as implementing restorative justice practices, which focus on resolving a conflict instead of punishment.

That policy “must make explicit that the use of [school resource officers] within District schools will end by the start of the 2024-2025 school year,” the resolution said. (Find the resolution on page 15 of your PDF reader.)

The resolution nods to the district’s shift in student discipline to more restorative practices, which has led to “significant progress” in reducing suspensions. However, the resolution notes that disparities in suspension rates are disproportionately higher for students with disabilities and Black students, compared to their Hispanic and white peers.

Most CPS schools don’t have school resource officers who, unlike security guards, are trained and employed by the Chicago Police Department, but are stationed in schools full-time. If passed, the resolution would directly impact 39 schools – all high schools – that have a total of 57 officers on campus, according to the resolution and district officials. Fourteen schools voted to remove a total of 28 officers and instead received a total of $3.9 million for “alternative safety interventions,” including for restorative justice and social service coordinators, the resolution said. CPS also employs more than 1,400 security guards at schools, according to staffing data from the end of December 2023.

Schools that have voted to keep their officers have cited a variety of reasons for doing so, including that in some cases, school resource officers have strong relationships with students. Opponents of police on campus argue that the presence of officers can lead to more punitive student discipline and can leave children feeling unsafe.

Last month, Nadig Newspapers and WBEZ reported that the board was planning to remove Chicago Police Department officers from schools. Mayor Brandon Johnson later confirmed to WBEZ that he’s in support of such a plan.

The resolution, which the board is slated to vote on Thursday, represents Johnson’s hand-picked school board’s clearest statements on removing police officers from Chicago schools. As a mayoral candidate, Johnson had said police officers “have no place in schools,” WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times reported. However, last year, he told the outlet he would leave the decision up to LSCs.

The resolution said the district would continue to partner with the Chicago Police Department, but district officials did not immediately explain what that relationship would look like.

Having police stationed inside Chicago schools came under scrutiny in 2019 as part of the police department’s federal consent decree. In 2020, amid protests and the racial reckoning that swept the country after George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police, Chicago schools began voting one-by-one on whether or not to keep their school resource officers.

Driven by similar issues, Denver Public Schools removed police from schools in 2020 and 2021, but its work to implement a new school safety policy, as Chicago’s board is seeking, was derailed by the pandemic. The Denver school board reversed its decision last June after a shooting inside a high school.

In 2022, the Chicago school board reduced its contract with the police department from more than $30 million to roughly $10 million and allocated money for schools to implement alternatives to police, such as restorative justice counselors. The contract was renewed last summer for $10.3 million and about $4 million to improve school climate was separately allocated to schools that had removed their officers.

Research from the University of Chicago released last fall found an improvement in student engagement and a decline in suspensions at schools that had implemented restorative practices in recent years.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools recover from pandemic declines more than other districts, study shows

2024-02-19T11:00:00+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools students’ reading scores are recovering faster since the pandemic than most school districts across the country, according to a new national report.

The district’s surprising rebound, documented by researchers at Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University and The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, also found the state of Illinois led the nation in reading growth between 2022 and 2023 and is one of just four states to return to pre-pandemic achievement levels.

However, the bounce back has not been as strong in math. Both Illinois and Chicago were in the middle of the pack for math score recovery compared to other states and districts.

Chicago Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova attributed the growth to how the district spent its federal COVID money.

“The federal pandemic aid actually has allowed us to invest fully in the day-to-day what I call the bread and butter of education,” Chkoumbova said.

Chicago spent a large portion of its $2.8 billion allocation on existing staff. Documents obtained by Chalkbeat in 2021 showed the district planned to use the money to cover salaries and benefits for roughly 30% of its workforce. Expenditure data obtained by Chalkbeat late last year indicates $1.4 billion of the $2.4 billion spent so far went to staff salaries and benefits.

CPS employed just over 38,000 people on the eve of the pandemic, and staffing records show that number has grown to more than 43,500 as of Dec. 31, 2023. The district’s overall budget grew from $7.7 billion the year the pandemic hit to $9.4 billion this school year.

A lot of the district’s increased staff costs were tethered to specific initiatives aimed at helping students recover from two years of disrupted learning:

The district tapped hundreds of mostly existing staff within schools to become academic interventionists, who worked one-on-one or in small group settings with struggling students.
CPS also hired hundreds of tutors across the school system and worked with an outside company to do high-dosage tutoring. According to a district spokesperson, 600 tutors in 230 schools provide tutoring in reading and math during the school day.
Summer school and after-school programs expanded significantly over the past few summers — spending between $20 million and $40 million each summer. However, tracking student participation has proved difficult.
Chkoumbova said the district has also hired more than 180 “instructional coaches” dedicated to supporting teachers and school staff in schools with the highest needs.

The growth in CPS between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school year documented by researchers at Harvard and Stanford on their Education Recovery Scorecard bucks a broader trend of widening inequity between high-poverty and wealthier districts.

According to the data, Black student scores in CPS grew even more than the district average in reading. District officials said their improvement meant they “emerged from the pandemic two-thirds of a year ahead of where they were in reading than before the pandemic.”

“Our teachers, our staff, our principals, assistant principals, they also have experienced the effects of the pandemic, but they really stepped in a big way and I think it has to be celebrated,” Chkoumbova said.

State test score data released last fall showed more Chicago students were catching up, but still remained below pre-pandemic achievement levels. Gaps between Black and Latino students and their white and Asian counterparts remain and there’s more work to be done to help students with disabilities and immigrant students, Chkoumbova said.

With federal COVID money running out later this year, Chicago Public Schools is projecting a $391 million dollar shortfall. Officials have been urging the state to increase funding.

“We have a good plane that we can fly. We just need a lot more fuel to sustain the speed with which our students are recovering and also to gain some altitude,” Chkoumbova said.

Governor J.B. Pritzker is set to release his budget proposal next week and state education officials have proposed increasing overall education funding by more than $650 million next year, which includes increases for both K-12 and early childhood education. Lawmakers will have the final say over how much is ultimately allocated.

Pre-pandemic progress may have helped rebound

This is not the first time Stanford researchers have found promising academic growth in Chicago Public Schools.

A report released in 2017 that looked at test scores between 2009 and 2014 found Chicago students saw six years of growth in five and were improving faster than 100 of the nation’s largest school districts.

Paul Zavitkovsky, an assessment specialist at the Center for Urban Education Leadership at the University of Illinois Chicago, did a similar study that same year looking at 15 years of data and found the often negative perception of Chicago Public Schools did not match reality. In his study at the time, CPS students in every demographic group were outscoring their counterparts in the rest of the state.

He said that the latest pandemic recovery identified by national researchers could be due to the “carry-over impact” of high reading achievement levels of students in second, third, and fourth grades at the end of 2019. These students, Zavitkovsky said, “entered the pandemic better prepared than any comparable cohort in CPS history.” He likened their academic bounce back to a sponge.

“If you have a sponge, and it hasn’t had water for a long time, it tends to shrivel up a little bit,” he said. “When you pour water on it, it immediately soaks up that water because it’s got all this sort of latent capacity to absorb it.”

He cautioned that the promising growth may not last forever and raised concerns about students who may have missed key early literacy instruction.

Chkoumbova, who also worked as a teacher and principal in CPS, said the district has been focused on early literacy for decades. On the eve of the pandemic, the district released a new literacy framework and when schools returned in-person, she said they emphasized the importance of strong foundational reading skills in kindergarten through fifth grade.

“We have been getting a little bit more specific about the need for this explicit teaching of foundational skills, phonics, phonemic awareness,” she said. “Our schools are really embracing this effort.”

She added that many schools have been using early literacy curriculum that is part of the district’s universal curriculum bank Skyline, which launched during the pandemic, or a curriculum from Wilson Reading. A district spokesperson said Skyline has been adopted on a voluntary basis by nearly half of CPS schools.

Cautious optimism as other indicators lag

Elaine Allensworth, Lewis-Sebring Director of the UChicago Consortium, said the findings were “exciting and surprising,” but also a little puzzling because attendance is still low and absenteeism is still high.

“Maybe there’s just a lot of focus on math and English language arts instruction right now because people are so worried about pandemic learning loss,” Allensworth said. “I know a lot of teachers feel under pressure to increase students’ test scores… which makes me nervous, honestly, because then I start to wonder, ‘Well, what are they not doing?’”

Chkoumbova said for the past two years, her message from the top has been to keep challenging students with grade-level work and “resist that urge” to do too much remediation on basic skills.

“If it is kill and drill and remediation, kids will not love coming to school,” Chkoumbova said.

She said she is “paying very close attention” to rates of chronic absenteeism. In Illinois, a student is considered chronically absent if they miss 10 percent – or roughly 18 days — in a school year, regardless of whether the absence was excused or not.

The percentage of chronically absent students in Illinois shot up in the 2020-21 school year and got even worse in 2021-22. In CPS, 39.8% of students were chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year, down from 44.6% the previous year.

But Allensworth said Chicago schools use data and research more and collaborate more frequently across teacher teams and networks – both of which are associated with school improvement.

“I think there’s just a lot of different things that are going on in Chicago that are different than other places,” Allensworth said. “It’s not glamorous or scandalous or whatever. And so locally people don’t know but people outside of Chicago look at Chicago as a place that’s kind of an exemplar in a lot of ways.”

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago counselor focuses on building relationships to get students to share

2024-02-15T00:35:02+00:00

Marlita Ingram was an English teacher at Chicago’s Manley Career Academy High School in the early 2000s when she realized that she wanted to be a school counselor.

She noticed that students who struggled in class were often dealing with a problem outside of school. She learned that if she built a relationship with them, then they would sometimes open up.

Ingram, who has been a counselor for the past 18 years, helps students work through a range of problems – from issues with their class schedule to dealing with gun violence, which recently claimed the lives of four students near three Chicago schools.

Even as a seasoned educator, Ingram, a department chair at Foreman College and Career Academy High School, is still learning new ways to connect with students. Recently, as the school has welcomed many new migrant students, Ingram has relied on Google Translate, bilingual staff, and trusted friends of her Spanish-speaking students to facilitate conversations.

“I’ve had kids who are not even on my caseload [say], ‘Can I talk to you?’ I’m like, ‘OK, yeah, baby, you can talk to me,’ and it’s because one of their friends brought them,” she said. “The more approachable you are … I think they gravitate, and they are willing to tell you more than what you want to know, but they’ll tell you what they have on their mind.”

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Was there a moment when you decided to become a counselor?

Outside the classroom, I was doing a lot more community-based work with my students. They needed help with navigating different things in the community. They were having issues at home with family, and I started engaging with that work. And then one summer, I kinda helped out the school counselor at the school, and I was like, “I think this is what I want to do.” I still always tell people my passion or my niche is to teach or to help educate. I just do it in a different way with school counseling.

How do you get to know your students?

It varies. Kids say my presence is always “automatic” when I come in the room because I’m very boisterous. I’m very alive when I’m doing class instructions or class lessons with students. But I’m also a person who notices the small things.

If it’s a student I’ve never known before and they’re on my caseload, I might do a general introduction via email. We can see kids’ pictures; I just do a random look at the pictures so that I can start putting names and faces together. If I start seeing them in the hallway, I’m just like, “Hi, I’m Dr. Ingram, your counselor. What’s your name again?” I start that very general conversation, and then I build from there.

I try to be in the hallway during passing periods so I can observe how kids are interacting with each other. Do I see anything that’s not positive – bullying or something like that? I stay away from being security because that’s more punitive, and that’s not my role. But you will hear me in the hallway be like, “Ay!” Especially if it’s one of my kids that I’ve known for a while [like], “Uh-uh, Joshua, you already know where you’re supposed to be. I know your schedule by heart.” I don’t, but they think I do.

Every interaction builds to the next interaction. I’m in the middle of programming, so we sit one-on-one with our kids, and we start having conversations, like, “So what do you want to do? … Let’s start seeing where we need to plug in classes that might fit well with what you think you may want to do, and you can change your mind.” Kids flock to you when they know that you care.

Over the past month, multiple students in Chicago have been fatally shot near school, causing a lot of grief for not just the families, but also for students and staff. What are the first steps you take to support students experiencing grief?

On a school level, we may do some acknowledgment. We have these two groups, right, that don’t necessarily live by each other. They live in certain pockets of the city. One of our African American students may have heard about something in that particular area, whereas my Latino students may not know because they don’t live in that area. It’s sometimes challenging to be able to finagle what’s happened in what community, but when we do have that information, we do offer crisis services for students here at the school with our social workers. We have great outside partners, with Youth Guidance, with BAM and WOW. They chime in and help as much as needed. On a daily basis, in the counseling suite, we have a wellness room. It’s a space for students to utilize to kind of regulate their emotions. [One student was] dealing with the loss of her father. That was her saving grace when she transitioned back into school.

And then we are starting to help teachers get more involved in the regulation because sometimes kids won’t come to us. So we’re in the process [of] ordering different things that kind of help create a space, that if a kid just wants to take a timeout, and they don’t want to come all the way down to the counseling office, teachers can have these chair corners already established in their room that have gadgets and fidgets, meditating things, some breathing exercises, coloring, all the different things that can kind of help a student regulate and refocus.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your school?

We have [had an] increase in one part of the community of robberies. I’ve got a couple of kids who have been stuck up for shoes, jackets.

[Separately], we have an influx of our migrants that are coming in. Our bilingual numbers have doubled. So learning how to communicate with the students and make them feel welcome and safe.

I have learned over the years a few phrases, but I cannot hold a complete conversation in Spanish, but I utilize Google Translate. [Students learning English] become very resourceful, and they’ll find a peer partner to help translate. We have a list of staff that are bilingual or trilingual that I can reach out to like, “Hey, can you translate for me real quick?” especially with a parent and or a student. So we just try to maneuver, and I’m still trying to learn Spanish because I think I should just learn it anyway.

Tell us about a memorable time — good or bad — when contact with a student’s family changed your perspective or approach.

I had a student who didn’t know how to come out to his family. That transition was a very hard time for him. And this was early on in my career. It was the first time I had a student who came out to me, right? And the love and support that I saw from [his mother and aunt]. It really, truly made me understand the need for that full circle, for that student to be that courageous, to be able to say, “This is who I am, and this is why you know. I’m not going to hide it anymore.” So it made me very much more in tune to try and check to see if I had any biases, and if I did, to try to correct those to be a support.

What part of your job is most difficult?

The meetings. As leaders in the building, we are pulled into quite a few meetings, and balancing that with being available for students in need [is a challenge]. Our leadership, our administration, only allows students to see us during the lunch period. (If a kid is in crisis, it doesn’t matter when it is.) But trying to balance being a presence, providing our perspective, being in leadership roles in the building, and being available to students — sometimes that just totally throws off your day. I’ll have days where I’ve been in meetings most of the day and I feel like I haven’t been available for my students. I’m learning as a department chair that sometimes your impact may be indirect because you’re making decisions … that are going to affect students indirectly. So I’m servicing them, it’s just not the direct service. And my passion is the direct service, right?

The second part is student advocacy. If I’m advocating for a student, be it for an academic issue or social-emotional or something like that, that is part of my job. It sometimes makes that tension [with another teacher or administrator] a little strong, I’m gonna say. [Teachers] feel as though I’m taking the kid’s side — I’m not.

What was the biggest misconception that you initially brought to teaching?

In teaching, my biggest misconception was that I thought all kids wanted to learn. I figured, if you came to school, you want to be there. That’s not how it is. We got kids who come for other reasons. It took me a while to learn that. I believe that a lot of students come to school for socialization. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have kids who want to learn — that’s not what I’m saying. But I am saying, kids feed off of interacting with their peers and growing those relationships.

As a counselor, I think my misconception was that I would have more freedom and fluidity throughout my day, and I really don’t. It’s very structured. Like [people will say], “Oh, you don’t have a class, so what are you doing?” When I walked in the door, it’s literally boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, sneak in a lunch, boom, boom.

What’s the best advice you’ve received?

With school counseling, the best advice was for me to be transparent to students and families, to be vulnerable. If I can show them I was OK being transparent and I was comfortable being vulnerable with them, then they would do the same. If we can have that baseline of vulnerability and respect, we can go wherever we needed to go.

How a Chicago counselor supports Latino boys in high school and beyond

2024-02-15T21:45:00+00:00

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When Jorge Alaves looks around room 110 at Lindblom Math and Science Academy each Wednesday morning, he sees 36 versions of his teenage self: Latino boys with a lot of potential at a high school full of high-achieving students trying to figure out how to be successful after graduation.

This is what’s known as “Lindblom Colegio,” a peer mentoring and postsecondary planning group for Latino boys that meets during the school’s colloquium days.

Alaves, one of Lindblom’s five counselors, launched the group about six years ago after noticing that Latino boys at the selective enrollment high school were less likely to apply to college and would sometimes struggle academically and socially.

Lindblom admits top students from elementary schools across the city based on an admissions test. Students like Freddy Lazaro.

Lazaro attended a charter school for kindergarten through second grade, but then transferred to Beasley, a gifted school in Washington Park. Lazaro got into Lindblom’s Academic Center in seventh grade and is now a senior.

“It was diverse and that’s what I liked about the school,” Lazaro said. “I was able to meet a lot of different people who came from different backgrounds.”

Latino students make up about 27% of Lindblom’s otherwise primarily Black student body, which includes just over 1,300 students.

Lazaro said it was a hard transition academically when he got to Lindblom because he was suddenly taking Chinese and pre-algebra. Initially, his grades weren’t the best, he said, but they got better over time.

Since joining “Colegio” as a sophomore, he said he’s been able to explore career options and visit a variety of colleges, including University of Illinois where he was recently admitted to the business school.

“Those college trips definitely influenced my post-secondary plans,” Lazaro said.

When Alaves first started “Colegio” six years ago, he recruited Latino boys with a 2.0 to 2.9 GPA. He would talk to teachers during team meetings and review freshman grades to identify students who might benefit from additional support.

“But it’s grown so much to where, it’s just word-of-mouth,” Alaves said. “They themselves share with their friends and will bring their friends here to my office, and they’ll say, ‘Hey, Mr. Alaves. I think that he’s a really great fit. I think that he would do really well in ‘Colegio.’”

Counselor Jorge Alaves poses for a portrait at Lindblom Math and Science Academy in Chicago.

Like his students, Alaves was a high achiever in elementary school and got into a prestigious high school: De La Salle Institute, the alma mater of many famous Chicagoans, including two former Chicago mayors, Richard J. and Richard M. Daley.

He went to Florida State University on a full scholarship because he felt like that was what was expected of him.

“In reality, I was first-generation, I had no idea what I was doing,” Alaves said. “I had never stepped foot on any college campus and a big, big environment like that was not the best fit for me.”

Alaves transferred and finished his degree in psychology at DePaul before landing a job at a nonprofit in Little Village, where he ran a youth program after school and during summers. After getting a master’s in school counseling and clinical mental health counseling, he became Lindblom’s counselor for the seventh and eighth grade students in the Academic Center.

Eduardo Serna, a junior, gives a presentation to his classmates in the "Lindblom Colegio," which provides mentoring, counseling, and postsecondary planning for Latino boys at the predominantly Black selective enrollment high school.

Shortly after the bell rang on Valentine’s Day, junior Eduardo Serna stood before his classmates to give a presentation about a program he’s part of this school year called Chicago Builds, a pre-apprenticeship program for high school juniors and seniors to learn construction trades, such as carpentry, electricity, welding, and HVAC.

Serna explained how his teachers are part of the electricians union and showed off pictures of a small house he built. Then he touted the pay-off.

“When you’re working overtime, you get 1.5 times pay and you can get double time hours as well,” Serna said. “Your salary can be well up to or over $100,000.”

Alaves chimed in to tell the group that Chicago Builds can help students get into competitive apprenticeships with the unions after high school.

“To get into a union, it is really, really, really competitive,” Alaves said, adding that there are 2,000 applications for about 200 spots every year. “They do want strong students. You can’t just give up on high school and say I’m going to do a trade. If you’re thinking about the trades, you still have to be doing well academically now and keeping your grades up.”

Serna said he plans to get his bachelor’s degree in business and hopes to one day run his own construction or trade company.

As the class period came to an end, Alaves reminded the boys to return their permission slips for the group’s upcoming visit to Roosevelt University while he handed out black sweatshirts. Emblazoned on the front, in the school’s maroon and yellow colors, were the words: “Lindblom Colegio.”

Wear these shirts proudly, he told the boys. They represent the school and the values of the “Colegio”: Be on your best behavior. Be respectful. Be on time to class. Keep your grades up and ask for help when you need it.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools plans to end Aramark cleaning contract

2024-02-13T01:41:10+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools said Monday it is not planning to renew a multi-million dollar deal with Aramark for the management of school janitors and cleaning services after a decade.

The move comes after years of concerns and complaints over school cleanliness from staff, parents, and students.

The school board’s latest agreement with the Philadelphia-based company is set to end June 30, 2024. According to a school board committee agenda posted Monday, the district is asking board members to increase the current contract, which started Aug. 2021, from $369 million to $391 million “due to unforeseen expenditures associated with overtime, custodial supplies and custodial equipment.”

A district spokesperson confirmed Monday the district is not renewing the contract with Aramark and the school board will vote on seven new contracts at its Feb. 22 meeting.

Charles Mayfield, chief operating officer at CPS, said the district is looking forward to more direct oversight of janitorial services and supplies and allowing principals to have more say on school cleaniness. Mayfield said the district will contract with seven vendors for custodial services. He said he doesn’t anticipate any job losses with this change.

CPS employs more than 1,000 custodians, according to staffing records updated at the end of December.

“We had an opportunity to renew at Aramark and we opted not to,” said Mayfield. “There were some challenges there, but they’ve also been great partners over a number of years. Sometimes change happens.”

A spokesperson for Aramark wrote in a statement that the company was disappointed to not be selected to continue providing facility services for CPS.

“We are proud of the efforts of our dedicated employees and are committed to ensuring a smooth transition to the school district’s new provider,” said Chris Collom, Aramark’s vice president of corporate communications.

Chicago Public Schools first contracted with Aramark in 2014. Budget officials at the time promised that outsourcing the management of school cleaning would save money and ease the burden on school principals.

But the deal backfired in the first school year when staff returned from summer break to dirty classrooms and, in some buildings, fewer custodians. Then-CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett admitted the shift to privatized management of custodians was not going smoothly and the board reversed nearly 500 planned layoffs. By the spring of 2015, the contract with Aramark had gone millions of dollars over budget, WBEZ reported.

The union representing school janitors called the move a victory for its members. SEIU Local 73 — the union that also represents school employees such as special education classroom assistants, bus aides, and crossing guards — has been meeting with the district’s facilities department for almost three years to raise concerns about Aramark’s management of equipment and supplies for custodial staff.

Stacia Scott Kennedy, executive vice president of SEIU, said she is thrilled the contract is over.

“I feel hopeful that this change in management will improve the outcomes of cleanliness,” said Scott Kennedy. “I also feel hopeful that it’ll improve the working conditions of our members who have suffered under private contract with management for the last 10 years.”

SEIU Local 73 has been in contract negotiations with Chicago Public Schools since its contract ended June 30, 2023. One of the union’s economic proposals was to ask the district to get rid of the contract with Aramark. Scott Kennedy said they will keep the proposal as negotiations continue.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools enrollment climbs as more migrant families arrive

2024-02-08T23:43:51+00:00

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More than 5,700 newly arrived immigrant students have enrolled in Chicago Public Schools since the beginning of the school year, district officials said Thursday.

Preliminary school enrollment data updated daily on the city data portal and analyzed by Chalkbeat shows overall enrollment increased by 4,500 students since the official count on the 20th day of school in September. After more than a decade of decline, CPS saw its enrollment stabilize this school year.

“The number is fluid and evolving,” CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said Thursday. “Our principals and teachers and school communities have been incredibly welcoming to the students and their families.”

His comments came during a virtual press conference about a new volunteer coordination effort launched by the City of Chicago aimed at supporting migrant families. It also comes after city officials once again delayed its plan to enforce a 60-day shelter stay limit on migrant families.

Publicly available data does not reveal how many CPS students are migrants or how many are living in city shelters. District officials said they do not collect information about the immigration status of students or their families “to support the City of Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance.”

Preliminary enrollment data analyzed by Chalkbeat indicates nearly 7,000 more students have been identified as English language learners since the end of September, when the district officially counted enrollment. English language learners can include both newly arrived immigrants, as well as students already living in Chicago.

Last school year, English language learners made up about one-fifth of all students; a decade ago, these students made up roughly 16% of CPS.

Last month, educators, union officials, and some local lawmakers raised concerns about schools without enough bilingual staff and other resources struggling to meet those students’ language and mental health needs.

District officials said Thursday that just under 6% of schools are lacking teachers with necessary ESL or bilingual credentials. Karime Asaf, the district’s chief of language and cultural education, said officials are prioritizing those roughly 30 schools — which officials did not identify — “for any kind of services or resources.”

Asaf said schools are working to get more teachers certified to teach English learners. District officials said they’ve allocated a total of $8 million to schools that saw increases in English learners since the 20th day of school.

Martinez said around 600 teachers are currently working toward getting bilingual or English as a Second Language endorsements.

Martinez said currently 7,200 teachers have these qualifications, up from about 5,100 teachers in 2018. However, bilingual staffing can vary by school, and often support staff, such as social workers, are not bilingual. CPS does provide a 24/7 language interpretation hotline that schools can call to get assistance communicating with families, but some parents have said they’ve struggled to communicate with schools or understand their school options when it’s time to move.

Students who are homeless — those in shelters, living doubled up somewhere, or living in a public place — have a right to remain at their school even if they move out of the school’s boundary and are entitled to transportation provided by the district, such as free CTA passes. By state law, if a school enrolls 20 or more students who speak a language other than English, the school must set up a bilingual education program with qualified staff. Asaf said this is “a multi-year process.”

“Generally, the challenge we have is when families just walk up to our buildings and we always tell our schools: Enroll the families. And then we have a process to work with those families to make sure we find the nearest program,” Martinez said.

The district also has bi-weekly meetings with staff at the city’s largest temporary shelters that are housing migrants, to “make sure that our families understand that there’s always a way to connect with the Chicago Public Schools … to make sure all their questions are answered,” Asaf said. She added that most school leaders attend these meetings.

Martinez said CPS is planning to hire newcomer adults who have received work authorization for “critical needs” at schools, including as custodians, as well as positions in transportation, nutrition, and classroom support.

Many of Chicago’s migrant families have been searching for work but need authorization to obtain jobs legally. Axios reported that about 1,000 newcomers have received work permits as of late January, four months after the federal government expanded eligibility to nearly half a million immigrants from Venezuela, where political and economic turmoil has pushed many residents to leave.

“We were proactive working with the city to say, since we know we have these families who are looking for jobs, we have many openings,” Martinez told reporters on Thursday. “We are now just trying to make it easier for our families to be able to apply for these different jobs.”

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org. Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

As Chicago gets its first elected school board, Local School Councils may become a proving ground for candidates

2024-02-08T16:32:48+00:00

Updated: This story has been updated to reflect an extension to the deadline for candidates to file paperwork to run for LSC. It is now Wednesday, Feb. 14.

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In the halls of Uplift Community High School, Karonda Locust is known as “Mama T.”

“If you need help, go tell my mom,” her daughter Tiara, now 23, would tell her friends when she was a student there.

“That’s how I got stuck here,” Locust said with a laugh on a recent Monday.

For four years while her daughter attended Uplift, Locust served as a parent representative on the school’s Local School Council, the governing body of community members, parents, and school staff that make decisions about the school’s budget and academic plan and evaluate the school’s leaders. Locust has also served on the LSC at Willa Cather Elementary school, where her youngest daughter still attends, for nine years.

For Locust, the LSC was a gateway to more involvement in the school.

“That’s how it should be,” said Locust’s sister Taschaunda Hall, who is also an active member of the Cather’s LSC and briefly served on the LSC at Uplift as well.

Chicago’s LSCs are unique and powerful. There’s nothing quite like them in other school districts across the U.S. The Chicago School Reform Act of 1988 established that every CPS-run school would have a Local School Council. Today LSCs are made up of six parents, two teachers, two community members, a student representative, and the school’s principal.

But while the first LSC elections in 1989 had over 17,000 candidates, those numbers have plummeted over the years. The last LSC elections in 2022 saw just over 6,000 applicants, but voter turnout was at its strongest in a decade, with students making up the majority of the 110,700 voters.

Still, LSC members have successfully advocated for change and improvements and many believe the councils are the key to better schools across the city.

Now, with Chicago’s Board of Education adding elected seats for the first time this year and transitioning to a fully elected board in 2026, LSCs may become a sort of proving ground for positions with a broader reach.

“I do predict many of our LSC members may put their hat in the ring,” said Kishasha Ford, director of the CPS LSC Relations office. “Our LSC members [are] very well-equipped to do this work because they have some experience being on a kind of a board, because if you think about it, LCSs are like mini school boards for their local school.”

Elections for these “mini school boards’' are happening again this spring. The deadline to run for LSC is 3 p.m. next Wednesday, Feb. 14 and election day for elementary schools is April 10 and April 11 for high schools, with new two-year terms of office beginning July 1, 2024.

As of Feb. 1, 1,902 people had filed to run for LSC, according to district officials. At the same time last election cycle in 2022, 852 people had applied.

Over the decades, LSCs have changed the names of schools named after enslavers, removed controversial leadership, won capital improvements, even helped open new schools. Others have sat mostly empty, served as little more than a rubber stamp, or been rendered ineffective by infighting and conflicting interests.

It depends on who’s running the ship, says Kendra Snow, the lead parent organizer for grassroots organization Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education.

Studies showing that parent involvement in schools can have a major impact on student outcomes are abundant, but for LSCs to be effective, Snow argues, parents have to do more than just show up, they have to be informed.

But the “showing up” part is still a major part of the battle.

After elections in 2022, over a thousand LSC positions were unfilled and according to CPS data, 311 schools still have vacancies on their councils. Still, according to CPS, 97% of LSCs had enough members to meet “quorum,” which requires that seven members be present for the LSC to vote and conduct business.

Chalkbeat caught up with four parents who have served on LSCs, where they called for improvements and guided their schools through challenges. Their experiences demonstrate what LSCs are capable of, some of the reasons parents may be opting out, and how the role of LSCs may shift as Chicago gets an elected school board.

The mom who wants to open LSCs to more people

Karonda Locust (right), a current LSC parent representative at Willa Cather Elementary School and former LSC parent representative at Uplift Community High School, stands with her sister, Taschaunda Hall (left), on the playground outside Cather.

Karonda Locust is decked out in the red and black of Willa Cather Elementary school on a recent Monday morning. Today, she’s helping out at the security check-in at the front doors before heading to work, but “I’m always there, everywhere,” she says.

She chats easily with staff and students and no one questions her presence as she walks the halls. They all know who she is.

Locust has served on the LSC at Cather alongside her sister Taschaunda Hall for nine years. When her eldest daughter moved on to Uplift Community High School in 2019, she joined the LSC there as well. For four years, she served on both LSCs at the same time.

Her time on the LSC at Uplift helped her forge relationships with the staff and kids and she continues to volunteer there even though her daughter has graduated. That’s the point of LSCs, she said, to invest in not just your own kids, but the school community as a whole.

That’s why in 2022 when her daughter was a senior at Uplift, she and her daughter (who sat on the LSC as a student representative) advocated for a bus service to bring in more students from the West Side. Her own daughter would never benefit from it, but other kids would.

Now, a bus picks up kids from Cather Elementary to bring them to Uplift, giving West Side kids a chance to attend the school without leaving parents to figure out the hour-and-a-half commute.

“That’s one of the things that I’m most proud of – that we were able to bring kids from other neighborhoods to Uplift and they can have that experience as well,” said Locust.

With the first Chicago Board of Education elections happening later this year, Locust said several friends and community members have asked her to run for a seat, but she doesn’t have the time.

Instead, now that her daughter has graduated – she earned a scholarship to study education at Truman College and plans to become a teacher – Locust is shifting some of her focus to advocating for changes to the structures and rules of LSCs.

Some of the requirements for serving on LSCs, she says, are keeping people out.

When Locust herself was a teen mother, she had a hard time making it to her daughters’ school events. In her stead, she often sent grandparents or aunts or uncles, any way to make sure her kids felt supported. But none of those family members could run for the LSC as a parent representative – and none lived within the school’s neighborhood boundaries, making them ineligible to serve as a community representative.

Family structures have changed in the past three decades, said Locus, and she wants to open up LSCs to more family members outside of the traditional parent-child paradigm.

“We’re actually losing out on opportunities for family members that could support the school because of the structure that was created over 30 years ago,” said Locust. “This is a non-paid position, so if somebody wants to serve and help my kids’ school, God bless ‘em.”

She also hopes to end the fingerprinting and background check requirements for LSC parents, saying it alienates parents with criminal records and scares off parents who are undocumented, though, barring convictions for certain offenses, both are legally allowed to serve on LSCs.

The veteran LSC leader who built a new school

José Quiles, a community representative on LSCs at Mary Lyon Public School, Steinmetz College Prep, Belmont-Cragin Elementary School in Belmont-Cragin, speaks inside of a classroom on Fri., Jan. 25, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois.

José Quiles has served on LSCs since they were first created in 1989. In his 35 years as a parent representative and then as a community representative, he’s seen it all.

The stories roll out of him with ease on a recent Thursday as he leads a Local School Council information session at the Belmont-Cragin not-for-profit organization he founded in 2015, the Education Community Committee (ECC).

He currently sits on LSCs at three schools – Mary Lyon Public School, Steinmetz College Prep, and Belmont-Cragin Elementary School – and when he’s not conducting LSC business, he’s teaching other people in the neighborhood how to join their LSCs and get things done on them.

In the workshops at ECC, they talk about things like how to read a budget and the rules and expectations for LSC members.

But what he hones in on and repeats over and over in the workshops is that the LSC is about the kids. All of the kids, not just their own.

That’s what sustained the eight-year movement he helped lead to get a new school built in Belmont-Cragin, he said – knowing that it was what the kids in the area needed.

“Belmont-Cragin started because Mary Lyon had 1800 kids,” said Quiles.

Initially, to address the overcrowding, some of the Mary Lyon kids were sent to a nearby site on Mango St. that was formerly the Catholic school St. James. When it became clear that the principal at Mary Lyon was struggling to oversee both school facilities, the LSC requested a separate principal and LSC to separate the school from Mary Lyon altogether, thereby creating a new school.

“Basically, we gave birth to it,” he said with a laugh.

Amid the swath of school closures in 2013, the St. James facility was closed and the students were relocated to a site on Palmer St., but the LSC found that there were not enough bathroom facilities for the students.

The LSC and other community organizations began pushing for a new school to be built at Riis Park.

In January 2023, the new Belmont-Cragin Elementary School officially opened in the park, offering 32 classrooms with park views, a black box theater, library, music room, and access to the connected park fieldhouse.

Quiles’ own children and foster children have long since graduated from the schools where he currently serves as community representative on the LSCs.

At 68, he says he wants to retire, but he’s worried that the LSCs aren’t ready for him to do so.

“A strong council moves mountains,” he told participants in Spanish during a recent LSC workshop. “But a weak council goes in no direction. And when you don’t move in any direction, there is no progress.”

That’s what his work with ECC is all about – educating parents so they know what questions to ask and how to push for change, whether on LSCs or as members of the new elected school board or as the voters who put people on those governing bodies.

Despite his insistence that he needs to retire, Quiles still has his ear to the floor at his local schools.

Right now, he says the biggest issues his LSCs are working on are the social emotional impacts of the pandemic on the students and supporting immigrant students and parents.

Advocating for the South Side

Kendra Snow is running for LSC at Christian Fenger Academy High School in Roseland. She is a former LSC member at Harvard Elementary School in Auburn-Gresham.

Back in 2002 when Kendra Snow sat on her first Local School Council at a school in Auburn-Gresham, “it was like a puppet show,” she said.

The principal “hand-picked” the parents she wanted on the council and ran the meetings, quickly going over budget lines. No one asked any questions or knew what anything meant.

“We were just bodies here to put a signature to something,” she said.

Then, Snow began to learn on her own.

“I had to learn this for myself, it’s the parents with the power, and if you want to know something then you read into it the same way she did,” said Snow. “So now I’m the troublemaker, because I challenged things.”

CPS supports LSCs with trainings and office hours, as well as 13 specialists supporting 511 LSCs, according to the department’s director Kishasha Ford.

There is a 300-page manual for LSC members and online modules as well as in-person trainings, said Ford.

“That’s the biggest part of our job is the education piece.” she said. “Because it is a lot to know and we can’t expect every single LSC member to know every single nuanced thing. That’s why we’re here to help support and to guide them.”

Snow read the manual and did the online modules, but she says, it’s not quite enough.

“You got to just do more than just watch these videos,” she said, suggesting that CPS incorporate questions into the modules to make sure viewers understood the material before moving on to the next video.

She supplemented her CPS training with resources and workshops from community organizations. Now, Snow works to empower other parents so they can have a voice on their LSCs. She is the lead parent organizer with Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education.

The mother of seven, Snow has been entrenched in public education since her eldest son, now 31, first attended school. In fact, it was when her son was accepted into a school on the North Side that Snow was able to compare his experience there to the schools her other children attended on the South Side.

The biggest difference?

“Resources,” she said. “We’re not fighting the same battles. The resources that are in those schools, we don’t have in our schools.”

In her experience, Snow said parents are angry about the lack of resources and come into the schools shouting about it. She sees it as her job to give them a more effective way to get things done.

“You’re not getting results that way. So now let’s fight a different way for what we need in the school,” she said. “You hit them with policies. You hit them with facts.”

Snow has concentrated her efforts specifically on the South Side where she grew up and where most of her children have attended public schools.

In her work as a CPS-certified LSC trainer, she hopes she can not only encourage more South Side parents to run for LSC seats, but help make sure they are informed and therefore empowered to help improve their schools – one parent at a time, one school at a time.

“Know your power. Know that this is for your kids,” Snow said. “You have to fight for your kids. Just be there. Just show up. It’s a couple hours out of the month. Just show up. That time is worth it for public education.”

Educating fellow parents, ousting a principal

Vanessa Espinoza is former LSC member at Orozco Community Academy in Pilsen.

Vanessa Espinoza has been volunteering in Chicago Public Schools since before she had kids.

When she became a mother and began making friends with other parents, it opened her eyes to some of the inequities and challenges in CPS. Espinoza, who is bilingual, became particularly interested in supporting English language learners as well as students with IEPs, or Individualized Education Programs, to help students with special needs.

She soon joined the LSC at Orozco where her kids were enrolled and was surprised that few of the parent representatives understood the documents and policies they were supposed to be making decisions about.

“Why are you expecting the parents to approve something that they don’t understand totally?” she said. “You gave them the power just to say yes and no, but not do anything else.”

The trainings offered by CPS to parent representatives, she said, were superficial. For example, they teach the names of the budget lines, but not that each budget line can only be used for certain purchases.

“None of that was taught to the parents who were going to make this decision on the budget” she said.

However, Espinoza’s background as a support worker at another school gave her a leg up in this area. And her knowledge of finances turned out to be particularly important on Orozco’s LSC in 2014.

Because she knew how to read the budget, Espinoza soon discovered that the principal at the time was transferring large sums of money between budget lines, something that required approval from the LSC.

So she asked to see all of the reports on the budget and the school’s internal accounts. The principal refused and Espinoza requested an audit. The LSC tried to work with her, Espinoza said, but the principal was not amenable.

“This money’s for the kids. You don’t want to tell us where the money is and how you’re going to use it, then that’s it,” she said. " So we requested her removal.”

The council voted unanimously to remove Principal Nancy Paulette-Aguirre in November 2014.

But it wasn’t an entirely popular decision.

Most of the teachers at the school supported the decision, raising issues about turnover among other things and other LSC members said Paulette-Aguirre refused to work with the council, but non-LSC parents were split. On the day of the vote, 12 parents protested outside the school. Paulette-Aguirre was later removed from a second school in 2019.

“Even though the parents have the power to make significant changes, you have to be able to educate the parents with the information needed to make educated decisions, and [CPS] is not. In my opinion, they’re not.” said Espinoza.

She worries that these same issues might bleed over into the newly elected school board but is still hopeful that parents will gain some of the 10 elected seats this year.

“To have an elected school board that is going to be successful you have to have parents involved,” she said. “They know what their kids need.”

Espinoza’s children have graduated out of CPS, but Espinoza remains an advocate for education and serves as the bilingual communication specialist with Kids First Chicago and as the president and co-founder of Amigos de Gunsaulus, a parent-led non-profit that supports Gunsaulus Scholastic Academy in Brighton Park, where one of her children graduated.

Despite her challenging experience on Orozco’s LSC, she’s hopeful things can change as long as LSCs are filled with people who put the kids first.

“To be honest with you, it’s a lot of responsibilities, and it’s not well rewarded in a sense, not a monetary reward. Sometimes you get enemies,” but, she said, “If in your mind and your heart is the best for the kids’ education, I think you should run.”

‘Productive struggle’: Chicago educators search for ways to close math gaps

2024-02-05T23:31:44+00:00

Arika Henderson’s kindergarten class at LEARN South Chicago campus usually starts the day with a math lesson. On this early morning in January, the kindergartners are working through addition problems.

Henderson, an 18-year veteran teacher, asks a student to help model to the class how to solve 1+2. Together, they use brightly colored blocks to represent the numbers in the equation and count out loud together.

Henderson then pairs off the kindergartners to solve more problems on their own — a strategy she uses to see if students are grasping the concept and provide additional guidance to those who need a little more help.

As schools across the country grapple with low math scores that have dropped over the last decade and plummeted even further during the COVID-19 pandemic, educators like Henderson are searching for ways to engage students and build proficiency in math.

In Chicago, some schools have brought in math coaches to help teachers hone their instruction, while other educators are turning to a concept called “productive struggle,” where students are encouraged to find their own strategy to solve math problems before a teacher steps in to give them a solution.

Finding ways to help young learners build a solid foundation for math learning is key to students’ success in later grades, experts say.

Math concepts build over time, so instilling those basic math skills is critical, said Susan Levine, a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago.

“Evidence shows that the level of math that you go into kindergarten with is predictive of your long term-trajectory,” said Levine. “It doesn’t mean students can’t catch up, but research shows that it is better to start early.”

Students who skip pre-K or K may miss early math skills

In kindergarten, students learn how to count to 100, add, subtract, and identify shapes — building blocks for more advanced skills such as multiplication, division, order of operations, and the Pythagorean theorem.

In Illinois, state law does not require parents to put children in school until the age of 6. It is unclear how many young children do not attend preschool or kindergarten, since the state only tracks the number of children in publicly funded programs.

But research has found that students enrolled in kindergarten, especially full-day programs, have significant gains in reading, math, and social emotional skills. Young children who don’t attend school before first grade may fall behind in being introduced to foundational math.

Enrollment in the early grades also took the biggest hit during the pandemic as parents were concerned about safety and virtual learning.

That may have further stalled progress in math for many young children.

The Illinois State Board of Education’s KIDS exam is an assessment given to students in the fall that measures the readiness of children entering kindergarten. Teachers are asked to assess students’ readiness in math, social-emotional skills, and language and literacy development. In Chicago, teachers found that 31% of kindergarten students were ready for math during the 2020-21 school year, down by 3 percentage points from 2019.

When Illinois shuttered schools in 2020 in response to the pandemic, Henderson’s kindergarten class that year was in its second semester. During virtual learning, she said, only 14 students showed up consistently on the computer.

“It was only so much you could control from your end,” Henderson said.

Now, those students are third and fourth graders. Henderson suspects many did not have a good kindergarten experience to build their foundational knowledge in math, she said. “I just feel so bad.”

At Ruggles Elementary located on the city’s South Side in Chatham, Shekinah Curry, a second grade math teacher who has only been in the classroom for three years, said she’s noticed gaps in students’ foundational skills when it comes to writing numbers and counting.

“You may have students who are still writing numbers backwards. There was one student, she put 97 when it was supposed to be 79,” said Curry. “I have students who may not know how to count by fives or students who are questioning ‘if I’m counting by 10s correctly.’”

Schools turn to math coaches, shifting strategies

As districts work to close the learning gaps, educators are shifting to different strategies, such as productive struggle, and schools are scrambling for ways to help teachers become more effective in teaching math. In CPS, the district has started to roll out the Skyline curriculum, which encourages students to be active participants in class.

Katie Gleason, a first grade teacher at LEARN South Chicago campus, learned about productive struggle during her monthly meetings with teachers who are a part of the charter school network’s math professional learning community.

The approach — which Henderson used in her classroom and involves allowing students to work out ways to solve problems on their own after the teacher has first modeled a strategy — is effective because it requires students to make a connections between math concepts they are learning in class, Gleason said. However, the approach can be difficult for teachers to adapt to because some were taught to stand in front of the class and show students how to get the right answer.

“The math professional learning community has really taught us to allow students to have that productive struggle to try it on their own first and to teach them that it’s okay to make mistakes,” said Gleason. “We actually learn a lot through our mistakes.”

Some Chicago schools are also investing in math coaches — who observe educators in class to provide them with feedback and instruction strategies — to help bridge the gap in student learning and get students engaged in math.

At LEARN, math coach Midm Yi, who was a teacher for 11 years working with third, fourth, and fifth grade students, understands how difficult it can be for classroom teachers to catch students up to their current grade level while teaching new material.

In his role as a math coach, Yi spends his time observing teachers from anywhere between 25 to 45 minutes to evaluate engagement strategies teachers are using. Then he provides debriefing notes to teachers and resources they can use to improve their instruction. At the end of each week, he meets with other coaches in the network to go over training plans, professional development plans for teachers, and other projects.

Yi said he not only wants to see how teachers are working to fill in holes in students’ foundational skills, but also how they are “delivering that high, rigorous content that the curriculum is also providing for us. Are you intentionally using your plan time to effectively carve out specific time where you will be addressing those needs?”

In CPS, Corey Morrison, director of mathematics at the district, said his department has a math specialist for each grade who looks at research to see what math strategies are useful and a program manager who analyzes real-time data to see what interventions students need.

A CPS spokesperson said the district also has 198 coaches who support teachers in literacy and math. In addition, the district has also given funding to every school to hire at least one academic interventionist to work with students.

Shekinah Curry stands next to her second grade class on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024 at Ruggles Elementary school in Chicago, Illinois.

CPS’s Skyline curriculum, which is still being rolled out across the district, has also been a main force in changing how students learn math, Morrison said. Lessons are designed to encourage students to try their own math strategies in class, while teachers help students facilitate the conversation.

“It allows students to form their understanding based on what they’re naturally bringing to the classroom,” said Morrison. “Then, the onus is on the teacher to facilitate them to a point of deep understanding.”

School officials see promising growth

With the new support for educators and students the district added last year, Morrison said, schools are starting to see growth on students’ test scores.

“Last year was our first real year back from COVID,” said Morrison. “We saw a lot of promise from the strategies we put in place, and I think more of the intentionality around building positive math identity.”

Chicago Public Schools assesses students in reading and math between kindergarten and second grade three times a year on the i-Ready exam. At the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, 12% of K-2 students were at grade level at the beginning of the year. That number jumped to 50% by the end of the school year, according to data Chalkbeat Chicago received from a Freedom of Information Act request.

LEARN charter school network found that teachers who received math coaching or were a part of the network’s professional learning council during the 2022-23 school year saw their students score a higher proficiency rate on the NWEA and Illinois Assessment of Readiness exams, compared to teachers who were not receiving coaching. The charter school network — which serves 4,200 students across 11 schools in Chicago, northern suburbs, and Washington D.C. — went from one math coach last coach to five this year, according to a spokesperson. Three are shared between schools in Chicago and North Chicago; the schools in Waukegan, Illinois and Washington D.C. have one school-based coach each.

Teachers at LEARN like Katie Gleason have found math coaching and being a part of the professional learning community helpful. While Arika Henderson doesn’t receive math coaching, she is practicing productive struggle in her classroom.

Since the pandemic has eased, Henderson says she has seen growth in her students — some of whom had never been in school before — this year.

“They are getting in a routine of things,” she said. “The lightbulb has kind of come on and I can see the difference.”

On the cold January day in Henderson’s classroom, after she modeled a way to solve addition problems, her students worked on their own in their textbooks for about 10 minutes, tackling equations such as 2+1, 2+2, and 2+3.

Most students sat at tables named after flowers — sunflowers, tulips, lilies, roses, chrysanthemums — and worked with cubes. Others were asked to sit with Henderson’s instructional aide to get more hands-on support. Henderson walked around the classroom, keeping students on task and offering support where needed.

Some needed time to solve the problems, while others already found the answers. One student told Henderson: “I don’t need the counters. I already know it.”

A few minutes later, Henderson asked the class to share their answers and how they solved the problem.

Nearly every hand shot up, as the kindergartners jumped with excitement to tell their teacher and classmates what they had learned.

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education, and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

I helped two migrant teens enroll in Chicago Public Schools. It was anything but straightforward.

2023-08-23T19:15:00+00:00

The first week of school highlights yet another facet of the challenge Chicago faces in supporting newly arrived migrants: enrolling their children in school. For the past two days, I saw it up close while helping two migrant families enroll their daughters at a neighborhood high school in Brighton Park.

These families, recent arrivals from Venezuela, are among more than 1,200 migrants currently sleeping in police stations; about 6,500 more are staying in local shelters.

Maureen Kelleher

Since mid-July, Chicago Public Schools has been beefing up its efforts to enroll migrant students. The district opened a welcome center at Clemente Community Academy in West Town. School officials say they have enrolled about 1,000 new English learners over the summer and expect 1,000 more to enroll in the coming weeks. However, there’s no way to tell how many of them are recently arrived migrants. In a last-minute push, the district said teams from the Office of Language and Cultural Education are visiting police stations to help migrant families staying there to enroll.

And together with mutual aid groups supporting migrants at police stations, the Chicago Teachers Union held a Zoom training for volunteers helping families enroll and signed up migrant students as part of a back-to-school party at union headquarters.

Yet some families are still struggling to get their children in school. As the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times reported, volunteers and young migrants staying in South Side neighborhoods with few Latino students say schools have turned them away because they lack staff qualified to teach English learners.

But even enrolling in schools with the staffing to support new arrivals can be daunting, especially in high school, where the red tape is extra-thick. As a volunteer with the mutual aid network for the 9th District police station in Bridgeport and a longtime education writer, this is what I saw. I’m sharing it here with the families’ permission. Their names have been changed because their asylum cases are pending.

Monday, Aug. 21, 2023

7:45 a.m., Kelly High School, 4136 S. California Ave.

While hundreds of Kelly students wait to enter school on the first day of the new year, I’m meeting aspiring freshmen Sofia and Marianna and their respective mothers as they get out of another volunteer’s car.

Inside, a security guard tells us registration for new students doesn’t start until 9 a.m. We can wait or come back later. The four of them haven’t had breakfast, so we head out.

8 a.m., Tio Luis Tacos, 3856 S. Archer Ave.

Over plates of pancakes for the girls and eggs with nopales, chorizo, and cecina for the grown-ups, we get to know each other a little. We speak in Spanish, though mine is only mediocre. Like many migrants coming to Chicago, Rosa, Sofia’s mom, says her family has been at the Bridgeport police station for three weeks. She and her husband have two children: Sofia and a 1-year-old boy.

Maria, Marianna’s mom, tells me her family has been at the station for just 10 days. In addition to Marianna, she and her husband have two other children: a 10-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl. Both of them have already been enrolled at Holden, a neighborhood elementary school close to the police station. Her 10-year-old went to Holden on time for Day 1; her little girl has to wait while they make sure the preK has enough room for another student.

They tried to enroll Marianna there, too, but the school staff said she had to move on to high school due to her age: She’ll turn 15 in February.

Marianna has a taste for the salsa roja on the table with the chips, which makes both moms laugh. From volunteering, I know that Venezuelans, unlike Mexicans, don’t usually like their food spicy. Sofia is the more talkative one, convincing Marianna to have pancakes with her. Both girls love the pancakes, which vanish quickly. The sausage, not so much. Sofia takes some of her scrambled eggs in a to-go box.

9:10 a.m., Kelly High School, Door 4

When we get back to Kelly, a few other families are waiting by the registration entrance — Door 4. They have been buzzing, but no one is answering. I press the buzzer just for good measure, then text one of the lead volunteers with the District 9 group, who teaches at Kelly.

It’s starting to get hot outside. Maria holds her manila envelope full of papers up against her right cheek to shield her face from the sun.

After a few minutes, the Kelly teacher opens the door for us. We walk up to the security guard, who is helping with registration. She looks at the papers in Maria’s folder and a smaller stack of papers Rosa brought. Both moms have their daughters’ birth certificates, but neither has any transcripts from previous years. Both girls completed seventh grade in Colombia before making the trek to the U.S., their mothers say, but there are no records.

The security guard says she can’t register them without a transcript evaluation. How do you do a transcript evaluation without transcripts? We’re not sure what to do next, so we step out.

The Kelly teacher meets us outside and texts me a photo of a flyer outlining a two-step process for transcript evaluation. It’s translated into Spanish and Chinese. Step 1: Call the downtown office to make an appointment. Step 2: Bring the following documents downtown for review: a birth certificate and/or passport (if they have one) and any grades or transcripts they have from previous schools they attended outside the U.S.

I call the office to ask if we need an appointment, and the woman on the phone says we can come right away. So, off we go.

On the way, we make a pit stop back at the police station to pick up Sofia’s little brother. Rosa thinks it’s better for her to have him if we’re going to be gone for a while.

Maria’s husband, Juan, is at the station with Marianna’s little sister, who can’t start school today. They want to come, too. Juan especially wants to meet me since we haven’t met before and now I’m driving his wife and older daughter all over town. So we all pile in my ‘97 Camry. Juan sits shotgun; the moms and kids are squished together in the back.

On the way north to the Loop, I ask Marianna’s and Sofia’s parents if registering their children for school in Colombia had been easier. They say yes.

10:25 a.m., Chicago Public Schools Central Office, 42 W. Madison St., Garden Level

We walk through the revolving doors and down the stairs. Two security guards sit behind a Plexiglas barrier. I explain that we called ahead and name the person who is expecting us.

After a short wait, another staffer comes to meet the two families. She interviews them in Spanish and confirms both girls were born in Venezuela. Then she asks, in Spanish, “What school are you accepted to?” The girls and their families all give blank stares because they haven’t memorized the name of their soon-to-be high school yet.

“Kelly,” I answer.

The central office staffer asks, “Is that a neighborhood school?”

“Yes.”

Later that night, I received messages that suggest I might have misheard the question about neighborhood school. It’s possible she asked me, “Is this the neighborhood school?” The messages I received indicated that CPS wants families currently in police stations to register at the neighborhood school nearest the station, and then transfer if the school can’t provide the services they need.

But that’s really hard on people who have been living in constant motion, especially children. Our mutual aid group decided to bring them to Kelly because it is a convenient bus commute from the police station, has bilingual teachers, and English as a second language class. There’s also a teacher there who is also a mutual aid volunteer to help them if they have any problems.

Finally, the staffer comes back with some new papers to add to each family’s stack, allowing them to go ahead and register their daughters as ninth-graders at Kelly.

11:54 a.m. Kelly High School, Door 4

We’re back. This time, Door 4 is propped open. We tell the security guard we went downtown and show her the additional papers. She gives each family a packet of enrollment papers to fill out.

The security guard asks Rosa for her ID. It’s back at the police station. Rosa, Sofia and the little guy pile in the car with me to go get it.

By 1:05 p.m., we’re back at Kelly for the fourth time today. The chances Sofia and Marianna will get any class time on Day 1 have already vanished. Now I’m afraid Sofia’s registration gets pushed another day too.

But the guard gives her a number – 45 – on an index card and tells us to wait in the auditorium. Marianna and her family are already there, among a dozen other families, holding an index card with a number, too. Hers is 40.

1:30 p.m., Kelly High School Auditorium

While waiting, Sofia and Marianna fine-tune all the paperwork. Heads bowed, they tick off the to-dos. Media release, done. Consent for school text messages, done. Racial/ethnic survey, done.

A short woman walks in and calls the number 33. A family follows her out of the auditorium. Sofia’s baby brother sleeps in his mom’s lap. Marianna’s little sister miraculously fell asleep while sharing a wooden auditorium seat with her big sis. The older girls are yawning. Eventually, they each put their head on their mother’s shoulder, their long hair hiding their faces as they burrow in for a rest.

There are two counselors down near the stage. I ask them what happens next. They say the girls must get registered in the main office; then, they can receive class schedules. If the girls don’t make it to the main office today, they will have to come back at 9 a.m. tomorrow and keep on waiting.

Suddenly, there are end-of-day announcements coming over the intercom. They’ve missed the first day, and it’s looking like they won’t be able to attend class tomorrow, either.

2:47 p.m. Kelly High School Main Office

Finally, Marianna’s number – 40 – is called. I follow her family to the main office, where they get to wait again, this time in padded office seats.

When Marianna and her parents start talking with the school clerk, she asks for two proofs of address. I interrupt and say, “They are STLS,” which means students in temporary living situations. These students are legally entitled to enroll in school without the usual documents.

Once that’s done, I play with the 4-year-old while Marianna and her parents hand over the paperwork. Eventually, the clerk shares the good news before the bad: Marianna is officially registered. But tomorrow she’ll have to come back at 9 a.m. tomorrow to take an English proficiency test before she gets a class schedule.

We head back to the auditorium. Sofia and her family aren’t there; their number has been called, too. Both girls are registered and can test tomorrow.

We leave Kelly around 3:40 p.m. No one except Sofia has eaten since breakfast; she had her leftover eggs.

Tuesday, August 22

9:10 a.m. Kelly High School, Library

Tuesday morning, Sofia, Marianna, their moms, and the 1-year-old all come with me to Kelly while the girls take the English-language placement test. While we all wait in the library, a teacher brings in a box of donut holes to share with all the families waiting to register or have their children test for English placement. After about half an hour, a teacher comes in to take Sofia and Marianna downstairs for testing.

I leave them my cell number to call when the test is finished. When I return, the girls and their mothers are outside, talking with two young women who appear to be Kelly students. I join the circle between Sofia and Marianna and ask in Spanish, “How did it go?”

“Excellente!” Sofia says with a wide smile. Marianna smiles shyly, and I stretch my arms each way to give them both a quick shoulder hug. Soon after, the conversation wraps up, and we head back to the station.

Wednesday, August 23

8:00 a.m. Kelly High School, Main Office

At the office, the girls get paper printouts of their schedules. The secretary says they can get IDs and bus passes at lunchtime.

When they see they have a class together, they squeeze hands and smile. Then they head to their first-period class: English as a Second Language.

Maureen Kelleher is a volunteer with the District 9 mutual aid group and a longtime education writer. She previously wrote a First Person piece about choosing a new school for her daughter.

Middle school teacher at ‘exemplary’ Chicago school honored with $25,000 prize

2024-02-02T22:54:57+00:00

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Comfort Agboola was thinking about her upcoming math lesson while keeping an eye on her middle school students during an assembly this morning to celebrate her school’s recent achievement as one of only five majority-Black Chicago schools to earn an “Exemplary” designation from the state.

At least that’s what she thought the assembly was about.

Until one of the visitors at the assembly turned to announce a $25,000 award to one of Poe Classical Elementary School’s teachers. It was Agboola.

The gym erupted in applause and cheers as Poe students waved light blue Poe Classical flags and paper signs with Agboola’s face on them. The glittering Poe cheer team burst into dance, and colleagues rushed to hug a stunned Agboola.

The event brought out some special guests – including Congresswoman Robin Kelly, State Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders, and Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Pedro Martinez – to the selective enrollment school in the city’s Pullman neighborhood.

Jane Foley, the senior vice president of the Milken Educator Awards, announced the award, which is given to up to 75 educators across the U.S.

Agboola is the only Illinois educator to receive the award this year and the first Chicago Public Schools district teacher to receive the award since 2010.

The Milken Educator Award was created by Lowell Milken in 1987 to honor early- to mid-career education professionals based on their achievements and “the promise of what they will accomplish,” according to a press release from the Milken Family Foundation.

“I was just in shock,” Agboola said afterward. “It pushes me to do more in the classroom.”

Martinez said in a statement that “exceptional efforts” for Agboola’s students “exhibit what we as a District can accomplish if we continue to focus on core instruction and welcoming, supportive school communities.”

Along with the cash award, honorees attend an all-expenses-paid forum with Milken in Los Angeles, receive mentorship opportunities, and become lifetime members of the Milken Educator Network, a nationwide group of educators and education professionals including past award recipients.

“They never let you go,” said Mark Jordan, who won the award in 1989 when he taught music at Gompers Fine Arts Option School in Chicago.

“It’s the Oscars of education. I don’t see anyone saying I do it for the accolades,” he said after helping to present the award to Agboola Friday. “So, if I see another educator being honored, I want to be there.”

The $25,000 award is unrestricted, and recipients have used the money in diverse ways, including spending funds on their children’s or their own education, establishing scholarships, or taking a dream vacation, according to the press release.

Agboola teaches reading, English language arts, and math at Poe. Her passion, however, is writing, and she brings that passion into the class. In her classroom, for example, students have a living room, library, and publishing area where they can practice spelling and respond to writing prompts on a collection of typewriters, while also learning about typewriter mechanics.

Outside of the classroom, Agboola extends student learning with opportunities like spelling bees, a podcast club, debate, and Model UN. She has earned several other distinctions including a Pulitzer Center Teacher Fellowship, the 2020-21 Network 13 Teacher of the Year Award, and the State of Illinois’ 2023 Meritorious Service Award in the Teacher Category.

“I like her teaching style,” said Jayson Ridgell, one of Agboola’s sixth grade students. “She doesn’t yell and she’s patient.”

He said Ms. A, as her students call her, visits every table in the classroom to work with individual students.

Agboola joined Poe in 2020 during the pandemic and spent her first year there teaching virtually, but that wasn’t the first challenge she’s faced in her teaching career.

In her first teaching job at the now-closed St. Hyacinth Basilica School in Avondale more than a decade ago, she worked with a young student who was non-verbal. When the student spoke for the first time in Agboola’s presence, she knew teaching was her calling - just as it was her mother’s.

“Parents are sending their most valuable thing to us,” she said. “I know that anything they do they are still growing and learning. They need our support.”

When the celebration waned and most students returned to their classes, Agboola remained surrounded by cameras as she called another important educator in her life: her mother.

“I just want to thank you too, mom,” she said over the phone. “Because you inspired me in your career as an educator.”

These Chicago middle schoolers have big ideas for improving their neighborhood

2024-02-01T21:35:08+00:00

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Standing next to a 3D model of the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood spread across a conference room table, eighth grader Rondell Sims gave a call to action to a room of city officials and classmates.

“As development comes to our community, you all will be advocates alongside in creation of a plan that is for us, by us,” Rondell said during a presentation on Wednesday inside the Altgeld Gardens Chicago Public Library Branch.

Rondell and his fellow middle schoolers at Aldridge Elementary were laying out a vision for the future of Altgeld Gardens that would include a grocery store, a new recreation center, public art by a planned new public transit stop, and a museum to honor Hazel Johnson, the “mother of the environmental justice movement” who lived in the neighborhood and fought against air pollution and toxic conditions in the community.

“You can’t really speak on something that you don’t live,” Rondell said after the formal presentation ended. “I feel like by us adding these things to the community and making more things that will be better for the people that’s in the community is just amazing. It will give a better name for our community.”

The project — that allowed middle schoolers to play the role of city planner and propose changes to their community — is the culmination of more than two years of collaboration between Aldridge teachers and the Field Museum.

“The work that we do in schools can’t just be isolated to grades,” said Principal Afua Agyeman-Badu. ”I wanted them to see the power that exists within them to make decisions and create a plan about what it is that they want for this place.”

Built in 1945 by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to house Black veterans returning from World War II, Altgeld Gardens is a planned community made up of mostly three-story townhomes operated by the Chicago Housing Authority.

The neighborhood — near the site of the old steel mills and the Pullman factory — sits 19 miles from Chicago’s Loop at 130th Street and has no access to the city’s public transit system, which ends at 95th Street. City officials have been talking about extending the Red Line for decades, but the project now appears on the cusp of becoming a reality.

Agyeman-Badu said the Red Line extension project is a learning opportunity for Aldridge students.

“I want them to be able to one day see when the ribbon is cut for them to see their ideas as a part of that plan for the Red Line extension,” Agyeman-Badu said.

Raven Mayo, Aldridge’s middle school science teacher, said the students have been working on this project since sixth grade and it’s evolved over time. The news of the Red Line extension prompted engaging discussions in class when students questioned why the community doesn’t have access to public transit and is isolated from the rest of Chicago.

“This created an opportunity for them to share their gripes in a productive way,” Mayo said. “Like this is what we deserve, just like the rest of the city.”

“The kids are speaking, they have a voice, their voice matters, their desires matter, they’re the future.” Mayo said. “In the next five years, they’ll be working adults, and they need to have access to get it downtown and to be a part of the workforce in Chicago.”

Bill Mooney, chief infrastructure officer for the Chicago Transit Authority, and other city officials attended the presentation on Wednesday to give feedback and take notes.

“This is one of the coolest things I’ve been able to participate in my 26 years at CTA.” Mooney said. “We are in a unique moment. Not often does what’s right, and what’s possible align.”

He urged the students to keep fighting to bring their ideas to fruition. The Red Line extension project cleared a hurdle last fall in the process to secure nearly $2 billion in federal funding, but the final award won’t be determined until late 2024. It’s not expected to be completed until 2029.

Jasmine Gunn, a city planner for the Far South Region with Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development, said often community meetings draw an older demographic, so it was refreshing to see the youth perspective.

“They’re gonna be living in this community longer than any of us,” Gunn said. “To start any development, we need the vision and seeing their vision is really great. I’m actually trying to set up a field trip for our staff to come look at the presentation.”

Eleanor Sweeney, an educator with The Field Museum who works with the Aldridge students, said students are more likely to be engaged with learning when there’s a connection to their own lives. They also have so many good ideas.

“If anyone is making decisions about the future of their neighborhood, consult your local middle schoolers,” Sweeney said with a smile.

Terrence Perry, an eighth grader who worked on the public art piece of the project, said he’s hopeful that city officials will pick up some of their ideas.

“Once everybody sees it? They’re gonna be like, “Oh, I get what they’re trying to do,’” Terrence said. “A lot of people are gonna want to move out here.”

He stood near the 3D model on the conference room table and pointed to a tiny display near his home. It read: “Power and peace starts within me.”

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago proposes later start date for 2024-25 school year due to Democratic National Convention

2024-02-01T19:58:07+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools has proposed calendars for the next two academic years, pushing next year’s start date back by a week to avoid overlapping with the Democratic National Convention.

The Board of Education is slated to vote on the proposed calendars for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years at its Feb. 22 meeting.

The first day of school for the 2024-25 academic year would be on Aug. 26, about a week later than recent years. The move avoids starting school the same day Chicago is set to begin hosting the Democratic National Convention from Aug. 19-22. The convention is expected to bring in about 75,000 visitors, according to a news release from CPS.

“This shift not only accommodates the city’s logistical needs as they relate to the influx of Conventiongoers, but it also allows time for students to attend, volunteer, and participate in the civic process of hosting the Convention,” district officials said in a press release.

Because of the later start, the first semester next year would also end after a two-week winter break on Jan. 17, 2025. School would end on June 12, 2025, about a week later than this year.

For the 2025-26 school year, the first day would return to the third week of August – on Aug. 18, 2025 – and classes would end June 4, 2026.

Both proposed calendars would continue the recent practice of taking a full week off at Thanksgiving.

The district is asking parents, staff, and students for their feedback. A survey for parents, staff, and other community members will close at 5 p.m. Feb. 7. while a survey that CPS distributed Tuesday to students in grades 6-12 ends at 5 p.m. Feb. 2.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s pre-K expansion fueled by federal COVID recovery money

2024-01-29T23:23:50+00:00

Public preschool has been a lifeline for Kristen Larson.

Larson and her husband couldn’t afford private day care for both their daughters, who are 4 and 1. So last fall, when Larson was able to get a preschool seat just four blocks from their Bridgeport home for her 4-year-old, she was relieved.

Without that, she said, “I probably would have had to quit my job.”

Thousands of Chicago parents like Larson depend on the district’s free public preschool program, which has been expanding over the past five years. This year, the district has 16,062 full-day seats for 4-year-olds and another 7,300 half-day seats for both 3- and 4-year-olds, a spokesperson said. That expansion was possible in part because of tens of millions of dollars in temporary federal COVID relief money, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat through a Freedom of Information Act request.

But the federal relief funds will run out next school year, raising a critical question: How will the district continue funding universal preschool?

Since July 1, 2020, Chicago Public Schools had spent close to $700 million on pre-K programs through the end of last school year, including new summer initiatives and programs for children under the age of 3, according to district budget records. It has budgeted another $262.7 million for this fiscal year, which covers the current school year. Of all of that funding, COVID relief dollars have so far covered about 14% of those costs, or $137 million, most of which went toward employee salaries, according to expense data obtained by Chalkbeat through an open records request.

Chicago is slated to receive a total $2.8 billion in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, or ESSER, dollars which districts could use broadly to help students and schools recover from the pandemic, and had spent $2.4 billion as of mid-November. The district has used the bulk of the money to fund existing costs, such as employee salaries. It has also launched new programs, such as TutorCorps, expanded summer school, and purchased new technology.

CPS officials said it used federal dollars to help expand pre-K — and sustain it — because it didn’t have enough state funding to do so, and creating more seats was a district priority.

Studies have found that kids who attended preschool are more likely to have higher test scores, were less likely to be disciplined, have better employment outcomes, and are less likely to be involved with crime.

CPS has steadily reduced its reliance on COVID relief dollars for pre-K over the past four years, increasing spending of district dollars on early childhood programs by $6 million this year, officials said. And observers are expecting the state to increase funding for early childhood education. Last week the Illinois State Board of Education proposed a budget that would increase the state’s Early Childhood Block Grant – which helps cover the district’s pre-K program – by $75 million.

But as federal funds dry up, the district is grappling with how to avoid cuts while also plugging a projected $391 million budget deficit next fiscal year, which begins July 1. That includes figuring out how to cover the cost of pre-K with local or more state dollars.

Asked if the district is considering cutting pre-K seats or laying off teachers in order to save money, district officials said they were not ready to comment on that. But neither is their first choice; the district is pushing the state for more money.

“Chicago Public Schools is committed to ensuring that every 4-year-old in Chicago has the opportunity to attend free preschool to develop valuable academic and social-emotional skills and experiences,” said Sylvia Barragan, a spokesperson for the district, in a statement.

Preschool expansion plan predates pandemic

In 2018, then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel pledged to open a pre-K seat for every 4-year-old in Chicago before announcing he would not seek a third term. It would mean big shifts for the city’s preschool system, which included a mix of half- and full-day programs at public schools and in community-based programs that served 3- and 4-year-olds.

Emanuel’s promise was picked up by his successor, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who set a goal to make pre-K for 4-year-olds universal by this year.

Since 2019, CPS has added 1,950 new preschool spots, district officials said.

But even as the district has expanded pre-K, enrollment has been fluctuating amid the COVID pandemic and as Chicago continues to see birth rates decline.

Enrollment initially grew – from 12,900 4-year-olds in the 2018-19 school year to 14,300 the fall before the pandemic – and then plummeted by 34%, to about 9,500 students in the 2020-21 school year.

This school year, just over 13,000 4-year-olds were in pre-K at CPS schools.

The district has reached universal demand in nearly all Chicago communities, said Leslie McKinily, the district’s chief of early childhood education.

As of September, when the district officially counted enrollment, 75% of all pre-K seats were filled, according to the district. That has grown to 81% as of last week, McKinily said. The district’s goal is 85% because officials want to have spots available for new families throughout the year, McKinily said.

CPS does not have plans to open more pre-K spots, but McKinily’s team is looking to see where they need to “right-size.” For example, she said, the city has not met the demand for pre-K seats in the North Side neighborhood of West Ridge. But there are other parts of the city where pre-K seats are going unfilled.

“We’re really thinking about right now, do we have our programs in the right spaces? And how do we ensure that the programming meets the needs of the community?” McKinily said.

Chicago shrinks reliance on federal COVID dollars for pre-K

Over the past four years, pre-K instruction accounted for the third largest use of the district’s COVID relief dollars, behind reducing class sizes for grades K-3 and spending on administrative costs related to federal relief funding, according to the data obtained by Chalkbeat.

Nearly all of the spending of COVID relief dollars on pre-K – about $130 million – went towards employee salaries, pensions, and benefits, according to the data. When looking at all expenses related to pre-K, including separate line items for pre-K students with disabilities, the district spent a total $137 million in the relief funds.

Pre-K programs in Chicago are mostly funded through state dollars as part of Illinois’ Early Childhood Block Grant. The program is also funded by some local taxpayer dollars and other federal money unrelated to COVID relief funding.

District officials said a portion of the federal COVID recovery money went toward early childhood programs outside of the regular school day, including a new summer program called Preview to Pre-K.

A spokesperson provided an additional breakdown of budget figures to show how much was being spent directly on daily preschool instruction during the school year. It showed the district spent nearly $590 million from the fall of 2020 through the 2022-23 school year and about 13% came from ESSER dollars, according to CPS. In that time period, state funding grew by just $3 million.

The data show the district has cut down on its use of ESSER funding in that time period while boosting local dollars.

Theresa Hawley, executive director of the Center for Early Learning Funding Equity at Northern Illinois University who previously worked on early childhood education initiatives in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration, said Chicago officials assumed “with decent enough reason” before the pandemic that the state would pump more money into the block grant and allow them to continue opening more pre-K seats.

Pritzker is a longtime champion of early childhood education and has promised to make universal preschool more accessible across Illinois.

But in 2020, the pandemic put “a wrench in that plan” when Pritzker decided not to increase block grant funding, Hawley said. Illinois, as well as state governments across the country, worried about how the public health crisis would impact local resources as the economy slowed down.

When the federal government sent billions of COVID relief dollars to school districts, CPS decided to spend a chunk of its share to expand pre-K in absence of more state dollars, district officials said. Officials continued to invest in expansion efforts even after enrollment dropped in 2020.

“We did monitor and adjust our enrollment expansion throughout the pandemic,” McKinily said.

Still, district officials said that pre-K expansion was one of several priorities that “couldn’t wait.” The federal dollars have also helped CPS pay for existing pre-K costs, staving off budget deficits.

As the district used federal funds on pre-K in recent years, one Logan Square mother enrolled both of her sons in preschool at their neighborhood school. The program saved the family from shelling out tens of thousands of dollars in day care costs, said the mother, whose name Chalkbeat is withholding because of concerns over immigration status.

She’s currently seeing pre-K’s impact on her younger son, who is 4. For example, he used to try to snatch toys from his older brother because he couldn’t wait to play with them. But after learning how to take turns in pre-K, her son now says to his brother, “When you’re done, can I play with it?”

The mother was surprised to learn that the district used emergency funding toward pre-K. But she thinks it was the right decision.

“They have to allocate money to keep the program going,” she said, saying she is concerned about what will happen if the district can’t find extra money.

“Day care is very expensive in Chicago, and I see how important it is to have early childhood education,” she said. “And if it’s only available to people who can afford to send your child to fee-based preschool, then it’s not equitable to children.”

What lies ahead for pre-K?

Fiscal watchdogs have warned districts against using temporary federal dollars for a program they want to keep permanently, such as pre-K. Doing so can result in painful cuts that can affect children and families, so such spending decisions should come alongside lots of planning for the future, said Joe Ferguson, Chicago’s former inspector general who is now the executive director of Civic Federation, a nonpartisan government watchdog group.

“Obviously, no one’s going to say pre-K education [or] early childhood support is not an important priority,” Ferguson said. “But if it’s an important priority, then the work should have been done already – certainly needs to be done now – to identify where the revenue stream is going to come [from] to maintain it.”

Chicago isn’t alone. In New York City, former Mayor Bill de Blasio used COVID relief funds to expand his signature universal pre-K program for 3-year-olds without a plan for how to pay for those seats once the federal funds ran out. His successor, Mayor Eric Adams, halted the program’s expansion and recently proposed slashing $170 million in early childhood programming, which includes preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has signaled an opposite approach, saying on the campaign trail that he wanted “child care for all” and would lobby Pritzker to increase early childhood education funding.

Last year, Pritzker proposed a four-year plan that aims to expand early childhood.

The state increased the Early Childhood Block Grant this year by $75 million, of which nearly $28 million went straight to Chicago Public Schools, as required by state law. Pritzker has not yet proposed a budget for next fiscal year, but the Illinois State Board of Education is proposing another $75 million increase.

District officials have said that more state funding for K-12 would also help. CPS, like other districts, is on a ramp toward “adequate” state funding and is $1.4 billion short of that goal, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

Elliot Regenstein, partner at law firm Foresight Law and Policy and an advocate for early childhood education who helped launch the state’s Preschool for All program under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, said maintaining pre-K funding in the future depends on leadership.

“To some degree, all of those sustainability plans are just a hope and a guess that when the one-time funding runs out, that whoever is in charge at that moment will make decisions that carry on the momentum of those one-time funds,” Regenstein said.

He said Chicago’s decision to invest in pre-K, even with temporary dollars, is backed by research that shows it’s beneficial for children.

“The pandemic has had an impact on all children,” Regenstein said. “I think it’s great that CPS looked at its data and said ….we can’t ignore the kids who haven’t even entered kindergarten yet and we believe that if we invest in those kids it will help set them on a positive trajectory.”

Larson, the mother from Bridgeport, agreed. She said much of her daughter’s first years were during the pandemic and in social isolation. Pre-K has helped her make new friends, on top of learning about letters and numbers.

“Sometimes you need to be investing in a program to make it a program that you want people to send their children to,” she said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Board of Education renews contracts for 49 charter schools

2024-01-25T23:01:29+00:00

The Chicago Board of Education voted Thursday to renew agreements with 12 charter networks, impacting 49 schools. The decision followed months of pleading from charter school leaders, educators, and students.

The board extended contracts for all of the schools up for renewal. It renewed most of the contracts by either three or four years, starting this July. The maximum extension allowed under state law is 10 years.

Each renewal came with a set of conditions, ranging from monitoring services for students with disabilities and students learning English as a new language to improving facilities, financial compliance, and accuracy of teacher licenses. Those conditions were a result of “issues that were identified during our comprehensive review,” said Zabrina Evans, executive director of the district’s Office of Innovation and Incubation in the Office of Portfolio Management.

The vote represented the first round of charter renewals under the current board. In the months leading up to Thursday’s vote, Chicago’s charter school community worried that the board, appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, would make it more challenging for charters to get renewed. Johnson, who rose to power as an organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, has long been critical of charter schools, but has also said he doesn’t oppose them.

More recently, the board passed a resolution stating its intention to move away from school choice and focus on sending more resources to neighborhood schools. The resolution does not call for the closure of schools of choice, such as charters, but board leaders said they would be more closely scrutinizing charter schools.

The board’s vote to renew all contracts isn’t surprising: State law has barred school closures in Chicago until 2025. In July, a Cook County judge overturned the previous board’s decision not to renew its contract with Urban Prep Charter Academy after ruling that the state’s school closure moratorium applies to charters.

Board Vice President Elizabeth Todd-Breland said she appreciates the improvement she’s seen in some charter schools, but said that others have failed to keep up finances or follow federal laws.

“I still maintain that as a private operator getting public money, there should be a higher level of scrutiny,” Todd-Breland said.

District officials said they evaluate charter schools based on performance in three criteria: academics, finances, and operations, which focuses on 13 areas related to state and federal law, requirements in their charter contract, and CPS policy. Five-year extensions are awarded to schools that meet or exceed academic and financial standards and receive the highest rating for operations. Extensions beyond five years go to schools that exceed all standards.

Board President Jianan Shi said he wanted the district to continue focusing on the student experience portion of the operations category for charter evaluations. He said he was concerned to see schools not meeting expectations focused on students with disabilities, students who are learning English as a new language, and student discipline. No school met standards for all three of those categories.

“‘I’m elated that we have schools that are doing well academically and financially, but I want kids to enjoy going to school every day,” Shi said.

During several board meetings since the summer, charter school leaders have asked the board to renew their contracts for the maximum 10 years. While it was previously common for schools to receive five-year extensions, district leaders have more recently renewed charters for shorter terms. Last January, the previous board – appointed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot – handed out two-year extensions to nearly half of the charter schools up for renewal, while another two got five years.

On Thursday, no school received five years. Just over half were extended for four years, and just over 40% were extended for three years. The board approved a one-year extension for Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy Charter High School and a two-year extension for Chicago High School for the Arts.

Ebonie Durham, executive director of Great Lakes Academy, a charter school that received a three-year extension, asked the board to provide schools and families with more clarity on what it takes to get a 10-year extension.

Great Lakes met academic and financial performance standards, but did not meet benchmarks for operations, including for student discipline, students with disabilities and students learning English as a new language.

As conditions of Great Lakes’ extension, the board called for the school to implement the district’s recommendations for serving students with disabilities. The conditions also call for monitoring how the school is serving English language learners, its disciplinary practices, and how it tracks repairs to facilities.

“If the CEO’s recommendation is accepted and we receive three years, in two years I will be back in front of this board again pleading to be renewed,” Durham said.

Before the board vote, some teachers raised concerns about Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy, which serves students ages 16-21 who became disengaged with school. The teachers at the school, who are part of the Chicago Teachers Union, have voted to strike Feb. 6 in response to concerns over several issues, including staffing levels for students with disabilities, “sanctuary protections” for immigrant students and employees, and compensation, according to the CTU.

Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, highlighted the fight at Instituto as one reason the renewal process should reflect “what the people, the stakeholders in that school community deserve.” One of her recommendations included creating Local School Councils so that charter parents have more of a voice.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Could a ride-sharing network help get Chicago students to school?

2024-01-23T15:40:08+00:00

This story was originally published by the Illinois Answers Project.

Every weekday at 7:45 a.m., Michael Craft is notified that a ride-share driver has arrived at his home in Aurora, Colorado. Craft walks outside to confirm the driver’s identity and then helps his foster teenager into the car, sending him off to high school about 15 miles away.

The platform he uses, HopSkipDrive, notifies him that the ride has started, and soon he’ll receive another that the teenager has been dropped off. On the network’s app, Craft can track a live mapping of the drive.

“It’s almost overboard but you sit comfortable knowing where your kid is,” Craft said in an interview with the Illinois Answers Project.

He repeats the same process for another foster teen, who attends school in a different district.

HopSkipDrive is a transportation network company designed to take students ages 6 and older to and from school, extracurricular activities, and internships. The company works with 600 school districts, nonprofits, and government agencies in 14 states plus Washington, D.C.

The company has helped schools grapple with a national shortage of bus drivers by tapping into a driver network of independent contractors.

The bus driver shortage is forcing districts to get creative in finding transportation solutions, including Chicago Public Schools, where officials have had early conversations with HopSkipDrive about the feasibility of bringing the service to Illinois and transporting Chicago students, said Kimberly Jones, executive director of student transportation services for CPS, in an interview with Illinois Answers in November. The state currently requires a school bus permit to transport students, even in passenger cars.

“We’re building the foundation right now” with HopSkipDrive and the state, she said. “We’re just beginning to have those conversations.”

Chicago Public Schools started the 2023-24 school year short of roughly 600 bus drivers, about half needed to transport all students. It has forced the district to prioritize students with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness, which totals to more than 11,700 students who either receive transportation or a monthly stipend, a district spokesperson told Illinois Answers. The district has not been able to provide about 5,500 general, magnet, and selective enrollment students with transportation this academic year.

School districts across the country are “all fighting for the same driving population,” Jones said at an October Board of Education about the competition to attract new bus drivers.

CPS has used alternative transportation since 2004 to help fill in the gaps and contracts with eight companies to transport 1,356 students, district officials said. These companies use a variety of vehicles that may require a Commercial Driver’s License or a state-approved school bus driver permit.

However, HopSkipDrive’s independent contractors, called Care Drivers, aren’t required to have an additional license. They drive their personal vehicles and instead undergo a certification process, background and vehicle checks, and must have five years of care-giving experience.

While companies like HopSkipDrive do not solve the need for licensed school bus drivers that many districts hope to hire, it has helped to provide supplemental support and relief for districts.

“We are bringing people from the community – caregivers who are parents, former teachers, nurses, nannies – who don’t want to go through all the requirements to drive a school bus and get their CDL license,” said Joanna McFarland, co-founder and CEO of HopSkipDrive. “Maybe they don’t want a full-time job but they are in the community, they are available to help out, and they want flexible ways to make money.”

“We’re taking people from the community that could never contract directly with a district and providing this network of available drivers who have been highly vetted,” she added.

Craft, whose foster children attend schools in three districts, has been using HopSkipDrive for several years. His work as a foster parent would look different without the help of the ride-share company, he said.

“I wouldn’t be able to (foster) the kids I have now if there was no HopSkipDrive,” Craft said. “I would have to take kids based on not their needs, but based on where they go to school and that’s not how you should do that.”

How HopSkipDrive fills the gap

School districts can determine which student populations the network serves and how, McFarland said, including for students with individualized education plans and McKinney-Vento students.

For example, an Indianapolis suburb contracted with the ride-share company last year to take a handful of students experiencing homelessness to and from school. Franklin Township Community School Corporation, a district of nearly 11,000 students, has just enough bus drivers to cover all routes but not to transport students who may be temporarily living several miles outside the district, said Todd Livesay, director of transportation for the district.

“Without a company like HopSkipDrive, you have to go get the kid very early in the morning before all the other routes start,” he said. So a student might be on the bus for over two hours as other students are picked up, or have to wait several hours at school after the other routes are finished.

HopSkipDrive is “just a godsend because they give (students) a quick ride to and from school. It’s safe,” he said. “… I think about my kids and if my kids were in these situations, would I be comfortable? What would I want them to be doing? And I am comfortable,” he said of HopSkipDrive.

“It’s better for the student in the long-run.”

The district pays the company a $19 base fee plus $1.99 per mile, or a $58 minimum, whichever comes first, according to its contract with HopSkipDrive.

Denver Public Schools, a district with 207 schools, uses HopSkipDrive to transport about 250 students to and from school everyday. The service is available to general education students, those who are experiencing homelessness, and students with disabilities, said Albert Samora, the district’s executive director of transportation. Denver also uses EverDriven, an alternative model that employs drivers, for about 250 students, he said.

Samora said the district initially used HopSkipDrive and other alternative transportation services for inefficient routes, or routes outside the district for students in foster care or who don’t have permanent housing. But amid the bus driver shortage, the district has turned to these companies for other routes.

“HopSkipDrive and EverDriven and other contractors have become a side-by-side solution when we don’t have the drivers,” he said. “So now they’ve moved from being a supplemental service to being almost part of our primary service.”

Over the last several years, he said the district has been working to close the gap by, in part, increasing bus driver wages and offering bonuses. Samora said this has helped reduce the shortage from 100 bus drivers in 2019 to roughly 40 this academic year.

Samora said the alternative services make up about a third of the district’s $30 million transportation budget. For comparison, Chicago Public Schools has a $146 million transportation budget and spends about $7 million on alternative services for companies to transport over 1,000 students, a district spokesperson said.

Denver has been using HopSkipDrive since 2021, according to its contract, and currently employs 160 bus drivers, said Tyler Maybee, director of operations. A HopSkipDrive ride costs $2.99 per mile plus a $19 base fee for each ride, according to Denver’s contract with the service, obtained through a public records request.

Denver Public Schools, with nearly 90,000 students, and Virginia Fairfax County Public Schools, with nearly 180,000 students, are the largest districts that HopSkipDrive serves, McFarland said. CPS, for comparison, has over 320,000 students in the district.

A local option

While CPS provides CTA Ventra cards for the 5,500 magnet and selective enrollment students and gives a monthly stipend of up to $500 to eligible diverse learners and students in temporary living situations, the rest of students must find transportation on their own.

Maria Ugarte’s child does not qualify for district transportation, so she or her husband drive her daughter – and three other children in a carpool – 45 minutes one way to Inter-American Elementary Magnet School in Lakeview, she said.

Ugarte, who serves on the Local School Council, worries that the lack of transportation, especially for low income families, will impact enrollment at her child’s dual-language school. As an immigrant, she said, it’s important for her children to maintain their heritage.

She said she’d be hesitant to use HopSkipDrive because she’s not familiar with how drivers are vetted.

“My daughter is 12. … My kids don’t walk anywhere on their own, so I don’t think I’d be able to put them in a car where I’m not 100% sure that everything has been checked for those drivers,” she said. “… At this moment, I don’t feel comfortable because it’s something so new.”

CPS parent Ismael El-Amin’s eldest two children also didn’t qualify for transportation because they are in selective enrollment schools and live about 8 and 17 miles away. In 2021, he co-founded a carpool service called PiggyBack Network that connects parents by matching routes to school or other activities.

El-Amin said he founded the company because he understands how the lack of reliable transportation can hinder future opportunities. When he was in junior high school, he had to take a CTA bus to football practice and would arrive late. His coach discovered that El-Amin lived nearby and began taking him to practice.

“That led to being a leader in high school, that led to being recruited to play football in college and just changed the trajectory of my life,” El-Amin said. “I’m sensing how one person’s sacrifice changed my complete trajectory.”

Ismael El-Amin co-founded PiggyBack Network in 2021 as a carpool service for students. The app connects parents with similar routes, and families pay for rides by buying points based on mileage and time. Drivers are screened and families meet each other before carpooling. Victor Hilitski for Illinois Answers Project.

PiggyBack has already partnered with the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago to provide rides for some of its day camps last summer, for example, and operates in a handful of cities including Atlanta, Miami, and Boston, he said. CPS has reached out to PiggyBack for information for a potential partnership, both El-Amin and the district said.

“You may not know each other, you may not even go to the same school, you might overlap and go to a school two blocks away, but PiggyBack is going to say, ‘family A, you all should talk to family B’,” El-Amin said.

There’s a screening process where families meet before carpooling and drivers undergo a background check.

To pay for rides, parents buy points based on mileage and time. Depending on peak times, families can expect to pay a base fee up to $4, between 32 and 75 cents per mile, or up to $5 per hour. The family that requests the ride pays with points and the drivers gain points when they complete rides. PiggyBack keeps a portion of the sale, he said.

There is no direct payout for drivers, he said, in order to ensure it’s a true carpool. Instead, drivers can use points to pay for rides for their children.

Jazmine Dillard, a pediatric dentist, learned about PiggyBack from other parents last summer after she found out that her second grade son would no longer qualify for busing. She needs help in the mornings dropping off two of her sons and was able to match with El-Amin, who takes a similar route to his daughter’s school. El-Amin said the stop only adds five minutes to his commute.

After being matched, they quickly discovered that Dillard’s husband and El-Amin both graduated from Whitney Young High School. Although strangers, that sense of familiarity and understanding of values is what sold Dillard to use PiggyBack, she said.

“I’m praying that this works for a long period of time because there are very few (transportation) programs dedicated for children,” Dillard said. “… What made me most comfortable was that (PiggyBack) vets their drivers. I don’t want to just put my kid in an Uber with some random person. … I felt very comfortable and reassured once I heard about how they went about their process of finding drivers.”

PiggyBack Network co-founder Ismael El-Amin greets Mason, 5, as he meets up with Jazmine Dillard, who uses PiggyBack in the mornings to get Mason and Melvin, 7, to school. The app matched her with El-Amin, who takes a similar route to his daughter’s school and picks up her kids on the way. Oct. 27, 2023. Victor Hilitski for Illinois Answers Project.

Could HopSkipDrive operate in Chicago?

The main challenge in bringing HopSkipDrive to Chicago starts with the state.

Currently, Illinois Vehicle Code requires drivers who transport students to obtain a school bus permit, even in passenger vehicles, which can carry up to 10 people. To obtain a permit, a driver must pass a written and driving test, health exam, training course, and a criminal background check, among other requirements.

A spokesperson for HopSkipDrive told Illinois Answers that these regulations “don’t make sense” for their CareDrivers.

“In Illinois, the regulations require someone on our platform to follow essentially the same requirements of driving a 12-ton school bus,” according to a statement from the company. “… CareDrivers are driving a few hours a week, driving students just seven to eight trips a week on average, in a traditional sedan vehicle with one to three kids.”

The company supports a bill introduced in the Illinois House last year that would reclassify vehicles that are allowed to transport students and allow the Secretary of State to offer a separate permit for passenger vehicles. State Rep. Jaime Andrade (Democrat, district 40), who introduced HB 3476, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

There is precedent for states to change laws to accommodate HopSkipDrive.

In 2022 in Missouri, for example, legislators changed restrictions to allow vehicles other than school buses to transport students and repealed a requirement that drivers of these vehicles need a school bus driver’s license, among other changes.

The same year, Colorado’s governor signed legislation that allowed the state’s Public Utilities Commission to regulate HopSkipDrive like other transportation networks. Opponents of the bill, which included competing bus driver companies and advocates for children with disabilities, argued that HopSkipDrive wouldn’t be held to the same safety standards since they are not only overseen by school districts, according to local media reports.

Wherever they operate, the ride-share company is also subject to city requirements for transportation network providers. In Chicago, requirements include having signage about 311 call information and providing up-front pricing to customers.

Given the vastness of Chicago Public Schools, HopSkipDrive may be more financially reasonable and equitable for districts with a smaller student population, said P.S. Sriraj, director of the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois Chicago, in an interview with Illinois Answers.

But if CPS were to partner with the network, he recommended that district leaders test it on a small scale to fully evaluate how it could be used. The district should thoroughly communicate and make decisions with the input from parents, students and teachers, he added.

In the meantime, to attract and retain bus drivers to keep up with increasing transportation requests, CPS has increased wages by $5 over the last two years and is planning 15 hiring fairs, Jones said in October. The district is also trying to optimize routes to make sure they’re efficient, and is working with the Secretary of State to reduce the requirements to be a bus driver.

“We are looking at all variables when it comes to alternative modes of transportation so we’re not just restricted to the school buses,” Jones told the Illinois Answer Project.

Companies like HopSkipDrive may be a step in that direction.

“Private companies in the world of student transportation is not new,” McFarland said.

What has changed, she said, is that students are no longer going to their neighborhood school.

“There are magnet schools, schools of choice, and a lot more individualized needs. The idea of 70 kids sitting on a school bus route isn’t really reality in a lot of cases,” she said. “And so we need to think about giving districts the tools and the flexibility to solve the problems of this growing and individualized student body in ways that best meet their needs. I think of us as a tool in the district’s toolkit.”

This article first appeared on Illinois Answers Project and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Many of Chicago’s migrant students may be entitled to bus service. But are schools telling them?

2024-01-19T19:06:28+00:00

After six months in a downtown shelter, Daniela and her 11-year-old son, Luis, faced a dilemma: The city had given them until Feb. 1 to find another place to live, which would mean moving farther away from the school the fifth grader was attending.

The family, which migrated to Chicago from Venezuela, secured an apartment in South Shore with the help of Catholic Charities. Chalkbeat is using pseudonyms in this story out of privacy concerns for the interviewed families.

But their new apartment is more than 13 miles south of Luis’ school, Ogden International School of Chicago’s Jenner campus — which could mean an hour-plus commute by public transit for Luis and his mother, who had planned to look for a job.

Daniela’s predicament is one many parents could face as Chicago enforces a new rule requiring migrant families to leave shelters after 60 days. She is one of about 3,000 migrants who arrived between January and July 31 of last year and began receiving 60-day eviction notices in early December 2023, according to a press release from City Hall. If families haven’t secured permanent housing, they must get back in line for a spot at a city shelter.

But many migrant families in shelters might not know the rights their children have to district-provided transportation — or even that they can remain in the same school despite moving — if schools are not informing them, or there’s no one to help translate conversations between school staff and families.

Every school has a liaison for homeless students who is supposed to inform homeless families of their rights, a district spokesperson said. Those liaisons, along with principals and staff with the district’s Office of Cultural and Language Education, tell newcomer families how to apply for transportation services, the district said. Each school also posts a list of homeless students’ rights in English and Spanish near the main office, the district said.

Until Daniela spoke with a Chalkbeat reporter, she didn’t know that the federal McKinney Vento Homeless Assistance Act allows homeless students to stay in the same school even if they move, such as to another shelter, and requires school districts to provide transportation. It also allows students such as Luis, who have found permanent housing, to stay at the same school until the end of the school year. No one at the school had told her, she said.

In fact, federal law says that districts “shall presume” that keeping homeless students in their original school is in their best interest unless that’s against their parents’ or guardians’ wishes.

After publication of this story, CPS provided Chalkbeat additional details about how schools are informing families of their rights under the law. They said every newly arrived family gets an enrollment packet, both in English and Spanish, that includes information about the rights of homeless students, according to the district.

Staff at the district’s Office of Language and Cultural Education also help these families fill out an application for homeless students, which “provides families with the first opportunity to review the process and ask questions,” the district said. Schools have a 24/7 translation line that staff can use to communicate with families who don’t speak English. CPS said it fulfills its legal obligation to provide transportation to homeless students by providing them with CTA cards.

The goal of the federal law is to provide stability for homeless students. One 2015 study found that New York City students who transferred schools were more likely to be chronically absent, and of those students, those who were also homeless were more likely to repeat the same grade.

Daniela also didn’t know Chicago Public Schools allows parents of younger homeless students like Luis to apply for yellow bus service if they can’t accompany their child on the commute. Or that CPS policy requires schools to inform families who are homeless of their transportation rights and options.

“We’re not, as a district, transporting any newcomers,” said Kimberly Jones, CPS’s director of transportation, in late November during an interview with WGN. On Tuesday, a district spokesperson said the transportation department does not see students’ immigration status, but still called Jones’ statement accurate, in that she’s unable to identify any students on bus routes based on their immigration status.

But district officials have indicated they are tracking immigration status internally. At a City Council Education Committee meeting in late November, a district official testified that CPS had enrolled at least 4,000 migrant students.

This year the district is exclusively busing students with disabilities and homeless students due to a driver shortage and as it’s under state watch to shorten commutes for students with disabilities. District officials have said migrant students are largely homeless, meaning they’re living in shelter, doubled up with others, or in public places.

Of the roughly 8,700 students the district is currently busing, just 128 are homeless, the district said. Another nearly 4,000 students who would typically qualify for transportation this year are receiving stipends, with just 18 of them homeless.

The school did give Daniela and her son free CTA cards for the school commute to and from their shelter, a service it is providing as part of its legal obligation to provide homeless students with transportation. But, “they did not provide the option for yellow bus service,” she said.

Ogden-Jenner did not respond to Chalkbeat’s request for comment. The district also declined to comment specifically on Daniela’s experience.

Schools must inform families of their rights, advocates say

CPS policy also allows families of young children who are homeless to apply for “hardship” transportation, which provides yellow bus service for children who are in kindergarten through sixth grade. Caregivers must fill out paperwork to prove they have a conflict that does not allow them to assist their child in getting to school. Examples of “hardship” include work, job training, schooling of their own, a conflict with shelter rules, court orders, or another “good cause,” according to CPS’ website.

The 60-day shelter rule is “going to require families to move more often, and it makes it more challenging to get to the school of origin and stay stable in their school of origin,” said Patricia Nix-Hodes, director of the Law Project of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. “If they are eligible for hardship transportation, they should be getting it.”

“The onus isn’t on the family who is newly arrived to Chicago to figure out what services might be available for transportation,” Nix-Hodes said.

School liaisons for homeless students often have other duties in schools, which may make it difficult for them to keep homeless families adequately informed, Nix-Hodes said.

In addition to informing families of their rights, the liaisons should also help families figure out if they’re eligible for bus service and with filling out any required paperwork, Nix-Hodes said.

Other families are in the dark about transportation rights

Edgar, a friend of Daniela’s who is also getting ready to move from shelter, also did not know he could apply for bus service so that his 8-year-old daughter could travel without him from their new home to her current school, Ogden Elementary.

Edgar is moving from the same shelter as Daniela to the same South Shore apartment building with his family. When he informed Ogden about their upcoming move, staff offered to find a school close to his new home — but they didn’t mention that he could apply for bus service to help get her to Ogden, he said.

Daniela's son, Luis, left, poses with Edgar's daughter, right, on Wed., Jan. 3, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois.

After learning the information from a Chalkbeat reporter, he went back to Ogden to ask about bus service. The school confirmed that service was available but “these are things that take time to approve,” Edgar explained in Spanish.

Instead, with Ogden’s help, he plans to enroll his daughter at a school that’s a 12-minute walk from their new home. While his daughter is OK with leaving Ogden, she’s sad about leaving her English class, he said. Ogden did not return a request for comment, and CPS didn’t respond to questions about Edgar’s experience.

Schools shouldn’t encourage homeless families to “move schools when their living situation changes,” Nix-Hodes said.

The law allows homeless students to stay in their same school because school stability is good for children’s academic performance and social-emotional health, especially when they’re coming to the United States from another country, Nix-Hodes said.

Gwen McElhattan, a social worker with nonprofit Chicago Help Initiative, which provides meals, clothing, and other services to homeless families, has received questions from many migrant parents on how to enroll their child in school. The city has created a “welcome center” for migrants at Roberto Clemente High School, which is supposed to help families with school enrollment and other resources. But McElhattan said that many people don’t know it exists — and doesn’t sense that many designated people are informing families of how to navigate school enrollment.

“They don’t know about it because they’re migrants — they don’t always know everything that’s happening,” said McElhattan, adding that their primary concerns are food and shelter. “They’re just trying to survive. They have children – they’re just trying to keep going.”

Luis, Daniela’s son, said he likes his teachers at Ogden-Jenner and he’s made some friends. But he’s had a tough time understanding lessons because there’s often no one who can help translate, he said. Because of the language barrier, there are days that he doesn’t want to go to school, his mother said.

Still, Daniela would prefer to keep her son enrolled at Ogden-Jenner if she can get busing because she senses it’s a good school. By state standards, it is: The school earned the Illinois State Board of Education’s second-highest rating for academic performance.

Daniela has not yet talked with the school about what happens next or what her options are.

It’s difficult to communicate with staff, she said. “En la escuela allí no hablan español” — At the school, they don’t speak Spanish.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago charter school advocates urge Mayor Brandon Johnson to back school choice

2024-01-18T04:31:09+00:00

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Charter school advocates delivered 2,000 letters to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office on Wednesday, urging the mayor to keep school choice alive, after his hand-picked school board signaled they may try to shift more resources toward neighborhood public schools.

Charter proponents are concerned about the future of their schools under a new mayor who campaigned on a pledge to boost neighborhood public schools — just as dozens of charters are up for renewal and a city moratorium on closing schools ends next year.

For roughly two decades, Chicago Public Schools has operated a system in which families can apply to myriad charter, magnet, test-in, or other district-run schools.

Having options for school was critical, said Myisha Shields, a parent of three former charter school students, during a news conference Wednesday at City Hall.

“My five babies, my Black babies — they’re gonna go where I choose for them to go, because that’s the choice that I was given,” she said. “I really don’t need Mayor Johnson’s help in choosing anything for my children.”

Shields, who lives near Marquette Park on Chicago’s South Side, said she has three children who attended charter schools and are now all pursuing nursing degrees.

She credits Noble Schools for the success of her eldest, who pushed through “severe learning disabilities” to get straight A’s at Alabama A&M University, where she’s a senior. Shields said her other two daughters are in their freshman and sophomore years at the University of Illinois Chicago. Shields said her kids wouldn’t have had the success they’ve enjoyed if they’d gone to traditional public schools.

“Her self esteem at one point was so low, but now it’s as big as City Hall,” she said of her eldest.

Myisha Shields, far right, delivers thousands of letters to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's office from parents, administrators, and alumni in support of school choice programs on Wednesday.

Noble Schools is one of 47 charters up for renewal during the 2023-24 school year. More than half of Chicago’s roughly 51,000 charter school students are enrolled at one of Noble’s 17 campuses across the city.

“We are calling for Mayor Brandon Johnson and his CPS board to demand a fair charter renewal term that protects school choice,” Shields said “If charters are not treated fairly, please believe: We will be at your door every day. This is not the last time you’ll see this face.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the mayor said: “The Johnson administration believes in investing in neighborhood schools so that all of Chicago’s families have the choice to send their children to fully-funded, well-resourced, and celebrated schools in their community. As a former public school teacher, Mayor Johnson knows first-hand the harm that sustained disinvestment has on Chicago’s communities and youth. Furthermore, as the father of three CPS students, the Mayor is personally invested in ensuring the success of Chicago’s public school system.”

During the renewal process, district officials scrutinize charter schools’ academic performance, financial practices, and compliance with other standards. Chicago Board of Education members vote on the final renewal terms.

CPS spokeswoman Sylvia Barragan said in a statement that district leadership and the Chicago Board of Education “do not make charter renewal or revocation decisions lightly.”

The board voted last month on a resolution to move away from school choice and ensure “fully-resourced neighborhood schools, prioritizing schools and communities most harmed by structural racism, past inequitable policies and disinvestment,” according to the resolution.

It was the first time the board formally stated it wants to move away from its embrace of selective admissions and enrollment policies, because it “reinforces, rather than disrupts, cycles of inequity,” according to the resolution.

In response to worried charter and school choice advocates, Chicago Board of Education President Jianan Shi said during an Agenda Review Committee meeting on Wednesday that the resolution “is, again, about prioritizing neighborhood schools, creating pathways from K-12 and (helping) schools and neighborhoods farthest from opportunity, so that we are not sorting our children and favoring those with more means.”

He added that it’s “not directing us to close selective enrollment schools.”

Even before Johnson took office, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration started a trend of shorter charter renewal periods. Johnson, a former educator and organizer for the teachers union, historically opposed charter expansion and said during the mayoral election runoff campaign that charter school expansion “forces competition for resources and ultimately harms all schools.” But he also has said he does not oppose charter schools.

This story was updated after publication to include a comment from the Chicago mayor’s office.

Chicago educators ask lawmakers to step up support for schools seeing increase in migrant students

2024-01-18T01:45:14+00:00

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Viviana Ortiz is overwhelmed. As the only advocate for students experiencing homelessness at Cameron Elementary School in West Humboldt Park, she supports 126 students — a workload that has dramatically increased with the influx of migrant students from Latin America and other countries.

“The amount of support that our families need is incredible,” said Ortiz, who noted that she has never seen families in such need of clothing, food, and other necessities.

On Wednesday, Ortiz joined other educators, local and national union leaders, including Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, and parents of new arrivals at a roundtable at Cameron Elementary School to call for more support for migrant students from federal, state, and local governments and to draw attention to the struggles of migrant families at Cameron and across the city.

Gabriel Paez, an English learner program teacher at Cameron and chair of the Chicago Teachers Union bilingual education committee, estimate that about 200 migrant students at the school need access to more bilingual education, transportation, and basic needs — a reflection of the wider challenges presented by the arrival of thousands of migrant families to the city.

As of Jan. 17, more than 30,000 migrants had arrived in Chicago since August 2022, according to a city dashboard. Most crossed the southern border and were ordered bused here by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Families and children are often fleeing countries that have seen a rise of violence and political strife.

At a City Council Education Committee meeting in November, a CPS official said the district had enrolled at least 4,000 migrant students.

Teachers at Cameron Elementary school said they have noticed some migrant students arrive at the school without proper clothing, such as coats warm enough for Chicago winter, and in need of medical support. Many are without permanent housing.

A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools said the district has provided additional funding for staffing and services to help schools with the increase of newly arriving students. Nearly all migrant students have been classified as English learners or Students in Temporary Living Situations. CPS officials said they are currently working with the city, state, lawmakers, and the U.S. Department of Education to receive more funding.

At the roundtable, organized by the Chicago Teachers Union, participants echoed the call for more resources to help migrant students, including more bilingual teachers and staff.

In Chicago, the number of designated bilingual teachers has declined in recent years, but teachers with bilingual or English as a second language endorsements have increased, according to an analysis of staffing data by Chalkbeat Chicago. Another finding from the analysis found that the ratio of staff with bilingual credentials or titles to students was increasing as more English learners have enrolled.

At Wednesday’s roundtable, Paez said the district should push to cover 100% of tuition costs for educators who want to get a bilingual endorsement. He applauded the district for currently covering 50% of tuition, but said he wants to see teachers who want to get that endorsement not go into debt.

Paez also said the school needs more bilingual staff who can help students and families dealing with emergencies. Paez said he and other staff members at the school have gone above and beyond their duties to support students.

“Taking children to the ER is not in my job description, but we do it because the need is there,” said Paez. “If CPS, or the state, or the federal government could pay for someone to be in our building day in and day out whose only purpose is to help get these people on their feet, that will make the teaching and learning part of this equation a lot more manageable.”

State Rep. Lilian Jiménez, who represents neighborhoods on Chicago’s northwest side, noted that families who have migrated from Latin America need transportation and access to bus passes to get to school.

Chicago Public Schools has grappled with a bus driver shortage over the past few years. This school year, the district decided to only bus students who are legally obligated to have transportation — such as students with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness. This leaves out 5,500 students who used to get buses to and from the city’s magnet and selective enrollment schools.

Migrant students might not know that they are eligible for transportation if they don’t have access to stable housing under federal law. The law also says students can stay enrolled at the same school even if they have to move to another shelter.

In November, Gov. J.B. Pritzker allocated $160 million to the Illinois Department of Human Services to address the ongoing migrant crisis, with $65 million going to the city to help set up a winter shelter. With state lawmakers kicking off the spring legislative session this week, advocates are hoping for more money to support families who have migrated to the United States.

Jimenez said she’ll work throughout the spring session to get more tuition reimbursement to help teachers get a bilingual education endorsement.

CTU President Stacy Davis Gates called on the federal government to support Chicago during the migrant crisis as the city and district lack the infrastructure to assist migrant families.

“We need our collaboration to extend beyond the city. The city is not set up to deal with an immigration crisis. We do not have the infrastructure,” said Davis Gates. “So, this idea that we are just going to focus in on what isn’t here, let’s focus on who is supposed to bring the things that we need here.”

Inspector general’s report prompts Chicago Public Schools to propose changes to device tracking policy

2024-01-17T23:39:41+00:00

Chicago Public Schools is working to improve how schools keep track of electronic devices and other items, in response to an inspector general’s report that found the district had lost more than 77,000 devices.

The proposed changes — some of which were outlined at a school board committee meeting Wednesday — include disciplining staff for failing to abide by the district’s policy for managing school assets, such as devices, and updating policy language to say that training is “mandatory” for staffers who are responsible for keeping track of devices. The district’s asset management team would also create an annual report about theft and loss of devices, according to the proposed changes.

Last week, CPS Inspector General Will Fletcher released his annual report which, in part, found that the district had marked more than 77,000 devices lost or stolen in the 2021-22 school year. The district has found 12,000 of the missing devices, nearly all inside schools, district officials said.

Fletcher’s report cited a lack of training and an unreliable tracking system as some reasons for why so many devices were missing or unaccounted for. He also said staff and students were not held accountable for devices. Last year, a Chalkbeat and WBEZ investigation also found that the district didn’t have a structured system for tracking down devices and lacked a clear plan or vision for how to best use the technology in the classroom.

“The [policy] has been amended to reflect a more accurate description of the current process, eliminate sections of the policy which are obsolete, and overall improve CPS asset and inventory management practices,” said Rolando Hernandez, assistant deputy controller for CPS’ finance office, during Wednesday’s meeting.

The district’s asset management policy doesn’t just cover technology. It applies to any item that is not real estate, that is purchased by or donated to CPS, is valued at more than $500 but less than $25,000, and has a lifespan of more than a year. The current policy applies to schools, central offices, and network offices, which are responsible for managing their devices.

Each school and district office should have an “accountable official” who is responsible for keeping track of devices, the existing policy says.

Other proposed changes include:

All devices must be entered into CPS’ electronic inventory system once they are delivered – not just purchased – within 30 days.
Each person designated to track devices within their school or office will be responsible for complying with their annually required inventory and ensuring its accuracy.
Schools and offices will report potential loss, damage, or theft to the district’s asset management team. That team will share an annual report on such loss or damage to the district’s Risk Management team, the Department of Facilities, and Safety & Security team.
If a student or staffer transfers to a new school or department, any devices they’ve received from the district will follow them, which their old school or department must log into the district’s asset management system. Once students or staff leave the district, they must return devices and other “assets.”
Broken computers must be disposed of through a special process created by the Information and Technology department, though that process was not spelled out in the proposed changes. Items that are not computers will be disposed of by the Department of Facilities, including through contracted salvaging companies.

The board is expected to vote on the proposed changes in March after a month-long public comment period, which is slated to begin Jan. 26.

Separately, the district is also working on several other changes “to more accurately represent” what devices are in schools, district officials said Wednesday. That includes automating the process of recovering computers, which would involve freezing and sending notifications to devices that would ask students or staff to return them. The district is also considering replacing its current asset management system because of “functionality and data issues” that must be improved.

On Wednesday, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez disputed Fletcher’s estimate that the missing devices were worth $23 million. Martinez said many of those devices were old, bringing the total cost to about “a tenth” of Fletcher’s figure. However, he added that’s “not an excuse” to explain the lack of tracking at a time when the district added hundreds of thousands of devices to its inventory.

“It’s been great that now all of our children have access to devices [but] it is easy for us to not prioritize how we get rid of old devices, and it’s not always clear even to staff, and so I just want to call that out,” Martinez said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools cancels after-school activities, sports for Friday and Saturday

2024-01-12T18:57:37+00:00

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As a winter storm continues to dump wet, heavy snow on the area, Chicago Public Schools has canceled all district-run after-school programs and sports games and practices for Friday and Saturday.

The move comes after hundreds of districts in the area called off classes or switched to virtual learning amid the storm, which also grounded and delayed airplanes at both of Chicago’s airports.

Parents of CPS students were also notified of the cancellations via robocalls, texts, and emails.

School is closed Monday, Jan. 15 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In a news release, district officials said staff and families will be notified this weekend as to whether there will be classes on Tuesday, Jan. 16. Or whether any events scheduled at schools during the Monday holiday will still happen.

ALERT: Due to inclement weather, all CPS-managed after-school and out-of-school programs are CANCELED for Friday, January 12, and Saturday, January 13. https://t.co/pqYDhYxw0R pic.twitter.com/7n7MacK5Ja
— CPS - Chicago Public Schools (@ChiPubSchools) January 12, 2024

Officials said they will consider temperatures, wind chill, snow accumulation, building accessibility, bus transportation, and potential issues with heating systems at schools before deciding to cancel school or extracurricular activities.

According to the news release, testing to get into selective enrollment schools will continue at the Illinois Institute of Technology this weekend. Families would have scheduled testing dates when they submitted their GoCPS applications to attend schools outside their neighborhood-assigned one.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago gets $20 million federal grant to buy 50 electric school buses

2024-01-09T22:05:09+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools is planning to purchase up to 50 electric school buses to operate its own fleet with a $20 million federal grant from the Environmental Protection Agency.

The additional money comes as the district continues to struggle to provide students with transportation. The district has not operated its own bus fleet for more than a decade. It contracts with outside vendors to provide bus service and has been grappling with a driver shortage since the pandemic hit.

CPS announced just before winter break that it would not be adding bus service for general education students, many who attend selective or magnet schools, for the remainder of the year. They cut service to those students at the start of the school year in order to ensure students with disabilities, who are legally entitled to transportation, were being routed and weren’t riding the bus more than an hour.

But the federal grant and new buses will not immediately fix those issues. For one, 50 buses “will not be enough to provide service to the entire district,” a district spokesperson said. The process for buying and deploying the electric buses will start on April 1, 2024 and happen over a three-year period, the spokesperson said.

The Chicago Teachers Union applauded the grant and said the news was a sign of better collaboration between the union, the district, and the mayor, who is a former CTU organizer. The statement issued by the union said the award would “allow CPS to hold private bus vendors accountable for another 140 electric buses that will replace their current diesel-powered fleets.”

About $81 million is being awarded to private bus vendors that serve Illinois and other states, according to the EPA. First Student Inc. – which operates yellow buses in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin – is getting $39.4 million to purchase 100 electric buses; Student Transportation of America Inc is also in line to receive $12.2 million to purchase 32 buses in Illinois and Wisconsin; and Highland CSB 1 is expected to get $29.4 million to purchase 98 buses in Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

A news release from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office said the goal will be to deploy the new buses in communities “most impacted by poor environmental policies and practices, and historic disinvestment.” Johnson ran on a promise to update school facilities to be more environmentally friendly and energy efficient.

In all, the federal government is doling out more than $1 billion to fund electric buses across 280 school districts.

In Philadelphia, the school district is in line for $8 million to add 20 electric buses to its fleet, doubling the current 20 it operates. Detroit Public Schools is expected to get nearly $6 million to buy 15 electric buses.

The move comes as districts nationwide are looking to shift to clean energy buses. Colorado also announced plans last August to expand electric buses in more than a dozen school districts using state and federal funding. New York state announced in 2022 it wants all new school buses to be zero-emissions by 2027.

The federal Clean School Bus Program also provides rebates to districts that use electric buses. Thirteen school districts in Illinois, most of them downstate, got more than $46 million in those rebates last school year to operate electric buses, according to data from the EPA.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Three things to know about the Chicago Board of Education’s resolution on school choice

2024-01-03T12:00:00+00:00

Chicago’s Board of Education made waves last month when officials revealed a vision to move away from its school choice system and boost neighborhood schools.

The declaration, included in a resolution the board passed in December, lays out priorities for the district’s five-year strategic plan, which will be finalized this summer. Any resulting changes will depend on feedback from the community, board members said.

But the board’s new vision immediately sparked misinformation. Here are three things to know about the board’s resolution.

Will schools close?

No. Not yet, at least.

The resolution does not say anything about closing schools. State law put a moratorium on school closures in Chicago until Jan. 15, 2025, the same day a new 21-member, partially-elected school is set to be sworn in. The current seven-member school board, appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, would not be able to close schools of any type – charters, magnets, or neighborhood schools – until that time.

School board member Elizabeth Todd-Breland did indicate the board is scrutinizing charter school performance through the usual renewal process and questioned whether poor-performing operators should “continue to exist.”

But even a recent board decision to revoke a charter agreement with Urban Prep did not ultimately mean those schools closed. First, the district proposed operating the two campuses as district-run schools. But after a court order, the board extended Urban Prep’s charter until June 2024.

Will I have to go to my neighborhood school?

No. The resolution does not say anything about requiring families to attend their neighborhood schools.

The closest it comes to addressing enrollment policies is a bullet point about a “reimagined vision” that includes a “transition away from privatization and admissions/enrollment policies and approaches that further stratification and inequity in CPS and drive student enrollment away from neighborhood schools.”

Any school-aged child living in Chicago is guaranteed a spot at their zoned neighborhood school. Additionally, board policy amended as recently as last summer, allows families to apply to a myriad of selective, magnet, charter, or other speciality programs that admit students from across the city. Some schools require a test for admission, while others are a straight lottery.

These policies have not changed, but could after community feedback sessions.

“There likely will be policies that need to be revised and changed,” Todd-Breland said. “The admissions and enrollment policy is on the table.”

Data shows half of elementary school students attend their zoned neighborhood school and only a quarter of high school students do. These numbers shifted over the course of the past 20 years, when roughly 75% of elementary school students went to their local school and half of high schoolers did.

What do parents and students think?

It varies greatly.

Chalkbeat Chicago asked readers for their thoughts on school choice and got nearly 80 responses from families across the city about how they’ve navigated the system. Five families shared more about how — and why — they chose their schools.

The wide range of responses could be a bellwether for the kind of debate or disagreement that could emerge during community feedback sessions.

The Board of Education was awarded a $500,000 federal grant to create socioeconomically diverse schools. The district said it plans to use the money to engage the community on how to draw more families into neighborhood schools. Their application included a goal to reduce the percentage of families attending a school outside of their regions by at least 3%. The district did not answer questions to clarify their definition of region or why 3% was their goal.

The district is already collecting feedback on the next five-year strategic plan through an online survey and community meetings for the next Educational Facilities Master Plan. Officials have said they will host in-person and online meetings in February to gather feedback on the strategic plan.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

How do families use Chicago’s vast school choice system? Five people tell us their stories.

2023-12-20T22:53:13+00:00

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One mother in West Pullman on Chicago’s South Side sends her daughter to a charter school even though there are two neighborhood schools down the street.

Up in Albany Park, a mother is for the first time confident in her daughter’s neighborhood school after two decades of sending her older children to magnet and test-in programs.

A high school student attends one of the district’s most coveted high schools — but wants the city to undo the system she used to get there.

There’s a lot that goes into how families choose a school in Chicago.

Last week, the city’s school board made waves by announcing they want to move away from that system of choice and build up neighborhood schools, especially in areas that have lacked investment from the city. The board passed a resolution last week stating its intent, but does not call to close any schools or change specific admissions policies.

Originally established to help desegregate schools, the system has recently earned a reputation for stressing out students, who are competing for seats at a limited number of sought-after schools, many of which are segregated by race and income.

Despite that, students have increasingly chosen schools they’re not zoned for. Last school year, 56% of students attended their zoned neighborhood school, or roughly 20 percentage points fewer than in the 2002-03 school year. A quarter of students attended their zoned high school last year, compared to 46% 20 years ago.

The district also won a federal grant in October that they will use to collect community feedback on how they can make neighborhood schools more attractive. In the grant application, Chicago Public Schools said its goal was to reduce the percentage of families attending school outside of their regions by 3%. The district did not answer questions to clarify their definition of region or why 3% was their goal.

How much the district will try to change the city’s school choice system will depend on feedback from the community, board members said. Already, a mix of reactions have emerged. Some community groups praised the board’s support of neighborhood schools. But former CPS CEO Janice Jackson wrote in an op-ed to the Chicago Sun-Times that moving away from school choice would ultimately hurt Black and Hispanic children.

“Trying to do anything in a district that large is going to take a long time if you’re going to do it right,” said Jack Schneider, a professor at University of Massachusetts at Amherst who studies education policy. “It’s going to turn quite slowly and particularly so if your effort is rooted in engaging communities and really listening to them and trying to respond to what you’re hearing.”

Chalkbeat asked readers for their thoughts on school choice and got nearly 80 responses from families across the city about how they’ve navigated the system. We spoke to some of those families to understand how — and why — they chose their schools.

From left to right: Tiffany Harvey walks her dog, Mila, alongside her daughters Isabel Harvey, 21, and Amalia Harvey, 10, as they walk to Haugan Elementary School in Chicago on Dec. 18, 2023. Amalia is a fourth grader at Haugan Elementary School.

Preschool sells mom of four on neighborhood school

About 20 years ago, when Tiffany Harvey was deciding where to send her firstborn to school, she kept hearing that aside from some gifted and magnet programs, Chicago’s schools were “terrible.”

Harvey applied to magnet schools and had her son tested for gifted programs. She also toured a kindergarten classroom at the neighborhood school, Haugan Elementary, a couple blocks away from their Albany Park home. But at the time, Haugan didn’t have before- or after-care programs to accommodate her work schedule, while magnet and gifted programs came with busing. And Haugan’s test scores seemed low to her, she said.

“I honestly felt like I was a bad parent if I didn’t explore all the options and find the best option,” she said.

Over the next two decades, Harvey would send her first three children to magnet, gifted and selective enrollment schools outside their neighborhood.

A few years ago, that changed.

In search of preschool for her fourth child, Harvey applied for the district’s full-day pre-K program and saw that Haugan had seats. She didn’t want to pay for preschool again, and after so many years in Albany Park, she wanted to invest in her neighborhood school as someone who was better-off than some of her neighbors. Her daughter got a seat at Haugan, where 89% of students come from low-income families.

Some research shows public pre-K programs can “attract a more integrated group of families” to schools, while some districts notice families flee after preschool, said Halley Potter, senior fellow at The Century Foundation, who has studied school segregation.

Harvey, who had low expectations, found Haugan was “phenomenal,” she said. Her daughter’s teacher was creative and kind. There was a good combination of play-based learning and introduction to academics. Her daughter was meeting kids from all kinds of families. The next year, she enrolled her daughter in a nearby lottery dual-language program, but they missed Haugan. Her daughter returned for second grade and is now in fourth grade.

“We never looked back,” Harvey said.

Harvey supports families having the ability to choose a school for their child. However, she wishes more parents would realize that schools can’t be measured by test scores alone, and more-advantaged children, like hers, can flourish alongside peers who are different from them. It’s also easier for parents to get involved at schools that are nearby, she said.

As district leaders consider how to invigorate neighborhood schools, they should add more services, such as pre-K programs or after care, as ways to draw in more families, she said.

“I don’t know what the right balance is,” Harvey said. “I do want our neighborhood schools to be celebrated and promoted and have the resources they need, where parents don’t feel like they have to drive across town to find a better option.”

A mom who chose a charter school

Charity Parker lives a couple of blocks away from two neighborhood schools in West Pullman. But her daughter, Aikira, attends a Chicago International Charter Schools, or CICS, campus that’s a roughly 15-minute walk from their home.

Parker, who attended Catholic and charter schools growing up in Chicago, said the neighborhood schools close to her — Curtis and Haley — are “poorly funded” and don’t have good test scores. At both neighborhood schools and Aikira’s charter school, more than 90% of students are from low-income families. But CICS is designated as “commendable” by the state, the second- highest designation out of five. Haley and Curtis have lower designations.

Charity Parker, left, and her daughter Aikira Parker, 8, right, smile as they pose for a portrait together outside of CICS Prairie Chicago International Charter School, where Aikira is a second grader, in Chicago on Dec. 18, 2023.

Aikira is learning more advanced topics than other neighborhood kids Parker knows, she said. She placed fifth in the school’s science fair for a solar panel project, Parker noted.

“An 8-year-old doing engineering work — I’m not getting that at my local CPS school,” she said.

Another selling point for Parker, who is Black, is that about one-third of Aikira’s peers are Hispanic, so she’s exposed “to another culture besides her own.” At Curtis and Haley, more than 90% of students are Black, which is common in Chicago’s segregated neighborhoods.

Parker said all parents should have the right to choose where their children go to school, and the district should never mandate attending neighborhood schools. While Parker loves some things about CICS, she has some issues with the school.

Aikira “loved” kindergarten at CICS, but the next year, Parker had some disagreements with Aikira’s first -grade teacher over coursework. This year, Parker has some concerns about behavior issues in Aikira’s classroom and has considered transferring her out.

But other charters are far away, and she doesn’t have a car. Private school is too expensive.

So, she’ll stay at CICS, she said.

“I’ll admit there are some things about my daughter’s school that rub me the wrong way, but the education is awesome,” Parker said.

Dad sought out selective schools for his son

Since kindergarten, Clyde Smith’s son, Kadin, has exclusively attended selective public schools located 5 to 6 miles south of their Bronzeville home.

Kadin tested into McDade Classical School, a selective enrollment elementary school in Chatham. Then, he tested again in sixth grade and got a seat at an accelerated middle school program located inside Lindblom Math and Science Academy, a selective enrollment high school in West Englewood. Kadin, 16, is now a sophomore at Lindblom.

The stressful nature of admissions never felt “unhealthy,” Smith said. His son has always been surrounded by peers who aimed for similar programs, so he was used to the competition.

“It’s always been in the air,” Smith said. “It’s almost like asking a fish, ‘How’s the water?’”

Kadin Smith, left, stands with his father, Clyde Smith, at their Bronzeville home.

A simpler option might have been to attend his neighborhood school where he’s guaranteed a seat: Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts. District officials closed Dyett in 2015, but the school was revived in 2016 after protests and a hunger strike that Mayor Brandon Johnson participated in as an activist.

The district hosted a press conference in October at Dyett about the school’s rising graduation rates, and officials noted that the school’s 86% graduation rate had surpassed the citywide average.

Smith said he “understood the activism” that brought back Dyett, but it wasn’t enough to win him over.

“The test scores, the classes offered, the colleges they get accepted into overall, to me, doesn’t lay proof that that’s the strongest academic environment like some of these selective enrollment schools are,” Smith said.

Smith complimented the district’s desire to boost neighborhood schools, adding that segregation and “racial inequities” have left many schools under-resourced. Neighborhood schools need “strong teachers,” challenging courses, and more internship opportunities, he said.

Paul Hill, an architect of the idea that districts should create a mix of school options for parents, said the district could risk driving away parents like Smith.

“If the district is really serious about working hard on the neighborhood schools and trying to figure out what would keep people in them… that’s responsible,” said Hill, the founder of the Center for Reinventing Public Education. “On the other hand, if they really attack the schools of choice that probably will drive down enrollment.”

Smith agrees. After all, if Kadin didn’t get into a selective enrollment high school, he and his wife would have sent him to private school.

Mom is daunted by high school admissions

Laura Irons loves Logan Square and their neighborhood school, where her 7-year-old daughter is in first grade. But the thought of choosing a high school is so daunting, the family is considering leaving Chicago by the time their daughter finishes eighth grade.

Irons’ daughter passed up a seat at a magnet school to attend her zoned school, Brentano Math and Science Academy, because the family liked walking to school and didn’t want their daughter to lose friends.

“Being nearby the school, I think, has tremendous social-emotional benefits,” Irons said.

For the future, her family would consider the neighborhood high school. But other parents tell Irons it’s dangerous, with lots of fights and nearby shootings. Irons doesn’t know whether to believe them.

Laura Irons, far right, poses for a photo with her husband and two children at the Logan Square Blue Line stop.

Irons worries about the impact of the competitive application process on her daughter. Through friends and community Facebook groups, Irons hears about kids being “so tremendously stressed out” by the application process. She hates that some schools are considered good or bad without any clarity about why.

“I don’t like [the idea of] making such a big decision at such a young age,” Irons said. “It feels like the college process, which is hard already in itself.”

Even though Irons and her husband love city life, they’re leaning toward leaving unless there is more clarity and transparency around how the choice system works, she said. And she doesn’t know where to find accurate information.

“I do value choice in certain situations so I’m not anti-choice,” Irons said. “I think the system that we have, though — to sound so cliche — it’s just a broken, very opaque system. I wonder if kids would even be stressed if the parents weren’t so stressed.”

Selective enrollment student sees problems with the system

One of Tess Lacy’s earliest memories of discussing school choice was in fourth grade. Her physical education teacher told her class, “I want you to go to good high schools,” Tess recalled.

Comments like that were common throughout Tess’s elementary and middle school years. Teachers talked often about applying to sought-after high schools. Many of her friends felt they’d fail their parents if they didn’t get into those schools. While her own parents didn’t care where she went, the stress around Tess conditioned her to focus on selective enrollment schools, she said.

Tess Lacy poses for a portrait in front of George B. Swift Elementary School, which she used to attend, in Chicago on Dec. 18, 2023. Lacy is currently a sophomore at Jones College Prep.

She took the High School Admissions Test and got into her top-ranking: Jones College Prep in the South Loop.

Now, three years later, Tess wants to see the selective enrollment system abolished.

Selective enrollment schools tend to have more resources, not just from the district, but also from families who can fundraise, sometimes millions of dollars, Tess noted.

“If you intentionally, institutionally, structurally create schools that have more resources, parents with more resources will send their kids there,” Tess said. “I feel like a lot of people are able to realize that’s not normal, but there’s a lot of people who would rather forget about the tens of thousands of students who don’t have that privilege.”

Tess doesn’t regret attending Jones, where she finally feels accepted as a transgender young woman and has made friends from all over the city. She enjoys doing technical work for the school’s drama department.

But her decision to attend Jones now feels like it was influenced by everyone around her. She regrets not ranking Edgewater’s Senn High School higher. Senn was not her zoned high school, but is a neighborhood school closer to home that has a good arts program — one of Tess’s interests.

She would encourage eighth grade students to “really, truly think about what they as a student want.”

“Now I look back, and I see how my decision was so not my own decision,” Tess said.

Correction: This story orignally stated that McDade Classical School was a gifted program. McDade is another type of selective enrollment elementary school in Chicago.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools won’t bus general education students for the rest of the school year

2023-12-21T22:54:15+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools won’t provide busing to general education students for the rest of the school year, officials said Thursday.

In a letter to parents, the district said a driver shortage persists and is preventing it from providing busing to general education students — largely those in magnet and selective enrollment programs. The district will continue to provide free CTA cards, valued at $35, to those roughly 5,500 families; about one-third of those children are using the passes, according to a CPS spokesperson.

“We fully understand how frustrating this news will be for many of our families, and sincerely empathize with the challenges and inconvenience that this situation has caused,” the letter said.

The update comes after the district announced in late September that it couldn’t provide busing to general education students this semester but would share an update with families before winter break regarding the second half of the school year. In November, the district cast doubt that it would be able to expand bus service this year.

Citing a driver shortage, the district announced in late July that it would limit busing to students with disabilities whose Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, call for transportation, as well as students who are homeless. Both student groups are legally entitled to transportation — and the district is on state watch to improve commute times for students with disabilities.

The district left open the possibility that general education students could get busing later in the year.

The district is currently busing 8,133 students with disabilities and another 146 students who are homeless, according to a CPS spokesperson.

Thursday’s busing update comes a week after the school board passed a resolution saying it wants to bolster neighborhood schools and move away from a system of choice where families travel outside their neighborhood for school. Asked if the district’s desire to move away from school choice informed their decision to sever busing for general education students, a spokesperson said the district is following state law and board policy by prioritizing students with disabilities for transportation.

Parents of children in selective enrollment and magnet programs have repeatedly shared frustrations with the Board of Education about the difficulties they’ve faced without busing to schools that are far from their homes, including difficulties balancing the school commute with their work schedules. Some parents have transferred their children to other schools.

Aria Haque, a sixth grader at Keller Regional Gifted Center in Mt. Greenwood, lives 20 miles from her school, and transferred to her neighborhood school after “so many hurdles and almost no time” to figure out the commute, Haque told the board at its meeting earlier this month. Her new school, however, was teaching material she said she’d learned two years ago.

Haque decided to re-enroll at Keller “even with the killer commute.” Her father now drives Aria and another Keller student whose family doesn’t have a car and lives 15 miles away from the school.

“That has been our routine ever since: An hour-and-a-half on the road for me, which isn’t bad, but over three hours for my dad, which is horrible,” Haque said.

Natasha Haque, Aria’s mother, said she’s been advocating with a group of parents to get busing reinstated for general education students in magnet and selective enrollment schools. She worries that students from low-income families at Aria’s school, Keller, will lose out on the chance to attend a great school. Roughly a third of Keller’s students were from low-income families last year.

“If the message to families is: ‘You cannot rely on us to transport your child to a selective enrollment school,’ it’s the lower income families that will be the first to say, ‘Yeah, I cannot afford to take my child to school. I cannot quit my job,’” Natasha Haque said Thursday after the letter to parents was sent out.

Limited busing has also helped the district comply with a state corrective action plan to keep commutes under an hour each way for students with disabilities. Last school year, about 3,000 students with disabilities were on routes longer than an hour. As of October, the district was busing an average of 7 students with disabilities per route, a Chalkbeat analysis found.

Commute times had improved this year as the district has limited busing, but have worsened in recent months: In August, 47 students with disabilities were on routes longer than an hour; that’s grown to 111 students as of Thursday, a slight dip from late November, according to the district.

CPS said another 115 students with disabilities are in the process of getting bus routes. The district has received 4,649 requests since the start of the school year, close to 900 more requests than last year. It is also continuing to hold job fairs to hire more bus drivers.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

New leaders, COVID spending, bus troubles: 6 Chalkbeat Chicago stories that defined 2023

2023-12-21T22:45:44+00:00

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This year brought big shifts for education in Chicago and Illinois. As schools continued to return to normal and recover from the COVID pandemic’s impact on learning, the city elected a new mayor who appointed a new school board.

Schools grappled with a wave of migrants, who partly helped stave off continued enrollment declines, and the district entered a third straight year of transportation troubles.

As we approach the end of 2023 and look ahead to 2024, here are six of the biggest education stories we covered this past year:

New leadership to shape a new era

If the 2023 education beat had a theme, it might be leadership transitions. The state of Illinois got a new superintendent in Tony Sanders and Chicago got a new mayor and a new school board.

When Brandon Johnson, a former public school teacher, union organizer, and public school parent, made it into the runoff in February, he unexpectedly dashed incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s hopes for a second term. He would face Paul Vallas, a former CPS CEO who made a career as an education consultant and “fixer” turning around urban school districts.

Johnson’s victory over Vallas reflected, in part, ongoing shifts in local and national education policy. By July, he replaced six of seven school board members — a common act of new mayors — with more public school parents, community activists, and the leader of the parent group Raise Your Hand. The new board has already signaled some significant policy shifts, including moving away from a system of school choice and redoubling efforts to boost neighborhood schools.

What’s to come in 2024? Chicagoans will soon elect school board members, though state lawmakers are still working out the details of how that will happen. Before the legislature wrapped up its veto session, they did appear to agree on how the city would be divided into 20 districts after releasing their third draft of a district map.

Teresa Przybyslawski, an interventionist at Chicago’s Brunson Elementary School, works with a student on multiplication and division using flashcards. Przybyslawski, a former classroom teacher, took on the interventionist role this school year to help catch up struggling students.

COVID recovery money fuels interventionists, tutors

Federal COVID recovery money is dwindling and set to run out in 2024. But districts across the country have continued to spend millions on everything from tutoring to summer school to existing staff. In Chicago, more than $2 billion in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds have already been spent.

After months of questions and public records requests, Chalkbeat found a complicated picture of summer school spending in Chicago in February of this year. Many schools reported strong success in offering students robust programs, but tracking participation and attendance proved difficult. Data obtained six months after an initial request showed repeat sign ups or unusually high enrollments, raising questions about accuracy.

Chicago also continues to spend a large amount of its federal funds on existing staff, including a cadre of academic interventionists. These are mostly classroom teachers already on the district’s payroll who were tapped to help struggling students catch up. The district also spent $25 million to create a Tutor Corps to support students who may have gaps in their learning from when schools switched to virtual learning during the pandemic.

But the district is not only spending its money on staff. It also used some of the money to pay vendors to help develop a new $135 universal curriculum bank known as Skyline. In partnership with WBEZ, Chalkbeat took a closer look at how Skyline is being implemented and what teachers think of it.

Outside of Chicago, one south suburban school district is moving ahead with an uncommon technology plan to keep hybrid learning at the ready.

What’s to come in 2024? Chicago is planning to spend the final $300 million of the $2.8 billion it got in the 2024-25 school year and Illinois’ education budget could see some belt-tightening as districts set about spending roughly $1.9 billion of the $7 billion.

Migrant support group at Brighton Park Elementary in 2023 in Chicago, Illinois.

Schools see influx of migrant students

Chicago has seen an estimated 4,000 migrant students coming to the city from the southern border, most of them via bus from Texas. Among the many people stepping up to help families, especially children, adjust to a new country are teachers. During summer, we featured a few teachers volunteering at a south side police station to help refugee youth navigate a new language, a new culture, and in the fall, new schools. We also spent time at one school trying to help newcomer students navigate trauma.

Amid back-to-school season, it was not clear if schools would be ready to welcome waves of newcomers. A Chalkbeat analysis of staffing data obtained through records requests found the number of bilingual teachers had declined in recent years, but teachers with endorsements to teach in a bilingual program had grown.

What’s to come in 2024? Chicago continues to struggle to manage the influx of new arrivals, which has slowed in recent weeks. Plans to construct temporary tents in two locations have been put on ice. But the city instituted a 60-day limit on how long people can stay in temporary shelters just before Thanksgiving. However, migrant students do have a right to remain in the same school and receive transportation if they’re forced to move. (Leer en español.)

Joshua Long is the new Chicago Public School District district's department leader for students with disabilities on Mon., Dec. 11, 2023.

Special education sees shakeup

Chicago Public Schools has struggled to provide services to students with disabilities for several years and the COVID pandemic only exacerbated the issue.

In June, Chalkbeat obtained documents that found the district was violating state law on the use of restraint, timeout, and seclusion in school. Two days later, the top official overseeing the department that serves students with disabilities stepped down.

After that departure and after Johnson appointed a new school board, the district asked the public for input in hiring a new special education chief. In December, officials announced it had found a new special education leader from among its own ranks. Joshua Long, the longtime principal of a school for students with disabilities, was approved by the school board and will start his new role in January.

What’s to come in 2024? Long inherits a troubled department that remains under state watch for use of restraint, timeout, and seclusion in school. It also continues to face challenges providing students with disabilities with transportation, which they’re entitled to under federal law. Last year, hundreds of students with disabilities were on the bus for longer than 90 minutes each way, but that has declined significantly. Just over 100 were riding the bus longer than an hour, as of the end of November.

School bus at the front of North-Grand High School in Chicago. Photo by Stacey Rupolo/Chalkbeat �May, 2019 photo�

Transportation troubles continue

Amid state oversight, Chicago Public Schools announced in late July it would only provide bus transportation to homeless students and those with disabilities. Both groups are entitled to transportation under federal law.

Citing a bus driver shortage, district officials also offered families of students with disabilities and those in temporary housing a $500/month stipend to cover their own transportation, which nearly 4,000 families have taken as of late November. But those payments were initially delayed and the first checks weren’t mailed until late September.

By late September, district officials also confirmed that general education students attending schools outside their neighborhood, most of them selective or magnet options, would not get busing for the rest of the semester, leaving some parents grasping for help or switching schools.

What’s to come in 2024? CPS officials announced this week that the district would not provide busing to general education students for the rest of this school year. At a City Council meeting last month, officials outlined possible solutions for next school year, including having students picked up at a regional site rather than their home and working with schools to adjust bell schedules.

A Haugan Elementary classroom on Thursday, August 4, 2022 Chicago. | Christian K. Lee for Chalkbeat

Preschool expansion goes statewide

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is promising to expand preschool and make child care more accessible in his second term. He said he hopes to make Illinois one of the best states to raise a family.

A longtime supporter of early childhood education, Pritzker’s push to boost the sector in his first term started off with a $100 million increase in 2019, but got sidelined by the COVID pandemic. Now, he’s making moves with a plan to increase early childhood by $250 million over the next four years and the creation of a standalone agency to bring together programs that are now housed across three separate departments. He also signed a bill requiring school districts to get up to speed by offering full-day kindergarten by 2027.

Chicago started rolling out universal preschool for all 4-year-olds in 2018, when then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel made it a re-election promise before bowing out of the 2019 mayoral election. Now, full-day preschool is a reality in every neighborhood, officials say, and enrollment figures from this fall show pre-K helped, in part, stabilize enrollment in CPS.

What’s to come in 2024? The governor typically gives a speech and releases a budget in early February. It’s likely he’ll continue increasing early education funding, but also could begin to detail the shape and scope of the new early childhood agency.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools leaders want to move away from school choice

2023-12-12T18:45:13+00:00

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Chicago school leaders want to move away from the district’s system of school choice — in which families apply to a myriad of charter, magnet, test-in, or other district-run programs — according to a resolution the Board of Education will vote on this week.

The move puts in motion Mayor Brandon Johnson’s campaign promise to reinvigorate Chicago Public Schools’ neighborhood schools. On the campaign trail, Johnson likened the city’s school choice system to a “Hunger Games scenario” that forces competition for resources and ultimately harms schools, particularly those where students are zoned based on their address.

District leaders’ goals include ensuring “fully-resourced neighborhood schools, prioritizing schools and communities most harmed by structural racism, past inequitable policies and disinvestment,” the resolution, which was released Tuesday, said.

The board wants to pursue that policy goal — and several others — as part of the district’s five-year strategic plan, which will be finalized this summer. In an interview with reporters on Tuesday, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, Board President Jianan Shi, and Board Vice President Elizabeth Todd-Breland declined to specify changes or say how far they want to move away from the choice system. That’s because they want to collect community feedback on how far the district should go, which would be outlined in a final five-year strategic plan this summer, they said.

The board is expected to vote Thursday on the resolution, which doesn’t create or get rid of any policies; rather, it formalizes and publicizes the district’s goals.

The district wants to “transition away from privatization and admissions/enrollment policies and approaches that further stratification and inequity in CPS and drive student enrollment away from neighborhood schools,” the resolution says.

This marks the first time the board has formally stated it wants to move away from selective admissions and enrollment policies. It says the school choice system, as it exists today, “reinforces, rather than disrupts, cycles of inequity” and must be replaced with “anti-racist processes and initiatives that eliminate all forms of racial oppression.”

Some selective enrollment and magnet schools lack the diversity of the city, enrolling larger shares of white and Asian American students, while others remain largely segregated by race and class.

Martinez said it is painful to hear of students traveling far distances to attend school, or when parents ask if they should get their 4-year-old child tested for gifted programs. He said he can “scream as loud as I can” about all that he believes neighborhood schools can offer to families versus highly sought-after magnet or selective enrollment schools — but “it’s not going to be enough.”

“We see this as an opportunity to, again, build trust, because I want to keep calling that out — that is a huge challenge for us,” Martinez said.

Any number of big changes could be on the horizon, Todd-Breland said.

“There likely will be policies that need to be revised and changed, so the admissions and enrollment policy is on the table as something that through this process of engagement, likely there will be some changes to it,” Todd-Breland said.

Todd-Breland and Shi said they’ve heard many pleas from the community to overhaul the choice system. The board’s goal to move away from school choice is framed in the resolution as a response to the district’s ongoing challenges, such as budget deficits and academic disparities between students citywide and Black and Hispanic students, students with disabilities, those who are homeless, and children learning English as a new language.

District leaders imagine prioritizing neighborhood schools to receive more resources and programming. Martinez said universal preschool is one example of an initiative that can draw families into a school.

The system of school choice in Chicago grew over many decades.

Data shows around 56% of elementary school students attended their zoned neighborhood school last school year and 23% of high school students did. Twenty years ago, during the 2002-03 school year, 74% of students attended their zoned elementary school and 46% of high schoolers did.

Many of the district’s most popular magnet and selective schools were created in the 1980s and 90s under a court-ordered federal desegregation consent decree that officially ended in 2009. In the 2000s, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley opened 100 new schools under an initiative known as Renaissance 2010. Most of those schools did not have neighborhood attendance boundaries and many were charter schools run by third-parties.

The expansion of school options also contributed to the mass closure or shakeup of nearly 200 schools, including 50 schools in 2013. Enrollment has further declined since then, but under state law, the district cannot close schools until 2025. Officials would not say if the five-year plan would eventually include closing schools and emphasized their plans to engage communities.

However, Todd-Breland did signal that the board might move to close charter schools.

“If you are a privately-managed school, taking public dollars from our taxpayers that would otherwise go to the other schools that we know need to be invested in because they haven’t [been] for years, and you are not performing at a level that we find to be a high quality educational experience for young people, then why do you continue to exist in this system?” she said.

Nearly half of the charter schools authorized by the Chicago Board of Education are up for renewal this year and dozens more will be next year. If a charter is not renewed, it most likely would close, though operators can appeal to the state.

The previous administration, under the leadership of former CPS CEO Janice Jackson, also tried to reinvigorate underenrolled neighborhood schools. In 2018, the district offered additional funding for specialty programs to local schools looking to attract more students.

Though the current system has long been criticized for stressing out students and families as they compete for spots at the most sought-after schools, many families value having options outside of their assigned neighborhood school. Student admissions to gifted programs rely on a test, while admissions to selective enrollment high schools are based in part on the High School Admissions Test and previous school performance.

The board’s policy priorities come less than a year before Chicago will for the first time elect school board members. State law currently says 10 members will be elected and the mayor is to appoint another 11. That shift is one reason the board is focused on getting a lot of community feedback on their vision, so new board members “understand this is the direction that the district is moving in,” Shi said.

Political shifts, such as this transition to an elected school board, could upend what the current board wants to do, said Jack Schneider, an education policy expert and professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

“The last thing you want is to put all of this effort into something like promoting neighborhood public schools and then have a massive change in the composition of the board that then leads to a 180 in priorities,” Schneider said.

The resolution also highlights several other policy goals under the district’s next strategic plan, including creating more community schools over the next five years. These schools provide wraparound services to students and families, another priority for Johnson. It also includes adding staff, ensuring culturally relevant, anti-racist lessons for students and similarly framed professional development for educators, and prioritizing collecting feedback from students and the community.

The board also wants to ask the community’s help in creating plans for “previously closed and currently ‘underutilized’ schools,” the resolution says.

Read the full resolution on page 21 of the board’s agenda posted online.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

After court order, Chicago Public Schools extends contract with Urban Prep charter schools

2023-12-14T22:36:49+00:00

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Forced by a court order, the Chicago Board of Education voted Thursday to extend charter school contracts run by embattled Urban Prep Charter Academy.

The board approved an extension until June 2024 for the network’s Bronzeville and Englewood campuses.

The extension comes more than a year after the board voted not to renew the contracts, with plans to take over those schools. The board’s decision was based on allegations that Urban Prep mismanaged finances and failed to comply with special education laws, as well as allegations that the school’s founder, Tim King, sexually abused a now-former student. King has denied those allegations.

Urban Prep appealed the board’s decision to state education officials, who sided with CPS. The charter network then filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court alleging that their agreement couldn’t be revoked because of the state’s moratorium on closing schools until 2025. In July, the court ruled in Urban Prep’s favor.

“That is why we are here — to be in compliance with the court’s order even as it may be contrary to previous actions by the board,” Board Vice President Elizabeth Todd-Breland said last week at a meeting to review the board’s agenda.

CPS has appealed the court’s decision.

Mayor Brandon Johnson, who currently appoints the school board, is critical of the charter sector, but he has also stressed that he doesn’t oppose charter schools. The board recently passed a resolution signaling that it wants to boost neighborhood schools and move away from the district’s school choice system, which families use to apply to magnets, charters, and test-in schools and other programs.

Several teachers and families from other charter networks have pleaded with the board to renew their contracts over the past several months, including on Thursday. Christian Feaman, director of district advocacy for Illinois Network of Charter Schools, suggested the board’s new resolution attempts to “claw back the basic rights” of school choice for “Black and brown families.”

The resolution — which doesn’t create or get rid of any current policies or schools — isn’t intended to signal a closing of all charter schools, Todd-Breland said Thursday. Rather, the board wants to “hold charters accountable to the promise that was made at their founding,” she said.

The Urban Prep agreement approved Thursday comes with more than a dozen conditions, including cooperation in district investigations and complying with financial oversight. Those conditions are generally the same that Urban Prep has had to follow in the past, most of which Urban Prep has not attempted to comply with, said Zabrina Evans, executive director of the district’s Office of Innovation and Incubation in the Office of Portfolio Management, last week.

In remarks to the board Thursday, Dennis Lacewell, chief academic officer at Urban Prep, said the district is spreading “lies and propaganda” about the charter failing to meet nearly all the requirements CPS has asked of it. Lacewell said Urban Prep has complied with eight of ten previous conditions and submitted evidence to the district.

Separately, a few public speakers raised concerns about the board’s resolution, specifically saying the board shouldn’t be moving to close any selective enrollment or gifted schools. Todd-Breland emphasized that there is no current plan to close any schools.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

How does it feel to apply to high school in Chicago? Four eighth graders share their experiences.

2023-12-11T11:00:00+00:00

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Chloe Athanasiou was rippling with nervous energy. It was Oct. 11 and they — and 28,000 of their eighth grade peers — were about to take Chicago Public Schools’ High School Admissions Test, or HSAT.

“Everybody’s so nervous. Either everybody’s really quiet or screaming their heads off,” Chloe said. “I was one of the people who was screaming their heads off to try to feel better. It actually worked, strangely.”

The test would be a crucial factor in determining the next stage in their lives: where they will go to high school.

In Chicago, every eighth grade student is guaranteed a spot at their local neighborhood school, but according to data from previous years, about 70% of high schoolers attend schools outside their neighborhood.

What was once an effort to desegregate Chicago Public Schools has turned into a fiercely competitive process to get a seat at top-performing, well-resourced high schools. Admissions decisions are still based on a “tier system,” which assigns every student’s address in the city a “tier” based on the socioeconomics and educational attainment of people living in the census tract and admits a mix of students living in different tiers.

Applicants spend months attending open houses, researching schools, and ranking them in order of preference. Next, they take the HSAT. When their scores come back a few weeks later, students have a chance to re-rank their school choices — a new twist added this year.

Then, everybody waits — until May, when admissions offers are made.

The whole process, as eighth grader Elias Gray put it, causes “mostly anxiety and fear.”

CPS made some changes to this year’s test meant to help alleviate stress, said Sara McPhee, executive director of the CPS Office of Access & Enrollment. After feedback from families, for example, the HSAT was shortened to one hour instead of two-and-a-half and reduced from four sections to two.

But the anxiety is deep-seated because what’s at stake, these students say, are their futures.

Chalkbeat followed four eighth graders from different parts of the city and different types of schools through this year’s enrollment process – which came with some changes and a test day glitch. Here’s what it’s like to go through Chicago’s high school enrollment process.

High school is one key to unlocking dreams

Many students begin thinking about where to apply to high school well before eighth grade.

That’s partly because students’ grades in seventh grade factor into admission at the city’s selective enrollment schools. The other half of a student’s overall score is based on their HSAT results.

Students try to prepare however they can, including by shelling out for private tutoring – even though CPS warns that it has seen no correlation between test preparation and acceptance rates.

Katherine Athanasiou (left) and Chloe Athanasiou (right). Chloe is in eighth grade in Chicago Public Schools and hopes to one day help to repair some of the flaws in the youth mental health system.

Chloe Athanasiou wants to be a therapist when they grow up. In their own personal experiences with therapists, Chloe has seen many ways that mental health treatment for young people, especially queer youth, needs to be improved.

That is why Chloe hopes to attend a high school that offers an Advanced Placement Psychology course, something available at the city’s top selective enrollment high schools.

In order to make that hope a reality, Chloe began preparing for the admissions process in the spring, but it’s been in the back of their mind for years.

“You start thinking about it in sixth grade a lot, because you’re like, ‘Okay, next year is the year that I have to get all As,’” said Chloe. “And then in seventh grade, you’re like, ‘Okay, [now] I have to get all As. So how am I going to do that? How am I gonna accomplish that with the amount of homework and the different really big projects?’”

To prepare, Chloe did test prep courses, took practice tests, and participated in a Test Anxiety group offered through their school. Despite all of the preparation, said Chloe, the anxiety and stress remained.

“Logically, I know that really all that’s at stake is the next four years of my life. But mentally, it turns into this gigantic thing,” said Chloe. “It turns into a bigger thing than it actually is because of peer pressure and parent [pressure] just evoking a lot of anxiety.”

Nicole Watson (left) and Daniel Watson (right), a CPS eighth grader who is applying to career-focused high school programs. Daniel said he leaned on art techniques to help manage his stress during the enrollment process.

Art helped Daniel Watson ease some of the pressure of going through the admissions process, but his interests in science and technology are driving his and his family’s choices about high school.

His mother, Nicole Watson, began looking into Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs at local high schools as a strategy to counter the high competition of selective enrollment high schools.

“It’s just another way of potentially having my child at a high-performing school,” she said. “I’m looking at all of the options because I think we all know that selective enrollment schools only have so many seats.”

For admission to high school in the 2022-23 school year, 6,239 students ranked Lane Tech, which has about 1,200 seats for incoming freshmen, as their top choice school.

Whitney Young and Jones high schools were the second and third most frequently ranked as student’s top choices, with over 3,400 students ranking them as their first choices.

Nicole Watson wants to give her son more options, but as a social worker she worries about the kids who don’t have “parents or community that’s invested in their education and don’t have access to programming that can make up and fill in those gaps.”

Shayna Gray (left) and Elias Gray (right) outside of Kellogg Elementary in Beverly on Chicago’s South Side. Elias is eyeing high schools with strong STEM programs, but the application process has him thinking even further into the future.

Eighth grader Elias Gray let out a long sigh and shook his head before describing his feelings about the impending HSAT last month.

“This test basically decides the next course of your life in education,” he said.

His mother, Shanya Gray, admitted to feeling just as nervous. A few days before the test, she took the day off from work just to help her son study and try to ease the anxiety for both of them.

“This whole thing is very new to me, because I didn’t grow up in the US. I grew up in the Caribbean,” said Shanya Gray. “So I’m learning as I go along, learning about this process here in the U.S., and there are, even now, some things I wish I knew a year ago.”

She was surprised that there was not more preparation for the test built into the CPS curriculum. She ended up paying for tutoring and a test prep workshop to help her son prepare, but she’s keenly aware of the fact that such preparation isn’t available to everyone.

Elias says he wishes there was more preparation and support from CPS and within the classroom in the form of practice tests and lesson plans specifically targeting the HSAT.

While Elias is hoping to attend a school that can best support his interests in engineering, his goal is simply to attend “an actually good school.”

This whole process, he says, forces students to look forward, even beyond high school, and consider how the choices they make now will have a significant impact on where they go to college and their entire future.

Selah Zayas (left) hopes to follow in her mother Andrea Zayas’ (right) footsteps and attend her alma mater: Lane Tech College Prep.

Selah Zayas looked on as her grandmother evaluated her little brother’s vital signs this summer. He had started having difficulty breathing and Selah’s grandmother is a nurse. Watching her jump into action, she saw how important that kind of knowledge can be, and she wants to help people in the same way some day.

Following in the family’s footsteps is kind of a thing in the Zayas family. All of Selah’s siblings attend the same public charter school where her mother teaches fifth grade, and Selah’s sights for high school are set on Lane Tech, which her mother attended.

After her older brother went through the high school enrollment process last year, Selah went in with eyes wide open. Plus, her school has a High School Placement Manager who prepares students for high school and the enrollment process.

Even so, Selah and her mother had some concerns.

Selah learned some of the foundational math skills tested on the HSAT when schools were fumbling with virtual learning during the pandemic. Studies show that students have had significant and lingering learning loss due to the pandemic, and as a teacher, Selah’s mom, Andrea Zayas, has seen some of these impacts first-hand.

This, she said, is part of what makes the enrollment process inequitable.

“I feel like this system is unfair,” she said. “It’s one test, one day. It’s an hour of their life to determine the high school that will lead to their college.”

In addition, Selah learned math at her dual-language school entirely in Spanish, and while CPS offers the opportunity to take the HSAT in Spanish, Selah feels she is stronger at reading in English. So she opted to take the test in English.

These concerns compounded the pressure, said Selah, because the stakes are so high.

It’s about “who I’m trusting to take the next four years of my life at school [and who] will help guide me,” she said.

Chicago Public Schools canceled and rescheduled the High School Admissions Test after technical problems caused problems on the original date all eighth graders were scheduled to take the exam.

Glitch adds to test day stress

On HSAT test day, the test that 20,000 eighth graders had spent months worrying about malfunctioned. Some students had been able to complete the test before the system crashed, others had completed half, some had never even been able to log in.

Meanwhile, at schools across the city, cell phones were buzzing as eighth graders texted friends about what was going on – discussing questions they remembered from the test, telling friends what to expect, and maybe freaking out a little bit.

CPS decided to reschedule the test, allowing those who finished the chance to keep their scores from this session or retake it at a later date.

Before scheduling a retest date, CPS worked with the vendor to make sure the test wouldn’t crash again. The new testing dates were finally set for Oct. 24 and 25.

Chloe

“I thought the stress would be totally gone, the stress of actually counting down the days until the test,” said Chloe Athanasiou the day after the initial test. “It’s not gone, it’s still there, because nobody knows what’s going on.”

Although Chloe was able to finish the test before the system crashed, their mother was incredibly frustrated by the technical issue.

“It really feels like a nightmare. The kids who are in tier four and have supportive parents and have resources, their parents are going to be able to navigate this in one way or another,” said Katherine Athanasiou.

Families with means, she said, might leave CPS altogether, “and then it’s just inequity upon inequity upon inequity.”

Daniel

Daniel completed the reading section on Oct. 11 and finished the test “with one minute to spare” when he retook it on the 25th. Knowing he had cut it so close made it more stressful as he awaited his scores

He had more anxiety leading up to the retake than he’d had for the initial test, he said, because there was less information available about when the test would be rescheduled. So he didn’t know how to schedule his studying time.

Elias

When Elias Gray sat down on Oct. 11 to take the test, he said all “the questions were in Spanish, and there were numbers all over the screen.”

After hearing the district would cancel and reschedule the exam, Elias felt “shock and relief at the same time.”

No one at his school was able to finish the test, he said. The principal shut down the test once malfunctions started. Knowing that kids at other schools were able to finish the test, Elias felt that the whole testing situation this year was compromised.

“That was unfair because kids at our school are friends with kids at other schools and they might use the answers there to try to [do better] on the test,” he said.

Selah

At Selah’s charter school, students were able to complete the reading section, but when they came back from break, the test was no longer working.

The whole situation had her feeling “a little bit salty,” she said.

For her, there had been more surprises than just the technical difficulties. While she had signed up to take the test in English, she found out on test day that students taking the test in Spanish were allowed to use a dictionary.

Knowing that, she said, might have changed her mind about taking the test in Spanish.

In addition, Selah was particularly put off by the timer that pops up in the corner of the screen as a warning that time was almost up.

“It was very stressful to have to keep seeing that,” she said. “I kept checking in, seeing how much time I have left.”

In the end though, Selah was mostly relieved to have more time to study and go into the test with a little more knowledge about what it would look like.

Selah Zayas is currently in eighth grade at a public charter school where their mother teaches.

After scores come back, reality sets in

After HSAT scores were released just before the Thanksgiving holiday, families had a week to re-rank their school choices if they wanted to. McPhee said people are encouraged to rank by their preference, not by where they think they have the best chance of getting in.

Many seats go to students who have ranked a school second or third, she said. “The seats aren’t gone because we filled them up with the kids who put them first.”

“If school A is your dream, always put your dream at the top of the list.”

But McPhee, a mother of two CPS students herself, hopes families will consider their neighborhood schools and realize that there are more than just a few good options for their soon-to-be high school students.

Chloe

After watching Chloe waiting for their scores and seeing the stress this process has caused, Katherine Athanasiou can only think of two words to describe the process: “developmentally inappropriate.”

“You think these kids can handle so much,” she said. “Now you turn around and you’re like … ‘they are just brand-new teenagers.’”

Despite Chloe’s high scores, the Athanasious have begun an application process for a local private school just to keep their options open. Both were disappointed by the way CPS handled the system malfunction in October.

“I really believe in public education, and I’m still hopeful that it will work out – we’ll get into either the top choice or the second choice,” said Katherine Athanasiou. “But I also want to think about a place where the application process sees a child for not just test scores and grades but for all of the things that make the child who they are.”

Chloe feels pretty good about their chances at one of their top choices and excited that their friends received similar scores so they might attend the same selective enrollment school together.

Chloe switched schools in the middle of elementary school and it made a significant difference in their mental health and happiness.

“It really makes you see that school environments can be really different,” said Chloe. “You have to find the one that’s right for you and that’s not so easy to do.”

Daniel

Daniel’s test scores – in the 90th percentile – were almost exactly what his mother expected. She feels that gives him a good chance at getting into some of the selective enrollment schools on his list.

They evaluated last year’s cutoff scores for each school and decided to re-rank his top three schools, believing he had the best chance to get into Brooks or Lindblom – both selective enrollment schools on the South Side.

While they wait for offers to be made in the spring, she plans to help her son prepare for the Algebra Exit Exam. If he passes, he’ll be able to take geometry as a freshman.

But Daniel’s mom also hopes for broader improvements for all public schools.

“The fact that there are selective enrollment schools shows us CPS knows how to create high-performing schools,” she said. “There needs to be some more equity, so that we have high-performing neighborhood schools.”

Elias

While waiting for his scores to come in, Elias went to a second open house at Gwendolyn Brooks High School, a selective enrollment school in the Pullman neighborhood. The first visit was with his class earlier in the year. This time he was impressed, and it prompted him to re-rank his top school choices – his number one is now Brooks.

Now he’s nervous again. He did well on the test, but the few Bs he got in seventh grade brought his overall score to only a little bit above last year’s cutoff score for Brooks.

He’s trying not to think about what-ifs. Instead he’s reflecting on the process so far and thinking about where he can improve. He’s already thinking about how his experience with the high school enrollment process might prepare him for four years down the line when he’s applying to college.

Selah

When Selah’s scores came in at slightly above average, she was crushed. She had expected to do better.

Her dreams of attending one of the top selective enrollment schools in the city suddenly felt out of reach and she decided to readjust her rankings during the re-ranking period. She began to think her best option might be the charter school her brother attends where sibling preference guarantees her a seat.

Her mother, on the other hand, was baffled. The scores, she said, were inconsistent with her daughter’s grades and how she performed on other standardized tests throughout the year. It made her rethink everything. Is the school not adequately preparing her children? Was there a problem with the test? Did she miss something?

This isn’t the first admissions rodeo for Andrea Zayas and it likely won’t be the last. Her eldest son went through the process last year and did not get an offer at his top choice school.

“That was a disappointment for him and it wasn’t just one day; that disappointment lingers, you know?” she said. “I really feel like it impacts how they see themselves.”

Zayas has two younger children as well – a second grader and a sixth grader – and after seeing the ways this process has impacted her two older children, she isn’t sure if it’s worth it to put her youngest two children through it too.

Her focus now is making sure her daughter understands that “a person is not one thing.”

“A person is many things all at once and there are different strengths” she said. “What is that famous quote? If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will spend its whole life believing it’s stupid.”

Chicago Public Schools is tapping principal Joshua Long to lead its special education department

2023-12-11T20:31:00+00:00

Joshua Long, currently the principal of Southside Occupational Academy High School, has been selected to lead Chicago Public Schools’ beleaguered special education department, according to district officials.

The department — known as the Office of Diverse Learners Supports and Services — serves nearly 52,000 students with disabilities and has been without a chief since June. That’s when Stephanie Jones stepped down amid fallout from Chicago’s violations related to the use of restraint and timeout of students. The department has also struggled in recent years to ensure students with disabilities are getting services they’re legally entitled to under federal law.

Long sent a letter to families whose children attend Southside this morning announcing “with mixed emotions” that he accepted the role and would start after winter break, pending confirmation by the school board this Thursday.

“I am excited to continue working for students with disabilities and look forward to new opportunities to engage with all stakeholders as we move to positively impact each student’s experience in every school,” he wrote.

Ben Felton, chief talent officer at Chicago Public Schools, said the district used an external search firm and input from city officials, local advocates, educators, and other staff in its search for a new department head.

“We approached this differently than we had in the past given how critical this role is to CPS and how deeply invested many of our stakeholders are in special education and in this position,” said Felton.

Representatives from Access Living, the city’s Office of People with Disabilities, district principals, the Dyslexia Collaborative, and the Chicago Teachers Union were among the community groups that had a conversation with finalists and provided feedback, Felton said.

CEO Pedro Martinez made the final recommendation; the school board, which meets on Thursday, must approve the appointment.

Long would be inheriting a department beset with problems. The district is under state watch on multiple issues, including providing timely transportation to students with disabilities and for how it physically restrains students in the classroom.

Long has been the principal of Southside since 2010, according to his LinkedIn profile. In 2019, he won the prestigious statewide Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Leadership.

Joshua Long, second from left, speaks with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson in Sept., 2023 in Chicago, Ill.

Before that, Long worked in various positions, including as a speech pathologist in a dozen schools, he told Chalkbeat in 2019. At the time, when Chalkbeat asked Long how the district should help students with disabilities, Long said he saw classes that “were not being run effectively” and weren’t “as rigorous” as other schools he’d been in. With that in mind, Long said “that the biggest thing is establishing equity for all students no matter which school or neighborhood they are in.”

Some district leaders have known Long for years. Board of Education member Mary Fahey Hughes, a longtime advocate for students with disabilities, sent her son to Southside. During a school visit with Mayor Brandon Johnson in September, Hughes praised the school and its model, which is designed to help those with more challenging disabilities transition into the real world.

“The thing I love about this place is there is so much respect for students where they’re at,” she told Chalkbeat at the time.

Long was a proponent of changing the timeline for when students with disabilities could transition out of public schools. Previously, under state law, some students with disabilities could receive services until the day before their 22nd birthday. In 2021, state law changed to allow students who turn 22 during the school year to remain eligible for services through the end of that year.

Long has also advocated for improving funding and availability of services for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities once they graduate from CPS. In an interview with Chalkbeat during the September school visit with Johnson, Long said the state has a yearslong waiting list for people with more challenging disabilities who want to access state-funded adult services, such as for community-based living or day services, that are meant to provide people with more independence. One of his former students accessed such services eight years after she graduated from Southside, he said.

“Our students do best through routine and through daily interactions,” Long said. “Now, she sat home for eight years and likely lost a lot of skills that she learned here with us.”

Long’s appointment comes after the district leaders signaled this fall that they were interested in expanding the school model Long oversaw. Southside is one of a handful of so-called specialty schools that focus on teaching students with intellectual and developmental disabilities about work and life skills. Southside, for example, has classes that teach students how to work in retail, food service, and auto mechanics. Unlike most schools, the district assigns students to these schools.

The district is under state watch regarding multiple issues for how it supports students with disabilities. Last year, the state launched a corrective action plan requiring the district to cap bus commute times for students with disabilities to 60 minutes each way. About 3,000 students with disabilities exceeded that limit at the start of last school year, according to the district.

Under state watch, those travel times have vastly improved this year, after the district decided to stop busing general education students, largely those in magnet and selective enrollment programs. In September, the state launched a new corrective action plan to ensure the district is providing transportation to all students of disabilities whose Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, call for bus service.

This spring, documents obtained by Chalkbeat revealed the district had been under state watch for failing to follow state law on physical restraint and timeout for students. The state board said that Chicago was not notifying parents of incidents, staff and faculty were not trained in how to properly restrain and seclude students, and untrained staff were using outlawed methods of restraint.

The state board named Jones for failing in her role as a designated official to look into restraint and timeout incidents. In that role, she was required to maintain copies of incidents, be notified of incidents that occurred during the school day, and receive documents of physical restraint and timeout incidents that went on for a long time.

Prior to Jones’s time as chair, the district’s department responsible for supporting students with disabilities had been in trouble with the state before. A 2017 investigation WBEZ found Chicago Public Schools secretly overhauled the special education department in 2016, resulting in students losing access to vital services. The State Board of Education placed the district under a corrective action plan in 2018, which lasted until 2022. During the 2022-23 school year, the state placed Chicago under a general supervision plan to continue to watch how the district handles special education services.

Now, Long could play a key role in ensuring that the department is delivering services to students with disabilities, monitoring physical restraint and timeout incidents, and helping students catch up after the coronavirus pandemic disrupted education.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

New data shows hundreds of Chicago Public Schools bus routes with fewer than 10 students

2023-12-07T20:36:30+00:00

Data analysis by Thomas Wilburn.

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Four months after Chicago Public Schools significantly cut back bus service to meet the needs of children with disabilities, new data indicates hundreds of routes are carrying fewer than 10 students.

New data obtained by Chalkbeat Chicago details more than 1,000 bus routes for 7,350 students with disabilities whose Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, require transportation services. It offers a glimpse into how the district is attempting to shorten bus travel times for these students, as required by the state under a corrective action plan issued last year.

The bus routes included in the data are carrying students to 540 different schools.

The data was captured on Oct. 23 and filed by CPS with the state just before Thanksgiving, as part of the corrective action plan. It outlines the number of students with IEPs per route, their schools, pick-up times, and the third-party company that operates each route.

However, the data does not include students who have 504 plans — another type of legal document for students with disabilities — or homeless students, who are also entitled to transportation. District officials said the routes may include those students. One week before the data was captured, the district said it had routed a total of 8,105 students.

Chalkbeat’s analysis of the route data for 7,350 students with IEPs found:

There are an average 6.9 students with IEPs per route
785 of the more than 1,000 routes have 10 or fewer children with IEPs
59 routes — or 5.4% — transport one child with an IEP
The maximum number of students with an IEP per route is 26

The data does not clarify what sized buses travel on each route, how many routes include adult paraprofessionals who are assigned to assist students who have IEPs, how many other children who do not have IEPs might ride on the route, or how many empty seats there are on each bus route.

The new information raises questions about how students with IEPs are assigned to schools — often far from where they live — rather than provided services at schools in their communities. It also comes as parents of students whose bus service was cut earlier this year continue to put pressure on the district to provide transportation to their students, most of whom attend magnet and selective enrollment schools.

District officials continue to cite a national bus driver shortage as the core reason for its transportation troubles. CPS currently has 715 of the roughly 1,300 drivers it needs, officials said.

“This is an evolving non-stagnant situation with new requests and availability,” a district spokesperson said in an email.

Advocates for students with disabilities cautioned that the data does not necessarily mean there’s room on school buses for more students. Students with disabilities are legally owed transportation under federal law, and adding general education students to their existing routes “muddies the waters” of those legal rights, said Miriam Bhimani, a CPS parent and advocate whose complaint placed the district under state watch regarding transportation rights for students with IEPs.

CPS has struggled to provide bus transportation

The scope of busing provided by CPS has contracted significantly in recent years. As recently as 2019, the district budgeted $120 million to bus nearly 20,000 students, according to budget documents. This fiscal year, the district planned to budget $146 million as it pared down the number of students it was serving.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, CPS has been struggling to provide reliable bus transportation. Last year, about 3,000 CPS students with disabilities were on routes longer than an hour. The state put the district under corrective action last year to reduce ride times to less than an hour, which Illinois requires districts to “make every effort” to do.

In July, officials announced CPS would only bus students with disabilities and those who are homeless — groups legally entitled to transportation — and offered CTA passes to about 5,500 general education students and their parents. They also offered families of students with disabilities and those in temporary housing up to $500 in monthly stipends to cover their own transportation costs.

In October, district officials said about 8,100 students, most of whom have IEPs, were routed for busing to and from school. Another 3,948 families of students with disabilities opted to take the monthly reimbursements, CPS officials told the state in a letter dated Nov. 17.

Chicago is not alone in struggling with a shortage of bus drivers. U-46, Illinois’s second largest school district, has also experienced a driver shortage affecting students with disabilities, the Courier-News reported last month, but a U-46 spokesperson said it is currently providing busing to about 22,000 students.

After reiterating its bus driver shortage, CPS officials wrote in the Nov. 17 letter that it “paused providing transportation to families of general education students in magnet or selective enrollment programs” this year “in an effort to ensure” all students whose IEPs require transportation “are routed in a timely manner, and every effort is made to prevent students from riding longer than sixty minutes.”

After bus service was cut for general education students, district officials reported in late September a vast improvement in commute times for students with disabilities, with 47 children on rides longer than an hour. But those travel times have since worsened: As of last week, 116 students with disabilities were on routes longer than an hour, according to a CPS presentation to City Council members.

As recently as last week, district officials cast doubt on whether they would offer transportation to general education students.

But families of general education students in magnet and selective enrollment programs continue to show up at Chicago school board meetings to advocate for busing.

At a Wednesday meeting, a student from Kenwood Academic Academic Center said he and his brother used to take the bus to school together. This year, however, his brother takes a paratransit vehicle that doesn’t have other students on it and “wishes he wasn’t alone in the car.”

That student directed a question to transportation officials and board members at the meeting: “Why are they not routing as many students as possible into empty seats?”

But it’s not that simple, according to some advocates for students with disabilities. Adding many more students to existing routes could again worsen travel times for some students with disabilities, who have a federally protected right to transportation.

Adding students to routes isn’t simple

Advocates for students with disabilities said the data from October raises questions about how students with disabilities are assigned to schools — sometimes far outside their communities. Some of these children, advocates noted, are traveling far distances to therapeutic day schools, which provide more specialized instruction.

An example is Soaring Eagle Academy in suburban Lombard, located roughly 21 miles west of the downtown, where eight CPS students arrive each morning using three different bus routes, the data shows.

Terri Smith-Roback, a CPS parent who co-filed complaints with the state regarding transportation rights for students with disabilities, said she’s worried about long and “inefficient” rides for students traveling to therapeutic day schools. She’s heard from parents of these children who are riding the bus more than two hours each way and knows of one instance where a large yellow bus was transporting six kids to one of the schools.

District officials said some routes have fewer students “due to distance, medical equipment, and/or required bus aides that will require less students in the vehicle.” They also said that many routes use smaller vehicles, which have less space than a traditional yellow school bus.

About one-third of the more than 1000 routes detailed in the data are paratransit, which are usually smaller vehicles that provide individualized routes for students with disabilities, district officials told the state in a letter obtained by Chalkbeat.

Bhimani said the data highlights a larger problem with how the district assigns students with disabilities to schools. All students have the right to attend their assigned neighborhood school. But students with disabilities are often assigned to schools outside of their communities that the district believes can better serve their needs, as laid out in their IEPs, Bhimani said.

“The student assignment decision we’re making in the district is to say students with disabilities are actually not owed services at their zoned school, and we will place them wherever we think those services should be offered inside the district,” Bhimani said.

Instead, Bhimani said, the district should create more services for students in schools closer to where they live so that they don’t have to travel far.

Becky Vevea contributed reporting.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools students are taking longer than four years to finish college: report

2023-12-05T11:00:00+00:00

Most Chicago Public Schools students take five years or longer to finish college, according to a new report from the To&Through Project at the UChicago Consortium on School Research.

The report — titled “The Four Years Fallacy” — analyzed CPS students who graduated in 2015 and enrolled in college the following year. It found 30% finished their degree in four years, but when looking at college completion rates within six years, the rate climbs to 50%.

Most students — roughly 67% — finished their degree in five years, after one or two extra semesters, while 12% took longer. About 15% finished in four years, exactly eight terms, and 4% finished early.

Jenny Nagaoka, deputy director of the UChicago Consortium and senior advisor for the To&Through Project, said college graduation rates are most commonly reported by the federal government and higher education institutions as six-year rates, but that’s not how students and families think about college when they’re applying.

“The problem is that we call them four-year colleges,” Nagaoka said. “If I’m on a two-hour flight, and if it arrives three hours later and that’s considered on time, I’m going to be pretty unhappy.”

The report did not look at the reasons why students took longer, and the authors said there are many valid reasons students take more time. However, the report points out that taking longer than four years to complete a degree can create financial burdens, including more student debt, and can delay the start of one’s career and earnings.

When looking at a student’s race and gender, disparities in college completion emerge.

Young Black men are least likely to finish their degree in either four or six years, followed by young Black women and young Latino men. Young white and Asian American women have the highest college completion rates, followed by their male counterparts, according to the report.

“We’re seeing a lot more first-generation college students, a lot more low-income students, and we’re seeing more students who are going to college are racially diverse,” Nagoaka said. “What colleges need to do to make sure that students are successful has changed considerably.”

Brian Harris, Director of College Pathways with Chicago Public Schools, said it’s important not to “negatively stigmatize taking six years to finish college.”

“Our focus is on our students’ success in general as opposed to doing it within a specific amount of time,” Harris said.

CPS has a curriculum for all sixth through 12th grade students to help them think about their future careers and how to navigate college applications and enrollment, as well as prepare them academically to be successful in college classes, Harris said.

But once they’re on a college campus, that extra guidance and help can fade away.

“So much of persistence and completion is connected to the type of support they get on the college level,” Harris said.

He pointed out that the district has had a partnership with more than a dozen local universities and colleges since 2014 aimed at collaborating on the question of how best to support CPS students.

“We talk about financial aid, we talk about admissions policies, we talk about student affairs policies,” Harris said. “We have a pretty open line of communication with higher ed institutions in hopes that we get feedback on: How can we best prepare students for success at your institution?”

“And on the flip side, here’s what we’re hearing from our students in higher ed institutions. This is what our students need in order to be successful at your institution,” he said.

Harris noted that the data in the report looks at the Class of 2015 and said district officials anticipate seeing improved four-year and six-year college completion rates in the coming years.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Why does this West Side high school have only 33 students?

2023-12-01T18:51:50+00:00

Dismissal time at many high schools is often a crowded scene, with school buses and parents jockeying for parking and kids spilling out in every direction.

But at Frederick Douglass Academy High School, 543 N. Waller Ave. in Austin, just 33 students emerge from the school when classes wrap at 3 p.m. A student body that’s roughly the size of a single English class roams the campus briefly before heading home.

“This is so boring. There is nobody in here,” one student said after leaving Douglass on a recent school day.

At one point a beacon of academic excellence and point of pride for West Siders, Douglass’ low enrollment is now unsurprising to students and neighbors, they said. It’s indicative of the disinvestment West Side residents have suffered for generations, which has led to an exodus of local kids going elsewhere for school.

During the 2007-08 school year — when Douglass converted from a middle school to a high school — there were 561 students, Chicago Public Schools historic enrollment data shows. By the 2015-16 school year, enrollment dropped to 234 students, a nearly 60 percent decrease.

Since 2007, enrollment at Douglass has dropped about 94 percent.

The only community member or parent on Douglass’ Local School Council is Catherine Jones, leaving six open seats for parent representatives and one for community members.

Jones, an Austin resident, has watched the school’s enrollment diminish but said she would not stop advocating for the school’s improvement as it falls into decline from a lack of students and needed repairs.

“These kids deserve a good school, and it feels as if nobody hears us,” she said. “I won’t stop fighting for it.”

Chicago Public Schools said Douglass is not in jeopardy of closing, and efforts are underway to boost under-enrolled schools.

Douglass Principal Michael Durr did not respond to repeated requests for comment, nor did other staff and faculty at the school.

Front entrance to Frederick Douglass Academy High School in Austin.

Ongoing fallout of Chicago’s closed schools

Statistically, the low enrollment means Douglass has some of the highest per-pupil spending in the district.

The high school is spending just over $68,000 per student compared to the district average of $18,287, statistics from the Illinois State Board of Education show.

Douglass’ spending per student is up 20 percent this year, according to the state.

The only CPS school to spend more on a per-student basis is Simpson Academy High School for Young Women, a small alternative high school on the Near West Side. Simpson Academy has 27 students and spends over $94,000 per student, state records show.

Though graduation rates are up in recent years, the increase in funding hasn’t led to the expansion or creation of certain advantageous programs for students, such as STEM classes and extracurricular activities, said Hal Woods, chief of policy for education nonprofit Kids First Chicago.

The school’s lack of resources, plus the decline in the city’s Black population, have led to fewer students attending neighborhood schools, according to neighbors and statistics.

Fifty-eight percent of West Side high school students attended school outside of the district’s West Side region in the 2022-23 school year, according to the Chicago Public School’s Annual Regional Analysis.

Of those leaving the West Side for high school, the majority head to the Far Northwest Side and Near West Side, according to the CPS regional analysis.

Bradley Johnson, chief community officer for youth development group BUILD Inc., said many of the problems with Douglass extend to inequalities the West Side has faced for decades. These include drug arrests, the savings and loan crisis of the ‘90s that lost billions for bank customers, the 2008 financial crash, and the closure of 50 schools in 2013 under Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Four of the closed schools were in Austin, including Key Elementary, just across from Douglass. CPS sold the building in 2018 to The Field School, a private Christian institution.

Emanuel justified the closings by saying under-enrolled, low-performing and crumbling schools did not best serve kids.

A WBEZ-Sun-Times investigation showed the closures largely did not deliver on its promises that students would be better off elsewhere, their new schools would be improved, and their old school buildings would be overhauled.

A Chalkbeat investigation showed that roughly one-third of the students who attended closed schools transferred out of CPS entirely. Those families who left CPS after their schools closed dried up pipelines for local high schools. Families and advocates worried the school closures would exacerbate displacement and disinvestment in segregated Black neighborhoods.

An Austin native, Johnson said access to local resources begins to decline after elementary school, and high school recruitment is lacking due to the absence of things such as advanced placement classes and afterschool programs like sports or music.

“You have vastly different outcomes in life and in your education based on your ZIP code. They aren’t recruiting because of their reputation as a school without resources,” he said. “Equitable access to resources is the key, and this is a citywide issue.”

Banner of Frederick Douglass Academy High School.

If attendance at Douglass doesn’t improve, Jones and others fear that the school could be forced to close, a prospect that has concerned parents at the school since at least 2017.

Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th), whose ward includes Douglass, acknowledged the lack of students as a problem but said closing the school would only exacerbate the situation and further remove resources from the neighborhood.

“Closing schools is never good for the community. Doing so would only further disrupt the education of the students,” he said.

Asked about the low attendance of the school, a CPS spokesperson said the district would abide by the moratorium on closing public schools, a state mandate that expires in January 2025.

“We would avoid speculation on hypothetical future closures that have not been proposed and are not up for consideration by the Board [of Education],” the spokesperson said.

CPS is increasing the Equity Grant program from $50 million in this year to $55 million next year to stabilize funding for smaller and under-enrolled schools, mostly on the South and West sides.

The district also plans to update its Opportunity Index, a formula used by CPS to identify barriers to success such as race, income, education, health, and other factors when making certain funding and staff allocation decisions, the spokesperson said.

“By applying the updated Opportunity Index to allocate additional teacher positions, instructional coaches, counselors and other staff positions, the District can ensure that the families who are most impacted by inequity have additional support to create strong, vibrant and healthy school communities,” the CPS representative said.

The issues that have led to the situation at Douglass have unfolded for years. It will take a long-term strategy to fix it, Woods said.

“This is not a problem you can’t solve in one year,” Woods said. “The schools are still dealing with the fallout of the school closures a decade ago. CPS should listen to the broader community for what their needs are.”

This story was originally published by Block Club Chicago.

Not every Chicago school offers algebra in middle school. CPS is working to change that.

2023-11-30T19:15:00+00:00

Every school day at 10:30 a.m., two dozen middle schoolers shuffle into a classroom at Warren Elementary on Chicago’s far south side. One by one, they boot up a Chromebook at their desks.

Fourteen miles north, another nine students log in from their classroom at STEM Magnet Academy just west of downtown.

They are all taking the same course: Middle School Algebra with Raluca Borbath, who teaches virtually.

On a recent November morning, Borbath shared her screen to begin Lesson 13: Introduction to Two-Variable Inequalities. The students, who log in through Google Meet, dove into a problem about making bracelets with two different kinds of beads — one kind cost $1 and the other cost $2.

The class spent the next hour solving and graphing: 2x+y ≥ 10.

Classes like Borbath’s, in which middle school students learn algebra partly online, have been critical to Chicago Public Schools’ efforts to reduce long-standing inequities in access to the course, which is seen as a gateway to better high schools, better colleges, and ultimately, better careers.

Put simply: Mastering algebra in middle school can give kids an advantage for the rest of their educational trajectory. But in Chicago, access to the course before high school has long been inequitable.

Schools without algebra in the middle grades have been largely located in predominantly Black and lower income neighborhoods on the south and west sides. For students who do take algebra in eighth grade, state data shows white and Asian American students in Chicago Public Schools are more than twice as likely to pass than Black and Latino students.

But the district says it is trying to address the inequity and has found some success.

In addition to the Virtual Academy, which was created during the COVID-19 pandemic and has offered middle school algebra for the past two years, the district also partners with three local universities to get more middle school teachers certified to teach the course.

Data obtained by Chalkbeat shows:

Over the last decade, the number of CPS elementary and middle schools offering algebra grew from 209 to 366.
The number of middle grade teachers with algebra credentials increased in the past two years from 428 to 489.
A decade ago, roughly 10% of the city’s eighth graders took the district’s Algebra Exit Exam. Last May, nearly 25% did.
There are still 85 district-run schools and 35 charters where no students took the Algebra Exit Exam last year.

Other cities have tried expanding middle school algebra with varying success. In New York City, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio promised in 2015 to get algebra in every middle school and saw rates of students taking and passing the course go up. But that district’s focus has shifted back to improving freshmen algebra. Similarly, the state of California recently considered recommending all eighth graders take algebra, but decided to leave the decision to local school districts.

Corey Morrison, director of mathematics at Chicago Public Schools, said the district is focused on equity, not a one-size-fits-all approach.

“It’s algebra choice for all,” Morrison said. “We want to get to a place where every eighth grader has a choice and can choose – as much as an eighth grader can without their parents making them.”

Algebra skills ‘build from the bottom up’

Algebra has long been a core requirement for high school freshmen in Chicago and the rest of the country. But for decades, it’s also been offered to advanced middle school students. Those who took it early would be on a fast track to taking calculus senior year, giving them a leg up on college applications and a strong foundation once enrolled in university.

“If you’re spending three years on your mandatory classes, you only have one more year to look for AP classes, or dual credit classes, or anything else that you want to do,” said Borbath, the teacher of the hybrid class. By taking algebra early, students are able to free up their high school schedules.

But in Chicago, data shows stark disparities in who has historically had access to algebra in middle school. Chalkbeat Chicago obtained and analyzed the number of students who took and passed the district’s Algebra Exit Exam. The two-hour test, taken at the end of each school year, consists of 34 multiple choice questions and six short answer problems. Students who pass can move on to geometry.

Ten years ago, roughly 200 of the district’s 500-plus schools serving middle schoolers had students who took the exam. Now, more than 350 do.

At Warren, no students took the district’s Algebra Exit Exam in 2018, data shows.

The small school sits in the heart of Chicago’s Pill Hill neighborhood, a South Side enclave once home to many doctors and pharmacists who lived in the spacious homes down the street from the nearby hospital. It serves 271 students; 99% are Black and 80% come from low-income families.

STEM Magnet Academy, which shares a section of Borbath’s algebra class with Warren, is in the city’s more affluent West Loop and serves 403 students; 38% are Black, 34% are Asian American, 18% are Latino, and 6% are white. About 43% come from low-income families. In 2018, 14 students at STEM Magnet took the Algebra Exit Exam and 7 passed. But no students have taken it since then.

Borbath also teaches a morning section of algebra to middle school students at three other predominantly Black south and west side schools — Daley, Sumner, and Brown — all of which had no students taking the Algebra Exit Exam as recently as 2019, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat.

Morrison said the pandemic was terrible in a lot of ways, but the way the district is using the Virtual Academy to close gaps in access to algebra is a “silver lining.”

Students at Brentano Elementary in Logan Square work on graphing equations during an algebra class.

At Brentano Elementary in Logan Square, no students were taking the Algebra Exit Exam in 2018, district data show. Seth Lavin became principal nine years ago and said adding the course took time and planning.

“The wrong way to do this is just to change your eighth grade course and say, ‘Now we do algebra,’” Lavin said. “The right way to do it is to build from the bottom up so that the kids can be ready for it.”

Lavin said Brentano teachers led the effort to rework how math was taught in order to offer the course.

“This required, for us, changing what sixth graders were doing, and then changing what seventh graders were doing before, eventually, we could change what eighth graders were doing,” Lavin said.

Now, all eighth graders take algebra in school, Lavin said. And starting last year, Brentano started offering a before-school algebra course to any interested seventh grader.

Lavin said he’s able to pay one of Brentano’s teachers to teach the early morning algebra using federal COVID recovery money. Once that money runs out, the offering could be at risk.

Staffing middle school algebra can be a complicated equation

There are logistical and budget hurdles to overcome in order to offer algebra to middle schoolers, Lavin said.

“A teacher in your building has to have an algebra certification, or a high school math endorsement,” he said. “That requires some groundwork.”

Teacher Martin Lenthe teaches algebra to seventh grade students at Brentano Elementary before the regular school day begins.

Chicago Public Schools launched an effort 20 years ago, known as the Chicago Algebra Initiative, to boost the number of middle school students taking algebra. In partnership with three local universities, the school board pays tuition for up to 90 middle school teachers to earn a credential to teach algebra each year.

Morrison, with the district, said the goal is to eventually have at least one certified teacher in every school, but the math hasn’t always worked out.

“How do you pull a handful of kids out to give them a robust algebra course when there’s only one eighth grade teacher?” Morrison said.

For the past couple of years, the Virtual Academy has been able to step in to serve those schools.

Last school year, 777 middle schoolers across 120 schools took the virtual course and this school year, the number climbed to 1,140 middle school students across 142 schools, according to the district. Roughly 300 take the class during the school day and 800 take it before or after school.

Morrison said the virtual courses are also showing teachers and administrators that offering in-person algebra is possible.

“It changes the mindset of teachers and administrators,” he said. “There are enough students in your school, in your community, where we can work towards putting an in-person course in your building, because that’s the ultimate goal.”

District data obtained by Chalkbeat shows that 489 teachers working at 287 schools have an active credential to teach algebra to middle school students. That’s up slightly from 2020 when 428 teachers at 248 schools had them. A district spokesperson said data on algebra credentials was not available prior to 2020.

Warren is hoping to offer in-person algebra next school year. Veteran teacher Tracey Kidd is working toward getting credentialed through the University of Chicago as part of the Chicago Algebra Initiative. Last school year, she was the teacher in the room where middle schoolers logged into virtual algebra.

“It’s kind of hard to do (algebra) virtually sometimes, because kids, they wander off a little,” she said. “But if you’re in the room with them, then they’re gonna focus more, and they get that one on one attention from you.”

Kidd currently teaches intermediate math and knows many students are ready to handle the rigor of algebra.

Younger students get a jump start in algebra

In Sandra Shorter’s classroom at Warren, a group of sixth grade students are starting pre-algebra with the goal of taking algebra next school year as seventh graders.

“We’re doing ratios, unit rates, and then we’re gonna graph them and write them as equations,” Shorter explained.

A classroom wall at Warren Elementary helps middle schoolers at all levels prepare for success in algebra.

Morrison, with the district, said algebra is not just for certain students who want to be scientists or engineers. It teaches important skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking.

“Math is for everybody. But do you need to get on the accelerated track in eighth grade? Not necessarily,” Morrison said. “Do you still need to learn algebra? Yes.”

Algebra is a graduation requirement in CPS, but the stakes for taking it before high school can feel high.

Last week, 13- and 14-year-olds across Chicago found out their scores on the district’s High School Admissions Test — a one-hour exam that partly determines whether they can go to the city’s top high schools. Though the content of the test is not public, many parents and students say taking algebra in middle school gives students a leg up.

“It will help us with a test to get into high school,” said Brentano student Liam Dolik. “That is something that’s so huge in eighth graders’ life, especially in Chicago. It’s not the best but we have to do it so we might as well prepare for it.”

Teacher Martin Lenthe helps a seventh grade student with algebra at Brentano Elementary before the regular school day begins.

Dolik is one of nearly 30 seventh graders who come to school at 7:45 a.m. every weekday to take algebra. They spread out across nine tables as the morning sun streams through the towering windows in classroom 306.

Lavin said all seventh graders were offered the option to take algebra before school, and about half of them decided to do it. But Lavin wrestles with whether the morning section for seventh graders is creating a new inequity.

“Sometimes there’s this temptation to go ahead instead of going deeper,” Lavin said. “At the same time, our kids are in the CPS reality where everybody’s trying to figure out how to get as high a score as they can in the high school admissions test.”

At the end of the day, Brentano is still a neighborhood public school in a diverse neighborhood, offering advanced math to everybody, Lavin said. “That’s increasing equity in the district.”

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

A medida que entra en vigor la regla de refugio de Chicago para familias migrantes, aquí hay tres derechos de los estudiantes que deben conocer

2023-11-29T19:50:01+00:00

Esta historia fue traducida por Claudia Hernández de la Revista Borderless. Suscríbase al boletín de Borderless aquí.

Los educadores y defensores de Chicago están preocupados por cómo el nuevo límite de 60 días del alcalde Brandon Johnson de las estadías en refugios para familias migrantes afectará la asistencia y la estabilidad de los estudiantes migrantes.

La nueva regla llega en un momento en que la ciudad ha tenido problemas para albergar a los migrantes. Más de 22,000 personas han llegado desde la frontera sur desde agosto del 2022, muchas de ellas huyendo de la agitación económica y política en los países de Centroamérica y Sudamérica. Los funcionarios de la ciudad y el estado han prometido aumentar los esfuerzos para ayudar a las familias a reasentarse y encontrar una vivienda más permanente, un compromiso que se da justo cuando un programa de asistencia para el alquiler operado por el estado ya no se aplicará a los inmigrantes recién llegados que ingresan a los refugios, Block Club Chicago informó.

Unas 50 familias ya han recibido los avisos, y otras 3,000 los recibirán el 4 de diciembre.

Los defensores dijeron que perder el refugio podría significar más ausencias entre los estudiantes migrantes que no tienen hogar, formalmente conocidos como estudiantes que viven en situaciones de vivienda temporal. Esa designación incluye a los niños en refugios, que viven con otra familia o que viven en un lugar público. A partir del 31 de octubre, las tasas de asistencia promedio este año escolar para los estudiantes sin hogar son 5 puntos porcentuales más bajas que sus compañeros con vivienda permanente, según datos de las Escuelas Públicas de Chicago compartidos con la Coalición de Chicago para las Personas sin Hogar.

La estabilidad escolar está relacionada con el éxito académico. Un estudio del 2015 que examinó a estudiantes de la ciudad de Nueva York encontró que los niños que se cambiaron de escuela tenían más probabilidades de ausentarse crónicamente o perder al menos el 10% de sus días escolares. Los estudiantes crónicamente ausentes que también se encontraban sin hogar tenían tres veces más probabilidades de repetir el mismo grado que los estudiantes sin hogar que faltaron menos de cinco días a la escuela, encontró el informe.

“Estamos hablando de niños que han estado aquí durante dos meses, que han entrado en una rutina, tal vez han hecho algunos amigos, tienen una sensación de control finalmente, donde pueden obtener dos comidas calientes al día, estamos hablando de enviar a esas familias de regreso al lugar de su llegada en autobús”, dijo Gabriel Páez, un maestro bilingüe en el West Side, sobre la nueva regla del alcalde.

Sesenta días es un “tiempo muy corto” para encontrar vivienda, especialmente para los recién llegados con barreras lingüísticas que están lidiando con casos de asilo o que aún no han sido autorizados a trabajar, dijo Patricia Nix-Hodes, directora del Proyecto de Ley de la Coalición de Chicago para las Personas sin Hogar.

Si las familias no tienen una vivienda permanente en puerta, pueden regresar a la “zona de aterrizaje”, el área del centro de la ciudad donde la mayoría de los autobuses dejan por primera vez a los recién llegados, y pueden solicitar una nueva ubicación en un refugio. Las familias pueden permanecer en su refugio bajo “circunstancias atenuantes”, como un problema médico, si hay frío extremo o si han obtenido un contrato de arrendamiento con una fecha de mudanza que comienza más tarde de cuando deben abandonar el refugio, dijo la oficina del alcalde.

Un portavoz del alcalde declinó hacer comentarios. En un comunicado, un portavoz del distrito dijo que está trabajando con la ciudad y las escuelas para “garantizar que los estudiantes recién llegados, la mayoría considerados estudiantes en situaciones de vivienda temporal (STLS), puedan tener acceso a una educación de Pre-K-12 dentro de nuestro sistema que ofrece los servicios adecuados, incluidos los servicios para aprender inglés”.

Los niños sin hogar tienen ciertos derechos consagrados en la ley federal destinados a mantener su estabilidad en la escuela, incluida la capacidad de permanecer en la escuela a la que han estado asistiendo.

Aquí hay tres derechos educativos que las familias que viven en viviendas temporales deben conocer a medida que entra en vigencia la nueva regla de refugio de la ciudad:

Los estudiantes sin hogar tienen derecho a permanecer en la misma escuela

Los estudiantes que viven en refugios temporales y que se han inscrito en la escuela local o en una escuela cercana tienen derecho a permanecer en la misma escuela, incluso si se ven obligados a abandonar el refugio después de 60 días.

Esto es cierto para cualquier estudiante que se quede sin hogar. La ley federal protege su derecho a permanecer en su llamada “escuela de origen”.

Al igual que cualquier otro estudiante de las Escuelas Públicas de Chicago, los estudiantes sin hogar pueden inscribirse en la escuela local del vecindario en su nueva comunidad simplemente entrando. Además, como cualquier otro estudiante, pueden aplicar a escuelas selectivas o magneto, pero la fecha límite para aplicar a estas escuelas para el próximo año académico ha pasado.

Los estudiantes migrantes también pueden ser referidos por otras agencias de la ciudad, como el Departamento de Servicios Familiares y de Apoyo, para recibir ayuda para la inscripción de la oficina central del distrito, incluso en el Centro de Bienvenida Piloto de la ciudad en Clemente High School en el West Side.

En ese caso, el distrito inscribirá a los estudiantes en función del lugar donde viven, las necesidades de los estudiantes, como los servicios del idioma inglés, y “la capacidad y los recursos existentes en la escuela”. Si hay problemas de espacio en una escuela, el distrito “puede ayudar con una asignación escolar alternativa”, dijo un portavoz.

Una vez que 20 o más estudiantes con el mismo idioma nativo se inscriben en una escuela, la ley estatal requiere que inicien un programa de Educación Bilingüe de Transición. Dichos programas requieren instrucción tanto en inglés como en el idioma nativo, como el español.

El distrito ha presupuestado $15 millones para contratar más maestros bilingües, coordinadores de programas bilingües y “otros recursos para apoyar a los estudiantes de inglés”, dijo un portavoz.

Los estudiantes sin hogar tienen derecho a transporte

Los estudiantes sin hogar también tienen derecho a recibir transporte a la escuela, incluso si se mudan. Y, de acuerdo con las pautas de CPS, su escuela debe informar al estudiante y a los padres sobre los servicios de transporte. Si un estudiante encuentra una vivienda permanente, todavía tiene derecho a transporte hasta el final del año escolar.

De acuerdo con las pautas de CPS, los estudiantes sin hogar que necesitan transporte deben recibir una tarjeta CTA dentro de los tres días posteriores a la solicitud. Los niños de preescolar a sexto grado pueden recibir una tarjeta adicional para que uno de sus padres pueda acompañarlos en el transporte público.

Los estudiantes sin hogar no necesitan papeleo para inscribirse

Las escuelas deben inscribir a los estudiantes que no tienen hogar, incluso si no tienen los registros que normalmente se necesitan para inscribirse, como la vacunación o los registros escolares anteriores, prueba de tutela o prueba de residencia, según el distrito.

Es posible que las familias que huyen de la violencia doméstica o la agitación política no hayan traído documentos importantes, dijo Nix-Hodes.

Depende de la escuela identificar “sensiblemente” que una familia que busca inscribirse no tiene hogar sin violar su privacidad, agregó Nix-Hodes.

Reema Amin es una reportera que cubre las Escuelas Públicas de Chicago para Chalkbeat Chicago. Ponte en contacto con Reema en ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago district official says adding busing this year will be tough as driver shortage persists

2023-11-29T03:16:15+00:00

Chicago Public Schools officials expressed doubt Tuesday that they will be able to provide busing to general education students for the rest of this school year.

“It’s very difficult to make a pivot within midyear to be able to add transportation now,” Charles Mayfield, the district’s chief operating officer, said during a hearing of the City Council’s Committee on Education and Child Development.

Mayfield’s comments come as the school district is still working to shorten bus rides for more than 100 students with disabilities to comply with state law.

In response to questions from aldermen about the state of student transportation, district officials cited a shortage of drivers as the core reason they’ve limited bus service so far this year to students with disabilities whose individualized education programs require transportation and those who are living in temporary housing. Both groups are legally entitled to receive bus rides to school.

About 5,500 general education students who were previously eligible for bus transportation were not offered busing this year — mostly those who attend magnet and selective-enrollment schools. The district is instead offering those families CTA passes, including a companion pass for a parent or guardian. Many parents have complained about the change, with some saying it’s hard to meet their work obligations and get their kids to school. It has led some families to transfer children out of their schools.

The district had already announced that it wouldn’t be able to expand busing to general education students for the rest of this semester. Officials have promised an update on transportation in December, before the new semester begins.

As of mid-October, the district said it had created bus routes for about 8,100 students, mostly children with disabilities.

Mayfield told aldermen that the district has now hired 715 drivers, compared with about 680 in July — meaning it has 54% of the drivers it needs. That’s only a small increase, he said, even though the district has held dozens of hiring fairs and worked with its bus vendors to increase hourly driver pay rates by $5 since last year.

“We just haven’t seen much traction with being able to build that pipeline back for drivers,” he said.

Officials added that the number of students with disabilities has grown by about 20% from last year, and the district is regularly receiving new transportation requests.

Chicago Public Schools has been under state watch since last November for failing to get students with disabilities on bus rides shorter than an hour each way. Last year, the district reported that 3,000 students were on rides longer than an hour, with 365 on rides lasting more than 90 minutes each way.

This year, with transportation for general-education students sharply limited, the district has touted an improvement in travel times for students with disabilities. As of Monday, 116 students with disabilities were commuting more than an hour to school, according to Mayfield’s presentation. That is, however, an increase from August, when 47 students with disabilities were on routes longer than one hour.

The state opened another investigation in September after advocates and parents complained that students with disabilities whose individualized education programs include transportation are being denied their federal right to a “free appropriate public education.”

The complaint alleges “widespread … delays and denials” across CPS and an “unnecessary administrative burden,” because families have to request transportation even after they’ve already been deemed eligible, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by Chalkbeat.

Looking ahead to next year, Mayfield said the district will be discussing various strategies to make bus transportation “more efficient.” The options could include creating regional bus pickup sites and adjusting school start and dismissal times. He emphasized that those decisions would be made in collaboration with unions.

“Candidly, there will be some decisions that will need to be made, because we’re not seeing that driver population come back,” Mayfield said.

Becky Vevea contributed reporting.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

As Chicago’s shelter rule for migrant families takes effect, here are three student rights to know

2023-11-27T12:00:00+00:00

Chicago educators and advocates are concerned about how Mayor Brandon Johnson’s new 60-day limit for shelter stays for migrant families will impact attendance and stability for migrant students.

The new rule comes as the city has struggled to house migrants. More than 22,000 have arrived from the Southern border since August 2022, many fleeing economic and political upheaval in Central and South American countries. City and state officials have promised to boost efforts to help families get resettled and find more permanent housing, a commitment that comes just as a state-operated rental assistance program will no longer apply to newly arrived immigrants who are entering shelters, Block Club Chicago reported.

About 50 families have already received the notices, and another 3,000 will get them on Dec. 4.

Advocates said losing shelter could mean more absences among migrant students who are homeless — formally known as students living in temporary living situations. That designation includes children in shelter, living doubled up with another family, or living in a public place. As of Oct. 31, average attendance rates this school year for homeless students are 5 percentage points lower than their peers with permanent housing, according to Chicago Public Schools data shared with the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

School stability is related to academic success. A 2015 study that examined New York City students found that children who transferred schools were more likely to be chronically absent or miss at least 10% of their school days. Chronically absent students who were also homeless were three times more likely to repeat the same grade than homeless students who missed fewer than five days of school, the report found.

“We’re talking about kids who have been around for two months, who have gotten into a routine, maybe made some friends, have some sense of control finally, where they can get two hot meals a day — we’re talking about sending those families back to the bus landing spot,” said Gabriel Paez, a bilingual teacher on the West Side, of the mayor’s new rule.

Sixty days is a “very short time” to find housing, especially for newcomers with language barriers who are dealing with asylum cases or have not been authorized to work yet, said Patricia Nix-Hodes, director of the Law Project of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

If families don’t have permanent housing lined up, they can return to the “landing zone” — the downtown area where most buses first drop off newcomers — and can request a new shelter placement. Families can stay in their shelter under “extenuating circumstances,” such as a medical issue, if there is extreme cold, or if they’ve obtained a lease with a move-in date that starts later than when they must leave shelter, the mayor’s office said.

A spokesperson for the mayor declined to comment. In a statement, a district spokesperson said it is working with the city and schools to “ensure new arrival students, who are nearly all considered Students in Temporary Living Situations (STLS), can get access to a Pre-K-12 education within our system that offers the appropriate services, including English Learner services.”

Homeless children have certain rights enshrined in federal law aimed at maintaining stability for them at school, including the ability to stay at the school where they’ve been attending.

Here are three education rights that families living in temporary housing should know about as the city’s new shelter rule takes effect:

Homeless students have the right to stay in the same school

Students living in temporary shelters who have enrolled in the local school or a nearby one are entitled to stay at the same school even if they’re forced to leave the shelter after 60 days.

This is true for any student who becomes homeless. Federal law protects their right to remain in their so-called “origin school.”

Just as any other Chicago Public Schools student, homeless students can enroll in the local neighborhood school in their new community by simply walking in. Also like any other student, they can apply to selective or magnet schools, but the deadline to apply for these schools for next academic year has passed.

Migrant students may also be referred by other city agencies, such as the Department of Family and Support Services, to receive enrollment help from the district’s central office, including at the city’s Pilot Welcome Center at Clemente High School on the West Side.

In that case, the district will enroll students based on where they live, the students’ needs — such as English language services — and “existing capacity and resources at the school.” If there are space issues at a school, the district “can assist with an alternate school assignment,” a spokesperson said.

Once 20 or more students with the same native language enroll at a school, state law requires they launch a Transitional Bilingual Education program. Such programs require instruction in both English and the native language, such as Spanish.

The district has budgeted $15 million to hire more bilingual teachers, dual-language program coordinators, and “other resources to support English learners,” a spokesperson said.

Homeless students have the right to transportation

Homeless students also have the right to receive transportation to school even if they move. And, according to CPS guidelines, their school must inform the student and a parent about transportation services. If a student finds permanent housing, they are still entitled to transportation until the end of the school year.

According to CPS guidelines, homeless students in need of transportation must receive a CTA card within three days of requesting one. Children in preschool through sixth grade can receive an additional card so that a parent can accompany them on public transit.

Students in those grades can also apply for school bus service if a caregiver can’t accompany them to school because the parent has work or education conflicts, a mental or physical disability, or the shelter won’t allow parents to leave during the hours of dropoff and pickup.

Citing a driver shortage, the district this year has limited school bus service to students with disabilities and those who are homeless. As of October, 113 homeless students qualified for busing, but it’s unclear how many of them opted instead for a financial reimbursement.

Homeless students don’t need paperwork to enroll

Schools must enroll students who are homeless even if they don’t have records normally needed to enroll, such as immunization or previous school records, proof of guardianship, or proof of residence, according to the district.

Families fleeing domestic violence or political turmoil may not have grabbed important documents, Nix-Hodes said.

It’s up to the school to “sensitively” identify that a family seeking enrollment is homeless without violating their privacy, Nix-Hodes added.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

What do you think of Chicago’s school choice system? Chalkbeat wants to hear from you.

2023-11-20T20:13:53+00:00

Chicago’s system that allows families to apply for magnet and selective enrollment schools — often outside their neighborhoods — traces back decades. It was initially seen as a tool for desegregation.

But, in recent years, many of those schools have since been criticized for enrolling a larger share of white and Asian American students, even though those students make up a minority of the district, compared to their Black and Hispanic peers.

In addition, the emergence of charter schools in the late 1990s presented families with options outside of their local district-run school.

More recently, officials have seen Chicago’s school choice system as a way to offer families more choices, allowing them to enroll their children in a school they like, instead of being tied to a neighborhood school that may not have the resources they’re seeking.

Still, the admissions process, accessed through an application called GoCPS, has built a reputation for being confusing, cumbersome, and stressful.

Since his election earlier this year, Mayor Brandon Johnson has expressed a desire to boost investments into neighborhood schools, so families don’t feel like they need to leave their communities to get a good education for their children.

We want to know from Chicago Public Schools families: What has been your experience with the city’s school choice system? Tell us here or in the short survey below. (We will not use your answers or your name in our reporting without your permission.)

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Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago students who enrolled in ‘safety’ colleges were more likely to drop out, study finds

2023-11-16T23:31:00+00:00

Imagine the following scenario: A high school senior in Chicago has a 3.5 GPA and a score of 1200 on the SATs. They’ve been accepted to highly selective Princeton University, University of Illinois at Chicago, and a local city college.

Which school might they choose?

More often than not, a student in that situation will lean toward the school that’s an “undermatch,” meaning a school with lower grades and SAT scores in its admissions criteria and where average scores of incoming freshman were lower than what the student earned, according to a new study by the Inclusive Economy Lab at the University of Chicago. And that could make them more likely to drop out.

Researchers looked at Chicago Public Schools’ class of 2018 using a variety of data points, including district data and other sources. Of the students who attended college, 62% had enrolled in an undermatch school.

Students at an undermatch school were more likely to drop out: 69% of such students made it to the second year of college, while the same was true for 77% of students at a “match” or “overmatch” school — with criteria that called for the same or higher grades and SAT scores and where average scores of incoming freshman matched or were higher than the student had earned, according to the study.

Staying and earning a college degree can lead to an overall healthier life, according to a review of literature by Healthy People 2030, a federal government-led project that tracks health data. A college education can mean better salary-earning potential and better access to quality housing.

Students who enrolled at an undermatch were more likely to be English language learners, students with disabilities, those who are homeless, as well as white and Hispanic students. Students who didn’t fill out or complete their federal financial aid forms also more often chose an undermatch school. Students at these schools, however, were less likely to be Black or Asian American.

The financial cost of college was a big reason students have leaned toward schools that are an undermatch, in lieu of attending more selective schools or out-of-state choices, researchers found in interviews with students who currently attend City Colleges of Chicago. Students said it’s cheaper to attend a two-year city college or a local, less selective four-year school, and they don’t want to incur any debt, said Shantá Robinson, senior research director at Inclusive Economy Lab.

“We always say young people should think about these things and they are,” Robinson said, “and on the other hand, because financial fit is the first thing they’re looking at, other things that are critically important to young people — thriving in higher education institutions and persisting and graduating — are being overlooked.”

The study also found:

81% of the class of 2018 had intended to go to college, but only 57% enrolled in college within one year of graduation. Just 43% returned to college for a second academic year.
Students with higher GPAs and test scores were more likely to submit more college applications to schools that were a match.
At colleges where net out-of-pocket cost was estimated to be $6,000 annually or less, 62% of students persisted to the second year. That persistence rate grew at pricier colleges: 89% of students stayed at schools where the net cost was estimated at more than $20,000.
Students at match and overmatch schools enrolled in schools that cost an average of roughly $1,200 less a year compared to other schools they also applied to. But for students at undermatch schools, that difference was an average of nearly $3,500 – which researchers said is one sign that cost was a factor for where these students ended up enrolling.

A recent study found that more Chicago Public Schools students are pursuing college, with far more earning certificates from two-year colleges.

CPS provides college and career competency lessons through its Skyline curriculum for grades 6-12, said Mary Ann Fergus, a spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools. Schools also encourage students to earn early college credentials — which about half of the class of 2023 did — which Fergus noted can help reduce the cost of college.

The researchers at the Inclusive Economy Lab at the University of Chicago found that overall the more selective the school, the more likely students would stick around. But at every type of school, including two-year colleges, those who were undermatching were less likely to stay.

Even though cost seemed to be a driving factor for where students enrolled, researchers found that students at colleges with higher net out-of-pocket costs were more likely to stay for their second year. Researchers don’t know why but guessed that pricier schools might have more resources on campus to support students’ needs, such as in academics.

An inclusive culture may also be a big factor in keeping students in college, the study suggests. For example, about 78% of Black students who attended a historically Black college or university, or HBCU, made it to their second year of college, compared to 67.3% of Black students who attended non-HBCUs. The New York Times found last year that several HBCUs are seeing their schools become top choices for more Black students. However, the same was not true for Hispanic students attending Hispanic-serving institutions, or HSIs. About 85% of these students persisted to their second year of college at non-HSIs, compared to about 68% of Hispanic students at HSIs.

The study’s authors made several recommendations, including teaching students at an earlier age about their options for college so that they can make a financial plan, such as applying for scholarships earlier on or understanding how to fill out a FAFSA form. Having that conversation “when your child gets an award letter” is too late, Robinson said, especially if the conversation is that the family does not have enough money to contribute.

“That’s not to offer a sense of pessimism to these young people. It is a level-setting,” Robinson said, noting that families need to look ahead to the final year of high school. “It is a very real world, ‘This is what we’re working with as a family. Now how can we move past this? How can we work together to make sure you get where you want to be by senior year?’”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Many states are moving toward private school choice. Illinois is letting its program lapse.

2023-11-14T19:35:49+00:00

A little over three years ago, Eva Villalobos was searching for a public school for her four daughters, two of whom she had recently adopted in March 2020.

She wanted a school that would provide the mental health and academic support her new daughters needed. Then she discovered St. Gall School on the city’s Southwest side. It had everything she was looking for: small class sizes, before- and after-school child care, and social emotional support.

The price tag for the Catholic school was steep — Villalobos said it cost her almost $20,000 a year for all four children. But her oldest daughter received funding from Illinois’ tax-credit scholarship, Invest in Kids, to bring the price down to about $10,000 a year.

Next school year, however, Villalobos’ children — and more than 9,000 other Illinois students who received tuition support this year through Invest in Kids — will no longer benefit from the state-sponsored financial help.

That’s because Illinois lawmakers are letting the tax-credit scholarship program lapse on Dec. 31. Students who already receive the tax credit scholarship will have their tuition paid for through the end of this school year.

Illinois’ move comes at a time when more than a dozen states across the country have created new private school choice programs or expanded existing ones.

Neighboring red states, such as Iowa and Indiana, have recently made nearly all of their students eligible for private school choice programs, which give families public dollars to pay for private educational options. Wisconsin, which has a Democratic governor and a Republican-dominated legislature, increased the dollar amount of its school vouchers over the summer.

But in Illinois, state lawmakers did not pass a bill during the fall veto session to extend the program despite a last-minute push from families and advocacy groups. Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker struck a neutral position that frustrated both sides — underscoring the shifting political winds in a state that has become more blue since the program passed six years ago.

Invest in Kids allows individuals or corporations to donate to scholarship-granting organizations that then distribute money to students from low-income families who need help paying tuition for private schools. Donors get a tax credit worth 75 cents for every dollar donated, up to $1 million. The state capped donations at $100 million and credits at $75 million — limits that were never hit, according to state data.

Michael Petrilli, president of the right-leaning Fordham Institute, said Illinois is likely the first state to kill an existing private school choice program without court intervention.

“It’s very hard to take government benefits away from people, especially when they are sympathetic individuals, especially low-income parents trying to do right by their kids,” Petrilli noted.

But opponents of private school choice programs applauded Illinois lawmakers for not extending the program when the veto session closed last Thursday evening.

Dan Montgomery, president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, one of the state’s largest teachers unions, said in a press release that “there is a nationwide push to divert public dollars from our public schools through vouchers or voucher-like programs like tax credit scholarships and education savings accounts.”

He praised Illinois lawmakers who “chose to put our public schools first.”

For Villalobos, the end of the program likely means taking her children out of a school where they are thriving.

“We would be forced to try to find different ways to still be able to support them because they need all this additional help,” she said, noting that she doesn’t see how paying for private school would be feasible. “It just won’t happen.”

How politics shifted during Invest in Kids’ existence

Last week, Villalobos and other families and supporters of Invest in Kids filled the halls of the state capitol in Springfield for the final days of the fall veto session. Wearing blue shirts that read “Save My Scholarship,” they pushed state lawmakers to call a bill, HB 4149, that would extend the program until 2029 with some new limitations around donations.

But Illinois Speaker of the House Emanuel “Chris” Welch never called the bill for a vote.

The moment stood in stark contrast to 2017, when Republicans and Democrats were engaged in a tense, drawn-out battle over how to pay for public education. A budget impasse had stretched for two years.

At the time, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner favored the idea of tax-credit scholarships and said he was “hopeful” a compromise deal would include such a program. Democratic leaders — all of whom are no longer in office — wanted a compromise to end the stalemate and better fund public schools. Behind the scenes, they were open to including a tax-credit scholarship.

Invest in Kids emerged from the closed-door negotiations that finally broke the impasse.

State lawmakers agreed in 2021 to extend the program for a year, with the backing of trade unions that supported additional money for the creation of private vocational schools. Those unions offered their support again this year.

Some advocates, who hoped for another extension, became concerned in the spring when Brandon Johnson, a former middle school teacher and organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union, became mayor of Chicago. Johnson beat Democrat Paul Vallas, a former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, who favored school vouchers and charter schools.

“His victory surprised a lot of people,” said Greg Richmond, superintendent of the Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Schools. “I had a friend who works in the political arena, he called me two days after the mayoral election and he said, ‘I hope I’m wrong, but I’m just letting you know the scholarship program is now dead.’”

The perception was that “elected officials would want to be on the right side of the CTU,” he added.

Still, in October, Pritzker said he would sign a bill if lawmakers sent it to him. A spokesperson from the governor’s office told Chalkbeat Chicago in late October, “he won’t veto something that passed with a majority supporting it.”

Republican lawmakers urged Welch to bring the bill to a vote on the House floor last week and expressed deep frustration that he didn’t do so.

Rep. William Hauter, a Republican representing a district in central Illinois between Peoria and Springfield, mocked his colleagues from the floor Thursday. “I stand to just congratulate the majority power party who has stood firmly against the Invest in Kids program.”

He called Democrats’ commitment to kill the program “breathtaking.”

In a veto session, a bill requires three-fifths vote to pass. Cassie Creswell, executive director and president of Illinois Families for Public Schools, a public education advocacy group, said Welch might not have wanted to call the bill because it didn’t have enough support from Democratic lawmakers.

“He does not want to call bills that are going to divide his caucus,” she said.

Opponents celebrate ‘historic win’

When the veto session ended on Thursday, opponents cheered the end of Invest in Kids. They said the program lacked transparency and accountability when it came to reporting who received public dollars, and it gave public money to religious schools that discriminate against LGBTQ students.

Public schools have to report academic and disciplinary data to the Illinois State Board of Education, which is included annually in the state’s report card. Similar data for Invest in Kids is not available, though students enrolled in private schools with the help of a tax-credit scholarship are required to take state standardized tests.

“We do not know test scores. We don’t know graduation rates. We don’t know discipline information. We don’t know who attends,” said Creswell. “We don’t know how anyone spent $250 million they got over these last five years. So no transparency and no oversight.”

The Illinois Department of Revenue has issued an annual report on Invest in Kids for the past five years. But much of the individual school level data is suppressed because of student privacy laws. Aggregate data collected in the most recent annual report showed 56% of students supported by tax-credit scholarships last school year were white, 32% were Hispanic or Latino, 20% were Black, and 12.5% identified as other.

Roughly two-thirds were from families whose income was below 185% of the federal poverty line — or $49,025 for a family of four in the 2022-23 school year.

Rep. Angelica Guerrero-Cuellar, a Democrat and the lead sponsor of HB 4149, said she hopes to bring new legislation in the spring.

Guerrero-Cuellar, who represents neighborhoods on the city’s southwest side and west suburbs, said more than 400 students in her district use the tax-credit scholarship to attend private schools.

“This is a critical and needed program for a lot of people,” she said. “We have food deserts, health deserts, and educational deserts.”

But some supporters of the program think a last-minute save is unlikely after lawmakers declined to act last spring and then again in the veto session.

Anthony Holter, president of Empower Illinois, one of the largest scholarship-granting organizations for the program, said he doesn’t know how “feasible it is and whether the conditions in the spring would be any different.”

Parents and students hold signs inside the Illinois State Capitol building as they rally in support of the state's tax-credit scholarship program. The tax-credit scholarship is set to sunset at the end of 2023 after lawmakers didn't act.

Supporters worry about the future for scholarship students

Some supporters of Invest in Kids worry about the long term-effects on students and schools when the tax-credit scholarship program ends.

Tracy Smith, a mother of twin boys whose tuition is supported with the help of a tax-credit scholarship, said that without an extension, private schools could close and teachers could be laid off from their jobs. She also said that ending Invest in Kids would take away families’ right to choose a school that is right for their kids.

“You’re going to have an influx of more students going into a system that they don’t want to be a part of,” said Smith. “If they don’t extend the program, you’re taking away their choice.”

Richmond, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Chicago, said some Catholic schools could face closure without the scholarship program.

“Some of our schools have 50 kids on scholarship or more,” he said. “When a school loses that number of students then the school’s future is also at risk. It’s not just the 50 students whose education is at risk.”

Some donors have already reached out about helping students stay in their schools, he said.

Christine Boyd, principal of St. Mary of the Lake and St. Thomas of Canterbury Catholic schools on the North Side of Chicago, said the vast majority of the schools’ 300 students were on scholarship. Most of the students are African immigrants who speak two languages at home, she said, and the school has a “robust” program for English language learners.

The loss of the scholarship program “will be very devastating to our community and to the school,” Boyd said.

Roni Facen, principal at St. Francis de Sales High School on the city’s Southeast Side, said that she has 55 students who are a part of Invest in Kids. She said some of the students won’t be able to continue attending the school.

The school is located in a predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood and many families are low-income, she said. Facen said that the school gives a scholarship to all students to help them attend.

“I’m gonna do everything I know how to do to keep my babies here. But it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be an easy fight,” said Facen.

Villalobos, the mother of four, was angry when lawmakers waited until the last minute to make a decision on the scholarship and disappointed that the program was not extended.

“There’s so many unforeseen things that happen in life. No matter how financially stable or healthy you are, things can change in the blink of an eye,” said Villalobos. “This is such a wonderful cushion to have for hard times.”

Now she’s trying to figure out her next step. She wants to keep her daughters at St. Gall, which offers before- and after-school care and social-emotional and academic support. But now that Invest in Kids is ending, she doesn’t know what she’ll do.

Becky Vevea contributed reporting.

Cara Fitzpatrick is a story editor at Chalkbeat. Contact Cara at cfitzpatrick@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s transition to elected school board up in the air as disagreements remain among state lawmakers

2023-11-10T01:30:46+00:00

How Chicago school board members will be elected one year from now is still in limbo after Illinois lawmakers couldn’t agree on the details of the transition this week.

But lawmakers in both chambers appeared to agree on the third draft of an electoral map dividing Chicago into 20 districts. That map has seven majority Black districts, six where Latinos make up 50% or more of the population, and five where the population is 50% or more white.

However, they could not agree before adjourning their fall veto session on how elections would happen in 2024 and 2026 in order to transition to a fully-elected school board.

The state legislature is scheduled to meet again in mid-January.

According to a 2021 law — and its subsequent trailer bill — 10 school board members are to be elected on Nov. 5, 2024 from 10 geographic districts. The mayor would appoint a school board president and 10 members from those same districts. In November 2026, the appointed seats would be elected and a school board president would be chosen by all Chicago voters.

By January 2027, Chicago will have a 21-member fully-elected school board. The shift comes after three decades of mayoral control over Chicago Public Schools.

Lawmakers were supposed to divide the city into electoral districts by July 1, 2023, but gave themselves an extension in May to get the maps drawn by April 1, 2024. Many lawmakers and advocates hoped to define the map and how school board elections would roll out during this week’s veto session.

“By Senate standards, we are years ahead of schedule by being months ahead of schedule,” said Senate President Don Harmon, before the chamber voted 38-12 to approve a plan he put forward earlier this week to have all 20 districts vote right away, leaving only the board president up for mayoral appointment.

Under that plan, Mayor Brandon Johnson would lose the power to appoint 10 members and keep control via a hybrid Board of Education with 11 mayoral appointees.

“I am very hopeful that when all is said and done, this will be the law in Illinois, and we will have a fully elected school board after November of 2024,” Harmon said.

But lawmakers in the House passed a different proposal that would more closely aligns with the current law. It would pair up the 20 districts and result in 10 elected school board members and 10 appointed by the mayor from each pairing of districts. A school board president would be appointed by the mayor in 2024 and elected at-large in 2026.

“This has been a decade-long project, and is the product of years of advocacy and quite literally years of negotiation discussion with stakeholders, community members, leadership, elected officials, so it’s not surprising that it’s not an easy thing to implement,” said State Rep. Ann Williams, who chairs the House Democrats’ Chicago Public Schools Districting Working Group.

Williams said Harmon’s proposal to go to a fully-elected board and eliminate the hybrid period when the mayor would still maintain control by appointing 11 of 21 members was a surprise Wednesday.

“Opening up the bill again with only a day or so left in the veto session was a difficult prospect and created a lot of complications in the conversation,” Williams said. “I don’t think it’s something we could have done in just one day.”

Johnson said he was “very much committed” to the bill that passed in 2021 that would allow him to appoint half the school board in 2024. He also noted there are financial entanglements between the city and CPS that need to be “worked through.”

“This is going to be a tremendous adjustment for the people of Chicago and adjusting in a way that provides confidence in a new body of government is something that we have to take into real serious consideration,” Johnson said. “What we don’t want is to set individuals up with expectations that cannot be met.”

Harmon said Wednesday he would not call the House version for a vote in the Senate because it had “woefully inadequate ethical provisions” and “opens the door for corruption” by exempting future Chicago school board members from state law governing conflicts of interest for public officials, including school board members, throughout the rest of the state. The House, however, passed a bill Thursday afternoon agreeing to the Senate’s ethics provisions.

Senate Democrats initially proposed having voters in only 10 of 20 districts cast a ballot for a school board representative in 2024. That was met with criticism from advocates who said it would disenfranchise half of the city by making them wait until 2026 to have a say in who is elected to the school board.

In a statement Wednesday night, the Chicago Teachers Union said Harmon’s proposed changes could “delay and deny the democracy Chicago so desperately needs and deserves.” The union has been fighting for an elected school board in Chicago since 2013 and supports the House version.

Hal Woods, chief of policy for Kids First Chicago, said waiting until January or the April 1 deadline to finalize the details of school board elections will leave potential candidates less time to run and voters less time to decide on who to support.

Corrina Demma, an organizer for the nonprofit Educators for Excellence-Chicago, echoed those concerns.

“It gives us so little time to learn anything about these candidates, and get to know them,” Demma said.

“We’re on a budget cliff with the COVID funds running out,” she added. “There’s a lot of big decisions that are gonna have to be made that will affect all Chicago’s children and families. And who’s going to be making those decisions? How do we know if they’re gonna be qualified, if they have any lived experience, and can make choices that are best for the communities that they’re a part of?”

Demma said she wished lawmakers had also taken up the issue of compensating board members. State law currently prohibits school board members from being paid.

Lawmakers did also appear to agree on requiring the Chicago Board of Education to create a Black Student Achievement Committee that would focus on improving academic achievement for Black students.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Who will vote in Chicago’s first school board elections in 2024? Lawmakers are trying to decide.

2023-11-08T00:39:39+00:00

Illinois lawmakers are debating competing proposals that would allow all Chicago voters to cast a ballot in the city’s first school board elections in 2024.

A new proposal put forward by House Democrats pairs up the 20 districts the city is currently divided into under a third draft map released last week.

That plan, filed by Rep. Ann Williams, who chairs the House Democrats’ Chicago Public Schools Districting Working Group, would result in 10 elected school board members and 10 appointed by the mayor from each pairing of districts. A school board president would also be appointed by the mayor.

Meanwhile, following a Senate executive committee meeting, Senate President Don Harmon put forward a plan to have all 20 districts vote in 2024 and let the mayor appoint only the school board president. That came shortly after a senate committee passed an amendment that suggested only 10 of 20 districts vote in 2024.

Harmon said creating an elected school board for Chicago has been “a long journey.”

“Hopefully, we are in the closing chapter in Springfield,” he said.

According to state law passed in 2021, Chicago will move from having a seven-member school board appointed by the mayor to a 21-member elected school board by 2027.

But the transition from an appointed board to a hybrid one to one that’s fully-elected has puzzled lawmakers tasked with dividing the city into electoral districts.

According to the law — and its subsequent trailer bill passed in 2021 — 10 school board members are to be elected on Nov. 5, 2024 from 10 geographic districts. The mayor is to appoint 10 members from those same districts and a school board president at-large. In November 2026, the appointed members would then switch to being elected, including the school board president who would be elected at-large.

By January 2027, all 21 members will be elected. Going forward, elections will be staggered, with half the board up for election every two years.

The senate’s previous proposal to assign each district a number and only have people living in odd-numbered districts vote in 2024 was met with criticism by advocates who spoke during Tuesday’s committee meeting.

Kurt Hilgendorf, special assistant to Chicago Teachers Union’s president Stacy Davis-Gates, said that while the senate’s plan proposes a more representative map and addresses concerns around candidate eligibility and ethics, the union has decided not to take a position because of the proposal to only allow roughly half of the city to vote in 2024.

“That creates a disenfranchisement lawsuit risk and that we think that maximum participation should be done in the first election,” said Hilgendorf. “We think that all the voters in the city of Chicago should have the right to vote in that first year election.”

Valerie Leonard, of Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting, expressed the same concerns as Hilgendorf and suggested all 20 districts vote immediately.

“All districts should be up for election with half the terms being two-year terms and the other half being four years and that would create your stagger,” Leonard said.

At the end of Tuesday’s meeting, Harmon said having only 10 districts vote was the “Achilles’ heel” of the proposal Senate Democrats put forward late last week.

Shortly after the meeting ended, Harmon filed the amendment that would have residents in all 20 districts vote. Members elected in odd-numbered districts would serve four-year terms and members elected in even-numbered districts would serve two-year terms. The mayor would only appoint the school board president and in 2026, that position would be elected at-large by all Chicago voters.

If the House passes its new proposal to pair districts, it would need Senate approval. Similarly, the Senate’s proposal to have all 20 districts vote in 2024 would need House approval. Lawmakers are scheduled to be in session until Thursday.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois lawmakers propose having half of Chicago voters select school board members in 2024

2023-11-03T23:45:00+00:00

Roughly half of Chicago voters would get to elect school board members in 2024 and the other half would vote in 2026, according to new language proposed by state lawmakers late Friday.

Earlier this week, legislators released a new draft map that divides the city into 20 districts. Each district has roughly 137,000 people in it. The new proposal assigns each district a number and says odd-numbered districts would vote in 2024. The state legislature could vote on the proposal during next week’s veto session.

In addition to outlining how Chicagoans would vote in the 2024 and 2026 election, the proposal includes ethics requirements for elected members and a conflict of interest provision that falls in line with state law.

The proposal also calls for the board of education to create a Black Student Achievement Committee to address the needs of Black students throughout the district and create a strategic plan to close the gap in academic achievement between Black students and their peers.

Valerie Leonard, of Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting, has pushed during public hearings for the Senate’s committee on the elected school board to create a Black Student Achievement Committee.

According to state law passed in 2021, 10 members of the school board are to be elected and 10 are to be appointed by the mayor in 2024. The mayor will also appoint a school board president. In 2026, the districts with appointed members will vote and the entire city will vote for a school board president.

People interested in running for Chicago’s Board of Education must collect 250 signatures from their districts and can begin circulating petitions on March 26, 2024. To get on the ballot, petitions must be filed by June 24, 2024.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago closed 50 schools 10 years ago. What’s happened since then?

2023-07-25T10:00:00+00:00

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Demetrius Hobson’s voice piped through the loudspeaker into every classroom at Matthew Henson Elementary School on Chicago’s West Side.

It was just before 3:45 p.m. on June 19, 2013. In a few minutes, the bell would ring to dismiss classes on the last day of the school year at Chicago Public Schools.

Hobson had arrived the previous year, fresh out of Harvard’s principal leadership program, with endless energy and new ideas. He had been ready to transform the 250-student school that served mostly Black students from low income families in North Lawndale and was “gearing up for the long run.”

Now, he had to do something no principal wants to do.

“Good afternoon, Matthew Henson Elementary School, and congratulations,” Hobson intoned. “This is our final few minutes as a school.”

That day would mark the largest mass closure of public schools in the nation’s history, as Henson and 49 other Chicago schools shut their doors for good. Some 17,000 students and 1,500 staff would scatter to schools across the city. Many others would leave the district altogether.

The promise made at the time by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel was that the students would go to better schools, and the district would save money by offloading expensive-to-maintain aging buildings.

“I know this is incredibly difficult, but I firmly believe the most important thing we can do as a city is provide the next generation with a brighter future,” he said in a statement after the school board voted on the closures. “I am confident that … our children will succeed.”

The moment capped months of raucous public hearings, days-long marches, downtown protests, and even arrests of activists who demanded Emanuel and his hand-picked school board reverse course.

On that June day, as Hobson and others said good-bye to their schools, questions hung in the air: What would happen to neighborhoods being disrupted? Would buildings get new life or fall into disrepair? Would Emanuel’s promise of better futures for students come to fruition?

Henson security guard Kelvyn Cockrell was not as confident as the mayor.

“I just hope and pray that somehow this works,” he said, standing outside the school’s main office on the last day of school.

Nearby, Mia Bonds, then a soft-spoken eighth grader and the valedictorian of her class, helped a teacher pack up a box.

Boxes are stacked inside of a classroom on June 19, 2013, the last day of school at Matthew Henson Elementary in North Lawndale. It was one of 50 schools shuttered under what would become the largest mass closure of public schools in U.S. history.

She would be moving on from Henson anyway, heading to Whitney Young High School, one of the district’s top test-in high schools. But for her brother, then a second grader, the closure would mean being reassigned to Hughes Elementary a few blocks west.

“I don’t think it’s fair,” Bonds said at the time. “I want people to remember that Henson was not just a school — it was like a family.”

Before the bell rang at Henson for the last time, Hobson searched for words of comfort as he spoke to the students over the intercom:

“I want you to remember that education is the key to unlock the golden door to freedom,” he told them. “And I want you to know that every day at Matthew Henson Elementary School, education is liberation.”

A principal and his students ‘find community somewhere else’

About a week after the last day of classes, Hobson says he got a phone call from a district official telling him the school was about to be officially mothballed.

“Get to the school, get your things,” Hobson recalled the official saying. “We need to lock the doors and turn in your keys.”

Henson was one of 46 buildings that would be emptied out. Desks, chairs, books, bulletin boards, and everything else would be moved out — taken to other schools, warehoused, sold, or simply thrown away.

Chicago Public Schools would pay an Ohio-based logistics company to manage all the stuff from the shuttered buildings — a contract that would eventually double from $8.9 million to $18.9 million. Years later, metal desks, solid wood chairs, and other relics from the school closings would end up for sale on Craigslist.

The three-story, mint green and tan brick building once called Henson would be put up for sale the following year.

After his school closed, Hobson needed a break. At the time, he didn’t want to walk into another school building and start over again. He told his wife, ‘If I go back into another school, it’s going to be a school I start.’”

But near the end of that summer, Hobson said, Chicago Public Schools called again: Would he mind stepping in as interim principal at another school?

He was still on district payroll, so he took the job in Woodlawn. But midyear, Hobson was asked to go to Earle Elementary in Englewood, a school that had been designated as a welcoming school for Goodlow Elementary, another closed school.

In some of the buildings that welcomed displaced students in the fall of 2013, the transition was tough and sometimes even chaotic.

“They took two low-performing schools and put them together,” said Darlene O’Banner, a grandmother of four children at Goodlow and later Earle. “They were setting us up for failure.”

The shuffling of students was a monumental task for the district. Officials spent millions of dollars on additional staff, new iPads, and building repairs at roughly 50 schools designated to welcoming students from closed buildings. But instead, some of the students scattered. Just over three-quarters of students attended the welcoming schools that were designated to take them in. The rest fanned out to 200 other schools across the city, WBEZ reported at the time.

Hobson’s time at Earle turned out to be brief: He had gotten a job offer to open a new school. In San Francisco.

So Hobson and his wife packed up and moved West, where he would become the founding principal of a new public middle school named after that city’s first Black mayor, Willie L. Brown.

Many of those impacted by the closures also moved away. Data obtained by Chalkbeat showed that roughly a third of the students who attended closed schools transferred out of CPS. Some families and advocates said the loss of an anchor institution, like a school, would lead to more displacement and disinvestment in the segregated Black neighborhoods, not less.

Bonds started freshman year at Whitney Young, one of the city’s top high schools that accept students based on their test scores and where they live. It was far more diverse and less segregated than Henson, which served mostly Black children from low-income families. The year Bonds enrolled, the student body at Whitney Young was 30% white, 24% Black, 27% Latino, and 15% Asian American.

“I feel like I needed to be in a more diverse type of schooling,” she said. “I saw Whitney as an escape. So I was there early, leaving late.”

Her brother enrolled in third grade at Hughes, the school where Henson students were assigned. It was closer to their apartment, Bonds said, but they “just liked Henson better.”

“Once you close schools down like that, people have to find that community somewhere else and adapt,” she added. “In this situation we were forced to, it wasn’t like a choice.”

Vacant school buildings and new starts in and outside Chicago

By 2017, Henson’s building still sat vacant. The windows were boarded up. Litter blew across the cracked blacktop. The marquee outside the front door was blank, no longer emblazoned with the school’s name.

The marquee outside of Henson Elementary in North Lawndale is now blank. The school has sat vacant and boarded up since 2013, despite interest from a nonprofit housing developer.

The district had managed to sell only a handful of the shuttered schools — most on the north side — to luxury housing developers or private schools. They repurposed a few as district offices or transferred them to other city agencies and put the remaining 30 out to bid for a second time.

In May 2018, the Board of Education had an interested buyer for Henson’s property, which sits across six parcels. The Single Room Housing Assistance Corporation offered $55,000 and put forward a plan to convert the school into 80 mini-studio apartments for low-income people, including veterans, single mothers, and people with disabilities.

There were a lot of similar proposals — and dreams — for the vacant buildings left behind in the wake of the historic closings. A “teacher’s village” with a mix of housing and retail. A women’s center and artist incubator. A community center for formerly incarcerated people. Affordable housing for seniors.

Calhoun Elementary, one of 50 schools that Chicago Public Schools closed in 2013, is still vacant.

The old Genevieve Melody Elementary building at 412 S Keeler Ave. sits vacant. Windows are broken and inside classrooms, there is graffiti on the walls. The building was mothballed in 2013 when Melody relocated to Delano Elementary, 3937 W Wilcox St., which was closed.

The old Delano Elementary in West Garfield Park became the new Melody Elementary in 2013. It was one of about a dozen closures in which Chicago Public Schools relocated students from the school staying open to the building of a school being shut down.

The old Charles Earle Elementary building, 6121 S. Hermitage, closed in 2013. A Wisconsin-based developer purchased the building in 2017 for $200,000 with plans to convert it into affordable housing for seniors. It remains vacant.

The front entrance of the old Charles Earle Elementary building, 6121 S. Hermitage. In 2021, the new owner announced plans to convert the building into affordable housing for seniors.

The playground at the former Arna Bontemps Elementary, 1241 W 58th St., which closed in 2013, is overgrown and scribbled with graffiti.

A message is spraypainted on the side of the former Arna Bontemps Elementary school, 1241 W 58th St., which closed in 2013.

The old Laura S. Ward Elementary building at 410 N. Monticello Ave. in Garfield Park was closed in 2013. The school relocated to 646 N Lawndale Ave. in Humboldt Park and took over the old Martin A. Ryerson Elementary building.

Students play on the playground of the old Martin A. Ryerson Elementary, 646 N Lawndale Ave., in Humboldt Park closed in 2013. It is now home to Laura S. Ward Elementary.

The old Martin A. Ryerson Elementary, 646 N Lawndale Ave., in Humboldt Park closed in 2013 and is now Laura S. Ward Elementary.

The playground is locked and overgrown at the old Genevieve Melody Elementary building at 412 S Keeler Ave. The building was mothballed in 2013 when Melody relocated to the old Delano Elementary, 3937 W Wilcox St.

Faraday Elementary School, 3250 W Monroe St., used to be Garfield Park Elementary. In 2013, Chicago Public Schools shut down Garfield Park and relocated Faraday to this building, merging the students from both into one school.

The basketball court next to Henson Elementary, 1326 S. Avers Ave., in North Lawndale is empty on a hot June day 10 years since the school closed in 2013.

The marquee at Nathan Goldblatt Elementary School, 4257 W. Adams St., in West Garfield Park still has notes on it from the last time it served students in 2013.

The gate around Nathan Goldblatt Elementary, 4257 W Adams St., in West Garfield Park is locked. The school has gotten little to no interest from buyers when Chicago Public Schools has put it up for sale.

The site of the former William King Elementary, 740 S. Campbell Ave., is now home to 30 single-family, new construction homes built in 2020. The property was sold to a developer in 2017 for $1.5 million at a time when the Chicago Board of Education was approving multiple bids on vacant closed schools.

The former Dett Elementary building, 2306 W. Maypole Ave., sits vacant on Chicago’s West Side. Dett’s building closed and the school relocated to Herbert Elementary, 2131 W Monroe St., in 2013 when the Chicago Board of Education shuttered 50 schools. Despite plans to convert it into a women’s center, the property still sits vacant.

Hobson, in the meantime, was trying to bring a new school to life nearly 2,000 miles away.

He was “working day and night” to recruit students for a new STEM middle school in San Francisco, hiring staff, applying for grants, and designing curriculum with the district leadership.

But in late 2018, Hobson returned home to Chicago once the school opened. He remembers thinking: “‘Maybe I should just start over? Go back to the classroom. See what that feels like.”

Bonds, who had graduated from Whitney Young in 2017, became the first in her immediate family to go to college.

“A lot of people urged me to go. They said I needed to leave the west side of Chicago,” she said. “Every college I applied to I got accepted.”

She chose Northern Illinois University. “Nearby, but far enough away.”

Her brother finished elementary school at Hughes and enrolled at a Noble charter high school.

Data obtained by Chalkbeat show 59 percent of second graders from closed schools, like Bonds’ brother, are still enrolled across the district. It’s one of the cohorts of closed school kids who remained enrolled at slightly higher rates than comparison schools that were also on a list of 129 schools being considered for closure in 2012-13, but were ultimately spared.

But the closures had thrown other students off course.

A 2018 study by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research found that students impacted by the closures had academic outcomes that were “neutral at best, and negative in some instances.” For example, students from closed schools initially had lower reading and math scores. Reading scores recovered, but the gap in math scores persisted.

The school district had promised a five-year moratorium on school closings after 2013. When it ended in 2018, CPS closed four high schools in Englewood. But in exchange, it built a new state-of-the-art STEM high school.

Still, Chicagoans questioned if the district would return to an annual cycle of closing a handful of schools every year, as it did prior to the 50 closures.

How school closings were decided remains ‘hurtful’

On a hot June day this year, exactly 10 years and three days since the last day of school in 2013, the entrance to Henson was still blocked by boards on which someone had painted a mural.

It read: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

The front entrance of Henson Elementary in North Lawndale is boarded up, but painted with a colorful mural.

A City of Chicago Empowerment Zone sign, with Mayor Richard M. Daley’s name on it, hung above the mural. A weathered and crumpled piece of yellow paper from the Department of Water Management was stapled to the side, asking the owner to contact them within 10 days so workers could access the water meter and avoid a shutoff.

Chicago Public Schools still owns the building. There have been no micro-studios for veterans, single mothers, or disabled people.

The sale approved by the school board to the Single Room Housing Assistance Corporation never went through. Former alderman Michael Scott Jr. held it in the City Council’s Committee on Housing five years ago.

The blacktop where an inflatable bounce house stood on the last day of school was cracked and faded. Near a side entrance, a few men in their thirties were sitting on buckets, smoking. One swept broken glass off the ground and into a garbage can.

The blacktop behind Henson Elementary in North Lawndale where students used to play. A last day of school celebration was held here on June 19, 2013, before it was shut down by the school district.

Hobson has driven by Henson’s building a few times. One time before the pandemic, he remembers turning the corner to see Henson’s green and tan building.

“I was surprised to see how disheveled the building, the environment was,” Hobson said. “You could see vestiges of night parties, you know, bottles, and food bags, and everything just kind of collected on the stairs.”

The story is the same for many vacant schools. Approvals have stalled and some projects have languished as they wait for financing.

Hobson is back in the classroom now, teaching middle school social studies at an elementary school on the West Side closer to downtown than Henson was. It’s also named William Brown STEM Elementary, but after a different William Brown than the school he started in San Francisco.

It’s harder to know where the 252 students who were at Henson are today. One Henson student featured in a WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times series said after fourth grade when the closure happened, he went to three different elementary schools and three different high schools in Chicago and the suburbs before getting his high school diploma at an alternative school.

Data provided by the district did not break down outcomes by school.

But data obtained separately by Chalkbeat Chicago shows that about 60 percent of Henson’s kindergarten through second grade students — those still likely to be enrolled — were at district schools during the 2022-23 school year.

Of all the students who attended schools that closed in 2013, fewer graduated and more dropped out when compared to the rest of the district. But these outcomes were similar to schools that were also on the chopping block in 2013, raising questions about whether the closures resulted in a better education for students.

Hobson said he still occasionally thinks about what it would’ve been like to “be a fly on the wall” in the rooms where the school closings decisions were made.

“Now that we can see on the other side, based on the data, there was no real transformation for the children,” Hobson said.

“What we were told and what actually happened are two different realities.”

As for Bonds, she moved back home to North Lawndale this summer after finishing her master’s degree at NIU. Her family is still in the same apartment about six blocks from Henson. She’s working for After School Matters this summer, as she has for the past several years. And next year, she’s doing City Year, an Americorps program that stations full-time mentors in high-need schools.

Looking back now, Bonds said the historic mass school closings weren’t “the end of the world.” People adapted. But it still felt like “a numbers game” that made communities like hers feel “powerless to a system.”

“It wasn’t like it was super detrimental,” Bonds said. “It was just hurtful.”

Her little brother is now entering his senior year at the same Noble campus he started at and is on track to graduate, she said.

Most Chicago students enrolled today have not experienced their public schools closing down for good. The kindergarten students of 2013 are set to graduate in 2025 — the same year state legislators have given the city’s school board permission to close schools again.

Mila Koumpilova and Samantha Smylie contributed reporting.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

ABOUT THIS STORY

I first met Demetrius Hobson and Mia Bonds at Henson Elementary on June 19, 2013, when I spent the day at the campus as a reporter for WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR station.

I was the age Mia is now. Just starting out in my career. Like many others, Chicago’s 50 school closings impacted my life in ways I’m not sure I realized until many years later. It shaped how I think about my work as a journalist and the responsibility I have to those who share their stories with me. It changed how I think about systems and structures.

In the years that followed, I stopped covering education and became a city politics reporter. I got married. I had two kids. Yet every time the name of someone I met or interviewed or the name of one of the closed schools came across my radar, my eyes and ears would perk up. Although I no longer covered education, I kept track of what was happening to the shuttered schools. I often updated a spreadsheet not thinking it would ever lead to anything. (Spoiler: It did.)

In thinking about how to mark the 10-year anniversary of this moment, in my current role as Chalkbeat’s Chicago bureau chief, I went back to my old files and re-listened to much of what flowed in and out of my tape recorder that year. I thought a lot about where all the students, parents, teachers, and activists were now. (One got elected mayor.) I reconnected with some. I talked to new people. I revisited past research. I filed multiple information requests.

I went back to Henson on a hot day in June, exactly 10 years and 3 days since that last day. I cried. And then, I wrote.

This story does not have all the answers. No story does. It seeks — once again — to add information to the public conversation around an important policy issue and to elevate the stories of those most impacted. As Mia said to me in our recent conversation: “The story is the people.”

Illinois lawmakers release third draft map for Chicago elected school board

2023-11-01T22:00:04+00:00

As trick-or-treating got underway Tuesday night, Illinois lawmakers released a new draft map for Chicago’s soon-to-be-elected Board of Education.

It’s their third attempt at drawing districts future school board members will represent.

The new map has seven majority Black districts, six where Latinos make up 50% or more of the population, and five where the population is 50% or more white. Two districts — one representing Rogers Park on the North Side and the other representing Portage Park and Old Irving Park on the North West side — are plurality white, with Latinos making up the second-largest population.

Chicago’s Board of Education holds significant power over public schools. School board members approve the district’s annual multi-billion dollar budget, determine how schools are measured and held accountable, authorize contracts with third parties to bus students to and from school, clean classrooms and hallways, and even operate entire schools under charter agreements.

The board has been appointed by the mayor since 1995, when the state legislature gave control of Chicago Public Schools to then-Mayor Richard M. Daley. After former Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed 50 public schools in 2013, community organizations and the Chicago Teachers Union began fighting for an elected school board.

Valerie Leonard, with the Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting, said under mayoral control, school board members were perceived to be not connected to the community.

“People felt — and I was one of them — like they were out of touch with what the community wanted, and they were only responsive to what the mayor wanted,” Leonard said. “It matters to have someone [on the school board] from your community who understands what people in your community are experiencing.”

After many years of advocacy and lobbying, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law in 2021 to create a 21-member elected school board with phased-in elections.

Under state law, Chicagoans will elect 10 school board members from 10 districts in November 2024. The mayor will appoint 10 members from those same districts, and will also appoint a school board president. A 21-member hybrid board will be sworn in January 2025.

Then in November 2026, the 10 appointed members and school board president will be up for election, while the 10 elected in 2024 will continue serving their four-year terms. Going forward, all members will serve four-year terms and elections will be staggered, with half of the seats up for election every two years.

However, the law does not spell out how the map will move from 10 to 20 districts. Lawmakers continue to draw a map with 20 districts and have not made clear how they plan to divide the city into 10 districts for the 2024 election.

Sen. Robert Martwick, a Democrat representing the North West side of Chicago and west suburbs, said that figuring out how to create 10 districts for the 2024 elections and 20 districts for the 2026 elections has been difficult for legislators.

“The original idea was that we would draw ten districts and then after the election we would split them into 20 districts,” Martwick said. “Another variation on that would be to draw 20 districts and combine them for the purposes of the first election. The idea there was that everyone in the city of Chicago would get to pass a vote on this new elected school board.”

State Rep. Ann Williams, who represents parts of the city’s North Side and chairs a special task force of House Democrats working on drawing school board districts, said the transition from 10 districts to 20 is “still under discussion,” but the goal is to vote on a map during next week’s veto session.

“At some point we have to get a map so that people can start looking at the districts and prepare to run for office,” Williams said.

“No map is ever going to be perfect. No map is ever going to make every single person happy,” she added. “But we really truly felt like this is the product that most incorporated the feedback that we got from the communities during all those hearings.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has been a longtime supporter of an elected school board. But when asked through a spokesperson Wednesday if he supported the latest draft or would weigh in on how school board districts are drawn, the spokesperson wrote back: No comment.

Lawmakers were supposed to draw a map of Chicago school board districts by July 1, 2023, but extended the deadline to April 1, 2024 after pushback from the public for not drawing districts that would be reflective of student enrollment.

That’s a difficult task in a city whose population does not mirror the public school enrollment. Chicago’s population is 33% white, 29% Latino, 29% Black, and 7% Asian, but the school district’s student population is 47% Latino, 36% Black, 11% white, and 4% Asian American.

School board seats are non-partisan so there will be no primary. According to the Chicago Board of Elections calendar, the first day candidates running for nonpartisan school board seats can circulate nominating petitions is March 26, 2024. They must collect 250 signatures from voters in their districts by June 24, 2024, in order to be on the ballot.

Last week, Martwick and state Rep. Kam Buckner, a Democrat, put forward a proposal that would also allow school board members to be compensated.

Mixed reactions to new draft map roll in

Legislators held two public hearings last month to gather additional feedback on their proposed school board districts. On Wednesday, several of the groups who have repeatedly testified and submitted public comment on previous maps reacted to the latest iteration.

Kids First Chicago, a nonprofit education advocacy organization that supports Black and Latino families and has an Elected School Board Task Force, called the latest proposal “more trick than treat.” The group took lawmakers to task for dropping a new draft map on Halloween when “most Chicago families were out celebrating with their children.”

Hal Woods, director of policy for Kids First Chicago, said the map continues to give white Chicagoans “substantial voting power” over a school district that serves just over 10% white students. He said parents see “more work that could be done.”

“Even with redlining, even with segregation, even with discriminatory housing policies that have forced many Chicago neighborhoods to be segregated … we have put forward prototypes that even with those historical inequities still adhere to all relevant election law,” Woods said.

A group of parents and data advocates called The FOIA Bakery released an analysis of the third draft map that looks at the proposed districts through the lens of the 2023 municipal election results. They say only seven districts in the new draft map would have elected a “minority-preferred candidate.”

But others say the new draft districts are much better than previous versions.

Jeff Fielder, executive director of the Chicago Republican Party, previously raised concerns about gerrymandering and argued for an independent commission to draw the maps. He said the third draft is better than the previous two because it has less gerrymandering.

“I’m sure there’s going to be lawsuits as it is but of their efforts, this is probably the best one,” Fielder said.

Cassie Creswell, executive director of Illinois Families for Public Schools, said she’s mostly concerned about not having a map solidified yet.

“The shorter the time between a final map and next year’s election, the worse it is for genuinely grassroots candidates who are trying to decide whether or not to run and then mustering the resources to do so,” Creswell said.

Political consultant Eli Brottman said the new map is “1,000 times better” and called six solid Latino districts a “huge win for our schools and our kids.” He said it took him multiple attempts to draw a map that would have six Latino majority districts.

Brottman said he suspects the lawmakers’ latest draft map has a “significant chance” of passing next week. Whenever that happens, he encourages people to get up to speed on what district they live in and who is running.

“Whoever we elect in these first couple rounds, helps to set a precedent for the future,” Brottman said.

Leonard, whose group Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting put out a 10-district map that tries to align school board districts with City Council wards, said lawmakers are getting closer with this latest iteration. But they need to figure out how their 20 districts become 10 for the 2024 elections, she said.

Corrina Demma, an organizer with Educators for Excellence Chicago that supports the map Leonard’s group proposed, raised concerns that lawmakers could propose residents in only 10 of the 20 districts would vote in 2024, meaning “only half of Chicago will have the privilege to vote … while the other half will lack a voice.”

“We need Illinois lawmakers to get the maps right, for the sake of the 323,000 students that are depending on it,” Demma said.

Samantha Smylie contributed reporting.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago charter schools face potential crossroads with new mayor, dozens of renewals

2023-11-01T12:00:00+00:00

“What happens if our school isn’t renewed?”

Claudia Rodriguez read aloud that question, which was submitted from an audience of more than 100 parents gathered inside Noble School’s UIC College Prep’s gymnasium in mid-October.

Rodriguez, the chief of public affairs at Noble Schools, answered confidently: Non-renewal isn’t really something we’re worried about.

Noble opened one of the first charter schools in Chicago in 1999, when the concept of privately managed public charter schools was brand new. Since then, Noble has expanded to 17 campuses, and the Chicago Board of Education has renewed Noble’s charter agreement four times.

Noble is one of a record 47 charter schools up for renewal in the 2023-24 school year. In all, about 27,600 students are enrolled at these campuses — more than half of the roughly 51,000 students enrolled in charters this year.

The high-stakes renewal process, which scrutinizes charter schools’ academic performance, financial practices, and operational compliance among other factors, comes at a pivotal time, as Chicago’s political landscape is shifting under a new mayor and looming school board elections. Charter communities wonder what it could all mean for their schools.

There’s been a trend toward shorter charter renewals that began under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. In January 2020, the school board renewed seven charter operators for terms of five or more years. But in the years since, only two have received a renewal of five or more years, according to Chicago Board of Education records.

Lightfoot’s successor, Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former educator and organizer for the teachers union, has historically opposed charter expansion. During the mayoral election run-off, Johnson said that charter school expansion “forces competition for resources and ultimately harms all schools.”

But he has also stressed he does not oppose charter schools — and he is strongly against closing schools, which is what could happen if a charter is not renewed. There’s also a state-imposed moratorium on school closings in Chicago until 2025. The mayor’s office did not respond to Chalkbeat’s requests for comment.

An important limit on charter schools’ footprint is already in place for the next several months. In the 2019 contract agreement between Lightoot’s administration and the CTU, the district extended an agreement from 2016 to have a net zero increase in the number of charter schools until the contract expires in June 2024.

Johnson’s recently appointed school board will manage the charter renewal process alongside the CPS Office of Incubation and Innovation. Board President Jianan Shi is a former teacher who has taught at a district-run school in Chicago and a charter school in Boston. Before joining the board, he served as executive director of Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education, which has previously gotten funding from the Chicago Teachers Union Foundation.

CTU President Stacy Davis Gates believes the way the district handles charters altogether needs to change significantly. She wants more oversight of budgeting at charters and more-equitable engagement of parents and staff.

“The renewal process has to reflect the realities that we’re dealing with. There has been financial mismanagement, there is bloated administrative pay, there is a blind eye to culturally relevant curriculum and practices within the school community,” she said. “Now what do we do about it?”

In a statement, a district spokesperson said CPS is “committed to working with charter leaders and listening to members of our school communities to ensure we make the best possible decisions for our students.”

Nevertheless, charter school administrators, teachers, and parents are keeping a close eye on this year’s renewal process for a hint of what the future holds for the charter sector.

“I think renewal is very important in January,” said Andrew Broy, president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools. “I think that will be a first signal from this board about what they think about charter public schools.”

The ‘renewal hamster wheel’ can impact classrooms

During the renewal process last school year, 11 of 13 charters up for renewal were granted terms lasting three years or less. In 2022, six of the seven charters up for renewal were given terms of three years or less.

Parents and staff in charter school communities have different views about what the renewal process can mean for charters.

Although Noble staff are confident about their renewal, Rodriguez said the possibility they and other charters might get a shorter contract is a concern.

“From a staffing point, it takes a lot of energy,” she said. “From our parents’ [perspective], the uncertainty and instability that that could cause if we’re always thinking in renewal mode.”

Claudia Rodriguez, left, the chief of public affairs for Noble Schools, is in charge of running the renewal process for the charter school network this year.

The heavy lift, Rodriguez said, is due to the large amount of paperwork required and the amount of data the school has to collect. In addition, Rodriguez — who runs the renewal process — said since the process requires reporting on different aspects of the school’s academic, operational, and financial performance, she has to pull in staff and educators from other departments to get the information she needs.

That, she says, “does take time and resources away from the work that we could be putting back into managing our schools and supporting our students.”

“Having to be in a renewal hamster wheel is not the best option for everybody,” Rodriguez said.

Stephen Palmerin, principal at Horizon Science Academy Southwest, feels roughly the same way.

His charter received just a two-year renewal last January, due to concerns about its suspension numbers compared to those of neighboring district schools, as well as the underperformance of elementary students with disabilities.

The K-12 school, which serves about 760 students, is working to reduce suspensions by 50 percent each year before its charter is up for renewal again in 2025. But Palmerin said it’s not entirely fair that Horizon Science’s stats are being compared to both elementary and high schools, since traditionally, elementary schools have lower suspension rates than middle and high schools.

And apart from his concerns about why his school got a relatively short renewal, Palmerin called the renewal process “so time consuming.”

“I wish people would keep the students at the forefront of all decision making,” he said.

But for some parents, the renewal process serves as a way to make sure their children’s schools hold up their end of the bargain.

Blaire Flowers, a parent liaison for education non-profit Kids First Chicago, which specifically supports Black and Latino families, said when her children were at Plato Learning Academy, a contract school, and North Lawndale College Prep, a charter, renewal season was when the schools would begin to “get themselves together.”

Plato is run by a different principal than when Flowers’ children attended three years ago. But at the time, she said, there was no Parent Advisory Council, which is meant to give parents a voice at schools that receive federal Title I funds for students from low-income backgrounds.

When renewal time came, the school established a PAC and began having meetings, created more programming, and held more enrichment events for students, such as a book fair and a Christmas gym shoe drive, she said.

“That’s when they were really doing what they were supposed to,” she said.

Plato received a two-year renewal term in January. Dating back to 2017, the district has given the school relatively low ratings for its financial status and student performance on standardized tests.

Hal Woods, the executive director of the Office of Innovation and Incubation from 2018 to 2020, said he advocated for more regular check-ins with schools to ensure they were staying on track and to make renewal time “a non-event.”

Giving shorter-term renewals to charter schools that aren’t in compliance is one way the board can show schools that they “mean business” and encourage them to do better, Woods said. But with school assessment data often coming in at renewal time, he felt like his office was playing catch up and addressing issues after they’d already taken a toll.

“I just want to make sure that CPS [is] providing better and more real time information to my old department so these things can be corrected in real time,” said Woods, who is now chief of policy at Kids First Chicago.

Palmerin said there is some concern among his staff about the Johnson administration’s sentiments about charters.

“I have no choice but to remain hopeful, because thinking that our days are numbered here, that’s going to affect our work,” he said. “I just know that if we’re committed to the work that we’re doing, let’s not give them an excuse but to give us a maximum renewal.”

Closing charters could be unlikely under moratorium

By law, a charter school must be given notice that they’re failing academically, operationally, or financially. And they must be given time to resolve the issues before officials can revoke a charter agreement and close the school.

The school can also appeal the decision to the Illinois State Board of Education and if successful, it can still operate under state management in Chicago. If that fails, they can appeal in court. That was the course recently taken by Urban Prep after CPS ended its charter; the state voted to uphold the district’s decision.

After a challenge in court, a Cook County Judge ruled that CPS could not “close, consolidate, or phase-out Urban Prep” until after the school closing moratorium expires in 2025.

Woods said he doubts that there will be any charter closings in the coming years, given the legal requirements and the appeal process. But more importantly, Woods said, “it’s very very hard to close a school … because every school is a community.”

At the same time, Woods said that charter expansion is also unlikely given the decline in school-aged children in the city over the past decade.

Flowers said charter schools have served her family well. Her daughter takes three buses to her school each day because Flowers wants her to take advantage of the Phoenix Pact college scholarship option available through North Lawndale.

Blaire Flowers’ three oldest children, pictured above, attended North Lawndale College Prep and Plato Learning Academy, both charter schools. Flowers hopes Mayor Brandon Johnson will “trim the fact” from the charter sector.

Nevertheless, Flowers said she does hope that the Johnson administration will “trim the fat” from the charter sector.

“Some of these charter schools are not really helping the community like they once were,” she said.

There is quite a bit of variation in student outcomes among Chicago’s charter high schools, according to a 2017 study by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, one of the first studies to evaluate Chicago charters according to metrics beyond test scores. The study considered school organization and policies, the incoming skills and characteristics of enrolled students, school transfers, and student performance.

“The single most important takeaway from the study was how much variation there is within the charter sector,” said Julia A. Gwynne, the senior research scientist on the study. “There’s a little bit of a tendency for people to see the charter sector as being sort of monolithic all one way or all another way. And we just didn’t find that to be true.”

With the uncertainty about what a new mayor and new school board will do, Rodriguez said Noble representatives are attending more board meetings and encouraging parents and staff to speak at them to provide “a holistic view of what Noble does in the community and how we support our overall community in Chicago.”

Despite the challenges of the renewal process, Rodriguez said she doesn’t necessarily think the process needs to change. But she does believe that all schools, including traditional public schools who might not be serving students well, should go through that process.

Gates, CTU’s president, said she’s hopeful the education backgrounds of the mayor and new school board will play a role in how the district handles charters going forward. She thinks that the charter renewal process needs to be overhauled to make sure teachers and families have a voice.

Self-proclaimed “charter school mom” Myisha Shields is working to have her voice heard — she spoke at a school board meeting in August and attended Noble’s parent meeting earlier this month. She has had three children graduate from Noble charter schools, and two are current Noble students.

“It’s almost like charters have to prove a point just to stay open. We have to work harder. We have to work our kids harder to prove that these should be an option in the city of Chicago,” she said. “I just wish they would stop making it so hard. It’s so unfair.”

Regardless of how the process changes or stays the same in the coming years, Myisha Shields has one request for everyone involved.

“Just listen to us,” said Shields. “Our kids deserve a great education.”

The Chicago Board of Education is expected to vote on the renewal agreements for the 47 charter schools in January.

Correction: Nov. 1, 2023: This story has been updated with the correct spelling of Julia A. Gwynne’s name. It has also been updated to clarify Plato Learning Academy is a contract school, not a charter.

Chicago Public Schools graduation rates hit record high, data show

2023-10-31T19:01:51+00:00

A greater share of Chicago Public Schools students graduated last school year than in 2022, reaching a new record, officials announced Tuesday.

The graduation rate of 84% — representing students who graduated in four years — was 1.1 percentage points higher than the graduation rate for the Class of 2022, when 82.9% of high school students graduated on time. The dropout rate for the Class of 2023 was slightly higher at 9.4% than it was for the Class of 2022, which saw 8.9% of students drop out between freshman year and graduation.

Chicago Public Schools’ five-year graduation rate for the Class of 2022 — which includes students who take extra time to finish their diploma either at a traditional or alternative school — was 85.6%, 1.6 percentage points higher than for the class of 2021 when it was 84%.

District officials announced the numbers with fanfare at Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts, with CPS CEO Pedro Martinez flanked by Mayor Brandon Johnson and joined virtually by U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.

Martinez said the rising graduation rate was a sign that the district is continuing to recover from the pandemic, reminding the audience that the students in the Class of 2023 were freshmen as the pandemic started in 2020, followed by two school years of remote and hybrid learning.

“When you think about their last year, their senior year, was probably their most normal year, I want you to take these results and put them in that context,” Martinez said.

Cardona described the graduation rates as “promising signs for the future of education in Chicago.” He highlighted the district’s use of federal COVID relief dollars, which CPS has put toward several purposes, including covering teacher salaries and hiring more instructional staff.

The announcement came one day after Illinois state education officials released statewide data, including graduation rates that had also increased across Illinois. (The state and Chicago Public Schools calculate graduation rates differently, so Chalkbeat is unable to provide direct comparisons.)

Chicago’s graduation rate has steadily increased over time, hitting a record high in 2022 even as students have faced academic challenges connected to the pandemic. Tuesday’s announcement comes on the heels of another report that found a rising share of CPS students are enrolling in college.

Racial disparities among graduates still remain, though they are narrowing. Graduation rates increased for Black, Hispanic and Asian American students, while dropping slightly for white students — by .4 percentage points — compared to the Class of 2022. Rates also dropped for multiracial students by 5.7 percentage points.

Nearly 75% of Black boys graduated in four years, up from roughly 65% five years ago, according to district data.

Despite higher graduation rates, SAT scores dipped for the Class of 2023, to an average composite score of 914. The average score for the Class of 2022 was 927, according to district data. Separately, the district also saw slightly fewer ninth graders — 88.7% — who were on track to graduate by 2026. That’s compared to 88.8% of the class that’s one year older than them.

As the pandemic set in, the district relaxed some grading policies, as did other school systems across the nation — raising questions about how such policies may have contributed to CPS’s rising graduation rates. Martinez argued that an increase in students completing college-level credits was a sign students were held to a high standard. Just under half of the Class of 2023 earned early college credits, a 5% increase from 2022, according to the district.

One of those students is Zaid Orduño, who said at Tuesday’s press conference that he took college-level courses at Daley College during his time at Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy, through the district’s Early College Program. His classes at Daley included English, math, sociology, and psychology, and he ultimately earned an associate’s degree alongside his high school diploma.

Taking those classes, he said, inspired him to pass up his original plan of joining his family’s construction business and instead pursue a civil engineering degree at Illinois Tech, he said.

A wall at Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts is dedicated to remembering a hunger strike held in 2015 to demand for the reopening of Dyett, which was closed at the time.

Dyett, located in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side, saw its graduation rate tick up by more than 3 percentage points, to 86%. Johnson noted how far the school had come since he and other community members participated in a highly publicized hunger strike in 2015 to demand that Dyett, then shuttered, reopen. He also recognized fellow hunger striker Ald. Jeanette Taylor, who now represents the neighborhood nearby in City Council and serves as the chair of the Committee on Education and Child Development.

“A hunger striker can turn into a mayor and an alderman, and more importantly, a hunger strike can lead to the success that we are experiencing with our students right here at Dyett High School,” Johnson said.

He also used the moment to once again advocate for expanding the Sustainable Community Schools Initiative that Dyett and 19 other schools are a part of. The program partners schools with a nonprofit that provides wraparound services for students and families.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Amid Chicago’s migrant influx, one school is trying to help newcomer students navigate trauma

2023-10-27T19:24:21+00:00

An hour before dismissal on a recent Friday afternoon, eight Brighton Park Elementary School students huddled in a classroom with Jennifer Moorhouse, a teacher who works with English language learners.

They were there for a voluntary, biweekly support group run by Moorhouse and Stephanie Carrillo, a school counselor, for students grappling with the upheaval of immigration and the adjustment to a new country, new city, and new school.

She asked the children — a mix of sixth through eighth graders who had recently arrived in Chicago as part of an influx of migrant families — to share the best and worst part of their week.

One boy said the best thing was that his family had moved to a new house. Another child looked up, her hair slightly covering her face. She shrugged her shoulders and struggled to come up with a worst moment.

That’s OK, Moorhouse said in Spanish, she doesn’t have to have a low point.

The girl then added, “No mejor,” meaning there was no high point either. After a moment of silence, the whole group burst into laughter.

These students, who arrived in Chicago between last year and this year, are among the more than 20,000 newly arrived migrants in Chicago since last August, with many fleeing from Central, South American and African countries experiencing political and economic turmoil, according to city officials.

Chicago Public Schools does not track immigration status and has not shared how many migrant students have enrolled in schools. But the district has pointed to clues of an increase, including 7,800 more English learners enrolled this school year, compared to an annual average increase of 3,000 such students.

As of mid-September, 2,250 migrant children were housed in the city’s shelters, according to records from the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications that were obtained by Chalkbeat.

Educators have raised concerns that many Chicago schools don’t have the resources, such as staff, to provide new migrants with the right language instruction, recently pleading with the state to send more help.

But there are also questions about whether newcomers have the social-emotional support they need at school. These students have potentially endured dangerous journeys to the United States, on top of the stress of leaving their homes behind for shelters or other temporary living arrangements in a foreign place.

That latter concern led Moorhouse to launch the support group at Brighton Park last year after she met a migrant student who was showing signs of trauma. The student, whom Moorhouse met in January, didn’t want to be in school and sometimes, the student’s body would shake uncontrollably, she said.

At one of the sessions Moorhouse held, the student shared a personal story about his journey to the United States. Afterward, Moorhouse recalled, the student said: “My chest isn’t hurting. I can breathe.” Moorhouse felt it was a sign of healing.

In some ways, Brighton Park is well-positioned to host this support group. As a community school, it partners with a nonprofit organization to provide wraparound services for its students. Carrillo, the school counselor who helps Moorhouse with the support group, works with the school on behalf of its partner nonprofit, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council. Brighton Park Elementary’s community schools funding also helped to pay for the training on the model that the support group is based on, according to Cecilia Mendoza, the school’s assistant principal.

The model is known as STRONG, or Supporting Transition Resilience of Newcomer Groups, which focuses on teaching children how to understand and cope with their stress before they’re invited to share more personal details about their journey to the United States, if they choose.

It’s unclear how many schools have specific support groups for migrant students like the one at Brighton Park. About $35 million of the district’s budget this year was allocated for social-emotional curriculum, behavioral health supports for students, and additional social workers and counselors, according to a district spokesperson.

This year, Moorhouse and Carrillo are starting with the basics.

On that recent Friday afternoon, in the classroom where Moorhouse gathered with eight of her students, bright orange and blue strips of paper on the dry erase board described concepts of melting and freezing in English and Spanish: “Que le pasa al chocolate que se deja al sol?” (What happens to chocolate left in the sun?).

A plastic cupboard sat against the wall, filled with shoes, socks, and clothing donations Moorhouse had collected through her Amazon Wishlist. Sheets of paper taped to the wall have words of affirmation in both languages: “Tus emociones son validas.” (Your feelings are valid.)

A classroom for English learners at Brighton Park Elementary School has brightly colored phrases translated in English and Spanish on the dry erase board.

After their icebreaker, Moorhouse passed around crayons and a worksheet with the outline of a human body. She explained that stress can cause physical pain and asked her students to color in the part of their bodies that hurt when they are stressed.

“Entonces para mi, cuando yo estoy estresado, mi estómago me duele,” she told the students, explaining that her stomach hurts when she’s stressed.

One girl, wearing a pair of sneakers donated through the Amazon wishlist, used a green crayon to fill in the top of the head. She colored the shoulders with a green-yellow.

When Moorhouse asked students to share, one boy said stress gives him a headache, and then he feels like throwing up. A low “hmm” spread through the group, as if others recognized the boy’s feeling.

At 2:35 p.m., about halfway through the session, the students received a new worksheet. This one had a large triangle on it, and each point represented something different: pensamientos, sentimientos, y acciones. Thoughts, emotions, and actions. Moorhouse wanted the students to reflect on how a thought may lead to a feeling, which ultimately leads to an action.

After a couple minutes jotting down their thoughts, the students shared their responses. One boy smiled as he described an example: When he’s talking to other students and they suddenly begin speaking in English, he feels as if he’s been removed from the conversation.

“How does that make you feel?” Moorhouse asked him in Spanish.

“Bad,” he replied.

“What’s your action?” Moorhouse responded.

“I walk away,” he said.

That day, Mendoza, the assistant principal, was peeking in.

“I don’t think students or people in general sometimes realize the effect that has on others who only speak one language,” Mendoza said later. “So that really stuck with me, and I thought about how we could have that conversation, perhaps, with the students … because they might not be aware that they’re doing that.”

Moorhouse then presented a challenge for the students: How can they change their thinking about a situation, in order to elicit better action? One boy gave the example of taking a hard math test that he doesn’t know the answers to, so instead, he asks to go to the bathroom.

He was stumped when Moorhouse asked him to think of a better action. She opened the floor to the group, but no one came up with an answer good enough for Moorhouse. When she pressed them to think harder, they hit on a solution: He could ask the teacher for help — for understanding the exam, or perhaps even asking to take it another day.

With about 15 minutes left, Moorhouse and Carillo passed around stress balls shaped like bee hives. They asked the students to squeeze hard and pretend that they were squeezing out the juice.

A couple of kids laughed as they squeezed their fists and then released pressure.

Around 2:55 p.m. Moorhouse handed out a blank calendar worksheet. For the following week, students would be expected to log how they’ve practiced relaxation strategies, such as grabbing an ice pack from the nurse or using a stress ball, when feeling stressed. One student shared that drawing helps.

It was time for dismissal. The students didn’t run out the door. They stayed back to chat with each other. A few grabbed extra bags of Skinny Pop.

As the weeks go on, Moorhouse and Carrillo will meet individually with each student to assess whether they want to talk more about their personal experiences of coming to the U.S. and what would be appropriate to share with the other students.

In those conversations, students may show signs of needing more individual counseling provided by the school, such as bursting into tears while recounting a story, Carrillo said.

Some students take a while to open up, so it’s unclear how much they’ll participate going forward, Moorhouse said. One of those quieter students is the child who had shared that there was no highlight or lowlight of her week. During the hourlong session, this student gradually opened up a little more.

And when most of the other children left at the end of the day, that student stayed behind. She wanted to talk some more one-on-one with Moorhouse.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools could see a $391M budget deficit next school year, official says

2023-10-25T21:59:31+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools is expecting a $391 million budget shortfall next year as federal COVID relief money runs out, officials said Wednesday.

The district has received $2.8 billion in COVID relief since the onset of the pandemic. The last $300 million of that will be spent in 2025, according to Mike Sitkowski, chief budget officer for CPS, who shared the figures during a Board of Education meeting. The current budget is $9.4 billion. Next year’s budget starts July 1, 2024 and will cover the 2024-25 school year.

By law, the school district must balance its budget, Sitkowski noted. That means district officials will either have to cut expenses or find a way to boost revenue. Board President Jianan Shi called for the latter.

“Our district needs more revenue, and this is a moment for all of us at every level to stand up and advocate for our teachers, our students, our families, for this board to advocate for more revenue at the state, local, and federal levels,” Shi said after the presentation.

The financial update comes as the City Council holds budget hearings for the city’s next budget, which is due by the end of the year but is typically finalized by Thanksgiving. The district’s budget operates on a different timeline, more closely matching the school year. The district will also hold budget community roundtables for the public throughout November. (Dates can be found here.)

Districts across the nation have been bracing for financial challenges as their pandemic relief dollars run out. Chicago officials have directed their relief dollars toward employee salaries, hiring more instructional staff and creating several new programs. About $670 million of federal relief was included in this year’s budget — representing about 7% of the current budget set to end June 30, 2024.

Asked on previous occasions about what CPS will do once the federal money runs out, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez has said district officials plan to ask the state for more support.

The $391 million deficit is the result of complicated collection of revenues and costs the district is projecting for next year: First, the district will have a $670 million hole in next year’s budget due to the loss of federal pandemic aid, according to Sitkowski’s presentation. That gap will be partially filled by the last bit of federal relief — about $300 million. However, the district is also expecting $123 million more in expenses it says it can’t control, including for teacher pension costs, debt service, health care costs, and inflation, Sitkowski said.

Those costs will be partially offset by rising revenues of $102 million, which include $23 million more from the state, as well as some rising tax collections, and more state support for pensions, according to Sitkowski.

The projections shared on Wednesday seem to outpace what a previous analysis warned of. A report issued under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot warned of a potential $628 million deficit by 2026 and predicted a neutral outlook for 2025. The report also noted that as the city has shifted more costs onto the district, it could shoulder more expenses as the board goes from mayoral control to an elected body.

District officials have been ratcheting up pressure for more money from state officials. This school year, CPS is projected to see a $23 million increase in state funding, for a total of about $1.77 billion this school year.

But on Wednesday, Sitkowski said that if the state fully funded districts under the Evidence-Based Funding Formula, CPS would have an additional $1.1 billion in funding.

Last month, the board highlighted the need for $3.1 billion to address critical repairs at school facilities over the next five years.

Sitkowski said direct funding at the school level has also increased by $1 billion since fiscal year 2019, even as enrollment dipped. More than 2,300 teachers were hired in that time, including classroom teachers, interventionists, and educators for the arts and physical education, he noted.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago teachers urge State Board of Education to help with ongoing migrant crisis

2023-10-19T00:49:30+00:00

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Chicago teachers are urging state education officials to help the city’s public schools with an influx of migrant students, many of whom lack basic needs such as clothing, medical care, and housing.

Teachers told board members on Wednesday during the state board’s monthly meeting that Chicago schools are struggling to meet the needs of newly arrived school-age migrants. Some teachers said classrooms have become overcrowded, schools don’t have enough bilingual educators, and many students need access to bilingual social workers or school counselors for social-emotional support.

Diane Castro, a bilingual preschool teacher at Lorca Elementary School, said the 3- and 4-year-old students she works with have endured so much and need more than her school can provide.

“Our students are … doubled and tripled up in apartment buildings,” said Castro. “The children are in clothes that are too small and shoes that are too big. Our children have not had proper medical or dental care.”

More than 18,500 migrants have come to Chicago since August 2022, according to city officials, though it’s not clear exactly how many are school-aged. Chicago Public Schools officials have pointed to climbing numbers of students identified as English learners and those living in temporary living situations as an estimate for how many newcomers are now in CPS.

The teachers’ push for help comes as city and state officials are calling on the federal government to come through with additional funding and support.

During the spring legislative session, state lawmakers filed a bill to help support migrant students by requiring the state board to create New Arrival Student Grants for schools. But the bill didn’t move past the rules committee.

In late September, Gov. J. B. Pritzker announced $41.5 million for Illinois cities seeing an influx of newcomers. Chicago got more than $30 million of that money. But in early October, Pritzker made a plea to President Joe Biden for support, calling the pace of new arrivals “untenable” for Chicago and Illinois.

A Chalkbeat Chicago analysis of staffing data over the summer found a decline in the number of designated bilingual teachers in recent years, but an uptick in teachers with bilingual or English as a Second Language endorsements. The analysis also found that the ratio of staff with bilingual credentials or titles to students was increasing as more English learners have enrolled.

Syvelia Pittman, a teacher at Nash Elementary School on the city’s West Side, has seen that play out on the ground. She told the state board Wednesday that her school serves about 50 newcomers, increasing the school’s enrollment in preschool to third grade. However, the school does not have any bilingual educators and teachers often use Google translate to speak to students.

Pittman asked the state board to provide schools with additional funding to hire more teachers and provide current teachers with support to obtain a certificate in bilingual education.

In addition to the increased need for bilingual educators, teachers said students are coming to schools without their basic needs being met.

Gabriel Paez, a bilingual educator at Cameron Elementary School in the West Humboldt Park Neighborhood and Bilingual Education Committee chair for the Chicago Teachers Union, said some students lack shoes and clothes and need access to vaccination to attend school. With Chicago’s harsh winter around the corner, students will need warmer clothes, winter coats, and housing.

“We have 20 newcomers in each grade level who arrive daily and in worsening conditions. Many of my students arrive stripped of their basic needs,” said Paez. “Medication, clothes, shoes, socks, medical attention, housing, and mental health, are all falling on already overburdened and understaffed schools.”

Paez urged the state board to provide winter supplies, emergency housing assistance, and first aid kits along with bilingual social workers and counselors.

Paez also asked the board to give students who are migrants an exception from the state’s English-only exams such as the Illinois Assessment of Readiness because it would be “damaging and retraumatizing” to students who do not understand the language.

Chicago Public Schools’ enrollment increased by 1,000 students for the first time in more than a decade this year. District data shows more than 7,800 additional students were classified as English learners this year compared to last year. Normally, the annual increase is by an average of 3,000 English learners.

The number of students identified as living in temporary housing also increased compared to last year. Migrant students are considered Students in Temporary Living Situations, or STLS, and guaranteed admission to local public schools despite not having a permanent address.

On the 20th day of the school year, when the district took its official enrollment count, a spokesperson cautioned against attributing the bump to “any one group of students.” Earlier in July, a top mayoral aide suggested to the Chicago Sun-Times that newcomer students would reverse CPS enrollment declines.

The Illinois State Board of Education will make a budget recommendation to Pritzker before his State of the State and budget address which typically happens in February.

Reema Amin contributed to this report.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

This Chicago principal creates a sense of belonging for migrant students and their families

2023-10-18T21:50:45+00:00

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When Maureen Delgado walked into her first classroom at Clinton Elementary in 1999 to teach middle school English and Social Studies, it was virtually empty — no textbooks, no pens, nothing.

“If I hadn’t had experience previously teaching, I probably would have really struggled,” Delgado said. “But that’s also one of the things that I think about when I hire new teachers: How can I support them? How can I make sure that they have what they need?”

Delgado is now the principal at Clinton, a kindergarten through eighth grade school in Chicago’s West Ridge neighborhood on the city’s north side. It’s a role she took on in 2016 after several years as the school’s assistant principal.

This month, Delgado and a handful of Chicago Public Schools principals are being featured on Chicago Transit Authority buses and trains as part of Principal Appreciation Month. District officials said she was chosen for creating an inclusive environment for Clinton’s immigrant and refugee population.

Delgado spoke with Chalkbeat Chicago about how she leads one of the city’s largest elementary schools, serving more than 1,000 students, 90 percent of whom are from low-income households and 62 percent of whom are English learners.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What made you want to be a principal?

I think if you were to ask me, back when I was doing my undergrad work, I would say I just wanted to be a teacher, and that’s all I wanted to do. But through my experiences here, I found myself being pushed into leadership roles, such as a grade-level instructional team leader. I think one of the things that really propelled me, though, was I realized that the opportunities and structures I had set up in my classroom were not necessarily the same across the school. I thought I could do more good as a school leader in order to support all of our learners.

Tell me a little bit about your own experience with school growing up and how it affects your work today.

My own experience in school is kind of embedded in working in this neighborhood. My father was an immigrant from the Middle East. My mother was a second-generation American. School was always important. I was the first person in my family to go to college. There were no ifs, ands, or buts in our family. You were going to get a college degree. It was always ingrained in us that school is important, that we’re here in this country being given the opportunity to better ourselves. My father felt that education was really the driver to seek a better life, and he was a proponent of making sure that that happened for his family.

I always wanted to be a teacher. I tortured my family, my cousins by playing school on the weekends. I had a chalkboard that I was given as a birthday gift. I just was always really drawn to education and drawn to helping kids and to helping students learn. When I was attending school at nearby Rogers Elementary, I spent a lot of time volunteering in younger grades like kindergarten and first grade. I’d spend my lunch periods or other free periods helping out in those classrooms. In high school, there was a child development class and we had a preschool in our high school, where I would volunteer. At Clinton, I feel like I found my niche and I found the perfect community to do that in.

Chicago has seen a big influx of migrant students. How is your school helping newcomer students?

One of the things that has drawn me to this community and has helped me stay here is being a child of an immigrant myself. My family comes from the Middle East and my aunts’ education stopped at what would be the equivalent of third or fourth grade. They never felt like they could go into their children’s school. So they relied on my mother who was English-speaking to be able to advocate for my cousins because they just never felt welcome in the school and they felt that that barrier would hinder them.

West Ridge and Rogers Park is a very diverse part of the city and it’s been diverse for years. Clinton is right off of Devon Avenue, which is known as Little India. We’ve had a lot of Asian families from Pakistan and India, but we also have a lot of different families from the Middle East. When I was teaching, we would get a lot of families from Eastern Europe, especially Kosovo, Bosnia, when there was a civil war there. We’ve always been welcoming different immigrants and different refugees from around the world.

We’ve continued to do that at Clinton. What has been a little bit more challenging this year is that we’ve had over 115 kids that have enrolled as newcomers since the beginning of the school year. We do have a lot of support in place, but it’s just been very fast. And while about a quarter of them are Spanish speaking, there’s another quarter that are Arabic speaking. We also have students that speak Rohingya, Burmese, Somali. We have 45 different languages spoken here. Our issues have been, ‘How do we support this huge influx that we’ve gotten?’ Because we’re also expecting more.

Over the last few years, our teachers have gotten English as a Second Language endorsements. About 95% of our teachers have their ESL endorsements. One of the things we focused on, particularly last year, was doing a professional learning community with those teachers. We have our English Language Program teachers who work as coaches and so they go in and support teachers.

We also have a lot of teachers that speak another language. Whenever we have parent meetings or one-on-one meetings about a student’s progress, we make sure that if we don’t have somebody on staff who speaks that language, we utilize the language line [a hotline we can call to get a translator]. So that helps us strengthen that home-to-school connection.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received and how have you put it into action?

I think the best advice I’ve ever received is to really listen. One of the things that I’ve had to do as an administrator is really to listen to my community, our school community, and kind of hear what we’re struggling with and being able to have people express their concerns or question things. That has really helped to guide where we’re headed as a school and to guide our new instructional shifts and our focus is just really being able to listen to the community.

I think a lot of times people are always thinking about how to respond to something or about how they’re gonna get their point across. But I think for me, just really taking the time to listen and process what I’ve been told.

How has your school worked to support students’ mental health?

One of the things that we’ve always offered here is a partnership with Asian Human Services, now known as Trellus, so we’ve always been able to offer counseling within the school day, which I think really helps some parents become more comfortable with the idea [of counseling] because they trust the school.

Thankfully, the district has given us a second counselor. That has been phenomenal for our school. We have a rainbows group that’s meeting about loss. We have a positive minds group that’s talking about self esteem and really growth mindset. We have a wellness group that’s talking about wellness, holistically, not just physical wellness, but also mental health. We have different “lunch bunches” where kids are able to meet and have lunch with the counselor and talk about things very organically.

In addition, our counselors are supporting our teachers, with programs such as Second Step and Calm Classroom. We’re also working on restorative practices within our school.

All of that has helped to make parents more comfortable so that when we have students who do require some additional support, they trust us. We also do workshops on mental health with our Parent Advisory Council.

How do you take care of yourself when you’re not at work?

If you ask my family, they’ll say I’m never not at work. Even if I’m not physically in the building, my mind is constantly thinking about school. But I think the way I take care of myself is really spending time with family and friends and taking care of my own mental health. Sometimes it’s getting a massage, sometimes it’s reading, sometimes it’s vegging out on Netflix.

Principal Maureen Delgado reads to a student at Clinton Elementary, where she’s served as principal since 2016 and has worked since 1999.

How does it feel to have pictures of yourself on Chicago Transit Authority buses and trains?

I haven’t physically seen one yet, but I know one of my clinicians did. I will say, I am really committed to this school and this community. I am really proud of the work that we’re doing. And I’m very proud of the teachers, our students, our staff, and our parents. Whatever I can do to share that I’m more than willing to do it.

My father passed away a few years ago and I was telling my mom about it and I said, ‘You know what, I think he would have been proud of me.’ And she goes, ‘Yes, he would be so proud of you.’ On a personal level, it’s kind of nice to know that I’m being recognized. But in terms of the school, I’m happy that we’re being recognized. Our goal is to be the best neighborhood school in the city of Chicago, and I think we’re on our way to doing that.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools reschedules High School Admissions Test

2023-10-18T21:27:08+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools announced a new testing schedule Wednesday for the High School Admissions Test, which was canceled last week after technical problems.

District students will take the test next week, on either Oct. 24 or Oct. 25. The district will assign one of those dates to each eighth grader’s school, according to a CPS letter to families. Students taking the exam in Spanish, Arabic, Polish, Urdu, or simplified Chinese will test on Nov. 1.

Non-CPS students — whose testing window last weekend was canceled — can take the exam on Oct. 28, Oct. 29, or Nov. 5 at Lane Tech or Lindblom high schools, the district said. These students must sign up for an exam date in GoCPS, the city’s admissions application system, by 9 a.m. Oct. 23.

The exam will not be the same one as was planned for last week, and students who were able to access the test will not see the same questions, officials said.

Students who were able to complete the exam will be allowed to retake the test, and their new score will be used for admissions even if it’s the lower of both tests, officials said. Students who don’t want to retake the exam must opt out by filing out this form and returning it to their school by Oct. 23. However, due to last week’s glitches, district officials “strongly recommend that students take advantage of this opportunity” to retake the exam, they said in the letter to families.

CPS’ roughly 24,000 eighth graders were set to take the HSAT in school on Oct. 11. The exam is part of admissions requirements for selective enrollment high schools and for enrollment at some schools outside of their neighborhood boundaries.

But on test day, a technical problem broke out with the testing vendor, Riverside Associates, LLC, officials said. The company later discovered that backlogged servers caused the problem, according to an FAQ on the district’s website. Students were unable to log into the testing platform, and the company’s help desk could not be reached, educators told Chalkbeat. District officials instructed principals to stop exam administration for students who were unable to log in.

The district later canceled the exam for non-CPS students, who were scheduled to take it Oct. 14 and 15.

The company fixed the problem by “adding server capacity” and testing the system to ensure that it works, the FAQ said.

Students’ HSAT scores help determine which selective high schools they might be admitted. This year, students must submit their top choices in the district’s admissions system — GoCPS — by Nov. 9, a month earlier than usual. Students were originally allowed to re-rank their choices by Nov. 22, but given the rescheduled HSAT, district officials have extended the re-rank deadline to Dec. 1.

After last week’s glitches, the district plans to be “very cautious” about the new testing plan and is “putting some strategies in place” to eliminate potential issues, said CPS Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova during a Wednesday Board of Education meeting to review the agenda for an upcoming full board meeting. Neither she nor district officials immediately elaborated on what extra steps they’ve taken to ensure the test will resume smoothly.

In the online FAQ, the district said that its team has “reviewed results of vendor testing to confirm preparedness for resuming the HS Admissions Test program.”

During the board meeting Wednesday, Chkoumbova apologized to families for the glitches and said she was “a little bit disappointed” by the problems, given that the district’s aim was to reduce anxiety for students. The district had shortened the test length this year to an hour, from a previous 2 ½ hours, and had offered it for the first time in Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, Urdu, and Polish.

“Our team went into the testing session with a lot of assurances,” Chkoumbova said. “We did triple check everything, but the platform failed.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois is revamping its literacy plan. Parents, advocates say it needs more for students with dyslexia.

2023-10-17T23:14:01+00:00

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Shortly after Aimee Orta’s daughter started kindergarten in Chicago Public Schools in 2019, the 5-year-old would come home upset and complain about headaches and stomach pain.

The complaints seemed to stem from the little girl’s frustrations with school. After realizing that her daughter might be a struggling reader, Orta decided to get an outside evaluation. The results found that the kindergartener was having trouble matching letters to sounds.

But it would take two more years for Orta’s daughter to be formally diagnosed with dyslexia, her mom says, and for her school on the North West side to provide the academic services she needed. By then, she was in second grade.

Orta said she saw how it impacted her daughter’s social-emotional health.

“She just felt like she wasn’t capable of anything, because when you can’t read you can’t consume any of the other curriculum,” said Orta. “So she’s struggling in math. She’s struggling in science. She’s struggling in social studies.”

The fight to get her daughter the services she needs drove Orta to become an advocate with the CPS Family Dyslexia Collaborative. The group is pushing the district and the state to adopt evidence-based reading instruction in the classroom and to improve interventions for struggling readers and those with dyslexia.

The issue of how to improve literacy instruction has taken on new urgency across the country, as districts grapple with students who fell behind during the pandemic. On the Illinois Assessment of Readiness taken in spring 2023, 25.9% of Chicago students from third to eighth grade who took the exam met or exceeded the standard in English language arts. But for students with disabilities, the percentage dropped to 4.2%.

In recent years, many states have started to revamp how reading is taught by getting rid of a now-debunked reading method called “balanced literacy,” a reading philosophy that believes reading is a natural process, and turning to evidence-based reading instruction.

Illinois has also taken steps to change literacy instruction with the passage of a law that requires the Illinois State Board of Education to create a literacy plan by Jan. 31, 2024. In June, the state board released an initial draft of the plan, which says universal screening for literacy skills is essential and aspiring teachers need to be trained in the science of reading.

However, because the draft plan does not mandate districts to change how reading is taught in classrooms, literacy advocates worry that it is not enough to push schools to get rid of balanced literacy.

The state board plans to release a second draft of the literacy plan during the board’s monthly meeting on Oct. 18. The board also said that it will update the state’s dyslexia handbook this fall — a document that helps parents, educators, school administration understand what dyslexia is and how to support students. The handbook was last updated in 2019.

Parents like Orta and advocates like Jessica Handy, executive director of Stand for Children Illinois and a key author of the literacy bill, say the state’s literacy draft plan needs more work to address the needs of struggling readers and those with dyslexia. Having a strong reading curriculum and evidence-based instruction is good for all readers, Handy said, but students with dyslexia need more support in a classroom setting.

“Students with dyslexia deserve early identification and support instead of waiting for them to fail,” Handy said.

Advocate fight to change Illinois’ literacy instruction

In early 2022, the Illinois Early Literacy Coalition — a group of literacy advocates across the state — pushed legislation to mandate evidence-based reading instruction in all Illinois school districts. The so-called “Right to Read” Act required the state board to create literacy grants, change teacher licensure tests for elementary school teachers, and develop professional development opportunities for current teachers. The proposed law came at a time when the state’s 2021 test scores found that young students had lost ground in English language arts and math.

Many education advocates supported the bill, but critics said it did not address the needs of English language learners — a student group that makes up 14% of the state’s student enrollment. Despite negotiations, the bill did not pass.

But a year later, at the start of 2023, parts of the “Right to Read” Act appeared in several pieces of legislation in the state House and Senate. The group of bills — referred to by advocates as the “Literacy and Justice for All” package — would have required the state to create a literacy plan, design a rubric for school districts to score their reading curriculum, create professional development opportunities for current teachers, and require aspiring teachers to take courses in evidence-based literacy instruction in teacher prep programs.

Literacy advocates also fought for a bill that would have required public schools to screen all students in kindergarten through second grade for dyslexia.

Illinois is one of several states that does not require schools to screen children. Some school districts across the nation have implemented universal screeners for young learners. A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools said the i-Ready exam, an assessment for all kindergarten through second grade students, has a dyslexia screener.

But despite the push to mandate better reading instruction, train teachers on evidence-based practices, and screen students for dyslexia early, state lawmakers only passed SB 2243. which required the state to create a literacy plan.

The draft plan, which was released in June before the law was signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, provides a roadmap for educators to teach reading to students from birth to 12th grade using research-based reading strategies. The draft plan also tells educators how to adjust their instruction to meet the needs of students with disabilities and English language learners.

The plan does outline how state leaders, school districts, and educators should work with students with disabilities, which would include students with dyslexia. But the Illinois Early Literacy Coalition, in a letter to the state board in June, said students with dyslexia deserve their own section and more than “a passing reference” to the dyslexia handbook.

“We know that many students who struggle to read do not have dyslexia and we have strongly supported a plan that is comprehensive and inclusive,” the coalition wrote in its letter. “At the same time, a plan that does not include any specific discussion about students with dyslexia is not inclusive.”

Aspiring teachers need training on phonics

Aimee Orta, a mother of two Chicago Public Schools students who have dyslexia.

By the spring of 2021, Orta’s daughter was in the second half of first grade and had an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, that required her to get more reading instruction inside her classroom throughout the day.

But Orta soon realized it was not enough. Her daughter needed time outside of her general education classroom to focus on reading strategies. Orta had to push her daughter’s general education teacher and school administration for more help.

“When teachers tell parents, ‘oh, it’ll eventually click’ or ‘we need to wait and see,’ or ‘it’ll be fine.’ When we hear that, we start to doubt our instincts,” said Orta.

A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools said the district has developed its Skyline English language arts curriculum using evidence-based reading strategies and plans to roll out more curricular support for schools this year. The district announced the curriculum in May 2019 and started rolling it out at schools in 2021. Many, but not all schools have adopted the curriculum.

Requiring evidence-based reading practices is just one part of the solution, advocates and experts say. Better teaching preparation in reading instruction is also needed.

The state board’s draft literacy plan addresses that by suggesting that teacher preparation programs should help aspiring elementary school teachers learn about the science behind reading, understand national and state standards for reading for each grade level, find strategies to help students learn how to read, and use assessments to find where students are struggling to read.

The draft literacy plan also recommends that state leaders work with teacher preparation programs to ensure that curriculum aligns with evidence-based reading practice.

Some evidence shows teacher preparation programs across the nation are still largely teaching future elementary school teachers balanced literacy reading strategies and curriculum, according to a June report from the National Center for Teacher Quality — a nonprofit organization evaluating teacher prep programs.

The report reviewed 16 teacher prep programs in Illinois; of those, eight programs did not spend any course time on helping preservice teachers to teach reading to struggling readers. Nine of Illinois’ teacher prep programs received an F grade. Only two universities, Illinois College and Olivet Nazarene University, received an A+.

However, higher education leaders have criticized the report for grading schools on course material without reaching out to teacher prep programs. The council had to change the grade of at least 24 schools in the nation. Ball State University in Indiana went from a F grade to an A.

Heather Peske, president of NCTQ, said Illinois has too many children who are not reading at grade level and better teacher preparation can change that reality for all students.

“We shouldn’t depend on the families of children who have dyslexia to advocate for their children to be taught aligned to the science and the research,” said Peske. “We need teachers who understand the science of reading, understand the research, and who know how to serve students who have dyslexia.”

Peske noted that Colorado and Mississippi have teacher preparation programs using the science of reading in their curriculum and students have seen a boost in their reading scores.

Literacy advocates look to the future

One year after Orta’s daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia, Orta noticed her catching up to peers. In addition to getting more support at school, she received after-school tutoring and went to a summer school program that focused on reading.

Now, as a fourth grader, the girl is reading just shy of her grade level and enjoys reading for pleasure despite the effort it takes.

Orta has used the lessons learned in her daughter’s journey to help her younger son. She noticed that he struggled to read as well and quickly sought an outside evaluation. He was diagnosed immediately with dyslexia and given an IEP by the end of kindergarten in the spring of 2022.

Orta’s son, now in second grade, has been making progress in reading faster and his social-emotional health is strong.

The state literacy plan recommends, but doesn’t mandate, that schools use universal screeners to help teachers intervene early if a student needs support. Research shows students who receive interventions in first and second grade are twice as likely to make gains in reading than a student who receives support in third grades, according to a report in the Journal of Educational Psychology.

Orta still wants the state to mandate research-based, structured phonics instruction in school. She also wants educators, school clinicians and administrators to learn about the signs of dyslexia to help kids early.

The state’s draft plan is a good start, Orta and other advocates say, but more needs to be done.

At one magnet school, Chicago’s bus crisis has parents grasping for options — or leaving

2023-10-13T18:14:26+00:00

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Mónica Meléndez spent the first half of the last school year driving her three kids at least an hour each way to Inter-American Magnet School in Lake View.

She felt she had no choice after the district said it would not provide transportation at the beginning of the year for two of her children.

By the time all her kids got bus service in the second semester, Meléndez was exhausted — especially on days she spent another hour driving to work.

So shortly after Chicago Public Schools announced this summer that it wouldn’t provide busing to about 5,500 eligible general education students, largely those in gifted and magnet programs, Meléndez and her husband pulled their two youngest children out of the school. It was a wrenching decision: The Spanish dual language school felt perfect for the couple, who are originally from Puerto Rico and want their children to be bilingual.

Meléndez recalls telling her husband: “Sweetie, I can’t do this anymore.” Their oldest, a seventh grader, now takes a CTA bus two hours each way.

The family’s decision illustrates one way Chicago’s school bus crisis could impact enrollment and the socioeconomic and racial diversity of the city’s magnet and gifted programs. Many of these schools were created under a federal desegregation consent decree, but have been criticized for lacking diversity and enrolling larger shares of white and Asian American students since federal oversight ended in 2009. As working-class families find it difficult or impossible to take their children far distances to school, the absence of a transportation option could segregate the schools even more.

Parents at Inter-American are looking for solutions, as other gifted and magnet programs have also sought their own alternatives to the lack of busing.

Inter-American is already seeing the impact and some families have left.

“I would be really worried about what this change would mean for the demographics for these schools and for the goals of magnet schools in Chicago more generally,” said Halley Potter, an expert on school integration policy and a senior fellow at The Century Foundation.

Parents share transportation challenges

Citing a severe driver shortage, Chicago Public Schools announced in late July that it would limit bus transportation this year to students with disabilities and those who are homeless, both groups which are legally required to receive transportation. The district is currently under state watch to make sure it’s meeting those legal requirements.

The district said it has pursued several solutions to hire more drivers, including boosting driver pay rates by $2 – to $22 to $27 an hour – and hosting hiring fairs. But as of late last month, the district still had only half the number of drivers on hand and announced that busing would not be extended to more families for the rest of the semester. The district offered CTA cards to the 5,500 children who lost busing, but as of late last month, just about 1,600 took that option.

In a statement, CPS spokesperson Samantha Hart said the district is “acutely aware” of the challenges families are facing with longer commutes.

“We are committed to continuing to work with our vendors, City partners and our families to identify solutions and ensure every eligible student has safe, secure, and reliable transportation to and from school,” Hart said.

The transportation crisis has already had a small impact on enrollment at Inter-American, where nearly half of the school’s 641 students come from low-income families. Fifty-three families were eligible for transportation at the school. As of Oct. 2, six children have transferred out of the school due to the lack of transportation, according to the district.

At least two more children transferred out after Oct. 2 because of transportation issues, said Maria Ugarte, chair of Inter-American’s Local School Council. Ugarte has also heard from many parents who are considering leaving, and she wonders how lack of busing will impact next year’s enrollment.

At a meeting last month with the school’s principal, one parent said he wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep up the commute to school. A mother shared that her commute involves taking the CTA with her three children, including a 2-year-old, every morning and evening— and doing that daily is becoming stressful.

Alexis Luna, who lives in Belmont Cragin, splits dropoff and pickup responsibilities for her third grade daughter with the girl’s father. But her daughter may have to miss school on days that the girl’s father is out of town for work, since Luna’s work schedule is inflexible and she can’t take days off.

Luna “lost everything” when her business closed during the pandemic, so she cannot afford to miss work or quit. She said she is struggling to pay for the increased gas costs.

For Rocio Meza, the lack of transportation means she can’t search for a job this year as she handles the hourlong pickup and dropoff each way at Inter-American for her 12-year-old daughter. She’s also responsible for driving her older son with disabilities to doctor’s appointments on some mornings, which sometimes makes one of the children late.

She and her husband have discussed transferring their daughter out of Inter-American – two other schools are within a few blocks of their house – but the family loves the school.

”Do I really want to do this and give up the education and experience she’s getting at Inter-American to go to another school?” Meza said.

Some attempts to find solutions at the school level haven’t come to fruition.

The school’s principal, Juan Carlos Zayas, launched a voluntary task force with parents to look for ways to ease the transportation issue. Ideas included a rideshare app and hiring a bus company on their own, according to recordings of the meetings. Both options would likely be too costly for parents, task force members said. For example, one parent found a company that would charge $158 per child this month — if the bus was full with just a couple of stops.

The district granted the school $157,000 in funding to host before- and after-school programs to accommodate more flexible pickup and dropoff times. The principal recently surveyed families for their interest and expects programming to start Oct. 23, a district spokesperson said.

Last month, Luna tried to distribute a survey to arrange carpooling for interested parents. The survey asked for information such as where their child’s old bus stop was and how many children they had. Zayas emailed Luna and several other parents that the “attempt to collect personal information” was a “clear violation” of district policy and that it was circulated to teachers without his knowledge.

District officials pointed to a CPS policy that prevents anyone from circulating ads, subscription lists, meeting invitations, books, maps, articles, or other political or commercial materials among school employees or students without approval from the principal or other district officials.

Still, some parents are trying to figure out carpool arrangements, Luna said.

Transportation woes could decrease diversity in magnet programs

During CPS board meetings, parents at magnet and gifted programs have said they are worried that the lack of transportation will most greatly impact children whose parents don’t have flexible work schedules to take young children on lengthy transit commutes or the money and time to drive them. That could force less-resourced families to transfer out of magnet programs or gifted programs or choose not to apply for them for next school year.

Once seen as a solution to the city’s segregated schools, the city’s magnet, gifted, and selective enrollment programs have been criticized for failing to achieve their diversity goals. A 2019 WBEZ analysis found that just 20% of these schools met the definition of racial diversity embedded in a now-lifted court order for Chicago to integrate its schools.

CPS uses a lottery for enrollment in magnet programs like Inter-American. Seats are offered based on the socioeconomic status of the neighborhood a student lives in. Sometimes priority is given to siblings or to students living close to the school.

Inter-American lacks racial diversity — 85% of its students this year are Hispanic, and 10% are white, according to district data. However, the school is more socioeconomically diverse, with 47% of its students coming from low-income families, still far below the district’s average of about 71%.

During one of the task force meetings, one parent expressed concern that working-class families would leave, and more local families from the surrounding affluent Lake View neighborhood would get seats — changing the face of the school.

At the same time, less transportation for magnet and gifted families could mean more students enrolling in their neighborhood schools. Bolstering neighborhood schools is a priority for Mayor Brandon Johnson.

After pulling her daughter and son out of Inter-American, Meléndez enrolled them in her local neighborhood school, Canty Elementary. There, about half of the students are Hispanic, 44% are white, and about 2% are each Black and Asian American. Just over 43% come from low-income households.

Her daughters like the school so far, Meléndez said. Canty, which is not a dual-language school like Inter-American, is just a five-minute drive away from home. But the outcome of their story is likely not the norm: In a city as segregated as Chicago, more integrated neighborhood schools like Canty are a rarity.

Potter, from The Century Foundation, said Chicago Public Schools has done “really important work” in finding ways to spur diversity in selective and magnet schools. The district’s lotteries that try to enroll students from different socioeconomic backgrounds often result in more racial diversity, too, she said.

But, Potter said, “without transportation support, a lot of that can fall apart.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools cancels this weekend’s High School Admissions Test for non-district students

2023-10-12T21:52:35+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools is canceling this weekend’s High School Admissions Test for students who are not currently enrolled in the district but are planning to apply for the city’s selective and magnet high schools.

District officials cited ongoing technical difficulties with the vendor’s testing platform.

The cancellation comes after similar issues forced the district to pause testing Wednesday, when all CPS’ roughly 24,000 eighth graders were supposed to take the exam in school.

“We are working now to reschedule all students who were scheduled to test this weekend and will share updates to families as soon as possible,” district spokesperson Samantha Hart said in a statement.

The district said it is working with the vendor, Riverside Assessments, LLC, to solve the technical problems and to provide new testing dates “for students who were impacted by the vendor’s technical issues.”

In July, the Board of Education authorized a $1.2 million no-bid contract with Riverside, in part to provide testing materials for the HSAT.

The vendor’s website Thursday included a note that it was aware schools in several regions were unable to log in or complete testing and that a team is “working around the clock to resolve this issue.”

Applications for next school year are currently due Nov. 9. In previous years, CPS has extended the deadline.

The glitches Wednesday prevented students from logging into the testing platform to take the exam, school leaders told Chalkbeat. Some students at one North Side school also encountered some Spanish words on their exam and needed teachers to translate, according to an administrator.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Rising share of Chicago Public Schools graduates are pursuing college, study finds

2023-10-12T18:25:42+00:00

A rising share of Chicago Public Schools students enrolled in college in recent years, and far more are earning degrees or certificates at two-year colleges.

That’s according to a study released Thursday by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research and the To & Through Project, which tracks college enrollment. Additionally, the study found that more Chicago students than ever are projected to pursue and complete college over the next decade.

The study’s findings run counter to national trends of sagging college enrollment during the pandemic; nationwide enrollment in two- and four-year colleges fell by .6% from 2021 to 2022, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Many young people across the nation are questioning whether higher education is worth the cost, said Jenny Nagaoka, one of the study’s authors and deputy director of the Consortium on School Research.

Higher education is “tremendously expensive, student debt is a huge issue [and] ultimately for a lot of students they’re unclear if the payoffs will be there,” Nagaoka said. “But CPS students are still going to college. They’re still seeing there’s value in it.”

Research shows that a college education can lead to better salary-earning potential, provide better access to high-quality housing, and contribute to better overall health, according to a review of literature by Healthy People 2030, a federal government-led project that tracks health data.

“We are hearing so much discouraging news about achievement in our schools right now, and this is not to say that’s not real, but I think it’s really important to note that at the same time, we’re actually also seeing increases in attainment,” Nagaoka said.

The study used a measure called the Post-Secondary Attainment Index, or PAI, to project college enrollment and completion based on current high school graduation and college enrollment and completion rates. Researchers calculated graduation rates slightly differently from the district, which is why they’ve come up with an 84-percent graduation rate for 2022 versus 82.9% reported by CPS. (The authors emphasized that the index is not meant to be a prediction; rather, it is a “starting place” to understand how to improve current patterns.)

This year the index is 30%, meaning that if CPS graduation and college enrollment and completion rates remained the same over the next decade, 30 out of 100 current ninth graders would earn a college credential by the time they are 25, researchers project. That is a 2.4 percentage point increase over last year and the highest rate on record since researchers began calculating this index in 2013. At that time, the index was 23%.

This year’s ninth graders were in middle school when the pandemic shuttered school buildings.

Nagaoka said they’re “cautiously optimistic” that these trends won’t reverse in the future, since this year’s record-setting data reflects students who were in high school and college during the pandemic.

But the study also found significant racial disparities within the data. For example, 66% percent of Asian American women would earn a college credential over the next decade according to the PAI, but just 13.6% of Black men would do the same.

During an event Thursday announcing the study’s findings, CPS Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova acknowledged that the district has more to do to close racial disparities.

“With these groups, especially at the high school level, we’ve learned that one of the most impactful ways we can provide support is by establishing partnerships that will provide mentorship and guidance to the students throughout their high school experience,” she said.

The researchers also studied college enrollment data from 2022 and college completion data from 2021, based on data that was available. Some highlights included:

60.8% of CPS students who graduated in 2022 immediately enrolled in two-year or four-year colleges, 1.5 percentage points higher than the class of 2021.
There are stark racial disparities in who pursued college upon graduation in 2022. For example, nearly 80% of white women immediately enrolled in college upon graduation, while just 45% of Black male students did the same.
Just over 53% of English learners immediately pursued college after graduating last year, compared with 68% of former English learners.
For the class of 2015, nearly 56% of students who immediately enrolled in a four-year college and roughly one-third of students who immediately enrolled in a two-year college eventually earned a bachelor’s or associate degree, or earned a certificate by 2021.
For those who did not immediately enroll in college in 2015, roughly 3% earned a bachelor’s degree within six years. Another 5% completed an associate degree or certificate. While those rates are on the rise, they are 1.7 percentage points smaller than similar completion rates for the class of 2009.
The percentage of students who earned some sort of college credential after enrolling in four-year schools dipped by .6% between the graduating classes of 2014 and 2015.

Chkoumbova attributed the gains to various efforts across district schools to keep students interested in school and prepared for the future, including more career and technical education and dual-credit programs. She also pointed to the district’s work on how it disciplines students. Rather than suspending students, schools are using restorative practices to keep them connected and in class.

A district spokesperson pointed to a host of other programs, such as a new pilot initiative that aims to re-engage young people who are no longer in school or working. The spokesperson also pointed to efforts to get students interested in college and staying there. That includes the Direct Admissions Initiative, which tells seniors whether they can get into a select list of colleges, and another program that provides students with support and mentorship in the two years after they graduate from high school.

Nagaoka also highlighted the increase of 5.6 percentage points in the two-year college completion rate for class of 2015 graduates, the largest increase by far over at least the past six years.

That increase, researchers and Chkoumbova noted, coincides with the onset of Chicago’s STAR Scholarship, which former Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced in the fall of 2014 and offers free tuition to City Colleges for any CPS student with at least a 3.0 grade point average by high school graduation.

Chicago’s college enrollment rates beat national figures for high-poverty schools by about 11 percentage points, researchers found. Nagaoka attributed this in part to efforts by counselors, nonprofits, and others who work in schools to ensure students know about their college options.

More specifically, CPS requires students to create a post-secondary plan, or “evidence of a plan for life beyond high school,” in order to graduate from high school. That requirement forces students to have a conversation about what’s next, she said.

Ninety-seven percent of seniors in the class of 2022 submitted a post-secondary plan, a district spokesperson said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools pauses High School Admissions Test amid technical problems

2023-10-11T21:43:28+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools paused the High School Admissions Test that was underway Wednesday morning due to technical problems on the testing platform, officials told principals.

“For any students currently testing successfully, they can continue and complete,” Peter Leonard, executive director of student assessment for CPS, wrote in an email to principals. “In any other case, schools should stop testing today.”

Students take the HSAT as part of admissions requirements for the city’s selective-enrollment high schools and to enroll at some schools outside of their neighborhood boundaries. On Wednesday all eighth graders were set to take the exam on computers in school. This year’s exam was set to last an hour instead of the previous 2½ hours. CPS made the change in order to “reduce anxiety for students” and increase accessibility, a spokesperson said last month.

In his note, Leonard said students who finish the test today can use their scores as they apply for high schools in GoCPS. For students who couldn’t finish, the district will share alternative testing dates “as soon as possible,” Leonard wrote.

District spokesperson Samantha Hart said in a statement that the district is working with the testing vendor to resolve the technical problems. They don’t expect any changes to this weekend’s scheduled HSAT testing for non-CPS students, Hart said.

“We recognize the stress many students and families experience when it comes to admissions testing,” Hart wrote.

The district authorized a $1.2 million no-bid contract over the summer with Riverside Assessments LLC to provide test materials for high school admissions and other placements, including gifted programs.

At one North Side school, students received error messages as they tried to log in to the testing platform, even after refreshing the page, according to an administrator at the school, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. The school’s testing coordinator tried to call a help desk for the testing vendor but got a busy signal.

Similar problems cropped up at Brentano Elementary Math and Science Academy in Logan Square, said the school’s principal, Seth Lavin.

“They came in anxious and focused, and then they sat down, and for about an hour and a half, proctors tried to log kids into the test and they could not — and nobody knew what was going on,” Lavin said.

By the time CPS notified schools at 10:30 a.m. that it would pause the test, a handful of students were able to complete the exam at both Brentano and the North Side school.

Other students at the North Side school were finally able to log in by that time, the administrator said. But there were other issues. Some students saw words in Spanish pop up and had to ask teachers to translate, the administrator said. This is the first year the test is being offered in Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, Urdu, and Polish.

The North Side administrator called the glitches a “gross oversight” by the district, and said that it should have ensured that the system could handle tens of thousands of students taking the exam on the same day. CPS enrolled nearly 24,000 eighth graders this year, district data shows.

The administrator said all students — not just those who weren’t able to complete the exam — should be allowed to retake the test, since the process was so stressful. Students were already “very anxious” about the HSAT, this person said.

Asked about the testing issues at an unrelated press conference Wednesday, Mayor Brandon Johnson said the public school system should “not reject the hopes and aspirations and desires” of families — Black families, in particular.

“The ultimate desire is to actually build a school system that no matter where you are in the city of Chicago, that you have access to a high quality education,” he said. “I’m committed to doing just that.”

Lavin, who has criticized the district’s selective-enrollment system for being inequitable, said Wednesday’s problems underscore that the admissions system “is so fragile and arbitrary.” The exam accounts for 50% of the admissions rubric for selective-enrollment high schools.

“Kids who are 13 years old should not have a 60-minute experience that decides so much about the next four years of their life,” Lavin said.

He added, “If we are going to let some kids into some high schools and not let some kids into some high schools, we have to find a better way to do it than this.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

When will Chicago’s new map for the elected school board be ready? It’s unclear.

2023-10-04T02:59:03+00:00

People hoping to run for Chicago’s elected school board in the November 2024 election may have limited time to campaign as Illinois lawmakers are still working on a map defining the areas board members will represent.

It’s unclear when state lawmakers will approve that map. The state set an April 1, 2024, deadline for completing it, after blowing through a July 1 deadline. Meanwhile, preparations for other local and state elections have already begun, with incumbents and challengers kicking off their campaigns for the primary in March 2024 and general election in November. Chicago’s school board elections are nonpartisan.

The Senate Special Committee on the Chicago Elected Representative School Board is now reviving the conversation about the board map after being mum throughout the summer, and held its first public hearing on Tuesday evening.

The transition to an elected board will be a major shift for the Chicago Board of Education, which has been under mayoral control since 1995.

Eli Brottman, a political consultant who testified at the hearing, noted the lack of transparency from the committee about the school board map and asked the committee to hold off on approving one during the General Assembly’s fall veto session, which starts in late October.

“In order for the public to give quality feedback, they need to know what the timeline of this process is, so that they can provide that feedback in a manner that it can be received and implemented by this body,” said Brottman.

Valerie Leonard, of Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting, was among those who urged the committee to move faster so that potential candidates have enough time to campaign.

“I really do see the urgency for people running now, because these are large districts,” said Leonard, whose group created a proposed map. “You really want to get out there and meet the voters, and you want to know where the boundaries are. So I would urge you to pass this during the veto session.”

One commenter asked the committee to consider another big change to school board practices: paying members for their time. Compensation is “a critical piece to allowing true representation of our elected board,” said Corrina Demma, who is a part of Educators for Excellence, a nonprofit group that advocates for teachers’ voice in education policy.

In 2021, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation that established a 21-member school board for Chicago that will ultimately have all elected seats. Chicagoans will get a chance to vote for 10 members on Nov. 5, 2024, while the mayor will appoint the remaining 10 members and a board president. In November 2026, the 11 appointed seats will be up for election. By 2027, the board will be fully elected.

The newly constituted school board will be one of the the largest in the country. New York City’s school board has 23 members, who are appointed by the mayor and other city officials. In Los Angeles, there are seven elected school board members. Across the country, school boards typically have three to 15 members.

The creation of Chicago’s elected school board map has hit many roadblocks. In May, lawmakers released a draft map that proposed seven majority-white districts, seven majority-Black districts, and six majority-Latino districts. But that proposal drew criticism from advocacy groups that have put forward their own maps.

For the past year, some advocates have called on state lawmakers to draw a map reflective of the city’s public school student enrollment, not the city’s overall population. The city is 33% white, 29% Black, and about 29% Latino, according to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2022. Chicago Public Schools’ student population, meanwhile, is 46.9% Latino and 35% Black, while white students make up 11.1%, according to enrollment numbers from last month.

According to a 2022 survey by the Illinois Association of School Boards, school boards across the state are 80% white, 10% Black, 1.2% Latino, and 0.6% Asian. Enrollment data shows that the state’s student population is 46% white, 17% Black, 27% Latino, and 5% Asian.

The Senate plans to have another online public hearing next Thursday, Oct. 12 at 5 p.m.

Correction: Oct. 4, 2023: New York City’s school board has 23 members. A previous edition of this story said it had 15 members.

Chicago Public Schools says $3.1 billion for ‘critical’ building repairs needed

2023-09-29T02:30:03+00:00

Chicago Public Schools facilities need $3.1 billion in “critical” repairs that must be addressed in the next five years, according to a district plan released Thursday.

The cost is part of a total of $14.4 billion in updates that the district identified in its Facilities Master Plan, which CPS is required by state law to produce every five years.

“In a district as large as ours, and with a building portfolio as old as ours, this is the investment it would take to repair and modernize each and every one of our current facilities and give our students the learning environment we know they deserve,” CEO Pedro Martinez wrote in the plan’s introduction.

The $3.1 billion in costs identified as the most urgent work includes repairs to windows, roofs, masonry, and heating and cooling systems. Another $5.5 billion would go toward repairs in the next six to 10 years, according to the facilities plan. Beyond that, the district wants money to build labs “to support STEM education,” accommodations for students with disabilities, new auditoriums, new fields for sports, and classrooms “outfitted” for career and technical education — programming that Martinez wants to expand, according to the plan.

The district released the plan during Thursday’s Board of Education meeting, which was held in the auditorium of Austin Career and College Academy High School on the West Side and drew at least 200 observers. The changed location was the board’s attempt to address the longstanding criticism that the meetings, which are typically held during the day downtown, are inaccessible for many families and teachers who work during the day. (The last meeting held outside of district headquarters was in 2019, according to a district spokesperson.)

District officials said this summer that they had budgeted $155 million for facilities projects this fiscal year — roughly $600 million less than the previous year — and planned to ask for more capital funding this year.

Martinez used the plan to make another plea for more funding and “partnerships” from the city, state, and federal government. Martinez plans to press the state for more money as a way to address costs once COVID relief dollars run out in 2024.

“This plan will take coalitions and partnerships with our fellow officials at the city, state, and federal levels,” he wrote in his introduction to the plan. “It will take administrators, teachers, parents, students, and advocates pushing for the changes we need.”

Martinez said the facilities plan is a “critical” early part of its process to create a five-year strategic plan for CPS. That plan — which will build on Martinez’s three-year blueprint released last year to help the district recover from the pandemic — will be finalized next summer.

The district will also launch an advisory team that would make recommendations to Martinez on how to narrow academic disparities of Black students compared to their peers. Those recommendations would also inform a “Black Student Success Plan” and be part of the strategic plan, according to CPS.

Some advocates, however, immediately rejected that idea Thursday night. They had previously pressed officials to create a Board of Education committee that focused on Black student achievement.

“To have a strategic plan is not enough to say, ‘Oh, we hear you,’” said Valerie Leonard, a longtime West Side education advocate and the co-founder of Illinois African Americans For Equitable Redistricting. “I want to know that you see me; I want to know there is some action. At what point will Black children be prioritized?”

District officials are asking for community feedback as they develop the strategic plan. The public meetings to gather that input will be on:

6-7:30 p.m. October 17 at Kelvyn Park High School, 4343 W. Wrightwood Ave.
6 - 7:30 p.m. October 18 at Westinghouse College Prep, 3223 W. Franklin Blvd.
10 a.m. - noon October 21, virtual meeting
6 - 7 p.m. October 23, Little Village high school campus, 3120 S. Kostner Ave.
6 - 7:30 p.m. Julian High School, 10330 S. Elizabeth St.

Those wishing to attend should register here.

The facilities plan includes information like enrollment trends to highlight the district’s needs. District officials offered more analysis Thursday of enrollment this year.

Chicago Public Schools enrollment grows by nearly 1,200

Preliminary data on the 20th day of school — when district officials tally up students for the year — indicated that enrollment, at just over 322,500 students, is essentially flat compared to last year, Chalkbeat reported last week. On Thursday, officials revealed that 323,291 students were enrolled, or nearly 1,200 more students than last year.

It’s the first time since 2011 that the district’s enrollment has not dipped. Since that year, enrollment declines were driven by several factors, including population changes and dipping birth rates. Last year’s decline cost CPS’ title as the nation’s third largest school district.

The small enrollment bump was due to fewer students leaving and more new students, including a 7% increase in preschool students, officials said. Additionally, the number of students living in temporary housing increased by 47%, which could be one sign of an increase in migrant students who are living in shelters or other temporary circumstances.

The district does not track students’ immigration status. But another sign that the population of newly enrolled migrant students is growing is the increasing number of English language learners. About 7,800 more English learners enrolled this year than last year, officials said. CPS typically enrolls an average of 3,000 new English learners a year.

English language learners now make up nearly a quarter of the district’s students, up from 22% last year, according to Chalkbeat’s analysis.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Is Chicago’s shift to restorative justice and fewer school police working? Some say yes.

2023-09-28T11:00:00+00:00

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Youth organizer Maria Paula Degillo used to protest in downtown Chicago against the high rates of suspensions and expulsions for students of color.

Now, she collaborates with Chicago Public Schools to create safe school environments without harsh discipline and over policing.

Today, Degillo, with the group Voices of Youth in Chicago Education, is joining the district’s Chief of Safety and Security Jadine Chou at a City Club of Chicago event to highlight the partnership forged between the district and community organizations over the course of the last decade to improve school safety.

The event comes as Chicago says it has made significant progress disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline. Suspensions have plummeted from nearly 50,000 in 2013-14 to less than 10,000 in 2021-22. And the number of police officers on campus has been more than cut in half.

What’s more, new research released by the University of Chicago Education Lab earlier this month found student arrests dropped at schools where restorative practices were implemented and students said they felt a stronger sense of safety and belonging.

Degillo, Chou, and others who have been working on this issue for more than a decade say Chicago’s approach to school safety could be a blueprint for other schools across the country.

“When we talk about safety in schools,” Degillo said, “it’s about young people and their parents being able to be at the decision making table so that they can decide what they feel makes them safe.”

Chicago makes slow shift to restorative discipline

Chicago’s work to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline started years before national debates around school safety and the presence of police in schools heated up in 2020.

When Chou took the job as safety and security chief 12 years ago, she said she was the first person not from the police department to fill the role.

“It was not easy at first,” she said. “I think a lot of people were stuck in that same paradigm that, you know, if we go to restorative practices, bad things will happen.”

Early in her tenure, the school board approved several changes to the student code of conduct that activists, such as Degillo, pushed: limiting the use of automatic suspensions and redefining what behaviors deserved out-of-school punishment. And the state of Illinois passed legislation, at the urging of groups like VOYCE, to limit the use of suspensions and expulsions in public schools.

During the 2013-14 school year, 22 Chicago high schools and 34 elementary schools began implementing restorative practices focused on building relationships and conflict resolution.

Researchers at the University of Chicago Education Lab studied what happened in the years that followed. In a report issued earlier this month, they found that suspensions declined at schools that implemented restorative justice, student arrests in-school fell by 35%, and out-of-school arrests dropped by 15%.

Anjali Adukia, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and one of the report’s authors, said changing how schools approach student discipline doesn’t happen overnight.

She recalled talking to a teacher who saw restorative practices as “fluffy duffy stuff” that was going to take up too much time. But after trying some of the strategies, the approach made their job easier. That teacher is now a restorative practices coach, Adukia said.

Chou, with CPS, said the research confirmed what she felt she already knew: This was actually working. It also “refutes the myth” that restorative practices lead to “no consequences” and everything being “out of control.”

“The research actually shows that you do good both by keeping children in the classroom through these restorative practices,” Chou said. “And in fact, the climate is calmer.”

Removing police from schools is just one piece of the puzzle

In addition to its work to reduce suspensions and expulsions, Degillo’s organization Voices of Youth in Chicago Education, or VOYCE, was on the forefront of the movement to remove police officers from schools.

This was before a 2019 federal consent decree over the city’s police department pushed the district to rethink the role of police in schools and before the racial unrest in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd.

Around that time, the district began to collaborate with community organizations, including VOYCE, on an effort known as Whole School Safety. The approach also gave local school councils the ability to vote on whether or not to keep school-based police officers, commonly referred to as SROs.

An initial wave of schools removed police in 2020, but the momentum has slowed more recently, with just two schools voting to remove officers last school year.

In June, the school board approved a $10.3 million contract with the police department to station 57 officers at roughly 40 high schools that have voted to keep them. It’s a fraction of the 140 stationed at district-run high schools in 2019, which cost roughly $33 million that year.

Chicago initially faced some criticism for pushing the decision about whether to keep police in schools down to local communities. But the ground-up approach may prove to be more sustainable, Chou said, noting other districts who removed police in 2020 only to return them more recently.

That was the case in Denver, where the school board voted in 2020 to phase out police from schools only to reverse that decision in a divided vote this past June after a shooting in March at one of the district’s high schools.

Although Degillo said VOYCE would still like to see police removed from schools altogether, she said allowing communities to decide is just as important.

“The goal is to create a process in which people are not relying on knee-jerk reactions to safety, “ Degillo said. “There’s so much more to school safety. The goal is to create that safe, healthy, equitable learning environment.”

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools won’t bus general education students for the rest of the semester

2023-09-27T19:41:03+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools won’t provide busing to general education students for the rest of the semester, officials said Tuesday.

District officials informed families of the decision Tuesday morning, said Charles Mayfield, CPS’ chief operating officer.

“We really wanted to give parents an early notice to let them know that you don’t have to come back and keep asking and hoping,” Mayfield said.

Mayfield said district officials will re-evaluate the decision in December before winter break and update families then on the state of transportation service.

Blaming a driver shortage, CPS has restricted bus transportation this year to students with disabilities and those who are living in temporary housing, groups that are legally entitled to transportation. District officials say they have just 681 drivers — similar to figures last month and half of what they need, Mayfield said.

At the start of the school year, Mayfield said the district would try to provide busing to more children if it could hire more drivers, but the needle hasn’t moved on new hires since August.

“We’re continuing to do more outreach,” Mayfield said.

Over the past year, the district has hosted roughly two dozen hiring fairs, raised driver pay rates by $2, to $22 to $27 an hour, and added more bus companies in an effort to ease the driver shortage, officials said. Mayfield said it may be too soon to try new strategies, given that boosting hiring can take a while, and some of the steps, such as increasing pay, went into effect only recently.

The limited bus routes have enraged many families of general education students who have relied on busing in the past, including those in magnet and gifted programs, and they have expressed their concerns at Board of Education meetings. These families are eligible for free CTA cards, including a companion pass for parents. But of the roughly 5,500 children who are eligible, just under 1,600 have used that option, Mayfield said. (The district mistakenly said in July that 8,000 students were eligible.)

Some parents of young children have said they can’t send their kids alone on buses or trains and also can’t accompany their children because of their work schedules.

Alexis Luna said the lack of transportation could force her to keep her third-grade daughter out of school occasionally. Because of Luna’s inflexible work schedule, the girl’s father usually drives her to Inter-American Elementary Magnet School in Wrigleyville in the morning, about 45 minutes from her Belmont Cragin home. Luna typically picks her up.

But if her father has to travel out of town for work, Luna won’t be able to cover the morning drop-off. In that case, Luna said, “I will have to put her in day care, and she’s probably going to have to miss school.”

Tuesday’s decision comes in the middle of the district’s school application season, during which families apply for gifted and magnet programs. The application period ends in November.

Last year, bus transportation was available to any eligible student. But the district has struggled since 2021 to provide timely and reliable service. For example, thousands of students with disabilities last year had commutes longer than an hour — a problem the district has nearly eliminated this year as it has restricted bus service.

Currently, the district is providing bus service to 7,300 students who have disabilities or live in temporary housing. It has also offered stipends to families of these students who prefer other modes of transportation. The first round of those are expected to be mailed out this week.

As of last Friday, 324 students with disabilities were waiting for routes, Mayfield said, adding that new requests continue to come in.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools says it is mailing out transportation stipends this week – a month after school started

2023-09-26T18:24:55+00:00

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Some Chicago parents will be able to pick up a monthly transportation stipend at their child’s school by the end of this week — a month after the school year started, according to the district.

The stipends — offered to students with disabilities who have bus service in their Individualized Education Program and those in temporary living situations — will be mailed to schools via the postal service this week, officials said.

This first round of checks will cover August and the maximum stipend is $225, according to the district. Parents will have to pick up the stipend at their child’s school during school hours at the end of each month.

The district encouraged parents over the summer to take transportation stipends up to $500 a month amid a national school bus driver shortage. As of Sept. 21, Over 3,200 families have accepted the district’s monthly stipend, a spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools said. All of those families will receive a check this week.

The delay in mailing out stipends is another part of the district’s ongoing struggle to support families who have students with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness who need transportation.

“We will continue to explore every viable option to increase our transportation options and will continue to ensure every student has safe, secure, and reliable transportation to and from school,” said the spokesperson.

As of last Thursday, the district said it had provided bus service to 7,351 students, with an average travel time of 28 minutes.

But last week, the district said it had only 681 drivers out of 1,300 bus drivers needed to provide transportation. At the same time, 324 students were waiting for bus services. About 170 requests were received within the last week and the district plans to begin services for 144 students this week.

Parents have been concerned about long bus travel times to and from school since the beginning of the school year. Last year, some students were on bus routes that were longer than an hour — with 365 students with disabilities on rides longer than 90 minutes.

The Illinois State Board of Education encourages school districts to limit bus service to less than an hour. Chicago Public Schools has been under state watch since last November for failing to do so.

As of Sept. 21, the district said 62 students had travel times longer than 60 minutes, but none are on routes lasting more than 90 minutes.

The state opened another investigation in September after a complaint from advocates and parents alleging that students with disabilities whose Individualized Education Programs include transportation are being denied a “free appropriate public education,” which they are entitled to by federal law.

The complaint alleges “widespread … delays and denials” across CPS and an “unnecessary administrative burden” because families have to request transportation even after they’ve already been deemed eligible, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by Chalkbeat.

Chicago Public Schools has struggled to provide bus service to students since 2021, when all students returned to school buildings after pandemic closures. The district has cited the national bus driver shortage as the main reason it has not been able to provide transportation to students and for long bus routes.

This year, the district decided to prioritize bus service for students with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness — both groups are entitled to transportation under federal law. This leaves out thousands of students who attend the district’s selective and magnet schools, which has garnered pushback from parents.

Correction: Sept. 28, 2023: This article has been updated to reflect that Chicago Public Schools plans to send transportation stipends of up to $500 to families. The amount changes depending on the number of school days that students are in attendance. For the month of August, it will be up to $225.

Becky Vevea contributed to this report.

Chicago’s youngest students showed growth on reading tests last year, but officials mum on math

2023-09-25T22:33:55+00:00

Chicago Public Schools said Monday that last year’s kindergarten, first, and second grade students made promising progress in reading, according to data from a new test now used in most district elementary schools.

Officials touted reading growth on a new test called i-Ready, which students took at the beginning, middle, and end of the 2022-23 school year. According to a press release, about 40% of kindergarten through second grade students were at or above grade level in reading by May, up from just 9% in September.

The district also noted that Black and Latino students’ scores improved on the exam. The percentage of Black students scoring at or above grade level went from 5% to 32% by the end of the year. The percentage of Latino students at or above grade level went from 5% at the start of the school year to 32% by year’s end.

However, CPS did not provide the data by school and did not release any information about how the city’s youngest learners were doing in math.

Ernest Williams, principal of Ellington Elementary School, said tests such as i-Ready are different from standardized tests administered by the state. These diagnostic tests are designed as a tool for teachers and school leaders to monitor how a student is doing in real time so they can adjust teaching practice or provide extra help.

“It gives us data on which students need urgent intervention, which students are almost there, and which students are on track,” said Williams. “It gives teachers recommendations on how to push the students further.”

Bogdana Chkoumbova, chief education officer of Chicago Public Schools, on Monday attributed some of the increases in literacy scores to the district’s investment in expanding Skyline curriculum to 400 schools, professional development for educators, diagnostic tests, and expanding the district’s Tutor Corps to 200 elementary schools to help students between kindergarten and fifth grade.

The district also highlighted an initiative funded by federal COVID recovery money to create “literacy-rich environments,” with colorful rugs, comfortable chairs, technology, and new books at 90 schools. Students at those schools were also given packs of books to take home twice a year. Officials said 50 more schools will be added to that program this year.

At Ellington, teachers and interventionists are able to look at the i-Ready data alongside other classroom tests and pull students into small groups based on their scores, Williams said.

On Monday, Chicago Public Schools officials toured Ellington, where they visited two classrooms to see how teachers were teaching students how to read.

In one kindergarten classroom, three teachers sat with three separate groups of students. One group practiced reading out loud. Another spent time matching letters and drawing pictures. And another group created sentences with cards labeled with pictures and words.

State and local school officials have been concerned about students backsliding in reading and math after the coronavirus pandemic disrupted education in 2020. Since 2021, results on national and state assessments showed significant drops in student test scores. Chicago Public Schools announced last week that more students met state math and reading standards, but the metrics still lagged pre-pandemic levels.

CEO Pedro Martinez said Monday afternoon at the press conference that proficiency in reading is important for students to be successful in their academic careers and throughout their lives.

“Our ultimate goal is for students to be literate by third grade,” said Martinez. “Proficiency by third grade is essential for being ready for high school, graduating from CPS, being prepared to succeed in college, career, and community.”

Chicago’s standardized tests shift post-pandemic

The district previously used the Northwest Evaluation Administration’s Measures of Academic Progress in second through eighth grade and a mix of other assessments for kindergarten, first, and second grade students. In 2021, the district announced it would no longer use MAP to monitor student growth and measure school performance. And in April 2022, the school board approved a three-year, $6.75 million contract with Curriculum Associates, the company that makes the i-Ready test.

Now, most kindergarten through second grade students take i-Ready and most third through eighth grade students take a similar test known as Star360.

Not all schools are required to take the i-Ready, but according to data obtained by Chalkbeat earlier this year, 424 of the district’s 500-plus elementary schools used the assessment during the 2022-23 school year.

Given the recent switch, it’s difficult to compare how Chicago’s youngest students are doing compared to before the pandemic. A national report on i-Ready scores released last fall indicated young readers were struggling.

According to data from the NWEA MAP test in 2019 — the last time CPS published results from that test to its public data page — 56% of the district’s second graders were at or above the national average in reading.

Data from the i-Ready beginning and middle of the year tests obtained by Chalkbeat in March did not break down data by grade level, but overall district numbers indicated growth between the beginning and middle of the year.

In a presentation given to principals around the same time, district officials said Chicago’s middle-of-the-year scores tracked closely with other urban districts, with roughly 53% of kindergarten students at or above grade level for reading, 33% of first graders, and 37% of second graders. All three groups saw double-digit growth in reading from the beginning of the year.

Chicago Public Schools is moving away from using these types of tests to rate and measure school performance. During the pandemic, the district paused and eventually scrapped a controversial school quality rating policy that partly relied on NWEA MAP scores.

Last April, the school board approved a new system for measuring school performance that will no longer assign a numerical rating to schools. Instead, parents and the public will get a dashboard with a variety of metrics to explore — including state test scores, attendance, graduation rates, college enrollment, and a host of other information about curriculum and the student experience on campus.

Mila Koumpilova contributed reporting.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools shows off training program for students with disabilities — and considers opening more

2023-09-25T22:20:04+00:00

Mary Fahey Hughes, a member of Chicago’s Board of Education, went into mom mode Monday during a tour of her son’s former South Side school, which provides work and life skills training to older students with disabilities.

Standing to the side of a horticulture classroom at Southside Occupational Academy High School, Hughes smiled as she snapped photos of Aidan next to Mayor Brandon Johnson, who was also on the tour. Aidan has come far from when he was diagnosed with autism as a child — and Hughes was unsure what his future would look like, she said.

She credits the Englewood school — from which Aidan graduated in June — with giving him the confidence to chat up the mayor and show off his alma mater.

“He just gained so much independence,” Hughes said in a hallway at Southside. “The thing I love about this place is there is so much respect for students where they’re at.”

Chicago Public Schools officials are considering expanding the model at Southside and a handful of other so-called specialty schools, which are meant to help students with more challenging disabilities transition into the real world, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez said Monday.

Monday’s tour was the district’s opportunity to show off the model to Johnson and a slew of other city and district officials. If the district decides to grow the program, it would need to lobby the state for more funding, Martinez said.

“We’re having the conversation internally about, how do we look at these programs, build on their strengths and potentially expand them,” Martinez said.

The district has seven specialty schools that together enroll about 1,800 students with mild to moderate cognitive disabilities, said Sylvia Barragan, a spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools. Three schools are early childhood programs that serve younger students with disabilities. The remaining four — including Southside — are for older students and have a focus on vocational and life skills.

Unlike traditional high schools, the district assigns students to these schools, Barragan said.

Some students with disabilities who look for work after graduation may benefit more from going through a specialty program first, Martinez said. He believes the need is enough to warrant doubling the number of specialty schools.

Other districts, such as New York City, have similar programs where students with disabilities learn vocational skills.

These programs, however, have drawn some criticism for segregating students with disabilities, instead of allowing students to build skills next to peers who don’t have a diagnosed disability.

Southside Principal Joshua Long has said his school model allows students to have the specialized attention they need.

At Southside, nearly 88% of students came from low-income families last year. Asked if schools like Southside limit students to low-paying jobs, Hughes said the programs hone skills that these young adults may otherwise miss out on, potentially leaving them stuck at home without work. Hughes noted that the schools serve students with a variety of strengths, and some graduates go on to community college.

“The problem is that a lot of jobs are low-paying, despite the amount of work that needs to get done,” Hughes said.

High school students can attend Vaughn Occupational High School and Northside Learning Center High School, both on the Northwest Side. Southside, in Englewood, and Ray Graham Training Center, in the South Loop, serve students who have met graduation requirements but still need “transition supports and services,” as determined by the team that creates their Individualized Education Program, according to the district. At these two schools, students are typically ages 18-22.

At Southside, where 360 students enrolled last year, students learn about various potential jobs and responsibilities they will need in the real world. Most students are exposed to every class, and some do internships, such as with the Museum of Science and Industry, said Kristen Dimas, a teacher at the school.

Long led the mayor and other officials through several different rooms that simulate a different career or life responsibility. Among the classrooms they saw were a horticulture class, a mock grocery store, a broadcast studio with a green screen, a garage where students learn to wash cars, and a café — complete with a bakery display case.

A group of students stopped by the horticulture room to ask if they had laundry. They would eventually go to the laundry room, where they learn how to wash clothes but also learn a mental checklist on basic hygiene.

“Smell your armpits. Do they smell fresh?” said a laminated list in the laundry room. “If not, put on deodorant.”

In a supply room, where a laminated document listed rules for folding a T-shirt, a student carefully practiced folding. Long gently asked her to get the mayor’s T-shirt size, but the student was shy. The mayor, who used to be a teacher, ultimately revealed he’s an extra large.

Mayor Brandon Johnson watches a student practice folding a T-shirt at Southside Occupational Academy High School in Englewood.

“But here’s the thing — you don’t have to tell everybody that,” he said to the student, who laughed and handed him a T-shirt.

The café and laundry classes are favorites of 18-year-old Josiah Hall, who enrolled at Southside in August. He especially enjoys spending time with the teachers, he said. He hopes to attend a four-year university, such as the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The school works to help students understand the career options that are right for them and to reach those goals, Long said.

For Aidan, Hughes’ son, that path has led to a new transition program for adults age 18 and older at Daley College. He’s also taking EMT classes and dreams one day of being a firefighter like his father.

Correction: Sept. 26, 2023: A previous version of this story said the program at Daley College is for people age 22 and older. It is for people age 18 and older.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s local school council elections are happening in April 2024. Here’s how to run.

2023-09-22T20:00:42+00:00

Interested in having a say in choosing your community school’s principal, greenlighting the school’s budget, and local curriculum priorities?

Run to be a member of your local school council. And bring a friend, too.

That was the message Thursday night to hundreds of parents, community members, and teachers who signed on for a crash course on what local school councils do and how to become a member.

Starting Oct. 16, people can file paperwork to become a candidate in next April’s LSC elections. Applications are due Feb. 8, 2024. Despite numerous vacancies, during the 2022-23 school year a record number of more than 6,000 candidates applied to become LSC members, according to CPS.

After last year’s election, more than 1,400 seats for LSCs across the city of Chicago remained open, according to an analysis by Chalkbeat. This year, Chicago Public Schools is trying to get ahead of the curve and provide as much information — and encouragement — as possible to parents and community members who might be interested in having a louder voice in how their child’s school is run.

“Serving on an LSC is one of the most important, most impactful ways you can make a difference in your school,” said Kishasha Williams-Ford, director of LSC relations, during the virtual meeting.

With 374 vacant seats, the majority are up for grabs, according to a map of current local school council members from CPS. That includes open seats all across Chicago — from the South and West Sides to the North Side.

Next November, voters will also elect 10 members to the Chicago Board of Education as Chicago moves to a 21-member school board that will eventually be fully elected.

One of the most important jobs for LSCs is agreeing on who will lead the school: Members have a voice in determining local schools’ next principal. They also vote on budget priorities and curriculum decisions that aren’t determined by the school district.

CPS officials reminded attendees of these powers and responsibilities during the virtual meeting Thursday, encouraging everyone with an interest to run and to persuade their friends to do the same after the heavy slate of vacancies in 2022, mostly on Chicago’s majority Black and Latino South and West sides.

CPS CEO Pedro Martinez lauded parent and community involvement in local schools as being instrumental to recent student performance improvements. More Chicago students met state math and reading standards this year, but a majority of schools are still falling short of where they were pre-pandemic.

“The results are promising, why? Because we’re investing in our schools,” Martinez said Thursday night. “We can’t do this work without you. It is your voice, being connected at the local school level … that’s going to continue to make our district stronger.”

In a prepared video statement that aired during the Zoom meeting, Mayor Brandon Johnson praised the people willing to take the time to be on their local school councils and encouraged more to run in the next election.

“We need your voices and ideas to ensure our students receive the highest quality education and have every opportunity for success,” Johnson said.

Every two years, local school districts elect LSC members made up of parents, students, CPS staff, and community members. In order to become a member, people have to fill out an application form, meet the basic qualification criteria. Parent members must have a student enrolled at the school. Community members must live in the school’s attendance boundaries. Student members must be enrolled and teachers must work at the school they wish to represent.

Traditional LSCs are made up of the principal, six parent representatives, two community members, two teachers, one representative of non-teacher staff, three students for high schools, and one student for schools serving up to eighth grade. All positions — other than the one-year student terms — are for two years.

There are no term limits, so students, parents, and community members can run as many times as they want, as long as they still meet the basic qualifications. Anyone who has a child at the school or lives in the school’s attendance boundary can vote in the elections, including undocumented people.

Elections take place April 10, 2024 for elementary schools and April 11, 2024 for high schools.

Clarke Burnett, an eighth grade student at Skinner West Elementary School in the West Loop and a member of the school’s LSC, encouraged fellow students to run.

“If you’re passionate about your opinions about your school and have ideas … no matter what, your thoughts will be heard on the LSC,” Clarke said. “Whatever you have to say, it’ll be heard in some sort of way.”

Michael Gerstein is a freelance writer based in Chicago.

Chicago Public Schools enrollment is stable for first time in more than a decade

2023-09-20T02:26:40+00:00

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Enrollment in Chicago Public Schools is flat for the first time in more than a decade, according to preliminary data obtained by Chalkbeat.

New preliminary numbers for this school year show just over 322,500 students are registered at CPS schools. The data represents enrollment as of the end of the day Monday, the 20th day of the school year, when the district traditionally takes its official count. On the 20th day of last school year, 322,106 students were enrolled according to official data.

CPS enrollment has been in decline for 12 years, so this year’s shift is significant.

In the past decade, the district’s student body shrunk by 20%, with the district seeing multiple year-over-year declines of roughly 10,000 students. The dramatic contraction began after the 2011-12 school year, which was the last year CPS saw a bump in enrollment, from 402,681 to 404,151 students. Last year, Chicago lost its standing as the nation’s third largest district.

Enrollment now appears to be leveling off in Chicago. In the past year, the city has welcomed thousands of migrant families from the southern border and in July, a top mayoral aide suggested that newcomers were boosting enrollment in schools.

A district spokesperson, however, said enrollment changes are due to multiple reasons and cautioned against attributing the shifts to “any one group of students.”

“We will offer more analysis and context to our enrollment figures later this month,” CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said in a statement. “We are honored and privileged to serve each and every student.”

It’s too early to tell if this is the start of a new trend, said Elaine Allensworth, who studies education policy and is Lewis-Sebring Director of the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research.

“If it’s just a one-time pause in the trends of declining enrollment, it might not have a big overall long-term effect, but it’s really just hard to say right now since we don’t know what will happen in the future,” Allensworth said.

Thinning enrollment was driven by factors such as dipping birth rates and other population changes. With the onset of the pandemic, districts across the country enrolled fewer students, with more than 33,000 students falling off Chicago’s rolls since the fall of 2020.

Shrinking schools have left CPS officials and mayors to contend with how to best fund classrooms, especially as student needs grew during the pandemic. Enrollment has long been a determining factor for how much state and federal money a district gets. Mayor Brandon Johnson has been an outspoken critic of tying enrollment to funding, but past mayors have funded schools within CPS based on how many kids they serve.

Even with fewer students, the district’s budget has grown to $9.4 billion. That’s roughly flat compared to last year’s budget, but up from a decade ago when it hovered around $6 billion. A new state funding formula and a wave of pandemic recovery money have helped offset enrollment declines. Though state money is increasing, the district has recently seen fewer dollars than expected due to lower enrollment and increased property wealth.

According to preliminary enrollment data analyzed by Chalkbeat, there are 5,767 more students learning English as a new language this school year than last year. That’s a sizable jump: CPS has historically enrolled an average of 3,000 new English learners annually, a district spokesperson said.

CPS officials said they do not track immigration status of students. They have pointed to the growth in English language learners as one sign of newcomers, but emphasized that not all English language learners are newcomers.

The district enrolls migrant students in three ways. First, like any student, migrant children can enroll directly at schools. They can also make an appointment at the city’s new welcome center housed inside Roberto Clemente Community Academy High School on the West Side.

Finally, enrollment teams are going to families’ homes, after receiving information from the city’s Department of Family and Support Services about those in need of help who can’t make it to the welcome center, said Karime Asaf, chief of the district’s Office of Language and Cultural Education.

Schools across the district have historically struggled to meet state regulations for providing proper support for English learners. When finding a school with the right program for English learners, officials try to stay within a two-mile radius of the child’s home, Asaf said.

Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, which provides extra support for kids and families at a handful of Southwest Side schools as part of the district’s sustainable community schools initiative, said they’ve noticed an increase in migrant families among the parents they serve who don’t have stable housing.

Last year, the organization placed a case manager part-time at a high school in Back of the Yards that needed extra help with parents as they enrolled more migrant students, said Sara Reschly, deputy director of the group’s community services division.

At Brighton Park Elementary School, case manager Lupe Fernandez said newcomer families currently have very basic needs, such as undergarments and help navigating the CTA. The school is planning to create a free “closet” where families can pick up things they need for free.

“If there are schools that have those strong community partnerships, you know, like that would be a place to start because then you can wrap services around the whole family,” Reschly said.

Asaf, with the district, said they are processing more school transfers among newcomers as those families find new homes or more permanent housing.

Preliminary data analyzed by Chalkbeat show this school year, nearly a quarter of Chicago Public Schools students are learning English as a new language — a figure that trumps other large districts. For example, 14% of students in New York City public schools, the nation’s largest district, were English learners last school year.

The preliminary data signals the continuation of another trend over the past decade: a decline in the share of students from low-income households. Preliminary data indicate that number is 67%, down from 73% last school year.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools hired hundreds of tutors with federal COVID money. Can they keep them?

2023-09-18T10:30:00+00:00

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A. Philip Randolph Elementary School parent Victoria Wicks has hair as vibrant as her personality. Last week it was colored a bright teal, but she changes it up frequently — sometimes picking a color requested by the students she tutors.

The mother of eight, with children ranging in age from 10 months to 16 and including twins, is deeply involved at Randolph in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood on the South Side. Six of Wicks’ children currently attend the school and she’s on two parent councils.

On a recent Friday, Wicks sat across the table from a student and gave instructions in a practiced, serious tone. This exercise would assess what level of tutoring the girl would be placed into for the rest of the school year.

Once the reading of passages and sight words was over, Wicks let her nature shine to the fullest, telling a student, “Good job! That’s what I’m talking about!”

Wicks became a tutor during summer 2021, when a fellow parent invited her to join Randolph’s contingent of the Chicago Public Schools Tutor Corps. The district had earmarked $25 million in federal pandemic relief money to hire and train 850 tutors to help kids catch up on much-needed early reading and middle- to high-school math skills.

Wicks took on the job of reading tutor with her trademark enthusiasm, rehearsing how to teach the lessons and give assessments, using the curriculum provided. She found success helping her tutoring groups read better.

But across the district, the corps got off to a slow start. Only 450 tutors were hired by halfway through the 2021-22 school year. Onboarding was slow and it took a few months to get the curriculum providers — Amplify for reading, Saga Education for math — under contract and training tutors.

Since then, the number of tutors has grown. On the first day of school, CPS had more than 600 tutors, about three-quarters of the initial hiring goal of 850. Currently, tutors are working in 229 schools, but the district declined a request to provide a list of the schools and their locations.

A summer hiring push helped schools, including Randolph, staff up, some principals said. But this school year marks the final year the district will have federal COVID relief funds to spend on tutors before the dollars run dry next fall.

Chicago’s tutoring is high-quality but small scale

According to district officials, Tutor Corps has reached 10,000 students with at least one tutoring session since its 2021 launch. Like many districts nationwide, Chicago’s program aimed to provide students “high-dosage” tutoring, which means students meet in a group of no more than four with the same tutor over an extended period of time, like a semester or a full school year. The intensive sessions are 30 minutes during the school day, at least three times a week.

The tutors must be trained to use a structured curriculum that can meet students where they are and offer lots of chances to practice the skills they are learning. Research shows this kind of tutoring benefits struggling students the most.

Meeting these exacting requirements can be tough. Other districts have struggled to make it work, but Chicago has stayed true to it from the beginning.

At Randolph, tutors meet with no more than three students up to five times a week. Principal Keviyona Smith-Ray also makes sure tutors have time to meet with the teachers of the students they are tutoring.

“CPS is doing something we’re not really seeing across the United States,” said Maryellen Leneghan, vice president of district partnerships for Saga Education, which provides training and curriculum for the math tutors.

She said Chicago’s uniqueness is threefold: The district has chosen to keep tutoring fully in person, maintain control of tutor hiring, and balance strict adherence to the model with flexibility for schools.

“The number of students it has been able to help has been impressive,” said Becky Betts, chief marketing and external affairs officer for A Better Chicago, which has financially supported tutor hiring.

But 10,000 students is barely a drop in the bucket for a district of more than 300,000 students, said Natasha Dunn, a CPS parent and Black Community Collaborative co-founder.

Though data on the tutor corps’ effects has yet to be made public, a study from the University of Chicago’s Education Lab is expected later this school year.

While kids learn, schools develop teacher talent

Like many tutors, Wicks had the same students all year last year and got to know them well, even attending a parent-teacher conference for one of them to show how much the child had progressed over the year.

As a parent herself, she has seen some of her own children grow as readers through tutoring, and she uses what she’s learning as a tutor to help them at home.

“Being with Tutor Corps helps them understand how to break down the words,” she said. ”When it’s time for them to go into that classroom and read, they’ll use the strategies we have taught them.”

Smith-Ray said the tutors are also building relationships with students beyond their academic sessions and helping them open up about tough issues in their lives.

She’s also seen an unexpected perk: Two of last year’s tutors have joined the permanent staff — one as a special education classroom assistant and the other as an office assistant.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to hire within the community,” said Smith-Ray. “The students want to be with them. They’re familiar with them.”

The six tutors who are part of CPS Tutor Corps at Haugan Elementary in Chicago’s Albany Park. The school’s co-principal, Heather Yutzy, said the program has become a helpful hiring pipeline for the school.

Across town, at Haugan Elementary in Chicago’s Albany Park, co-principal Heather Yutzy said Tutor Corps is becoming a “stepping stone” into teaching or other permanent jobs. At Haugan, one of last year’s tutors has moved into student teaching. That tutor’s younger sister, a recent graduate of Northeastern Illinois University, is now tutoring and planning a career change to go into teaching.

Northeastern is among a group of local colleges, led by Roosevelt University, that is creating a tutor-to-teacher pipeline. A Better Chicago awarded $1.6 million to Roosevelt University to build a tutoring pathway in partnership with other local higher ed institutions. According to A Better Chicago, about 65 Roosevelt students completed a full year of tutoring last year. Of them, seven Roosevelt students are moving into student teaching this year and another 10 students are expected to move into student teaching in fall 2024.

Getting sold on the program and finding the money

Though hard data on Tutor Corps’ effectiveness is not yet publicly available, tutors and principals can see early signs of progress on the ground.

Haugan parent Rita Tello joined the corps in the middle of last year as a math tutor. She has worked hard to help struggling middle schoolers see math as both challenging and fun.

Her groups broke into two-on-two teams to take Kahoot quizzes and play Jeopardy-style math games, often with a small prize for the winners.

Though not every student’s math grade improved, she could see growth based on their “exit slips” — a quick, weekly progress check — and a difference in their attitude toward math.

She said her students were skeptical of her and reluctant to do math at the start. But by the end of the year, she said, they were eager to come to tutoring. They would ask her, “Are you picking us up today? Are you picking us up tomorrow, Ms. Tello?”

At Randolph, Smith-Ray said one of the most obvious signs of improvement in math is that children know their multiplication facts fluently and no longer need a times table reference with them in classroom small groups.

She said the youngest students are the most likely to outgrow the need for tutoring quickly, because many of the entering kindergartners had little preschool experience with pre-reading skills to learn sounds and letters.

Smith-Ray added that tutoring has also helped identify students who need individualized education programs, or IEPs, for special education services and provided “clear data” to help case managers and teachers “make sure students were given what they needed.”

However, for most students, Smith-Ray said continued tutoring will be key, “[They] are meeting their growth targets. They’re just still not at grade level yet.”

Not all students see linear progress. Barbara Formoso Minarik is the grandmother of alumni of James Monroe Elementary in Logan Square and has been part of the Tutor Corps since it started. Over the past three school years, she has seen children bounce in and out of tutoring.

Formoso Minarik wonders if some of her students need more support than tutoring can offer, like a referral for special education services. But that’s not a quick fix. “It’s just a long process,” she said.

It’s also a long process for a school district to embed and sustain a program like Tutor Corps. It can take about five years, said Leneghan, with Saga Education.

“Every year you learn more and more and build your capacity,” she said.

Chicago, like districts nationwide, doesn’t have much more time. The federal deadline to spend COVID recovery money is next September.

In a statement, the district said it “values this program and is exploring ways to continue providing these foundational services even after all federal [COVID]dollars are expended by September 2024.”

Whatever district officials decide, the principals at Randolph and Haugan want tutors like Wicks and Tello to continue their work.

“If I had to use my budget, I would still keep Tutor Corps,” said Smith-Ray. “It may not be six people, maybe it’ll be four, but I would still employ them.”

Yutzy, the Haugan co-principal, is just as determined.

“I’m totally sold on this program,” she said. “I think it has been a 100% valuable experience.”

Maureen Kelleher is a freelance journalist and longtime education writer. For Chalkbeat, she has previously written First Person pieces about choosing a new school for her daughter and helping migrant students enroll in school. Kelleher is now the editorial director at Future Ed, an independent, solution-oriented think tank at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

Chicago Public Schools is asking the public’s input in hiring the next special education chief

2023-09-15T22:37:57+00:00

Issalma Franco knows what she wants from the next chief of the Chicago Public Schools’ department that manages special education services.

The Belmont Cragin resident is the legal guardian of her brother, a high school student with an Individualized Education Program, and said communication will be important in the future.

Her brother is doing well in school because he works with a good special education classroom assistant — something she hopes all students with disabilities have, said Franco.

“I think communication with students and the community, but also hearing what students need is really important,” said Franco. “I’m really thankful he has a SECA that listens to him and knows that he’s capable of achieving all his goals.”

Franco was among a handful of Chicago parents, educators, and community members who attended listening sessions on Thursday and Friday hosted by the Chicago Board of Education’s special education advisory committee to get the public input on a new chief. Those who attended said they want the next head of the Office of Diverse Learners Supports and Services to communicate with them, provide support for students, and offer professional development for current educators.

Asking for the public’s input in the hiring process is an unusual move that comes at a time when the department has faced state investigation and public criticism. The office of diverse learners is one of the largest departments in the district and provides services for nearly 64,000 students between 3 and 21 years old with Individualized Education Programs and 504 plans — about 15% of the district’s 320,000 students.

The department hasn’t had a leader since June when Stephanie Jones, the former chief, left amid criticism from the Illinois State Board of Education, which found that the district was not tracking restraint and timeout incidents at schools.

Jones had also come under fire by the Chicago Teachers Union, special education advocates, and parents of students with disabilities for high turnover rates in the department and lack of recovery services for students during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The next leader of the department will have to ensure that the needs of students with disabilities, many of whom are still recovering from pandemic fallout, are met. They will also confront challenges in making sure students receive services such as therapy and in hiring additional staffing to fill special education teacher and paraprofessional vacancies.

At Friday’s session, Stephanie Anderson, principal of Vaughn Occupational High School located on the city’s North Side, spoke about the need to train and provide professional development for current educators. Anderson’s school on the city’s north side serves only students with disabilities.

“I think we really need to look at how we have a really supportive structure for training and not just an online webinar here and there or going to one in-person training when you get hired,” said Anderson. “That’s not going to cut it.”

The two meetings this week were the first of four that will be held throughout September. Parents, educators, and community members can attend in person and on Zoom to tell the board what they would like to see from the next chief.

The board of education posted the job description Thursday. The special education advisory committee plans to provide the board with a finalist for appointment sometime in November or December.

The next two meetings will be at 6 p.m. Sept. 25 at Back of the Yards High School and at 4 p.m. Sept. 26 at Lavizzo Elementary School. There is also an online survey.

Chicago Public Schools pauses COVID-19 vaccinations until doses of new version arrive

2023-09-15T16:25:00+00:00

Chicago Public Schools has temporarily stopped giving COVID-19 vaccines at school-based vaccination events and clinics, while officials wait for the recently approved new vaccines to arrive.

The move comes after the school district scaled back COVID guidance — ending school-based testing and continuing with no masking or quarantine requirements.

Chicago public health officials said Thursday that doses are expected to be here in the “coming weeks” and by early October, supply of the new version of the vaccine should be “plentiful.”

They encouraged anyone older than 6 months to get the new COVID vaccine as cases are already starting to rise heading into the fall and winter months.

“It’s clear that this will provide additional protection against COVID regardless of what vaccines you’ve gotten in the past, whether they were the primary series or last year’s bivalent booster,” said Brian Borah, medical director for Vaccine-Preventable Diseases Surveillance at the Chicago Department of Public Health.

CPS officials said once doses arrive, the district will resume offering the shots for free.

The district is no longer tracking COVID vaccination rates by school or among students and staff. It is continuing to track self-reported cases. In previous years, data showed fewer than half of students were vaccinated with the original COVID vaccines and boosters, with schools on the South and West sides having some of the lowest rates of uptake.

CPS has 27 school-based health clinics and continues to offer vaccination events at schools and mobile events at charters and high schools. Students can also access free flu shots and vaccinations for other viruses that are required to attend public school, including tetanus, measles, and meningitis. According to WTTW, about half of all CPS schools are below “herd immunity” for measles, but rates have improved since dropping during the pandemic.

Because the COVID public health emergency has ended, vaccines for the virus have become “commercialized” and no longer covered by the federal government. City public health officials said those with insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid, should go to their doctor or local pharmacy for a shot first.

But the city and school district will continue to provide free vaccines to all children under 18 and those without insurance or those who are underinsured, regardless of immigration status, under other federal programs that allow them to do so.

In addition to the school-based clinics and events, the city operates three public immunization clinics in Uptown, Pilsen, and West Elsdon, near Midway Airport.

The department of public health will also run annual COVID and flu vaccination clinics at City Colleges locations on Saturdays in October and November.

Saturday, Oct. 7, Malcolm X College
Saturday, Oct. 14, Kennedy-King College
Saturday, Oct. 21, Wilbur Wright College
Saturday, Oct.28, Olive-Harvey College
Saturday, Nov. 4, Richard J. Daley College
Saturday, Nov. 11, Arthur Velasquez Institute
Saturday, Nov. 18, Truman College

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Applying to Chicago Public Schools? Here’s a guide to the 2024-25 application process.

2023-09-13T15:22:45+00:00

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It’s that time of year again: Chicago Public Schools opened its application Wednesday for elementary and high school seats for the 2024-25 school year with a deadline of Nov. 9 — about a month earlier than usual.

Families use the application for entry to a variety of schools, including selective test-in schools and neighborhood schools outside of their attendance boundaries. Sixth graders can also use the application for seven advanced middle school programs.

For high schools, there are several changes to this year’s admissions process:

The High School Admissions Test, or HSAT, will last an hour instead of the previous 2 ½ hours. This shorter test “allows CPS to get the information needed on student performance for the admissions process while helping reduce anxiety for students and increasing accessibility,” a district spokesperson said.
In addition to English, the HSAT this year will also be offered in Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, Urdu, and Polish.
The district has created a single admissions scoring rubric for all programs. Previously, there were multiple rubrics.
High schools will no longer have additional admissions requirements, such as interviews, essays, or letters of recommendation. Such a requirement “added to the complexity of the process and was burdensome for families,” according to a district spokesperson.

Students will find out their HSAT score in mid-November. After that, students can re-rank the programs they chose in GoCPS until 5 p.m. November 22, district officials said.

About half of elementary school students attend a school outside of their neighborhood, and roughly 70% of high schoolers do the same.

For the second year, families of preschoolers won’t have to apply until the spring. The city is working toward providing universal preschool for 4-year-olds. Last year, officials said there were enough seats for all children who wanted one.

For elementary school and the middle school programs, families can apply online or over the phone. For high school, they can also submit a paper application. Most charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately managed, can also be applied to through GoCPS and students are offered spots via lottery.

The application process for all students, which can involve ranking school choices and taking entrance exams, can be cumbersome for many families to navigate. The later application deadline “may catch people off guard,” said Grace Lee Sawin, co-founder of Chicago School GPS, an organization that helps families navigate admissions.

“I think that will throw off a lot of people who think they had the month of November” to explore their options, Sawin said.

In recent years, CPS has extended the application deadline. Results are expected to be released next spring. The district will hold weekly online informational sessions about GoCPS in English and Spanish starting Sept. 19 at 9 a.m. The sessions will continue until early November. Families should register online here.

Here’s what you need to know.

Families can apply to several types of Chicago elementary schools

Families can use the application for entry into several types of elementary schools.

They can select up to 20 magnets and neighborhood schools outside of their own attendance boundaries. Families can also choose from more competitive, selective enrollment schools, which require a test to get in. Those include the city’s gifted programs and classical schools, both of which offer more accelerated curriculum.

The tests can be scheduled once you submit your application. For these schools, families can choose up to six programs. Families can choose up to three gifted centers that are specifically for English learners.

For neighborhood schools, families don’t have to rank their choices, since they will be entered into the lottery for each program on their list and may get multiple offers.

For the test-in schools, applicants must rank their choices. They are eligible if they score high enough on the entrance exams, but the district does not publish what the cutoff scores are. Thirty percent of seats are reserved for the highest scorers. The remaining offers go to the highest scorers across four socioeconomic tiers that are based on where students live, as an effort by the district to more equitably admit children to selective schools.

Each city neighborhood is assigned to one of four tiers, with the first tier representing the lowest-income areas, along with other factors, such as less education attainment. (You can look up your tier using this map.)

Students who choose magnet programs are entered into a lottery. Schools set aside remaining seats for students from each tier. There are also preferences given to siblings and in some cases, students who live within a certain proximity to the magnet school.

CPS offers admission to 7 accelerated middle school programs

Sixth graders can use the elementary application to apply to the city’s seven Academic Centers, which offer accelerated middle school programs. They are located inside of high schools — some of which are the city’s selective programs, such as Whitney Young — allowing these middle schoolers to take high school level courses.

Students must have at least a 2.5 GPA to apply and must take an entrance exam that can be scheduled through GoCPS. They can choose up to six school options, and must rank their selections. Students are admitted based on their score, with the highest scorers offered seats first. Last year’s cutoff scores can be found here.

All 8th graders encouraged to apply for a variety of Chicago high schools

The first step for eighth graders seeking a high school seat is taking the high school admissions test, or HSAT.

Due to a change last year, the exam is now given in school to all eighth graders at the same time. This year it’s scheduled for Oct. 11. Private school students can take the test on Oct. 14, 15, or 21, according to the district’s website.

Students can enroll in their neighborhood high school or they can use the application to rank up to 20 other high school programs. Schools may have multiple programs, such as one in fine arts and another in world language.

While many of these schools admit students via lottery, they may also have various preferences, such as for kids who live within the attendance boundary or those who earned higher math scores.

Students can also choose from the city’s 11 selective enrollment programs and can rank up to six of them. These schools are more competitive and admit students based on a rubric that includes their HSAT results and their GPA. Last school year, the first 30% of seats went to students with the highest scores on the rubric. The rest of the seats are split up among the highest scoring students across the four socioeconomic tiers. Last year’s cut scores for selective enrollment schools can be found here and for other high schools, they can be found here.

Selective enrollment schools have been criticized for enrolling larger shares of affluent, white, and Asian American students versus Black and Latino students who make up more than 82% of the district. Officials promised to overhaul the system last year in order to make it more equitable, but none of the promised changes have been made.

Students can receive up to two offers — one each for selective enrollment and CHOICE. If they get just one offer, CPS will automatically add them to waitlists at schools they ranked higher than where they got in. If the student doesn’t receive any offers, they can join waitlists for schools they want to attend or they enroll in their neighborhood school.

What is the application process for children with disabilities?

Students with disabilities can apply to any program. No matter which school they end up in, the district is legally required to provide any services that a student may need, according to their Individualized Education Program, or IEP.

For admissions exams, students should be afforded any testing accommodations listed on their 504 plans or IEPs, according to the FAQ page.

However, students with disabilities may face a more complicated school assignment process. For example, if a child is physically impaired and is offered a seat at a magnet elementary program that is not accessible, the district will offer transportation to a “comparable” magnet program that has the proper accommodations, according to a district FAQ about the admissions process.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools is becoming less low-income. Here’s why that matters.

2023-09-06T22:09:52+00:00

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About six years ago, Lori Zaimi’s daughter told her mom that another longtime friend was leaving their elementary school in Edgewater on the North Side. The friend’s apartment building, she explained, had been sold to someone who was going to renovate it.

Zaimi recognized the familiar story of gentrification, when higher-income families move into a working class neighborhood and drive up property values. She’d seen property demolitions and pricey single family housing go up across Edgewater, the formerly working class neighborhood where she grew up.

She has also seen the impact in her daughter’s school, where Zaimi became principal in 2015. These days, she said, rent is “unaffordable for many of our families.”

A decade ago, nearly 73% of students at the school, Helen C. Peirce School of International Studies, came from low-income households, according to district data. Last school year, that figure was just over 34%.

Zaimi’s school is not alone. Ten years ago, 85% of Chicago Public Schools students came from low-income households. Now, that figure is 73% — a 12 percentage point drop — according to district data from the 2022-23 school year. Chicago Public Schools considers a student “economically disadvantaged” if their family’s income is within 185% of the federal poverty line. This year, that threshold is $55,500 or less for a family of four.

The drop, experts say, is driven by several factors, including gentrification, population and enrollment shifts, as well as a potential dissatisfaction with district schools.

Even though the number of students from low-income families has dropped, nearly three-quarters of the district’s student body is still considered “economically disadvantaged.” But if the downward trend continues, Chicago schools could continue to see fewer dollars than expected from the state, which funds districts in part by considering how many students from low-income families are enrolled.

For individual schools, such as Peirce, the decline has led to the loss of Title I money, federal dollars sent to schools with high shares of low-income students. But as the school has become more mixed-income, it has also become more racially diverse: Last school year, Peirce was 47% white and 32% Hispanic, compared to 17% white and 62% Hispanic 10 years ago.

As the district enrolls a smaller share of students from low-income households, Chicago’s schools continue to look different from how they did a decade ago, especially in rapidly changing neighborhoods. That shift raises questions about who schools are serving, how they should be resourced, and what the district — and the city — can do as it continues to lose students.

Low-income drops happening across Chicago, but steeper in some neighborhoods

Peirce is one of more than 200 schools that have seen their share of students from low-income families drop by more than the districtwide decline of 12 percentage points, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of the district’s public school enrollment data from the 2022-23 school year.

The analysis of the past decade also found:

While overall enrollment has also fallen, it’s still outpaced by the loss of students from low-income families. The district enrolled 31% fewer students from low-income families than in 2013, as the district’s overall enrollment dipped by 20%.
When looking at neighborhoods, schools in Lincoln Square and Irving Park, on the North Side, and West Elsdon, on the Southwest Side, saw a median 20 percentage point drop or more in students from low-income households since 2013. That’s more than any other community area.
Nine of the top 10 schools that lost the largest shares of students from low-income households were located on the North Side, across gentrifying neighborhoods.
Half of them enrolled more children last school year than they did 10 years ago, bucking citywide trends.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, 73 schools saw increases in their share of students from low-income families. One-third are on the South and West sides — regions that have also lost the most residents between 1999 and 2020, according to a 2022 report from UIC.

CPS officials use two methods to find out which students are from low-income households. They automatically count students who receive certain government aid meant for low-income families, such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits. And they collect forms handed out at the start of the school year that ask families to report their income, which in the past helped the district determine students who qualified for free or reduced price lunch.

In 2014, CPS became eligible for the federal universal free meals program for districts that serve at least 40% students from low-income families. With less pressure on schools to collect the forms, which are not mandatory, some have suggested that the district may be collecting fewer of them, potentially skewing the data about low-income families.

A CPS spokesperson said it could be “one of several reasons” behind the drop in the district’s share of low-income students. However, district officials declined to share the rate at which forms have been returned over the past decade, instead asking Chalkbeat to file an open records request for that information.

There’s some evidence that those forms do not get filled out, particularly among new students, said Elaine Allensworth, who studies education policy and is Lewis-Sebring Director of the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research.

In the 2014-15 school year, 86% of preschoolers and 81% of kindergartners were listed as coming from low-income families, on par with children in other grades, district data show. The next school year, after the district became federally eligible for universal free lunch, around 62% of preschool and kindergarten students came from low-income families, while figures in older grades shifted just a couple percentage points from the previous year.

“That says to me new families that are coming into CPS are not signing up for free lunch,” Allensworth said, who added that population shifts are also a likely contributing factor.

The current data for early grades could also signal that CPS is likely to see its low-income population decline further. Last school year, nearly one-quarter of preschoolers and close to half of kindergarteners were from low-income families, compared to more than three-quarters of students in nearly all of the older grades.

Multiple principals told Chalkbeat they don’t believe missing paperwork is a big contributor — or that it is a factor at all — since their funding heavily relies on collecting those forms.

Another factor in the drop of low-income students could be a slight uptick in families seeking out private schools. Of Chicago’s low-income families, 10% were enrolled in private school in 2021 — an increase of 3 percentage points from 2019, according to an analysis of Census data by Jose Pacas, chief of data science and research at Kids First Chicago. That’s after little change since 2012, the last time there was a similar increase.

That coincides with the COVID pandemic when CPS switched to virtual learning, as well as the launch of Illinois’ tax credit scholarship program, which began in the 2018-19 school year. The program grants tax credits to people who fund scholarships for low-income students who want to attend private schools. That program is expected to sunset this year.

Some low-income parents, like Blaire Flowers, say they’re frustrated with the lack of good school options available in the neighborhoods they can afford to live in. Her daughter takes two buses to a charter high school miles away from their home in Austin on the West Side because Flowers wasn’t able to find a school she liked in their own neighborhood.

West Side parent Blaire Flowers, pictured in the center, is surrounded by four of her five children.

The mother of five also fears that CPS won’t provide her 4-year-old son who has autism with an adequate education. She’s already struggled to secure bus transportation for him this year, and she’s heard frustrations from parents of older students with disabilities who have had trouble securing services they’re entitled to.

If Flowers left Chicago, she’d follow in the footsteps of many friends and family members, some who found the city too expensive, she said.

“Everyone I know, that I was close to, has left the city,” Flowers said.

As neighborhoods gentrify, schools face stark choices

The demographic changes in Chicago Public Schools are largely a reflection of a changing city, experts said.

From 2010 to 2020, Chicago’s population grew by 2%. The median household income also grew by more than $20,000, according to U.S. Census estimates. But during that time, the school district saw enrollment decline by 60,000 students. In recent years, the city’s population has dipped by 3%, driven in part by an exodus of working class families.

“The share of working class families in Chicago is decreasing with time, as its industry and economy shifts toward white collar jobs that skew upper class, college educated,” said William Scarborough, the lead author of the UIC report, who is now an associate professor of sociology at the University of North Texas.

School closings, including the mass closures under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, may have also pushed some working-class families to leave the city if they lost a beloved neighborhood school, Scarborough added. More people left the majority Black census tracts that experienced those 2013 school closures versus similar areas that did not, according to a WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times investigation.

As schools lost students, some principals doubled down on enrolling the kids who lived in their neighborhood.

That’s what happened at Alexander Hamilton Elementary School in Lake View on the North Side, which saw one of the biggest drops in the share of students from low-income families. In 2013, Hamilton enrolled nearly 40% of children from low-income households, according to district data. That dropped to roughly 9% last school year.

James Gray, who was the principal from 2009-17, inherited an enrollment crisis when he took over Hamilton, which had narrowly escaped closure. The school enrolled 243 students when he arrived – roughly half of the almost 500 it served in 1999. He set out on what he called a “guerrilla effort” to sign up more neighborhood children, offering tours of the school, hosting weekend events and open houses, and even venturing to the park to chat up parents of toddlers — or potential future students.

Gray was successful. By the time he left, enrollment had jumped back up to about 480 students. He noticed that his students were increasingly coming from wealthier families. They were also more white. But that’s who lived in the neighborhood.

In 2013, the school was 47% white, 12% Black, 30% Hispanic and 4% Asian. Last school year, 73% of students were white — on par with the racial makeup of Lake View — while just 3% were Black, just under 13% were Hispanic, and nearly 4% were Asian American. (Hamilton’s current principal did not respond to a request for an interview.)

Though the shifts at individual schools can be stark, the racial breakdown districtwide has only changed slightly. As of last school year, the district’s students were 4% Asian American, 11% white, 36% Black, and 46.5% Hispanic. Ten years ago, 3% were Asian American, 9% were white, 40.5% were Black, and close to 45% were Hispanic.

Research has shown that students in diverse schools, both socioeconomically and racially, perform better academically than schools that are not integrated.

At the same time, families who become the minority may not feel as included or even shut out from their schools. As more neighborhood white families enrolled at Hamilton, Gray said, he received an anonymous note that said he had “driven Black and brown families away.”

It also stung when former students would visit and notice improvements at the school — bankrolled, in part, by parent fundraising efforts — such as new hoops and backboards in the gym and a new science lab.

They would say some version of, “Oh Mr. Gray, I wish you could have done this while I was here,” he recalled.

“They realized their experience was different from the kindergarteners or first graders’ experience over time,” Gray said.

While the demographic shifts have led to more income and racial diversity at some schools, that diversity could be fleeting as gentrification continues to push longtime neighborhood families out.

John-Jairo Betancur, professor of urban planning and policy at UIC, said as property values “dramatically” increase, families — and their children — leave for other neighborhoods or the suburbs, causing enrollment in the local schools to drop. At the same time, birth rates are declining in Chicago and more households do not include children, Betancur noted.

That has happened in Logan Square, home to Lorenz Brentano Math & Science Academy elementary school.

Similar to Hamilton, Brentano was at risk of closure due to low enrollment in 2013. Principal Seth Lavin’s priority when he became principal in 2015 was to bring in more students. He, too, was successful through various efforts, giving more than 100 school tours his first year, he said.

Today, the school enrolls almost 700 children, a 62% increase from a decade ago. But the school looks different. Roughly 39% of students come from low-income households, a nearly 50 percentage point drop from 2013 when 88% did. The school has also become more diverse: Half of Brentano’s students are Hispanic, just over a third are white, and about 5% are Black. A decade ago, 85% of students were Hispanic, while 5% were white, and 4% were Black.

Lavin said he is worried that gentrification has already “pushed out a lot of families” and will continue to do so, leading to a “great sense of loss” for families who have long called Logan Square home, and believe Brentano is at the heart of their community.

“It’s heartbreaking that even as we grow, and there’s expansion and the programming and things we didn’t have before that we’re able to get because of enrollment growth, that we’re losing families that should have those things, too,” Lavin said.

‘We have to keep kids in neighborhoods’

Lavin can spot six buildings outside of Brentano that have been renovated and hiked up rent prices in the last several years. He said the city “desperately” needs affordable housing and a pathway to home ownership.

“If we want to keep kids in neighborhood schools, we have to keep kids in neighborhoods,” he said.

Mayor Brandon Johnson has said that building more affordable housing and boosting neighborhood schools are priorities for his administration. Specifically, the mayor wants to grow the district’s Sustainable Community Schools model, which provides extra money for wraparound support and programming.

Separately, Johnson’s vision for school funding would alleviate pressure on principals to enroll more children in order to have a well-resourced school, or even to avoid closure. Though in the past more students meant more funding, CPS officials have been shifting toward funding schools based on need, not just enrollment. But that comes as the district stares down financial challenges, including a fiscal cliff as COVID relief dollars are set to run out.

If the city does nothing to address issues such as affordable housing, Chicago will shift toward “a city that primarily serves elites,” said Scarborough, the author of the UIC report.

District officials have not yet researched the trend around losing students from low-income families, a spokesperson said.

But many principals have noticed these shifts for years.

Even with how her community has changed, Zaimi’s school has two counselors and more staff focused on academic intervention. Still, she wishes she had more funding to hire a parent resource coordinator who could work with families, as well as instructional coaches who could help new teachers or those using new strategies in the classroom.

After all, she emphasized, her students have a lot of needs, regardless of their income. And, last year, more than one-third — about 370 — came from low-income families. That’s larger than the enrollment of entire schools in Chicago.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Thomas Wilburn is the senior data editor for Chalkbeat. Reach Thomas at twilburn@chalkbeat.org.

A dozen Chicago Public Schools employees ousted over federal PPP loan fraud

2023-09-06T18:05:00+00:00

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A dozen Chicago Public Schools employees have resigned or been fired after the district’s inspector general found they fraudulently obtained federal Paycheck Protection Program loans.

The loans — most of which did not need to be repaid — were available to businesses during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to help them stay afloat. Federal officials have since said the PPP loan program lacked controls and was “susceptible to fraud.”

All but one of the ousted CPS employees earned six-figure salaries and worked year-round positions.

“We’re talking about people who have full-time, year-round jobs with CPS,” Inspector General Will Fletcher told Chalkbeat Wednesday. “How they were able to have fully fledged side businesses was obviously going to be a question.”

The inspector general’s report does not name the employees. According to the report, one of them was a central office administrator who inflated how much they made on a side business in 2020 in order to get a PPP loan and also did not report that secondary employment to CPS.

Other cases include:

A district regional administrator making $165,000 a year created a fake business in order to get a $20,000 PPP loan. The money was deposited in their personal checking account and spent within two months on “expensive luxury items” and a trip to Las Vegas, bank records obtained by the inspector general showed.
A school administrator with a side business selling clothing admitted to inflating its income in 2019 in order to get two PPP loans totaling $40,000. The clothing business earned “at most $7,500,” but they claimed it earned $100,000.
An administrator making more than $120,000 a year got a $20,000 PPP loan by paying someone to fill out the application and report they made $100,000 as an independent contractor in 2019.

The inspector general’s report cites two additional employees whose dismissal cases are pending. The district said it has filed dismissal charges against them, but both cases are being litigated.

In a statement, a CPS spokesperson said the district is reviewing a recommendation by Fletcher that future employees be required to report any PPP loan they’ve received as part of the onboarding process.

“We take seriously our responsibility to serve students and families with integrity and we will hold accountable individuals who breach CPS policies and the public’s trust,” the spokesperson wrote.

Fletcher said his office opened a broad investigation into PPP fraud in 2022 and started by searching a public database that lists all PPP loan recipients. In all, 780 district employees showed up in the data as having obtained PPP loans, the OIG report said.

“We’re not presuming that all 780 loans were fraudulent,” Fletcher said, noting some CPS employees do have legitimate side jobs outside of school and during the summer. There may also be cases of identity theft. While the investigations are continuing, the report released Wednesday focused on cases involving higher-level employees and those who worked year-round positions.

“We’re looking at employees who have some level of supervisory authority or who are in positions where they have some kind of control over sensitive information, financial information, dealings with the contractors and vendors,” Fletcher said. “People who are in positions of trust in the district.”

Other investigations have also turned up evidence of misused funds related to the pandemic. The inspector general found most bus companies that were given “good faith” payments to keep paying drivers during the switch to virtual learning in March 2020 laid off their workers despite taking the money.

“PPP fraud is just one facet of what has concerned us related to pandemic fraud,” Fletcher said.

Fletcher said his office has the capacity to continue investigating these and other pandemic-related fraud and waste allegations, but noted there is a “lack of information” around much of the COVID relief money distributed by the federal government in the past few years.

Chicago Public Schools has received more than $2.8 billion in COVID recovery money from the federal government under three Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief packages passed by Congress.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois parent mentors kick off the school year, ready to get back into classrooms

2023-09-05T15:25:59+00:00

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Last year, Pearlie Aaron volunteered as a parent mentor at the school her 10-year-old daughter attends — McKinley Elementary in Bellwood School District 88. Aaron got a chance to work with students on classroom assignments and receive professional development with other parent mentors for about two hours a day.

Now, Aaron is a program coordinator at McKinley for the Parent Mentor Program, a state-funded initiative run by Palenque Liberating Spaces through Neighborhood Action and the Southwest Organizing Project.

On Friday, Aaron and hundreds of other parent program coordinators — mostly Black and Latino women from Chicago and the suburbs — sat in a packed auditorium at Harry S. Truman Community College on the city’s North Side to celebrate the start of a new school year.

“When we talk about growing our own from within, this is the program to do that. We have such a shortage of teachers, it’s clear to see that these parents love education,” said Aaron. “These are future teachers sitting in this room.”

The Parent Mentor Program has around 2,000 parent mentors and staff in over 200 schools, at almost 40 school districts around the state, according to a press release. The organization works with 44 community-based organizations across the state to help recruit parents from their neighborhoods.

Through the program, community organizations train parents to work in their child’s school — experience that they can later use to work in classrooms as a special education classroom assistant or toward becoming a teacher.

Some parents have worked with local organizations to obtain a GED, learn English, and receive their credentials to become a paraprofessional in classrooms. The program already has helped more than 200 parents become paraprofessionals — helping fill much-needed positions, according to the group’s press release from last week..

A state database that tracks unfilled school positions over 2,600 paraprofessional vacancies across the state. According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, students with Individualized Education Programs are required to have a paraprofessional if it is included in their programs.

During the 2022 legislative session, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law a bill that lowers the age for paraprofessionals working in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade classrooms to 18 years old — part of a state effort to get more paraprofessionals into classrooms.

State Sen. Mike Simmons, a Democrat representing neighborhoods on the North Side of Chicago, showed up at Friday’s event to show support for the parent mentor initiative. During the spring legislative session, he and his colleagues pushed for the program to get more funding. Simmons said he is invested in the program and watching it expand in school.

“I’m tired of seeing our moms, especially our Black and Brown moms, expected to do ten different jobs. They are already being underpaid in the labor force, they are expected to take care of their children in a context where there is no universal child care,” said Simmons. “We need to compensate our parents for doing hard work that goes well beyond their households.”

The Logan Square Neighborhood Association founded the Parent Mentor Program in 1995. In 2013, the program was able to secure funding from the Illinois State Board of Education and has worked to either grow or maintain that amount of funding with the help of legislators.

At the celebration on Friday, Sabrina Jackson and other parent program coordinates said they are excited to continue recruiting more parents throughout the school year.

Jackson recruits parents to help out at 10 schools in the Englewood neighborhood, located on the South Side of Chicago.

The best part of the program is watching parents realize their own leadership potential by participating in schools, said Jackson.

“We help them enhance those skills and we help them breakout of being a parent just at home,” said Jackson. “By becoming a parent that is a part of the school and becoming a change agent for their child’s education, they see that their input matters. It’s really great.”

Chicago Public Schools reverses policy that docked pay from teachers taking religious holidays

2023-08-31T18:42:54+00:00

Chicago Public Schools teachers will no longer be docked pay when taking a religious holiday.

The Board of Education approved the change last week, overturning a yearslong policy that deducted the cost of hiring a substitute from the teacher’s salary. Different types of substitutes are paid at different daily rates, ranging between $170 to $264, according to the teachers union contract.

“I have friends who couldn’t afford to take off for Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur because they couldn’t afford to lose that money,” said Wendy Weingarten, a physical education teacher at Lasalle II Magnet School, who’s advocated for a change since 2016.

Teachers will still get three paid days off for religious holidays, such as the Jewish holy day Yom Kippur. But now, they must provide seven days advance notice before taking their holiday, instead of the previously required two days.

In a statement, district spokesperson Samantha Hart said the change was the result of feedback from teachers, school leaders, families, and others in the community.

“This is an important first step in ensuring that CPS’ holiday pay policy better reflects the values and diversity of the District and our staff,” Hart said.

During the board meeting, Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates said it was “shameful” that the policy had remained unchanged for so long.

Chicago’s public schools are off on seven federal holidays, including Labor Day, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day and Memorial Day, according to the calendar.

Weingarten and Davis Gates noted that the district’s holiday schedule aligns with Christian holidays. While not denoted as an official holiday, Christmas is included in the district’s two-week winter break. Good Friday is typically included at the end of the weeklong spring break.

The district said the old religious holiday policy for teachers stretches back at least a decade. Weingarten, who has worked for CPS for 25 years, said she’s always been docked pay for taking off on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah.

Eliminating that requirement will cost the district about $250,000 a year, a spokesperson said.

Weingarten said she began formally pressing the board for a change in 2021, when the start of the school year clashed with Rosh Hashanah. But she didn’t receive an explanation for why the district didn’t want to change the policy.

The next year, Weingarten said she filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which investigates employee discrimination. She does not know the status of that complaint. She mentioned it to district officials during a joint meeting this April with the teachers union and CPS over the school calendar, after getting pushback about changing the religious holiday policy.

A district spokesperson did not directly say whether the policy change was sparked by the federal complaint. However, they said the change was a “preliminary step in remediating the inequities related to pay,” and that the district will review other board rules “to ensure our policies reflect the values of our diverse workforce.”

Correction: Sept. 1, 2023: A previous version of this story said Wendy Weingarten began advocating for a policy change in 2014. She began advocating for the change in 2016.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Meet Jianan Shi: Chicago’s new Board of Education president

2023-08-31T10:00:00+00:00

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Jianan Shi describes himself as “an immigrant that’s fallen in love with Chicago.”

Born in China, he immigrated first to Toronto at age 5 and later to Boston at age 8. Raised and later adopted by his aunt and uncle, Shi said he was undocumented until age 16 and was “very much in the shadows as a kid,” always fearful of being deported.

Shi moved to Chicago in his twenties and taught at Solorio Academy High School.

“One of the reasons I think I love Chicago is I got to choose Chicago,” Shi said.

Now, Mayor Brandon Johnson has chosen Shi, 33, to be president of the Chicago Board of Education. He’s the first Asian American and youngest person in recent memory to hold the high-profile appointment to oversee the city’s largest sister agency and the state’s second largest employer. Previously, he served as the executive director of the parent group Raise Your Hand, though he’s not a parent yet himself.

When Shi reflects on his own education, he said he thinks a lot about access and opportunity. As an English learner, he developed a love of books early on and remembers getting extra reading support and sneaking “a few more books” than the three each student was allowed from the library, which he noted was staffed with a full-time librarian.

Shi sat down for an interview with Chalkbeat Chicago this week wearing a blazer and a T-shirt from the Solorio DREAM Team, a club for undocumented students advocating for immigrant rights, with a colorful butterfly and the saying: “Fear only limits your dreams.”

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

You’ll likely be the last school board president on a fully-appointed Chicago Board of Education. Are there policies or practices you’d like to implement in the next two years before the shift to a hybrid and later elected school board?

It’s been 42 days so far, and I have 505 left. I feel the urgency of this work. Part of the reason why I accepted this role was to help transition us towards a fully elected school board. I think some folks in Chicago lack the imagination that we can have expanded democracy, right? I know, it’s gonna be messy, but it needs to be iterated on. We’re already meeting with the board staff to look at different structures.

The previous board, especially Vice President Elizabeth Todd Breland, has been doing work around that. The Agenda Review Committee is one way to start being more transparent. We’ve stood up the Special Education Committee. A lot of it is setting the tone of how a board should act. We should be in community, and we should be communicating publicly, way more than before. I think there’s a lot of work to do around training to make sure board members are ready. This is a $9.4 billion institution with lots of moving pieces.

Do you envision the 21-member Board of Education almost like a mini Chicago City Council?

I don’t know how often we’ll have all 21 folks in full agreement. I think that’s the beauty of democracy and discourse, right? We’ll get a chance to really have tough conversations in public and together. There aren’t many models for a 21-member school board and so the board staff has done a lot of work. And I’m hopeful that we can also work towards a way where these positions are compensated.

The board announced in July it would meet on the last Thursday of the month instead of Wednesday to not conflict with City Council meetings. Last week, the board set the time and date of its next meeting to be in the Austin community on the West Side and in the evening. Previous boards have done that, but only as a sort of one-off event. Are you committing to doing that regularly?

We’ve already committed to three — one in the Austin community in September, one at Kennedy High School, and another we’ve committed to the south side. I believe it’s almost every quarter we’re doing it. I hope that we continue that. We want to, again, set the culture and tone so that when the new school board gets elected, they understand that it’s our role to be out in the community. I also hope to do office hours in the community.

Chicago is now the nation’s fourth largest school district and has lost about 80,000 students in the past decade. As board president, how do you plan to grapple with the declining number of students enrolled in CPS?

I want us to shift from looking at lagging indicators, and move towards how we invest in communities. If we provide well-resourced neighborhood schools, if there’s abundant social services and affordable housing in Chicago, those communities will grow back, right? I am maybe stubborn enough to believe that an institution like ours, and all of our sister agencies cannot be influential in the population in Chicago.

I think we need a comprehensive plan, from pre-K to 20. And what does that look like in your neighborhood and region? If I send my kid here, I know that they’re going to do pre-K to 8 here, there’s gonna be a great high school nearby that has the programs that I want to see my kids in, and then also access to community college and higher ed or jobs. That’s what we need to tell parents. That you can choose any neighborhood and you will find a path.

Chicago is seeing an influx of migrant students. It’s not clear if all schools have enough bilingual staff, the enrollment process is not quick, and there have been reports of migrants being turned away at some schools. There are volunteers, union staff, and district officials working to enroll children. But what more, if anything, can be done to streamline that process, as potentially more buses show up?

It’s not “if.” More buses will show up. And it’s intentionally chaotic, right? It’s intentionally disruptive … Chicago should be a sanctuary city, but there are so many challenges in making sure our newcomers’ needs are met.

It’s about food, shelter, and education. We’ve enrolled, I think 1,700 (students) in the last two months, and we’re enrolling 1,000 more. We’ll be strategic about placing them in schools where they’re best fit. But then these are also folks who are STLS (Students in Temporary Living Situations). I think we have 15 shelters in the city, but that’s not a permanent solution. So how are we looking towards housing? I know that’s starting to go outside of what is in my purview. Some folks tell me to stay in my lane, quote, unquote, but then we’re not actually addressing those students and families (needs).

Last fall, a report required by the law creating an elected school board outlined several costs the Board of Education may take on as it becomes more independent from City Hall. This could exacerbate financial problems for the school district. What is your plan for sorting out the financial relationship between the board and the City of Chicago?

That’s part of the transition towards the 21-seat school board: How do we create working relationships? The city understands in order for it to succeed, the education system needs to succeed. There’s a lot to look at and I think this is just the beginning of the conversation. I’ve read both reports. Ultimately we need more revenue. We’re woefully short from the federal government, from the state government. I think that’s where my focus is.

The deadline to spend down federal COVID recovery money is next fall. There are a number of initiatives, such as the CPS Tutor Corps, expanded summer school, and additional staffing, including academic interventionists and social workers, that have been supported with this money. What happens when that money runs out?

When I think about that question, I often get, I don’t know, a little upset. Because wealthy communities never have to make that choice. Schools in the suburbs do not have to make that choice. What I appreciated about being on Mayor Johnson’s transition committee, is that we tried to shift out of a scarcity mindset and think about what students need.

The federal government provided us money that allowed us to hire these interventionists and allowed us to hire staff for after-school programs. These aren’t just good to have for students. These are essentials. And we need to maintain those.

To be honest, the amount of ESSER money we got doesn’t even meet the gap that we are owed from the state. And that’s a formula that says all the things that we need. Yes, we need to look at how money is allocated and reduce waste. But again, it’s my job as board president to build a coalition of folks that work towards increasing revenue for Chicago Public Schools at every level. Before January, I intend on meeting with every elected (official) that touches Chicago.

Wow, that’s a big task.

It is a lot. But I think it’s clear to me that one, I want to listen because they also hear from schools and their needs. But it’s important to know that the whole state needs more revenue. There’s a lot of things that we can work together on whether it’s transportation or early childhood. But the evidence-based funding formula is obviously a big one. We’re still owed a billion dollars from the state on that alone.

Are you going to advocate for any changes to the 2021 law that created the 21-member elected school board for Chicago?

I think that’s a collaborative conversation. The Chicago school board will be voting on a legislative agenda in January that we will all abide by and all advocate for. It’ll be the first time ever, so leading up to that we are having those discussions.

Again, I personally do believe that board members should be compensated. As a former immigrant, I obviously believe that non-citizens should have the right to vote and that was recommended by the transition committee. But that’s a long process. I want to make sure that folks feel safe doing that and there’s the structures and systems in place. It’s not just a snap of a finger. I think there’s also stuff around eligibility that needs to be examined.

The previous board approved a smaller-than-usual capital plan in June and Mayor Johnson said a supplemental plan would come later this year. Chicago Public Schools has not had a Master Facilities Plan since 2018 and in the past, many school construction decisions were made behind closed doors. Many school buildings are old and in need of repairs or updates. How will the new school board approach capital planning?

Let’s just say I’m eager to work with the district on a comprehensive facilities plan that actually looks at how we want our buildings and programs to look in the next 10 years. There’s a lot of data that’s still being collected. And then we are going out to the community in the fall. I don’t think dates are set yet, but we made it very clear to management that something like this requires lots of community engagement around what we want to do with our buildings, what programs you want to see in neighborhoods, and again, how do we rebuild this idea of neighborhood schools, feeder networks, where there are rich programs.

There’s going to be an emphasis on Sustainable Community Schools. In these 42 days, what I’ve understood about Sustainable Community Schools is I think everyone supports them, they just don’t know it yet. Who doesn’t want wraparound programs? Who doesn’t want deep, authentic community engagement, and culturally relevant curriculum? Those are all things that I think every school wants. How do we work towards that?

And the goal is to have 200 Sustainable Community Schools by the end of the mayor’s first term, right?

The education transition committee report said 200. I think the appetite is to expand. But I want to make sure we do it right. That we serve students. Sustainable Community Schools haven’t really had consistency to thrive with a pandemic and everything. I went to three schools on my first day, and they said it was a game changer, a lifesaver. They have additional staff, restorative justice, and a trauma coordinator. It’s all these great things that make a school whole. It’s what makes students feel like they are ready to learn. And what ultimately has parents send them to those schools, right?

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

After first week of classes, hundreds of Chicago students with disabilities waiting for bus routes

2023-08-29T17:50:44+00:00

A week into the new school year, hundreds of Chicago students with disabilities were still waiting to receive bus service, officials said.

A total of 733 students with disabilities, who are legally entitled to transportation under federal law, were waiting for bus service as of Monday, according to a spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools. Additionally, 10 students living in temporary housing, who are also legally entitled to transportation, had yet to be assigned to routes.

Lacking half of the drivers it needs, the district decided this year to limit bus transportation to students with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness. These students can alternatively choose to receive stipends of up to $500 a month to cover transportation costs, which families of close to 3,270 children have done, the district said. The district is continuing to receive new requests for transportation, a spokesperson said.

For the families who haven’t accepted the stipends, the lack of bus service can be challenging, especially for students with disabilities who have varying needs. Working parents may not have the flexibility to drive their kids to school, and taking public transportation may also not be feasible.

The district said its policy is to pair students with routes within two weeks of their request, and it appears to be making progress. As of Thursday last week, 1,045 students with disabilities were waiting for a seat on a bus — about 300 more than the number at the start of this week. The district has also shrunk travel times for most students with disabilities, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez announced at last week’s board meeting.

However, that progress is happening as the district said it would not provide bus service this year to other students, including those attending selective enrollment and magnet schools. Those students have instead been offered Ventra cards, including another card for a companion, such as a parent.

Parents of some of those children, who are also struggling to accommodate their children’s commutes, sharply criticized the decision during a Chicago Board of Education meeting last week.

In an interview with Chalkbeat, Board President Jianan Shi said he understands “the challenges that this has on families.” But he believes the district is doing better, citing the improvement in commute times for students with disabilities, as well as the district’s efforts to address the driver shortage by planning to boost pay.

“CPS has the responsibility to serve our students with special needs and our students experiencing homelessness, and I believe we are doing that,” Shi said.

During last week’s meeting, chief operating officer Charles Mayfield said that even as the district has employed marginally more drivers, it has received more transportation requests. As of Aug. 19, the district employed 678 bus drivers, 22 more than it did at roughly the same time last year, a spokesperson said. The district has received just over 1,000 more requests for transportation as of this August compared to last year.

This is at least the third year that Chicago Public Schools has struggled to provide bus transportation for all students who are typically eligible. Last year around this time, roughly 3,000 students with disabilities were on routes that were longer than an hour, while more than 1,800 had not been routed, officials said.

The Illinois State Board of Education has taken notice of these issues. In 2021, state officials placed the district on a corrective action plan to ensure it was providing bus service to all students with disabilities whose Individualized Education Programs called for it. One year later, the state instituted a second corrective action plan to shorten commutes for students with disabilities.

Chicago bureau chief Becky Vevea contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago shortens bus routes for most students with disabilities, while others wait for service

2023-08-24T22:14:56+00:00

Just 47 Chicago Public Schools students with disabilities are on bus routes longer than an hour, an improvement over last year when that figure was roughly 3,000 and 365 children had trips lasting longer than 90 minutes, district officials said Thursday.

“We are working to get that number down to zero,” CPS CEO Pedro Martinez during Thursday’s Board of Education meeting.

The progress comes after more than 8,000 students who may have been eligible for bus service in the past, including those in selective and magnet schools, were told in late July they would not receive busing, but can instead receive free Ventra cards, including for one companion, such as a parent.

Martinez said again Thursday that the district was focused on providing busing to students who are legally entitled to it, such as students with disabilities and those in temporary housing.

CPS officials did not immediately share how many students are waiting to be routed as of Wednesday. As of the first day of school, 7,100 students were on bus routes, and another 3,100 chose the stipend, according to a Monday press release from CPS.

The district has blamed an ongoing nationwide bus driver shortage. In late July, officials said they had just half of the roughly 1,300 drivers they needed.

At Thursday’s meeting, some parents whose children could not get busing, including Patricia Rae Easley, blasted the district. Easley lives in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side and has a daughter enrolled at Kenwood Academy in Hyde Park on the South Side — a route familiar to Mayor Brandon Johnson, who also lives in Austin and has a son enrolled at Kenwood.

“I’m trying to reach out to him,” Easley said. ”Maybe we can get in on their carpool.”

Charles Mayfield, the district’s chief operating officer, suggested CPS is not far from shortening long rides for students with disabilities. Three-quarters of those remaining 47 students who are on rides longer than an hour are on routes that are 61-66 minutes long, he said.

The district’s recent transportation struggles stretch back at least two years. In order to spur more hiring of bus drivers, Mayfield said the district has hosted several hiring fairs and is planning to work with bus companies they contract with to raise driver pay by $2.25. Currently driver pay ranges between $20-25 an hour.

The district was able to accommodate all students with disabilities or those living in temporary housing who requested transportation by the end of July, after extending the sign-up deadline twice, officials said at the time. But they could not guarantee immediate service for families who signed up after that.

Families can opt for stipends of up to $500 a month until they get routed. On Thursday, responding to criticism from some families, Mayfield described the transportation changes this year as a “tough decision that we all needed to make.”

Easley, the parent whose child attends Kenwood, said she pulled her daughter out of a private school so that she could attend the sought-after South Side school as a seventh grader this year.

She was caught off guard with CPS’s announcement three weeks ago that she wouldn’t get bus transportation. Easley said she has no use for the free Ventra card because she doesn’t feel public transit is safe enough for her daughter. That commute would involve two buses and a train, she said.

So she drives her daughter 40 minutes to Kenwood.

“It’s definitely not only an inconvenience but an expense,” Easley said. “An unexpected expense when we’re paying for gas that’s $4.57 a gallon.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago teachers adjust to keep classrooms cool as extreme heat bakes city

2023-08-24T14:45:47+00:00

CPS students headed back to school this week amidst a dangerous heat wave, while teachers hope the district’s aging cooling systems can hold up.

This week, teacher Liz Winfield is opting not to turn on computers in her lab class at Benito Juárez Community Academy, 1450 W. Cermak Road, as students “roll with the punches,” she said.

At George Washington High School, 3535 E. 114th St., parent Marcelina Pedraza said the school’s annex doesn’t have working air conditioning. Spots inside the school have been muggy as CPS rolls in a batch of portable units, Pedraza said.

“Which isn’t good enough for a classroom of 30 kids and a teacher,” said Pedraza, who is an electrician and also the chair of the local school council. “We shouldn’t have to keep fighting for quick fixes and band aids.”

Pedraza joined teachers and Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates Wednesday morning outside Washington High School, where parents, teachers and union members demanded a new, green school where cooling issues won’t be a constant touch-and-go.

The school district cancelled outdoor sports Wednesday and Thursday as “oppressive and dangerous” heat advisories blanket Chicago. The city reached a heat index of 114 degrees before noon Wednesday, the highest recorded in the city since 1999.

As temperatures hit 90 degrees in May, educators and parents told the teachers union there were “severe air conditioning/overheating issues” in at least 25 Chicago public schools, disrupting learning and leaving the district scrambling.

A CTU spokesperson said it’s too early to report how many schools have faced similar issues this week.

Teachers and parents at George Washington High School long have complained that the district hasn’t done enough to maintain the school building and facilities.

A CPS spokesperson said in a statement that all classrooms have air conditioning. In cases when its “not operational,” the school district is providing “temporary cooling where possible.”

“This situation is dynamic and the CPS Facilities team is working diligently to respond to schools in real time and resolve issues quickly to ensure there is no interruption to teaching or learning,” the spokesperson said. “The District is prepared to address concerns that may arise as students and teachers head back to the classroom…”

Conditions in some of Juarez’s converted classrooms are still “yucky,” but the temperatures have been more manageable so far, Winfield said.

Simeon Career Academy social studies teacher Rivanna Jihan said the air conditioning has been kicking in well after “major issues” in the spring left students “upset and irritable,” with one student saying his classmates were “melting.”

Both George Washington and Simeon recently had their air conditioning systems renovated, the teachers said.

“So far, so good,” Jihan said. “I guess we’ll know for sure by the end of the week.”

Simeon Career Academy High School in the Chatham neighborhood made major renovations to its air conditioning, a teacher said.

Gates credited CPS leadership and the Johnson administration for being proactive about the issue, working with the union and staying in “constant contact.”

Johnson was a CTU organizer when the union pushed then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel to invest $135 million to install air conditioning in all classrooms by spring 2017, Gates said. Union leaders previously said those systems had not been adequately maintained.

“He gets it. Bottom line,” Gates said Johnson, who just wrapped his first 100 days as mayor. “We have the opportunity to be collaborators and partners like we’ve always wanted to be. Now is the time to get it right.”

The union now is focused on working with CPS on a 10-year “facilities master plan,” with hopes to see sweltering schools like Washington High School get a new “sustainable, green school” and athletic facilities, Gates said.

Teachers and parents previously have raised the alarm about the maintenance of the school building after the ceiling partially collapsed and injured a security guard during a June 2022 storm.

Kevin Moore, a social studies teacher at George Washington, said the air conditioners inside the school show an “age factor,” leaks and patches in the HVAC system require “constant work” and some classrooms have been vacated because the units aren’t running properly.

It’s “difficult to teach like that,” and students are having a hard time focusing, Moore said.

“Our hallways have been more hot and humid than usual, because of the heat advisories,” Moore said. “We need facilities that can withstand these changes, because this won’t be the last time it gets extremely hot.”

This article was originally published by Block Club Chicago.

Los estudiantes inmigrantes están aumentando en Chicago. ¿Las escuelas están preparadas para ellos?

2023-08-24T00:10:00+00:00

Read this story in English.

¿Mami, estamos en casa?

Eso es lo que escuchó Baltazar Enríquez el año pasado mientras repartía comida a migrantes en Union Station: Quien hizo la pregunta fue una pequeña niñita: “Mami, ¿estamos en casa?”

“Estaba a punto de darle unas manzanas”, dijo él. “Su pregunta me impactó. Entonces recordé que yo le hice la misma pregunta a mi mamá cuando llegamos”.

El momento hizo que Enríquez, presidente del Little Village Community Council, se remontara a cuando tenía 3 años y emigró de México a Chicago.

“La respuesta fue la misma: sí, estamos en casa”, dijo Enríquez. “Así que ahora que están aquí, y que están haciendo de Chicago su casa, ¿cómo les ayudamos para asegurarnos de que entienden el sistema?”

Esa niñita era sólo una de los miles de nuevos inmigrantes que estaban llegando a la ciudad. El pasado agosto, el gobernador de Texas, Greg Abbott, empezó a enviar inmigrantes en autobús a Chicago y otras ciudades santuario, una medida que algunos demócratas, incluido el gobernador de Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, tildó de truco político. Desde entonces, más de 12,000 inmigrantes han llegado a Chicago, muchos de ellos en busca de asilo.

Las Escuelas Públicas de Chicago (CPS) no dijeron exactamente cuántos estudiantes inmigrantes se han incorporado al distrito. Sin embargo, CPS experimentó un aumento de poco más de 5,400 estudiantes de inglés durante el año escolar pasado, según los datos de matrícula obtenidos por Chalkbeat.

Gabriel Páez, que empezó a trabajar en el distrito hace una década, dijo que nunca había visto una llegada de estudiantes de este nivel. Actualmente trabaja como coordinador bilingüe en una escuela primaria de Humboldt Park y preside el Comité de Educación Bilingüe del Chicago Teachers Union.

“Tenemos que tratarlo con la urgencia que merece”, dijo. “Los maestros que están intentando prepararse para el próximo año escolar tienen que estar listos para que continúe la ola de llegadas”.

En un comunicado, un portavoz de CPS dijo que el distrito trabaja con cada estudiante para “identificar las necesidades de apoyo sin importar su país de origen”. Pero múltiples maestros y defensores de los inmigrantes afirman que muchos estudiantes terminan sin los recursos adecuados.

Antes de que empiece el año escolar, Chalkbeat Chicago analizó los datos de matrícula y dotación de personal para examinar el panorama de aprendizaje para estos niños. Estos son los puntos clave.

El año pasado la cifra de estudiantes de inglés aumentó en más de 5,000 estudiantes

El distrito determina quiénes son estudiantes de inglés evaluando el dominio de inglés de los estudiantes que proceden de hogares donde no se habla ese idioma.. El aumento en los estudiantes de inglés es contrario a la tendencia general de reducción en la matrícula en CPS.

El aumento del año pasado elevó la cifra total de estudiantes de inglés en el distrito a más de 77,000 el 7 de junio, el último día del año escolar 2022-23. Según estos datos, los estudiantes de inglés representan casi una cuarta parte de la población estudiantil total de CPS.

Es difícil saber cuántos son inmigrantes recién llegados. Los funcionarios del distrito señalan que algunos estudiantes pueden emigrar y ya hablar inglés; otros estudiantes quizás hablan un idioma que no es inglés y son clasificados como “estudiantes de inglés” sin haber emigrado recientemente a Chicago. Por lo tanto, el aumento en estudiantes de inglés no refleja necesariamente la cifra real de estudiantes inmigrantes, pero puede ofrecer una aproximación del tamaño de esa población.

Niños con las mochilas que recibieron en un evento de regreso a la escuela en 2022. Al matricularse, los estudiantes pasan por una evaluación para determinar si hablan otro idioma que no es inglés.

Cuando una escuela matricula a 20 o más estudiantes con el mismo idioma de origen, la ley estatal requiere que la escuela establezca un programa de Educación Bilingüe de Transición, o TBE. Los programas TBE a tiempo completo requieren que los educadores enseñen las asignaturas básicas tanto en inglés como en la lengua materna de los estudiantes. La escuela también tiene que proporcionar enseñanza del inglés como segundo idioma.

El estado monitorea los programas bilingües para determinar si cada escuela está cumpliendo los requisitos. Un análisis de WBEZ en 2020 encontró que más de un 70% de los programas bilingües de las escuelas se quedaron cortos según las evaluaciones del propio distrito.

Pero es complicado cuadrar los datos de matrícula de los estudiantes de inglés con la cantidad de personal que realmente enseña educación bilingüe.

Los maestros bilingües designados se reducen, pero las acreditaciones bilingües aumentan

Páez dijo que muchas escuelas tienen personal que puede hablar con los estudiantes de inglés en su idioma natal y apoyarlos, pero que eso no sustituye un programa bilingüe. En el año pasado, dijo, muchas escuelas han estado operando con un plan de emergencia para atender las necesidades de los estudiantes.

“Eso quizás ayuda a un niño que necesita traducción, a un niño que necesita ayuda para pasar de un salón a otro, o para saber cómo es el edificio escolar”, dijo. “Si tenemos empleados que no son maestros certificados, entran a los salones, y se espera que eso sea la forma para lograr que un niño participe, eso no es lo que él o ella necesita”.

Según un portavoz de la Junta de Educación del Estado de Illinois, para enseñar a los estudiantes en su idioma materno se requiere que el maestro o maestra cuente con una acreditación bilingüe. Otro tipo de acreditación — la certificación de maestro de inglés como segundo idioma — permite que un educador con licencia les enseñe inglés a personas cuyo idioma materno no es inglés, dijo el portavoz.

Un programa de Educación Bilingüe de Transición tiene que lograr ambas cosas: enseñarles a los estudiantes en su idioma materno, y enseñarles inglés.

Los datos disponibles públicamente e internos sobre la contratación de personal muestra una combinación de cosas en las Escuelas Públicas de Chicago. La cantidad de maestros designados como bilingües ha disminuido desde 2015.

Pero según el distrito, en los datos de contratación del CPS se refleja que no todos los educadores que dan clases bilingües han sido designados como maestros bilingües. Este análisis tampoco incluye las escuelas chárter ni las de contrato, porque el distrito no llega cuenta de toda la información de contratación de estas escuelas.

La mayor parte de esa reducción se debe a la disminución en el número de puestos de maestros bilingües a tiempo parcial, según un análisis de datos hecho por Chalkbeat.

Mientras tanto, en octubre de 2022 más de 6,000 maestros tenían acreditaciones en Educación Bilingüe o Inglés como Segundo Idioma (ESL).

Los maestros pueden obtener estas acreditaciones tomando cursos y mediante experiencia docente. Las acreditaciones en educación bilingüe también requieren que el maestro obtenga un diploma en un idioma que no sea inglés o pase un examen de dominio de ese idioma.

Sin embargo, no está claro cuáles de estos maestros utilizan activamente sus acreditaciones en el salón de clases.

El número de maestros con acreditación ha aumentado en los últimos años. El distrito subsidia parcialmente el costo de las acreditaciones de ESL y educación bilingüe, una disposición en el contrato actual del sindicato de maestros de Chicago (Chicago Teachers Union).

Ben Felton, jefe de talento de CPS, dijo que el distrito tiene como objetivo seguir aumentando la cifra de maestros con acreditaciones.

CPS también usa su programa de Residencia Docente para capacitar a maestros bilingües durante un año, atrayendo a personas que quieren cambiar de profesión o a personal de CPS que desea transferirse a un puesto de enseñanza.

“Nuestro programa de Residencia Docente es nuestra forma más segura de invertir en personal bilingüe para asegurar que se conviertan en maestros bilingües”, afirma Felton. “Este año también hemos sentido esta sensación de urgencia, sabiendo que hay recién llegados y necesitamos talento bilingüe, y estamos invirtiendo en eso”.

También es posible que haya personal en las escuelas que habla otro idioma, pero no cuenta con ninguno de estos títulos o acreditaciones.

Los servicios bilingües varían según la escuela y el idioma

La oleada más reciente de inmigrantes a Chicago procede principalmente de Venezuela, donde una crisis humanitaria y económica ha expulsado del país a millones de personas. El idioma oficial de Venezuela es español, pero los estudiantes están llegando a las escuelas con una gran variedad de idiomas y trasfondos culturales.

Por eso, incluso en los barrios donde hay más recursos en español y escuelas con más personal bilingüe, todavía hay retos, afirma Enríquez, el organizador de Little Village, una comunidad predominantemente mexicanoamericana.

Por ejemplo, dijo él, algunos estudiantes migrantes recientes hablan Kʼicheʼ, un idioma hablado por algunos indígenas de Guatemala, y estos estudiantes tienen que desenvolverse en la escuela sin mucho apoyo. Páez también señaló que los estudiantes llegan hablando Kichwa o quechua, el idioma indígena más hablado en las Américas.

El estado también requiere que los programas bilingües enseñen a los estudiantes la historia y la cultura de sus países de origen. Este tipo de currículo es crucial, dijo Andrea Ortiz, directora de organización del Brighton Park Neighborhood Council.

“Como distrito, tenemos que encontrar la manera de invertir y escuchar a nuestros maestros e incorporarlos en la creación de un currículo culturalmente relevante que hable del aumento de familias que se están mudando a la ciudad”, dijo. “Muchas de las familias que vienen son de Venezuela, y hay grandes diferencias culturales entre los venezolanos y otros latinos que están aquí”.

La traducción del currículo también puede ser un problema. El currículo universal opcional Skyline del distrito cuenta actualmente con cursos de ciencias sociales e historia universal traducidos a español para estudiantes desde PreKinder hasta octavo grado. CPS tiene planes de empezar cursos de matemáticas en español a finales de este mes. Este otoño, el distrito dijo que CPS comenzará a desarrollar clases de la lengua española.

Pero eso no resuelve las necesidades de aprendizaje de todos los estudiantes, dijo Kathryn Zamarron, maestra de música en CPS.

“No lo tenemos en urdu, en árabe, en amárico, en vietnamita”, dijo. “Ni siquiera es suficiente en español”.

La maestra sustituta a tiempo completo de CPS, Rebekah Amaya, dijo que los servicios bilingües son necesarios para los niños recién llegados, pero que también ayudarán a otros estudiantes. Ella trabaja en una escuela de Brighton Park, una comunidad predominantemente hispana y latina del Southwest Side.

“Va a beneficiar a los estudiantes que ya han carecido de esos recursos durante mucho tiempo, especialmente aquí en el South Side”, dijo ella. “Esto solo crea un catalizador para que trabajemos más duro para mejorar y aumentar nuestros servicios bilingües”.

Se necesitan servicios de apoyo para trauma y de salud mental

Amaya dijo que las escuelas pueden ser algo más que un lugar de aprendizaje: también son un medio para que los estudiantes se conecten con apoyo social, como comidas gratuitas y servicios de salud. Ella es voluntaria en la estación de policía del Distrito 9 y dice que en su inmensa mayoría, los padres esperan que sus hijos reciban servicios de salud mental en las escuelas.

Pero Amaya también dijo que no todas las escuelas tienen suficientes recursos para satisfacer esa necesidad, por lo que los planes de matrícula necesitan ser intencionales.

“A la larga, va a ser más beneficioso para los estudiantes y su entorno y su salud mental enviarlos a escuelas que puedan recibirlos y sí tengan esos servicios para ellos”, dijo Amaya.

En los últimos años, CPS ha duplicado la cantidad de trabajadores sociales y en el último expediente público de contratación ha presupuestado más de 630 puestos de trabajo social. El distrito también asignó $13 millones en nuevos fondos para enfermeras escolares, trabajadores sociales y administradores de casos en su presupuesto para el año fiscal 2024.

Pero según un análisis de Chalkbeat de la lista proporcionada por el distrito que muestra los maestros con acreditación en agosto, solamente un trabajador social tiene acreditación bilingüe o de ESL. Aproximadamente un 5% de los más de 800 consejeros del distrito y un 28% de los más o menos 250 administradores de casos tienen acreditación en educación bilingüe o de ESL; algunos quizás tengan ambas.

Los estudiantes inmigrantes tienen derecho legal a matricularse, pero aún pueden enfrentar inestabilidad

Este verano, CPS puso en marcha un centro piloto de bienvenida en la Roberto Clemente Community Academy, abierto a los estudiantes inmigrantes que viven en las comunidades de West Town y Humboldt Park. Las familias pueden matricular a sus hijos en CPS, y también conectarse con atención médica, apoyo de idioma y recursos de transporte.

Ese centro de bienvenida es un paso en la dirección correcta, dijo Amaya. Pero dijo que muchas más comunidades necesitan esos servicios. Ella dijo que una buena solución podría ser tener equipos móviles de matrícula, sobre todo teniendo en cuenta los problemas de vivienda y transporte a los que se enfrentan las familias.

“Muchas familias han tenido que viajar en dos o tres autobuses — durante varias horas — para llegar a un trabajo o a un centro médico”, nos dijo. “Es más importante ir a donde las familias están y hacérselo un poco más fácil”.

El alcalde Brandon Johnson habla en una conferencia de prensa en la Roberto Clemente Community Academy antes de la apertura del centro de bienvenida para familias recién llegadas a las Escuelas Públicas de Chicago. Este centro piloto atiende a las comunidades de West Town y Humboldt Park.

CPS trabaja con el Departamento de Servicios Humanos de Illinois y el Departamento de Familia y Servicios de Apoyo en los refugios para coordinar la matrícula de algunos estudiantes en refugios y hoteles, según el distrito.

Pero para las familias que están durmiendo en el piso de estaciones de policía y albergues, sin saber cuándo podrán vivir de forma permanente en otro lugar, matricular a sus hijos puede ser intimidante. Todas tienen la misma pregunta: ¿Qué ocurre si se matriculan en una escuela y luego se mudan al otro lado de la ciudad o hasta fuera de Chicago?

Según las leyes federales, los estudiantes en situación de residencia temporal tienen derecho legal a matricularse, aunque carezcan de los documentos necesarios, como prueba de residencia o historial médico.

Una vez matriculados, los niños también tienen derecho a permanecer matriculados en la misma escuela durante todo el año escolar y a recibir transporte, aunque se muden a otro lugar.

Pero permanecer en la misma escuela podría no ser algo práctico para todos los estudiantes. Zamorran, maestra de música en CPS, también trabaja como voluntaria en los distritos policiales del South Side, y dijo que la amenaza constante de mudarse afecta a los estudiantes. La idea de trasladar a un niño — después del largo viaje que ha tenido que soportar y después de matricularlo por fin en una escuela — puede ser dolorosa, nos dijo.

“Existe esta gran pregunta de: ¿Es esto otro trauma para mi hijo?,” dijo ella. “O sea, decirles: ‘Esta es tu comunidad y tú perteneces aquí’, ¿y luego sacarlos de ahí?”

Se necesita educación, recursos y vivienda, pero, según los defensores, también se necesita un hogar.

Enríquez — el organizador de Little Village — recuerda lo importante que fue ese sentimiento de hogar cuando de niño se mudó de México a Chicago. Por eso, Enríquez dijo que él y otros organizadores continuarán presionando al distrito y a la junta escolar para que les den suficientes recursos y apoyo a los recién llegados.

“Vamos a luchar para asegurar que tengamos una educación de calidad y una representación racial equitativa”, dijo Enríquez. “Y si no nos invitan a la mesa, traeremos nuestras propias sillas plegadizas”.

Postponed outdoor sports, water bottles, indoor recess: Chicago Public Schools outlines plan to deal with extreme heat

2023-08-23T15:43:08+00:00

No outdoor sports games or practices. Indoor recess. Full water bottles.

Chicago Public Schools sent an email to parents and blitzed them with robocalls Tuesday to outline how the district would deal with an extreme heat watch issued by the National Weather Service for this week.

Temperatures are expected to get close to 100 degrees on Wednesday, with a heat index of 109.

The district said in the letter that all outdoor sports games and practices will be postponed or moved inside on Wednesday and Thursday.

The move comes as districts around the Chicago area are canceling or shifting sports practices and games in response to the heat, ABC7 reports.

The Illinois High School Association, which governs high school athletics across the state, has a heat policy that requires districts to cancel outdoor workouts when temperatures exceed 89.9 degrees and postpone them until temperatures cool off.

On the first day of school Monday, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said all classrooms have air conditioning, but not all hallways. Many of the district’s aging buildings have had to be retrofitted and do not have strong cooling systems. The district said in the letter that staff will be available this week to fix any broken or malfunctioning air conditioning.

The district also urged students and staff to bring water bottles and keep them filled throughout the day. Officials noted that not every school has bottle fillers, but said students and staff can use sinks and water fountains.

Schools are also being encouraged to turn off the lights and pull down the shades in order to keep rooms cool.

In a statement released late Tuesday, Mayor Brandon Johnson said the district “has spent a lot of time adjusting resources and personnel” to address concerns and make sure buildings are cool enough to work and learn in. He noted that 12,000 water bottles have been donated by the private sector to students and staff.

On Monday, during visits to schools to mark the first day of classes, the mayor fielded several questions about how the looming hot temperatures would impact the district and pointed to his administration’s focus on “climate justice”. He also talked about the fight for air conditioning in classrooms during the 2012 Chicago Teachers Union strike. In 2014, then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel spent $100 million to install window units in classrooms.

Window air conditioners typically last five to 10 years. The district said it has 225 window units on hand if any currently installed in classrooms stop working. Officials could not say how many buildings rely on window units or have central air. Many newer facilities likely have more advanced cooling systems.

In a statement, a district spokesperson said improving school buildings is “a District priority.”

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Meet Giovanny Navarro, one of Chicago Public Schools’ newest teachers

2023-08-21T22:58:01+00:00

When Giovanny Navarro went back to Finkl Academy, where he had worked as a paraprofessional, he wasn’t sure his students would remember him. But as he walked into the classroom last year, they came running, some of them crying and giving him hugs.

“We miss you! When are you coming back?” Navarro recalls them saying.

The answer? Today.

For many students, it was the start of another school year. But for Navarro, it was a day full of firsts: His first day back at Finkl and his first time officially teaching solo.

Finkl Academy and other Chicago Public Schools welcomed students back on Aug. 21.

Last year, after working at Finkl for about four years, he took a break from the school — an intensive break — to learn from a mentor teacher at an elementary school in Englewood, while at the same time working on his master’s degree at National Louis University.

It’s all part of Chicago Public Schools’ Teacher Residency program. Launched in 2017, the program is tailored toward career-changers and district staff working in non-teaching positions, like Navarro. More than 150 teachers — the district’s largest group of residents since its launch — are in Navarro’s cohort. The vast majority are eligible to teach special education, early childhood education, or bilingual education, according to a CPS press release.

On Monday, Navarro said he was excited to be back and officially teaching at Finkl, a K-8 school where he’s spent years building relationships with children and their families. Finkl serves just over 200 students and is located between Pilsen and Little Village.

“It’s someone else’s kids, but they’re my students,” he said. “I always find ways to connect with them, to play with them, to teach them, to make their education memorable.”

Giovanny Navarro assists a student during a math class on the first day of school. In the corner, a math teacher also helps out a student. As a special education teacher, Navarro often collaborates, but this is the first year he is teaching without a mentor teacher.

He’s in his second year of his teacher residency. For the first year, residents are paired with a mentor teacher in a CPS school and paid roughly $40,000, according to the residency’s website. In the second year, they start teaching solo and earn a starting teacher salary of roughly $62,000. After completing the residency, teachers are expected to work for at least two more years in CPS.

The program aims to fill hard-to-staff positions, such as bilingual and special education teachers. Navarro is on his way to officially becoming both.

He still has some coursework to complete on his bilingual education endorsement, but Navarro grew up speaking Spanish. It’s a big part of why he chose to come back to Finkl — he said it’s where he feels like he can make the most impact. Nearly half of the students at Finkl come from non-English speaking homes and are learning English.

Navarro said he can relate. Around his sophomore year of high school, he migrated from Mexico to the U.S. and began learning English. Navarro said he hopes to help students like him to learn and believe in themselves. Over 5,000 new English learners joined the district over the course of last year.

“I have seen the struggle — how hard it is coming to a new country, where you don’t know people, you don’t know the language, the school looks totally different from other countries,” he said. “I want to be able to support students in not just education, but also in life.”

Navarro initially attended undergraduate school hoping to become a high school math teacher. But right after graduating, he started working in after-school programs at Finkl and said he fell in love with the work.

Since he had a secondary school teaching license, not an elementary school one, he couldn’t teach at Finkl right away. So he decided first to become a special education paraprofessional. But he said he saw an immediate need for special education teachers, especially teachers who could speak both English and Spanish.

After watching Navarro as a paraprofessional, Finkl Academy principal Nancy Quintana said she encouraged him to enroll in the residency program. Now, between his training in special education and his bilingual skills, she said, he could have been hired anywhere.

“There’s a national shortage, so he could have gone back to any school,” she said. “The mere fact that he came back to me is a true honor.”

Navarro said his training year required a lot of work — but ultimately felt rewarding. Both Navarro and his wife worked as teacher residents and returned to Finkl this year. In February, they had a baby boy. Juggling life, their own college work, and their jobs could get stressful, he said, but he’s grateful they could understand and support one another.

“We walked through this whole path together,” he said, “We both put a lot of effort into it. We were always doing what we had to and more.”

Giovanny Navarro stands in a math classroom at Finkl Academy. Throughout the day, he switches between classrooms.

This school year, Navarro said he’s mainly focused on understanding his students, from their motivations to their challenges. For some children, he said, school cannot be their number one priority.

“Sometimes we need to be able to identify who needs that extra help, and what are the reasons students are acting some way,” he said. “Seeing things on paper and seeing who does good and who doesn’t is easy — really looking, talking to them and finding the ‘why’ is what is hard.”

On Monday, he started laying some of that groundwork, spending most of the day getting to know his students and easing them back into learning.

He switched between classrooms, grades, and subjects. But no matter what or who or where he was teaching, he said he carried something with him: patience.

That’s his plan, for this first day and beyond.

Max Lubbers is a reporting intern for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Max at mlubbers@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools meets Aug. 21 deadline to train staff on restraint, seclusion, officials say

2023-08-21T22:04:28+00:00

Chicago Public Schools says it has met a state deadline to train school employees on the proper use of restraint, timeout, and seclusion, according to a press release Monday.

The district said it has met the Illinois State Board of Education’s Aug. 21 deadline to train two staff members per campus at 517 schools in de-escalation and physical restraint. The state board placed Chicago Public Schools under watch last fall after the district repeatedly failed to comply with state laws governing the use of restraint, timeout, and seclusion.

Over 3,000 staff members have completed training or are “in progress” at 513 district schools as of Aug. 21, similar to the district’s final count, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of the district’s public database. Of the staff members trained, about 1,300 are school security officers.

The district missed several deadlines throughout the 2022-23 school year to come into compliance. In the Monday press release, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said restraint should be the last resort in schools and thanked school officials for making sure that staff were trained.

“We are proud to start the new school year with staff appropriately trained at every school and will continue to prioritize this important training for our school staff,” Martinez said.

Over the last school year, the State Board of Education issued repeated warnings to Chicago Public Schools over the use of restraint and timeout in schools.

In an April 18 letter to the district, the state board said Chicago Public Schools is “jeopardizing the health and safety of students and staff” because staff were not properly trained in restraint and timeout.

Last school year, Chicago Public Schools reported 220 incidents of physical restraint and timeout, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat Chicago through a Freedom of Information Act request. The numbers were a slight increase over the previous school year when the district reported 205 incidents.

Prior to 2021, the district did not report physical restraint and timeout incidents to the state. The data showed that in the 2022-23 school year, 151 employees involved in incidents were not trained, while in 2021-22, 113 untrained staff members were involved.

Between school years 2021-22 and 2022-23, a majority of students involved in physical restraint and timeout incidents were identified as Black and male, the data showed.

Other issues cited in that letter included the use of outlawed methods of restraints, students placed in restraints for long periods of time, and failure to notify parents within 24 hours if their children were restrained.

Restraint, timeout, and seclusion are disciplinary methods used to prevent students from harming themselves or others in school buildings. The state defines restraint as when a school employee restricts a student’s movement. Timeout is when a student is removed from a class and seclusion involves confining a student to a room without adult supervision.

A state law passed in 2021 aimed to reduce the use of these tactics and keep students safe during incidents, but did not did not put an end to their use.

The changes in law came after a 2019 report from Chicago Tribune and ProPublica found that school employees at districts across the state were overusing these disciplinary methods on students. A majority of students who were restrained or placed in timeout were students with disabilities, but the misuse of restraint and timeout can target all students. Students with disabilities sometimes have physical restraints or timeouts written into their Individualized Education Programs under behavioral intervention plans.

In a joint press release on Monday, State Superintendent Tony Sanders said the state board will continue to work with CPS to maintain the training. “Having appropriately trained staff is critical in the rare situations when a student’s behavior puts them or others in imminent danger,” Sanders said in the release.

Chicago Public Schools also said in a release on Monday that it will continue to train school employees since training certifications expire every year. The district said it plans to train staff on timeout procedures by the end of the first quarter of the school year — which the State Board of Education noted was missing from the district’s training.

First day of school: Chicago Public Schools reopens under a new era of leadership

2023-08-21T21:28:02+00:00

Chicago Public Schools is officially back in session.

Mayor Brandon Johnson, the first Chicago mayor in recent history to send his children to public schools, kicked off the first day of classes by joining educators, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez, and Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates outside Beidler Elementary School on the West Side.

Under a sweltering sun at 8:30 a.m., Johnson greeted parents and children in front of a chorus of reporters and cameras, before ringing the ceremonial bell to start the school year.

The joint appearance with Davis Gates, Martinez, and other district and union officials was unsurprising for the union-friendly mayor who came up through the CTU’s ranks, but still a break from the past when the union and City Hall officials would visit schools separately.

Despite the district facing a number of challenges ahead, including unreliable bus transportation, ongoing enrollment shifts, and an influx of immigrant students, Johnson focused on a new era of collaboration at the city’s public schools.

Later in the morning, after touring two other campuses, Johnson visited Kenwood Academy, where his son is now a sophomore.

Speaking to a history class, he likened the first-day icebreakers the teacher was doing to what he’s doing as the city’s new mayor.

“I hope that you will lean into the collaborative approach that your teacher is taking, because that is what we’re doing as a city,” Johnson told the students. “We’re building relationships, we’re collaborating so that we can make collective decisions together that ultimately can help transform people’s lives.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates, and other city hall, school district, and union officials pose for a photo inside a classroom at Kenwood Academy on the South Side.

CPS claws back from enrollment losses

Visiting Beidler was a symbolic choice for the mayor. The school narrowly escaped closure about a decade ago and is now part of a program Johnson wishes to expand: the Sustainable Community Schools initiative, which aims to provide wraparound services and more programming for students and families.

But Beidler is among several other schools in the program that have lost at least a quarter of their enrollment since the initiative started.

The official enrollment count will not be known until after the 20th day of school in September. But last year, 80,000 fewer students were enrolled in Chicago Public Schools than there were a decade ago and it is now the nation’s fourth largest school district. Chicago’s declining enrollment predated the emergence of COVID-19, but continued during the pandemic.

And for many parents and kids arriving at Beidler Monday morning, more pressing thoughts — like wishing for a great year — were at the forefront. Dondneja Wilson hoped that her daughter, who started preschool, would “grow, and learn, and have fun.”

“She likes kids a lot, so I feel like that’s going to be her favorite part,” Wilson said.

Dondneja Wilson and her daughter pose for a picture outside of Beidler Elementary School.

Last year, data from the last day of school in June obtained by Chalkbeat showed little change in overall enrollment. However, the number of English learners grew by more than 5,000 students. District officials have pointed to the increase as an approximation of how many migrant students have arrived on buses in the past year.

Chicago is seeing an influx of newcomers, many of whom are seeking asylum, arriving by bus from the southern border in Texas.

The number of bilingual teachers in CPS has dipped since 2015, even as the English learner population has grown, according to a recent Chalkbeat analysis. While 6,900 teachers have earned bilingual education endorsements — more than ever before, according to the district — it’s unclear how many are actually assigned to teach bilingual education.

Educators and immigrant advocates have expressed concerns about whether schools can properly support these new students. Jianan Shi, president of the Board of Education, said the city’s new welcome center for migrant students on the West Side has enrolled “hundreds” of newcomer students. He’s requested more information on the system’s overall strategy for supporting newcomers.

A classroom door welcomes students in Spanish at Kenwood Academy in Hyde Park.

Outside Beidler, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez told reporters that “the biggest challenge” is ensuring that all newcomers are registered in school, but he said the district is well-positioned to serve them, noting that Chicago has one of the largest bilingual and dual language programs in the nation. About one-fifth of the city’s students are English language learners.

“The challenge we have right now is, again, keeping up with all the new asylum-seekers that are coming in, going to them, making sure that we’re able to register them, assess them,” Martinez said. “But we’re doing that as we speak now.”

Transportation woes continue on first day

Transportation woes that have plagued the district for the last few years also cropped up on the first day, as parents reported problems with bus routes and trips that took more than an hour.

Laurie Viets, a CPS parent of three children – two of whom have transportation written into an Individualized Education Program – said the district promised to have all transportation issues resolved by last Friday.

However, Viets found out on Friday that one of her children, a seventh grader, was not going to have transportation and another child, a first-year high school student, would have a long bus route. Today, it took 70 minutes to get to school; it’s normally a 12-minute car ride, Viets said.

Viets said she wished Chicago Public Schools would have given her more time to prepare for changes in the transportation plans. Now, she won’t have transportation for one of her children for up to two weeks and she is concerned that her other child will be on the bus without air conditioning in extreme heat until they shorten his route.

The district’s bus problems stem back to 2021, the first year back to full-time, in-person school after COVID forced CPS to close buildings in March 2020. Students were left waiting on the first day and beyond for buses that never showed. In emergency mode at that time, the district began offering $1,000 stipends for rideshare services such as Lyft and Uber. But the transportation troubles continued well into the school year.

Last year, some 365 students were waiting for bus routes the first week of school and in September, district officials said they were still working to reduce 90-minute rides for some students.

The district has blamed and continues to point to a nationwide bus driver shortage as causing the transportation troubles. It signed a $4 million contract with a longtime vendor and bus-routing software company to try to fix the issues.

But last month, on July 31, district officials announced that it would not be able to transport roughly 8,000 students on the first day of school. They offered $500 monthly stipends to families of CPS students with disabilities or those in temporary living situations. Both groups are legally entitled to transportation. The district said at the time that 3,000 students had chosen the stipend option.

Davis Gates called the transportation troubles “a disaster” and a “failure of privatization.” CPS contracts with private bus companies to provide students with transportation. Davis Gates said she would like to see the district bring busing “in-house” and experiment with having its own fleet of buses that could start small by covering field trips and sporting events and then grow.

“These are Band-Aid approaches. I have not seen anything transformative or revolutionary in this space. And again, three strikes you’re out,” she said. “This isn’t a good way to start the school year with respect to transportation.”

The district has previously increased pay rates for bus driver companies, and is hoping to do so again this year. Martinez said he hopes that will help fill the driver shortage.

Viets, the parent worrying about her children’s transportation, said more needs to be done.

“Next year, if CPS is going to start by Aug. 21, by Aug. 1 they should know what the routes are,” said Viets.

If Chicago finalizes plans the Friday before the start of school, she said, the district is “not giving parents any kind of respect at all. They’re not giving us an opportunity to make other plans when they mess up.”

As Viets noted, the extreme heat also adds to worries about long bus rides. The weather also raises concerns about conditions inside buildings once students arrive.

Air-conditioning, aging buildings prompt push for green schools

With temperatures expected to reach 100 degrees this week, Martinez said his team worked “around the clock” to ensure classrooms are equipped with air conditioning this week.

Martinez said every classroom has at least a window unit, a key union demand during the CTU’s 2012 strike that was implemented a couple of years later by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Still, in some cases, hallways are not air-conditioned, Martinez said.

Johnson has touted “climate justice” as a key focus of his administration and reiterated Monday that includes schools.

“Having buildings that are retrofitted, as well as an economy that’s built around green technology, some of that is top of mind,” he said.

Davis Gates used this week’s weather forecast to illustrate climate change’s impact on the city and why it underscores the urgent need for a new CPS facilities master plan, which hasn’t been updated since 2018. She added that building greener schools will be one issue the union will bargain over ahead of its contract expiration in 2024.

The school calendar’s pre-Labor Day start is an issue Davis Gates would immediately bargain over, she said. The late August start date began in 2021, matching up with many suburban districts.

The union was not able to bargain over the school calendar in 2019, Davis Gates said. But the passage of a 2021 state law reinstating some of the CTU’s bargaining rights could allow the calendar to be back on the table. The union’s contract expires next June and it’s likely the district and new mayor will begin negotiations with the teachers this winter.

The larger issues that officials highlighted were likely not top of mind for many students, such as 5-year-old Pierre, who started kindergarten at Beidler.

Asked what he was most excited about this school year, Pierre replied, “Playing.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s first day of school is almost here. Here are five things we’re watching this year.

2023-08-18T20:42:43+00:00

Chicago Public Schools’ estimated 320,000 students will head back to class Monday for a school year that will be marked by old issues — and some new concerns.

The district’s enrollment has been dwindling for at least a decade, raising questions about how to best fund schools still recovering from the effects of the pandemic.

Funding overall has become more complicated as the city’s federal COVID relief dollars dry up. Much of that money has been used for supporting existing and additional staff, many of them providing extra academic support for students.

As the district decides on how, if at all, to continue funding some of those programs, it must also contend with the continued enrollment of incoming immigrant students.

Here are five issues Chalkbeat Chicago will be watching this school year:

A fiscal cliff is approaching

This is the last full school year before Chicago must earmark how to spend what’s left of nearly $3 billion it received in COVID relief aid from the federal government. The deadline is September 2024.

That means the district will soon be staring down a financial hole that has been filled by that influx of federal funds since the pandemic.

The district spent a large share of pandemic relief money on staff salaries and benefits. The district also spent hundreds of millions of dollars on academic recovery efforts, including after-school programs, an in-house tutor corps, and more counselors, social workers, and other support staff.

District officials have projected a budget shortfall of $628 million by the 2025-26 school year, raising questions about how Chicago will sustain any programs and services supported by the federal dollars.

A financial analysis released under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot noted that CPS “will not have a funding source” to keep up these academic recovery and social-emotional learning efforts.

As the district’s financial picture is becoming more precarious, Mayor Brandon Johnson has shared lofty plans for schools, including expanding the Community Schools model — leaving complicated financial decisions ahead.

The district’s state funding could also be in jeopardy if it fails to comply with a state law requiring that at least two staffers at each school are trained on the use of student restraint and timeout. The deadline for that, coincidentally, is the first day of school.

Student academic needs persist

Three years since the onset of the COVID pandemic, there are still signs Chicago students need extra help in the classroom. Students appear to be improving in reading achievement, but they’re gaining less ground in math, according to recent state test scores obtained by Chalkbeat.

As the district’s COVID dollars fade out, questions remain about how district officials will approach academic recovery, and whether there will be efforts to keep any of the extra support CPS has funded with the federal dollars.

Some of those COVID dollars went toward the creation of a $135 million universal curriculum called Skyline, which has received mixed reviews. The district has pressed schools not yet using the curriculum to prove they’re using another high-quality option, so it’s possible more campuses will use Skyline this year.

Additionally, Illinois’ General Assembly passed a new law requiring the State Board of Education to create a literacy plan for schools, which is due by the end of January 2024.

District grapples with continued dipping enrollment

Chicago’s public school enrollment has dipped by 9% since the pandemic began — a trend also seen among other big-city school districts — and is almost one-fifth smaller than it was a decade ago. Last year’s enrollment dip of 9,000 students was enough to push the district’s ranking from the country’s third largest public school system to the number 4 spot.

This year’s enrollment figures won’t be publicly released until later this fall.

As the district’s student body has thinned out, funding has grown — to $9.4 billion for the upcoming school year. Still, as the district has logged fewer students — including those from low-income families — CPS has in recent years received less state funding than it has projected. And with COVID aid running out, officials must grapple with how to fund schools serving a fraction of the kids they used to. (There is a citywide moratorium on school closures until 2025.)

Some advocacy and interest groups, including the teachers union, believe funding should be divorced from enrollment, in part because investing fewer dollars will only encourage more families to leave or to never enroll in public schools. Just over 40% of new budgets for schools this year was determined by student enrollment, with the rest accounting for other factors, such as student demographics.

Still, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez has emphasized that the district can’t factor out enrollment.

“In a large school district where schools serve 40 students, 400 students, and even 4,000 students, enrollment simply has to play a role in our funding formula,” Martinez previously told reporters.

Increase in migrant students poses new challenges

Last year, Texas officials began busing newly arrived migrants to Democratic-led cities, including Chicago. Since then, an estimated 12,000 migrants, many of whom are fleeing economic and political turmoil from South and Central American countries, have arrived in Chicago, While the district won’t say how many such students have enrolled, CPS saw roughly 5,400 new English learners last school year, Chalkbeat found.

Most Chicago schools have previously struggled with providing adequate language instruction for English learners. And with the city expecting more newcomers, educators and immigrant advocates recently told Chalkbeat that schools are not adequately resourced to serve these new students.

Some of these children may arrive without years of formal education and, if they’re learning English as a new language, are legally required to receive extra support.

The district’s number of bilingual teachers has dropped since 2015 even as the English learner population has grown, according to a Chalkbeat analysis. More teachers have earned bilingual education endorsements, which allows them to teach, but it’s unclear whether any of those educators are using those endorsements in the classroom.

District officials will be tasked with how to properly support these students. Officials had previously promised to release a formal plan by the first day of school but have not done so yet.

No district maps yet for the elected school board

As Chicago prepares to begin electing school board members next fall over the next two years, lawmakers have yet to approve maps that would designate which districts each board member would be elected from in the first round of elections. Ten members will be elected in November 2024, while the rest will be elected in November 2026, for a total of 21 members.

Illinois state lawmakers are in charge of approving those maps. In May, they extended their deadline to April 1, 2024, after concerns over whether the maps would match the makeup of the district’s student body or the city’s overall demographics.

Some observers cheered the extension. However, the delay presents new complications. If maps are not approved until April, the campaign season for the first set of districts would last just seven months, making it potentially challenging for candidates to prepare and for voters to have enough information ahead of Election Day.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools scales back COVID guidance

2023-08-16T23:15:53+00:00

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Nicole Abreu’s daughter Alexis is excited about starting sixth grade at Friedrich L. Jahn Elementary School next week. It will be the medically fragile 12-year-old’s first time back to school in person after being homeschooled last year and she can’t wait to meet other kids.

But her mom is concerned that Chicago Public Schools had yet to announce COVID-19 guidance when the start of school is only a few days away.

“Do kids even still have to report if they have COVID? Is there a quarantine period?” said Abreu. “It is unsettling to be a few days from school and not know.”

Parents like Abreu, who decided to homeschool her immunocompromised daughter and two other children last year, say they have heard little from the district about COVID-19 mitigations for the coming school year.

But during a school board committee meeting Wednesday, Jamie Tully, the district’s director of Health Information and Response, outlined a pared-down approach: The district will no longer do in-school COVID testing, but will provide at-home rapid tests to students and staff when an exposure occurs and ahead of breaks around Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Quarantine requirements and care rooms in schools are now gone, but close contacts will be encouraged to mask for 10 days, Tully said. CPS will also continue to collect and report data on cases and vaccinations.

The looser guidelines reflect a shift for Chicago since the height of the pandemic when the district struggled to reopen during the school year 2020-21. Once schools fully reopened during the 2021-22 school year, the district ramped up testing and vaccinating students across the city.

“I think the most important thing that we can communicate, particularly right now around COVID-19, is please stay up-to-date on your vaccinations and stay home when you’re sick,” Tully told board members on Wednesday.

The scaled-down mitigations come as cases are ticking up across the nation and at a time of uncertainty for the city’s public health department after Mayor Brandon Johnson fired Chicago’s Public Health Commissioner Allison Arwady late last Friday. The move seemed abrupt, but Johnson committed to firing Arwady while on the campaign trail, stating that the two have different views on public health.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, the Illinois State Board of Education updated public health guidance for schools on a monthly basis. After federal and state emergency orders were lifted in May, wearing masks, weekly testing, vaccinations, and social distancing were no longer required for students across Illinois.

Coronavirus cases increased in late summer across the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported last Friday to the CDC that Illinois had a low level for COVID-19 hospital admissions as of the end of July. The department said that it will continue to monitor for COVID-19 data and other respiratory diseases as the fall and winter seasons start.

As of Aug. 15, Chicago Public Schools reported that 85 adults and 11 students have self-reported coronavirus cases.

Students are encouraged to get vaccinated

Chicago is hosting several back-to-school events this week where students can get vaccinated for COVID-19 and required childhood vaccinations for diseases such as measles, mumps, and chickenpox before heading back to classrooms.

As of the end of last school year, around 48% of eligible students had been fully vaccinated against COVID. Those numbers could backslide as they did last year with a new group of incoming kindergarten and pre-K students entering and high school seniors graduating. All ages are eligible for vaccination and boosters.

The federal government announced that an updated COVID vaccine that will target the latest variants responsible for a majority of new cases will be available in the fall.

Chicago shifts away from school-based testing

Last school year, just over 13% of Chicago Public Schools students opted into school-based COVID testing and the district also distributed about 1 million rapid tests.

CPS has 650,000 rapid tests in storage that can be distributed this year, Tully said. The district is asking the Chicago Board of Education to approve a contract with Fisher Scientific worth up to $5 million to purchase 500,000 more at-home COVID tests for students and staff to be distributed based on demand at schools during the 2023-24 school year.

The proposed contract for next school year would be a tiny fraction of the company’s previous contracts with the district to provide COVID testing to students and staff. Publicly-posted invoices show the company billed Chicago Public Schools $62 million from July 2022 to May 2023. The previous school year, the company billed the district $78 million for COVID testing.

In the fall of 2021, the University of Illinois’ Shield testing program was at over 1,700 K-12 schools and tested almost 113,000 school employees and about 900,000 students. The program gave Illinois school districts the ability to test students for the coronavirus by taking a sample of saliva and results would come back in less than 24 hours. The University of Illinois decided to end this COVID-19 testing program in June.

Expert urges schools to take safety measures

In July, the Illinois State Board of Education and the state department of public health adopted CDC guidelines for schools that were updated in May. The guidance says students should stay up-to-date on vaccinations for COVID-19 and other illnesses. When feeling sick, students are encouraged to stay home and schools can use COVID-19 testing to confirm or rule out COVID-19.

Daniel Johnson, a pediatric infectious disease expert at the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, said schools are a place where children can pick up COVID-19, which they could then share with their households.

“It’s incumbent upon all of us to be thoughtful about how we minimize the risk of getting COVID in a school setting while recognizing the importance of children going to school,” said Johnson “So children to conduct their lives, both socially and educationally, in as much a normal way as they possibly can.”

Johnson recommends that everyone gets vaccinated or get a booster if they have not been vaccinated in the last six months. If a child is sick, they should stay at home and get tested to confirm whether or not they have the coronavirus.

He recommended that schools should have good ventilation to circulate fresh air in classrooms and allow students to wash their hands or use sanitizer.

For immunocompromised children such as Abreu’s daughter Alexis, Johnson said he would recommend that students go to school, but they should be vaccinated.

Parents should encourage children to wear masks in the classroom and parents should tell their schools that they want to be informed if their child is exposed to COVID-19.

“Everything should be done to try and keep children in school and as safe as possible,” Johnson said.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Get free school supplies, food, and more at these 42 back-to-school events in Chicago

2023-08-14T17:55:28+00:00

Chicago Public Schools students head back to class Aug. 21 — parents, hold your applause — and many community groups, churches, businesses, and schools are pitching in to prepare students for the school year.

School supplies can be expensive, so many families rely on events where organizers give away notebooks, pens, pencils, crayons, and other essentials.

Our partners at Block Club Chicago rounded up more than 40 giveaways or fundraisers you can check out in your area before the first day of school.

Is there an event missing? Email newsroom@BlockClubChi.org with the info!

The Emamifard family picks out new backpacks for the school year during a back-to-school backpack giveaway and fair event at Eugene Field Elementary School in Rogers Park on Aug. 5, 2022.

South/Southwest Side

Gary Comer Youth Center Greater Together Community Block Party

4-6 p.m., Aug. 11

7200 S. Ingleside Ave.

The Gary Comer Youth Center will have live music, dancing, games, art, resources, barbecue food, and giveaways of school supplies.

Break Bread Back-To-School BBQ

4-7 p.m., Aug. 12

1615 W. 79th St.

A free back-to-school barbecue.

Back-To-School Bash at Stoney Island Plaza

Noon-3 p.m., Aug. 12

Stony Island Plaza and 95th Ave., parking lot near DD’s Discounts and Oak Street Health

South Siders can check out this event with face painting, music, balloon artists, bubbles, games, crafts for kids, and free hair styling.

Kids Off The Block Back-To-School Event

1-5 p.m., Aug. 12

11618 S. Michigan Ave.

Neighbors are invited to join Kids Off The Block for free food, music, raffles with prizes, a backpack and school supply giveaway, and more.

Back-To-School Health Fair

Noon-4 p.m., Aug. 12

Allen Metropolitan C.M.E. Church, 10946 S. Lowe Ave.

Vision screenings, and eyeglass cleaning and repairs from The Eyebar Optics, plus dental supplies, scholarship resources, community resources, free school supplies, music, raffles, food, local vendors, and more will all be part of this event.

The Nurmukhamedou family receives free backpacks.

Brightpoint and One Summer Chicago Mural and Back-To-School Block Party

1-4 p.m., Aug. 12

5958 S. Marshfield Ave.

Brightpoint, formerly known as Children’s Home and Aid, is unveiling a mural painted by One Summer Chicago youth at its South Side office. The event will also have games, music, free lunch and snacks, prizes and giveaways, a petting zoo, community resources, dental, health and wellness information, and free backpacks with school supplies and hygiene kits.

Community Resource and Back-2-School Fair

3-6 p.m., Aug. 12

Parking lot of Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church, 7851 S. Jeffery Blvd.

The Central South Shore Area Council is hosting a free fair with food, music, games, and giveaways.

Crandon Community Garden Back-To-School Backpack Bash

12:30-3:30 p.m. Aug. 13

71st Street and Crandon Avenue

The Crandon Community Garden will have food, games, activities, and a backpack giveaway. Children must be present to receive a backpack.

3rd Annual 114th and Forrestville Almost End of Summer Block Party

11 a.m.-4 p.m., Aug. 13

114th Street and Forrestville Avenue

There will be face painting, a bounce house, jewelry making, music, games, and a school supply giveaway.

Kids rock free backpacks they received during a back-to-school backpack giveaway in 2022.

CROC Center Back-To-School Health Fair

1-5 p.m., Aug. 16

The Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center Chicago, 1250 W. 119th St.

This event will include food, games, school vaccinations and physicals, dental exams, a farmers market, and more.

Englewood Back-To-School Bash

2-6 p.m. Aug. 17

Former Englewood High School Campus, 6201 S. Stewart Ave.

This event from Chicago Public Schools and Englewood Community Action Council will have food trucks, ice cream, pony rides, a petting zoo, aviation bus, creativity bus, inflatables, NASCAR RC racing, and more. There will also be school supply and laptop giveaways, music and entertainment, free school physicals, and driver’s licenses and state ID services. Children must be present to receive school supplies.

This is Life Back-To-School Event

4-7 p.m., Aug. 18

Salvation Army Adele Red Shield Center, 945 W. 69th St.

This event will have games, music, free haircuts, giveaways of backpacks and school supplies, and more.

Back-To-School Event at McKay Elementary School

10 a.m.-Noon., Aug. 18

6938 S. Washtenaw Ave.

This event will have food, music, and backpack giveaways.

Back-To-School Party from Free Street

11 a.m.-3 p.m., Aug. 18

Davis Square Park, 4430 S. Marshfield Ave.

Davis Square Park will have live music and poetry, local vendors, and a school supply giveaway of free backpacks, notebooks, and more.

Juana picks out a new backpack.

62nd Annual Englewood Back 2 School Parade

10 a.m.-2 p.m. Aug. 19

Ogden Park, 6500 S. Racine St.

At this free event, community members can enjoy a parade with bands, organizations and dancing teams, inflatables, water slides, food, giveaways of book bags and school supplies, entertainment, and a yoga demonstration.

L.Y.D. Back-To-School Bash

11 a.m.-2 p.m., Aug. 19

6033 S. Cottage Grove Ave.

At this event from the Live Your Dreams Foundation, there will be food and a first-come, first-served backpack with school supplies giveaway. The giveaway will start at noon and continue until supplies are exhausted.

Back-To-School Skate Party

4-6 p.m., Aug. 19

The Rink, 1122 E. 87th St.

The Rink is hosting a skate party to celebrate back-to-school season. Tickets are $15 and include a complimentary skate rental.

Back-To-School Celebration

10 a.m.-2 p.m., Aug. 19

Mahalia Jackson Court, 1 E. 79th St.

Food trucks, music, games, and a school supply giveaway will be part of this South Side celebration.

Back-To-School Party

2:30-5 p.m., Aug. 19

Archer Dental, 5200 S. Archer Ave. #3

Enjoy popcorn and slushies, games. raffles for electric toothbrushes, a Waterpik, and free exams and X-rays; meet the Archer Dental team and more.

5th Ward Office Back-To-School Bash

1-4 p.m., Aug. 20

63rd Street Beach, 6300 S. Lake Shore Drive

Ald. Desmon Yancy (5th) is hosting this South Side event with food, inflatables, activities, and a backpack giveaway. Children must be with an adult to participate.

Ald. Michelle A. Harris 2023 Back-To-School Jamboree

10 a.m., Aug. 26

Jesse Owens Park, 8800 S. Clyde Ave.

Eighth Ward residents can attend the alderwoman’s jamboree with food, music, haircuts and hair styling, games, and giveaways of backpacks and school supplies.

Veteran’s Back-To-School Picnic

11 a.m.-3 p.m., Aug. 26

11901 S. Ashland Ave.

Multi-Faith Veterans Initiative at Christ Universal Temple is hosting an event with food trucks, games, activities, a backpack giveaway (children must be present), as well as physical and dental exams.

Back-To-School Block Party

11 a.m. Aug. 26

5349 S. Wabash Ave.

Families can learn about fire safety at this back-to-school event from the Black Fire Brigade.

School buses and an American flag at the front of North-Grand High School in Chicago. Photo by Stacey Rupolo / Chalkbeat —May, 2019 photo—

North/Northwest Side

Helendora Samuels Picture Framing Back-To-School Drive

Ongoing through end of August

1736 W. North Ave.

This Wicker Park framing shop is collecting school supplies for the community throughout August. Backpacks filled with lined paper and notebooks, two-pocket folders, pencils, pens, crayons, and colored pencils can be dropped from 1-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday at the shop.

Annual Back-To-School Fundraiser

The Honeycomb Network, 2659 W. Division St.

4-7 p.m., Aug. 12

The Human Values Collective is hosting a fundraiser to support its operations.

Four Point Play’s 3rd Annual Back-To-School Basketball Clinic

1-4 p.m., Aug. 12

Moody Bible Institute (Solheim Center), 900 N. Wells St.

Four Point Play is hosting a basketball clinic for youth to practice their playing skills, with activities, drills, and more. There will also be special guests with presentations, a school supply giveaway, raffles of gift cards, and Chromebooks.

Back-To-School Fair + Mercado at Kelvyn Park

10 a.m.-1 p.m., Aug. 12

Kelvyn Park, 4438 W. Wrightwood Ave.

Free school supplies and backpacks, a vendor fair, food, raffles, face painting, kids’ activities, COVID-19 and flu vaccinations, and more will all be part of this event from the Kelvyn Park Advisory Council.

Hameedah picks out a new backpack for the school year.

The Near Northside 4TH Annual Back-To-School Drive

Noon-4 p.m. Aug. 13

Near North (18th) District police station, 1160 N. Larrabee St.

Jalisa Ford is hosting a back-to-school drive in honor of her son, 9-year-old Janari Andre Ricks, who was fatally shot in 2020. School supplies, book bags, snacks and beverages, and gift cards are being collected through Aug. 12. There’s an online Amazon registry and GoFundMe campaign for monetary donations. Donors can receive the drop-off location by emailing 1jarfoundation@gmail.com.

Second Annual Back-To-School Block Party

3-6 p.m. Aug. 13

4444 N. Milwaukee Ave.

This event from The Made Shop, Chicago Music and Acting Academy, Downstage Arts, and local officials will have free food, ice cream, school supplies, and backpacks, plus activities and a karaoke competition. RSVP online.

Back-To-School Carnival

10 a.m.-3 p.m. Aug. 13

Building Blocks Toy Store, 3306 N. Lincoln Ave.

The event at Building Blocks Toy Store will have face painting, games, prizes, and more. Those who reserve a spot online can get five complimentary tickets for games and activities.

Back-To-School Bash (Rogers Park)

10 a.m.-2 p.m., Aug. 15

Field Elementary School, 7019 N. Ashland Blvd.

CPS parents can meet teachers, staff and other families, learn about resources, get questions answered, and receive free school supplies.

The Howard family wears their new backpacks and enjoy snacks at a back-to-school event in 2022.

26th Ward Back-To-School Fair

3-5 p.m., Aug. 16

North Grand High School, 4338 W. Wabansia Ave.

This free event hosted by Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th) and Rep. Lilian Jiménez will have a backpack and school supply giveaway, free haircuts, food and beverages, games, resources, and more.

CTU Back-2-School Summer Jam

3:30-7 p.m., Aug. 18

1901 W. Carroll Ave.

The Chicago Teachers Union will have free school supply and backpack giveaway, haircuts, medical and dental checkups, and more. Parents can RSVP online.

Youth For A Better Future Back-To-School Event

10 a.m.-Noon, Aug. 19; 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Aug 20

Wild Mile Chicago, 1550 N. Kingsbury St.

Families can get active through this Zumba- and yoga-based event on Saturday. On Sunday, families can participate in kayaking.

Free backpacks passed out during a giveaway.

West/Near West Side

John Walt Foundation “Feed the Westside” 4th Annual Back To School Event

Noon-5 p.m., Aug. 12

La Follette Park, 1333 N. Laramie Ave.

This event will have giveaways of backpacks with school supplies and free groceries, a DJ, free haircuts and hairstyling (including braids and loc retwisting), games, and more. Children must be present to receive a backpack and children must come with their hair shampooed and dried to receive a haircut or styling.

Bricktown Square Back-To-School Bash

10 a.m.-2 p.m., Aug. 12

Bricktown Square, 6560 W. Fullerton Ave. (parking lot near Ald. Gil Villegas’ 36th Ward office).

Families can enjoy face painting, balloon artists, music, costumed characters, and more.

ITAV Back-To-School Block Party

10 a.m.-2 p.m. Aug. 19

4000 W. Division St.

The It Takes A Village family of schools will have a back-to-school block party with live entertainment, food, bounce house, DJs, and local vendors. There will also be dental and physical examinations available.

I Got Da Juice Chi Back-To-School Event

2422 W. Roosevelt Road

1-6 p.m., Aug. 20

There will be food, music, activities for kids and a giveaway for all registered attendees. Giveaway prizes will include sneakers, book bags, gift cards, and more. Raffle tickets for the giveaway are $1.

Chicago students walk through the halls at Lake View High School.

Back-To-School Bash (Little Village)

10 a.m.-2 p.m., Aug. 15

Finkl Elementary School, 2332 S. Western Ave.

A CPS event for La Villita neighbors.

Back-To-School Bash (Near West Side)

10 a.m.-2 p.m., Aug. 16

Crane High School, 2245 W. Jackson Blvd.

Parents can meet teachers, staff and other families, learn about resources, get questions answered, and receive free school supplies.

H&K’s Back-To-School Fest

Noon-3 p.m., Aug. 18

5655 W. Fillmore St.

This event will have food, giveaways, and more.

Downtown

Back-To-School with the American Writers Museum

4-6 p.m., Aug. 16

American Writers Museum, 180 N. Michigan Avenue, 2nd Floor

Attendees can explore the museum’s offerings, including exhibits for students grade 6th-12th. There will also be a presentation by museum staff and curricula designer, Critical Learning Collaborative. Complimentary snacks plus non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages will be served.

This story was originally published in Block Club Chicago.

Chicago will get smaller share of state’s increased K-12 education budget for second year in a row

2023-08-09T19:28:21+00:00

Chicago Public Schools will once again get less state education money than officials anticipated, according to new data released by the state on Tuesday.

Although Chicago will still see an increase in state education funding, a drop in the percentage of students considered low-income and a bump in property wealth in the city means the district is not getting the largest share of the new money.

In May, state lawmakers passed a $50.6 billion state budget that allocated $10.3 billion to education. That included a $350 million increase to be distributed to K-12 school districts through an evidence-based formula.

Chicago was expecting to get $27 million of that increase. But new calculations posted on the Illinois State Board of Education website show that the state is allocating $23.3 million of the increase to CPS.

The largest share of the state’s new K-12 funding – $35 million – will go to Elgin U-46, Illinois’ second largest district. Plainfield School District 202, the state’s fifth largest district, will receive $13.1 million of the increase.

In all, Chicago will get $1.77 billion in K-12 funding, up from $1.75 billion last year. The amount doesn’t include millions it gets for things such as pre-K and transportation. The new state data indicates CPS is now getting more than $17,000 per student from the state and is considered 80% of the way to “adequately funded.”

A district spokesperson did not say how the change might impact the already-approved $9.4 billion budget. In a statement, they said the district is “eager to work with the General Assembly toward increased and targeted State funding that more equitably supports the students most in need in Chicago and across Illinois.”

Last year, Chicago Public Schools planned on getting $50 million in new state money, but instead received a little more than $27 million after losing 10,000 students and seeing an increase in property wealth.

Funding for public education has been steadily increasing in Illinois since 2017, when state lawmakers overhauled the formula used to distribute tax dollars to school districts. The goal was to add more money over time to bring all districts to a level of “adequacy” and shed Illinois’ reputation as a state that ranked near the bottom when it came to support for public education.

“When you consider how much progress Illinois has made in the last five years, it’s nothing short of remarkable,” said Robin Steans, president of Advance Illinois, a nonprofit advocacy and policy organization based in Chicago that focuses on public school education. “But that does not mean our work is done.”

Steans said the latest calculations make her hopeful that the state can fully fund schools in the next five years, but there is still a need to increase state funding for schools by at least $550 million a year to reach that goal.

Lawmakers have increased education funding every year since 2018, with the exception of 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

State education officials calculate how much each school district gets based on a number of factors, including the needs of the students enrolled and a local district’s ability to fund schools using local resources such as property taxes. For example, districts that serve more students from low-income families or English language learners get more state money.

Chicago Public Schools is facing a looming deficit when federal COVID recovery money runs out next fall. District officials and school board members have said they hope for more state funding to fill the gap.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Ready for school? Here’s what five Chicago teachers are doing to prepare for the new year.

2023-08-07T19:00:03+00:00

With just a couple of weeks left until summer vacation is over, more than 20,000 Chicago teachers are getting ready to welcome students into their classrooms on the first day of school, Aug. 21.

Teachers are stocking up on supplies during back-to-school sales, holding meet-and-greets with students and parents, putting together lesson plans, and decorating their classrooms.

Schools have bounced back since the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered school buildings in 2020, and students learned remotely. Now, mitigation measures have eased, many school-age children have received vaccinations, and schools are fully functioning.

This year, there’s a new normal for schools and teachers. Schools are about to face a financial cliff as emergency federal relief funds will dry up in 2024. And some educators have cited that more students are coming to schools with mental health concerns and behavioral issues.

Five Chicago teachers spoke to Chalkbeat Chicago about their preparations for the first day and what they expect this year. Overall, they say they are excited and are looking forward to what this school year will bring.

Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Cornelius Bellamy, a ninth grade teacher at Intrinsic Schools Downtown Campus, is seen working with a group of students.

Cornelius Bellamy

Intrinsic Schools Downtown Campus

Favorite school item: Flair pens

Bellamy will be teaching ninth grade students, guiding them through their transition to high school, and introducing them to college and career aspirations. Bellamy says that he is one of those teachers who gets really excited when stores bring out their back-to-school supplies so he can catch a deal on Paper Mate Flair pens, “I always keep a Flair pen in my pocket. They’re a must-have for teachers.”

What are some activities you are planning to do during the first week of school to get to know your students?

My favorite activity to do during the first week of school is called “missionaries and cannibals.” There are three missionaries and three cannibals. The objective is to get both groups of people from one island to the other without the cannibals eating the missionaries. It’s a very challenging game and it requires a lot of problem-solving, but it helps to build grit and perseverance. As a teacher, it helps me to see how students will react when a problem is too hard to solve. Some students are able to solve the problem while others give up. Those who give up give me a challenge to figure out why they gave up? What support do they need? What can I do when they give up in class? How can I help them persevere throughout the school year and the next four years of high school?

This school year, you’ll be a mentor to new teachers on campus. What has been a lesson you’ve taken from your mentors?

I’m lucky to have a strong support system at my school and through Golden Apple — an organization that supports future and current educators in Illinois. My mentors at Intrinsic and Golden Apple taught me to be kind to myself. I think as somebody who is very critical of myself, it was challenging to accept that there was a mistake in a lesson, but that I did well overall. Highlighting your successes is super-important, rather than focusing on what went wrong and what needs to change because that’s a part of teaching. You’re learning and growing just like your students.

Charese Munoz, a middle school teacher at Spencer Technology Academy.

Charese Munoz

Spencer Technology Academy

Favorite school item: Colored pens

This school year will be a new beginning for Munoz. She will be teaching at a new school, a different grade level, and a different subject. Munoz will be teaching English language arts to seventh and eighth grades at Spencer. Previously, Munoz worked for eight years at Stagg Elementary School, where she taught fifth grade math and English to middle school students. She said that she is looking forward to a new start. “Change is good.”

Munoz plans to focus on her students’ social-emotional health this school year. Munoz will be working with students who have experienced the trauma of the pandemic and who are growing up in Englewood — a neighborhood on the city’s South Side impacted by gun violence. She said, “Our students are surviving through trauma; whether it’s trauma within their house, within their families, or trauma within the community.”

You received professional development on social-emotional learning over the summer. How do you plan to implement what you’ve learned this school year?

Getting students to advocate and provide justice. I want them to question what is justice and accountability. I want my students to come up with a system that’s going to work for our middle school classroom. Usually teachers say, “these are the rules.” I know I’m not doing that. This is our classroom. What are the rules? You’re going to tell me what we’re going to implement.

What do you want students and parents to know about you this year?

I am not going to follow the traditional classroom expectations with my students. Some of the traditions in classrooms I question. Times have changed, people have changed, and behaviors have changed. I feel like we’re still using archaic methods in our school system. I’m not trying to make students rebel, but I want them to question why these practices are in place. I want my students to question the status quo and leadership. I feel that when you start with that type of mindset, you will see progress within yourself and your environment.

Grace Negron, a eighth grade teacher at Helen C. Peirce Elementary School of International Studies.

Grace Negron

Helen C. Peirce Elementary School of International Studies

Favorite school item: Expo dry erase markers

Negron is an English language arts teacher. This school year will be her first year teaching eighth graders; last year, she worked with sixth grade students.

Negron said her favorite first day-of-school memory was last year during her first year of teaching when she saw the excitement on her students’ faces when they entered her classroom for the first time. “I really loved when students asked questions that day about the space, including why I have a record player or commenting on the various pieces of art in the room. It showed their curiosity and foreshadowed their own involvement and comfortability they had in my class.”

Adding a record player and decorating your classroom with art seems like you want to create a welcoming environment for your students. Why is that important to you?

I think it’s one of those underrated things that you go through during a teacher preparation program. But, I found it to be one of the most impactful elements in my classroom because I was making a space that students felt cozy, comfortable, and respected in, and that starts with how you decorate the space.

This school year, you will be teaching eighth graders instead of sixth graders. What do you expect to be different this school year?

In my first year of teaching, I worked with sixth graders. That was interesting because it is their first transition from elementary school into middle school. I had to deal with a lot of drama — very petty drama. So, I hope that my eighth graders will come more mature with how they operate their relationships and in the classroom.

Janelle Brown, special education teacher at George W. Tilton Elementary School.

Janelle Brown

George W. Tilton Elementary

Favorite school item: Pencils and erasers

Brown is a special education teacher at Tilton Elementary. Unlike most teachers, she does not know what grade level she’ll be teaching this year because she finds out which students she’ll work with in the first two weeks of school. In previous years, she’s worked with students between third and seventh grades. She plans to arrange the chairs and desks in her classroom a week before school starts. With the back-to-school sales, she gets excited to get a box of 12 pencils for 10 cents at Walmart.

How do you plan lesson plans for students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) throughout the school year?

In the first week of school, special education teachers are placed into regular education classrooms all week. Once I figure out who the students are, I go look at their IEPs and decide from there next steps. It’s not difficult, but it’s not like having a second grade class and knowing what the curriculum is going to be, so you can plan ahead.

What is one thing that you want students and parents to know about you?

I want them to know that my main concern for their child in my classroom is that they get what they came for. School is for learning. I want to give them what they need to be successful moving forward. The biggest problem is the students are not on grade level. So, I’m trying to cram everything I can into them in this one year. You know, I’m trying not to make it overwhelming, but it is because they are behind.

Mark Franklin

Burnside Scholastic Academy

Favorite school item: Whistle

Franklin has been a teacher for the past 30 years. Now, he is a physical education teacher who works with students from kindergarten to eighth grade. When he was younger, Franklin was involved in football, wrestling, and track. While he teaches the students how to play all sports, he said that he favors football. Franklin said that he is excited to get the new school year started because he’ll get a chance to see returning students and hear about their summer vacations.

As a physical education teacher, what kind of activities do you have planned this year?

The first activity is a fitness assessment which consists of cardio, pushups, sit-ups, and a flexibility test. Then, we’ll move into sports. Most elementary students start off with soccer, flag football, basketball, track and field. So, I take them through those units to get them familiar with fundamentals.

What are your hopes and fears for this school year?

My hope is that we get more parental involvement. I would like to see more parents involved in parent-teacher night at school as well as more parents involved in decision-making within the local school council meetings throughout the school year.

Chicago public schools run by principals given more independence saw better student achievement: study

2023-08-03T21:55:39+00:00

Eight years ago, Chicago Public Schools launched a program that gave certain principals more control, such as more flexibility over budgets and being freed of extra oversight from district leaders. It was an effort to reward effective veteran school leaders with “more leadership and professional development opportunities.”

Now, a new study by a Northwestern University professor shows that the initiative — known as the Independent School Principals program, or ISP — resulted in better test scores and school climates and could be a cost-effective way to improve schools.

The analysis looked at 44 elementary schools that joined ISP between 2016 and 2018. Those schools saw pass rates for state reading and math tests grow, on average, by about 4 percentage points more than similar schools that weren’t part of ISP, according to the study. (Comparison schools were chosen based on things like demographics and test scores.)

The findings suggest that schools can benefit from more empowered principals, who are “closer to the ground” and may have a better sense than district leaders of what their students need, said C. Kirabo Jackson, an education and social policy professor at Northwestern who conducted the study.

But there are some caveats, Jackson said. The ISP schools with the best test score results were also run by principals who are considered “highly effective,” as determined by teacher ratings and other evaluations. Less effective principals saw test scores grow at a slower rate. Other studies have found mixed results when giving schools more autonomy, Jackson noted in his study.

The benefits of such a policy depend on “the capacity of the leaders to manage on their own,” said Jackson.

Test scores don’t show the full picture of how well students are doing, Jackson said, and his study found mixed results in other areas. For example, ISP schools on average had better ratings for school climate. But he found no evidence that these schools saw better student or teacher attendance.

The ISP initiative was launched under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel as part of an effort to pair principals with “more leadership and professional development opportunities,” according to the district.

Currently, district leaders identify veteran principals to apply for the program and then evaluate them based on several criteria, including their school’s test scores, their “five essentials” survey data and a series of interviews, according to the district.

A spokesperson did not respond in time for publication on whether there were minimum test scores that schools had to meet in order to be eligible.

Jackson noted that nearly all of the elementary schools he evaluated were highly rated by the state. In all, 86% of the city’s current 63 ISP schools — which also include middle and high schools and one early childhood education center — were rated either commendable or exemplary by the state, according to the most recently available Illinois Report Card information.

In addition to less oversight and more budget flexibility, ISP school leaders also have more power over professional learning for their staff and more flexibility over principal evaluations. In exchange, principals must meet several requirements, including maintaining or improving school performance, remaining compliant with district wide policies, and remaining as the school’s principal for at least two years.

Having more power over professional learning was among the biggest boons for Patricia Brekke, principal of Back of the Yards High School, who joined the ISP program in 2016. Her school, like others, used to spend time addressing student needs in ways that district leaders recommended.

While she considered those good strategies, her staff didn’t have extra time to focus on other issues they believed to be important, such as drilling down on students’ analytical and essay writing skills.

For the past seven years, she and other teachers have created their own professional development sessions to, in part, improve kids’ analytical skills. Her team draws on good examples from their own classrooms, including taking videos during the school day, so that teachers can see how their own colleagues are approaching instruction, Brekke said.

“I’ve got a lot of brilliant teachers, and their ideas really pushed me, I think, to be a better principal, you know?” Brekke said. “And it was really important for me to have them around the table and identify our problems of practice.”

Jackson only studied elementary schools, so he doesn’t know the program’s impact on high schools.

SAT scores at Brekke’s school were within five percentage points of the district’s. But Brekke said she’s noticed her students demonstrating “elevated” writing skills that go beyond a classic five-paragraph essay response.

“They’re really starting to think more deeply about text,” Brekke said.

Jackson found another bonus of the program: Principals “tend to remain in their schools” even after the two-year requirement. That is by design, said Jerry Travlos, a former ISP principal who now works as a district leader.

Travlos conducted a study, which Jackson cites, and found that ISP principals largely preferred the autonomy they got under the program. Extending more power to veteran principals is also a “retention strategy,” he said, at a time when school leaders are heading for the door.

Brekke, who has been an educator for 32 years, said she sometimes misses the camaraderie that comes along with a traditional network like most of Chicago’s public schools. But she loves being able to “geek out” and customize instruction for her students.

“Having those kinds of conversations are really just so refreshing and encouraging and motivating,” Brekke said. She paused and added, “Maybe it’s contributed to why I’m still here.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

In Chicago’s early state test results, encouraging gains and some areas of concern

2023-08-03T11:00:00+00:00

Chicago Public Schools students made encouraging gains on the Illinois state test this year, with reading proficiency almost back to pre-pandemic levels and a more modest recovery in math scores, according to preliminary, unofficial scores obtained by Chalkbeat.

The portion of Chicago students in grades three through eighth who met or exceeded state standards based on the required Illinois Assessment of Readiness, which was administered this past spring, dipped in both subjects during the pandemic. This year’s rebounding on the English language arts test extended to all racial groups in the district, even as the gaping pre-pandemic disparities in proficiency Black and Latino students face persisted.

Overall, 26% of students who took the reading test this year met or exceeded state standards — just two percentage points lower than results on the 2019 test, the last one before COVID upended learning. In math, 17% of students scored proficient, compared with 24% in 2019.

The results were obtained by Chalkbeat ahead of the state’s formal release of district-level and statewide results in late fall and could shift as officials vet them.

Some experts who reviewed the scores said the gains are heartening, particularly against the backdrop of testing data nationally that has pointed to a slow or stalling recovery from the pandemic’s profound academic damage. They voiced concern about lower reading scores for Chicago’s third graders — a year considered a crucial predictor of later academic success — and for the district’s English language learners, a student group hit particularly hard by the shift to remote learning.

Experts caution that the results do not offer an apples-to-apples comparison to the eve of the pandemic. Based on participation data, many fewer students took the test this year in Chicago, which saw major enrollment drops during the pandemic. Experts note it’s possible that the district lost some of its most vulnerable students amid COVID’s upheaval.

District officials said this spring that they were encouraged by various academic data and feedback from campuses suggesting that the 2022-23 year saw more momentum in the district’s efforts to help students bounce back academically. They have credited new programs, including an in-house tutoring corps and intervention teachers who work with struggling students one-on-one or in small groups, as well as a push to roll out quality curriculums and teacher professional development on all its campuses.

“Now, early signs in our state assessment data are also showing positive results that our community can be proud of,” the district said in a statement. “While assessment results will not be finalized until later this year, preliminary data show that our investments in intentional supports for educators and students are yielding results.”

The district noted it considers helping students recover from the pandemic’s social and emotional fallout just as important as supporting their academic recovery, and it touted $35 million it is spending this coming school year on a social-emotional learning curriculum, mental health services, and additional social workers and counselors.

The state test score gains come after a challenging 2021-22 school year, when COVID surges, staffing shortages, and other disruptions hampered recovery efforts. In 2022, Illinois proficiency levels in the district dropped to 15% in reading and about 20% in math, amid statewide dips in the portion of students meeting standards.

Experts such as Marianne Perie, the director of assessment, research, and innovation at the nonprofit WestEd, say that across the country, the pandemic damage has been deeper and the recovery slower in math than in reading. That’s not surprising, Perie said.

“If you are a parent at home with your kids, it’s easier to sit down and read a book,” she said. “It’s much harder to do math with them.”

On National Assessment of Educational Progress results released last year, Chicago Public Schools saw a decade of math gains on the test vanish, even as scores dipped only slightly in reading — a change not considered statistically significant. The makers of that exam, known as the “the nation’s report card,” work with a sample of students designed to minimize the effect of demographic and enrollment shifts.

On this year’s Illinois Assessment of Readiness, 17% of Black students scored proficient in reading and 7% in math — compared with 54% in reading and 52% in math among Asian American students, the district’s highest-performing group on the state test.

Among students with disabilities, proficiency levels looked comparable to those pre-COVID: Only 4% met state expectations in math and in reading. Among English language learners, 9% met reading standards and 6% did so in math — proficiency levels that remained farthest behind from pre-pandemic results among student groups.

The portion of students who scored in the lowest of five categories — “did not yet meet expectations” — remained markedly higher in both subjects compared to pre-pandemic results, with 27% of students in reading and 30% in math falling in that group.

Officials at the Illinois State Board of Education have previously cautioned against publicizing local state test results, which it shares with districts in the spring, ahead of their formal release in late fall. They have noted that these results are still subject to vetting, and lack important context without statewide data. Last year, preliminary Chicago Public Schools results Chalkbeat obtained and published were identical to data the state eventually released.

Perie noted that few states have released 2023 achievement data, so it’s hard to say if Chicago’s results signal a broader uptick in recovery, or if the district is something of an outlier. Overall, national data so far has been troubling, suggesting the country is years away from helping students recover academically.

“These results are encouraging,” she said. “It’s great news that Chicago students appear to be recovering.”

Paul Zavitkovsky, an assessment specialist at the Center for Urban Education Leadership at the University of Illinois Chicago, also said the district’s scores show bracing gains across most grades. But like Perie, he flagged third grade scores, where both reading and math proficiency remained significantly lower than pre-pandemic. For this year’s third graders, the years when the bulk of reading skills are normally acquired were upended by the pandemic.

“The one really worrisome thing is the slowness of recovery efforts in grade 3,” he said. “Rising achievement levels in the primary grades are historically what’s driven overall achievement gains in grades 4 through 8 and beyond.”

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

8,000 Chicago Public Schools students won’t have bus service on first day of school, district says

2023-07-31T23:43:11+00:00

More than 8,000 Chicago Public Schools students will not have bus service on the first day of class on Aug. 21, a problem the district blames on an ongoing bus driver shortage.

With only half of the 1,300 drivers needed to transport students who require bus service, Chicago said it will instead prioritize transportation for students with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness. Both groups are legally required to receive transportation to school.

For some students with disabilities, bus service is a requirement on their Individualized Education Programs. More than 7,100 such students have signed up for bus service so far, officials said. (Siblings of students with disabilities can still receive bus service if they attend the same school.)

This is the third year in a row in which the return to class has been marred by transportation woes that have left thousands of students without transportation or with long commutes. The district, which contracts with outside companies to provide transportation, has attributed bus service snarls in previous years to nationwide driver shortages.

In an effort to help fix ongoing transportation problems, the district in March approved a $4 million contract with Education Logistics Inc., known as EduLog, to schedule bus routes, determine start times for summer school and assign bus vendors during the school year. The contract is set to run through June 30, 2026.

This year, in the face of continued bus service troubles, the district will instead offer Ventra cards to general education students and one companion, such as a parent, “for as long as they are without school bus transportation,” according to a news release from Chicago. These families may have the option to get bus service “at some point” in the school year but the timing for that is not yet clear, said Charles Mayfield, chief operating officer for Chicago Public Schools.

Last year, Chicago provided bus service to 17,275 children, or about 5% of students.

“There’s been a nationwide shortage, and I think that is not an easy thing for any K-12 [district] right now,” Mayfield said Monday in an interview with Chalkbeat. “Even if you Google search bus driver shortage, you get a number of school districts that have the same issue that we’re having today and they are making adjustments similar to where we are, to try to provide alternatives.”

As of Friday, the district said it could guarantee bus service on the first day of school for students with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness, after Chicago twice extended a sign-up deadline this summer, Mayfield said. But it can’t guarantee immediate service for families who sign up now. The district is required to link those families to bus service within two weeks of their request for transportation.

As an alternative, CPS is offering families of students with disabilities and those in temporary housing up to $500 in monthly stipends to cover transportation costs. So far, 3,000 students have chosen this option, officials said.

The continuing transportation issues have Chicago parent Laurie Viets bracing for yet another chaotic start to the school year. Two of her three children have district-provided bus service written into their Individualized Education Programs.

This year, she said the district has been more proactive since parents have raised concerns about bus services issues over the past few years. Over the summer, Viets received a couple of phone calls from the district asking if she would like to take the $500 stipend, but she declined. She said she prefers that the district provide bus service for her children.

Viets only learned the district had yet to figure out routes for students when she talked to a district representative last week.

“I have no hopes at all that transportation will show up,” said Viets. “I’ve got three kids, three separate schools in three different parts of the city. We’re going to be scrambling to get the two that need transportation to school because I guarantee we will not have transport on that first day.”

It is a familiar scenario for Viets – last year, she said she couldn’t get transportation for one of her children for about six weeks – and for thousands of other CPS families.

In the 2021-22 school year, when students returned to classrooms after COVID shuttered buildings, the district did not have bus services for 2,100 students on the first day of classes. At the time, the district provided families with $1,000 to help with transportation and even reached out to ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft for support.

At the start of the next school year, the district was able to route 15,000 Chicago Public Schools students to classes but hundreds of students with disabilities dealt with long commute times. At the time, the district reported that 365 students with disabilities had to deal with commute times of 90 minutes or longer and could not arrange transportation for 1,200 students.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education, and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago eyes dramatically expanding its Sustainable Community Schools program

2023-07-31T11:00:00+00:00

On a recent July morning, students at Brighton Park Elementary prepared chicken tenders and honey mustard sauce with a visiting chef in the Southwest Side school’s gleaming kitchen. Later, some went to a boxing class, pairing off to spar on blue mats.

Next door, about 20 students on the school’s student voice committee huddled to brainstorm ideas for a campaign to reopen Chicago’s shuttered mental health clinics. They were getting a $1,000 stipend to participate.

And in a room downstairs, school moms enrolled in a free arts and crafts class folded colorful strips of paper into ruffles to decorate star-shaped piñatas.

The robust summer program is one upshot of the elementary’s status as a Sustainable Community School, a joint initiative of the Chicago Teachers Union and the district, in which 20 high-poverty campuses receive up to $500,000 a year. In tandem with local nonprofits, the schools offer additional after-school and other programs, steer families to services in the community, and seek to engage students and parents in school decisions.

Jade Maldonado, 9, center, gets pointers from her boxing instructor at Brighton Park Elementary on July 20, 2023, in Chicago.

Now, Mayor Brandon Johnson and his transition team want to expand the program, to as many as 200 of the district’s roughly 500 schools — a centerpiece of his promise to give a boost to the city’s often shrinking neighborhood schools. That’s even as proponents recognize that such growth would come with a major price tag, at a time when the district faces a murkier financial outlook.

A Chalkbeat analysis showed that through the turbulent past few years, this group of schools saw graduation tick up and attendance dip largely in lockstep with other high-poverty neighborhood schools, though the community schools started with lower baseline averages. So far, the overwhelming majority of those 20 campuses have not staved off steep districtwide enrollment losses, and many have been particularly hard hit — even as its proponents hope the model might help stabilize enrollment in the longer term.

School leaders such as Brighton Park principal Sara Haas say the initiative has been game-changing, paying for key staff, improving campus cultures, and forging stronger bonds to families and neighborhoods. Some are also upfront that their campuses have a way to go to become true neighborhood hubs with broad family involvement and a wide array of services.

Sara Haas, 39, is the principal at Brighton Park Elementary. She has served at the school for nine years, overseeing the rollout of the Sustainable Community Schools initiative.

Several evaluations of Sustainable Community Schools point to encouraging headway in implementing the program despite the pandemic’s upheaval — as well as difficulties in jibing with nonprofit partners and sometimes uneven buy-in from staff.

Chicago is part of a recent national push to expand what’s more commonly known as full-service community schools, led by teachers unions and other proponents. U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona is also a fan.

Studies of the model nationally have shown promising gains in attendance, academics, and students’ sense of belonging at school. Others have yielded underwhelming results, drawing an unsurprising conclusion:

It’s all about how the model is implemented.

At Brighton Park Elementary, school leaders say thinking differently about what school can be is key.

“So much of community schools is about shifting your mindset and about how you approach the model,” said Haas.

Chicago eyes a community school expansion

In some ways, said Brighton Park’s Haas, the predominantly Latino campus was a great fit to join the pilot group of Sustainable Community Schools in 2018.

In keeping with the model’s emphasis on embracing restorative justice, the school had already started shifting away from punitive discipline. Over more than a decade, the campus had forged a close relationship with the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council — the nonprofit that would become its partner agency in the new initiative. The organization had run after-school and summer programs at the school and funded a part-time clinician position.

The council also offered input as Sustainable Community Schools was conceived, inspired by the 2015 fight and hunger strike that warded off the closure of Dyett High School on Chicago’s South Side. The initiative was ultimately enshrined in the teachers union contract.

Dyett and the 19 other participating campuses were chosen among open enrollment schools in communities where at least 80% of students qualified for subsidized school meals.

The program was built on the idea of supporting “the whole child” — and transforming schools into “community hubs designed to provide wraparound academic, health, and social support for the entire community beyond the traditional 9 am to 3 pm school day,” as the teachers union overview of the program puts it.

Each school paired up with a partner agency, which among other things staffed a resource coordinator to connect families with anything from rental assistance and local food pantries to adult education opportunities. Many schools would also use the added funding to bring on other key support staff: mental health and crisis response counselors, parent or community engagement coordinators, and restorative justice coaches.

The program was not the district’s first foray in building full-service community schools. Many of the pilot schools, including Brighton Park Elementary, were already receiving 21st Century Community Learning Center grants — federal dollars passed on by the state that have helped power the district’s separate Community Schools Initiative, which started in 2003. With roughly 200 schools, that longer-standing program is considered one of the largest community school networks in the country.

But schools receive up to about $150,000 through that older Community Schools Initiative – a fraction of the up to $500,000 funding boost in the union-district Sustainable Community Schools program. As a result, the scope of that earlier initiative is more limited, focused largely on expanding after-school and summer programs and services, and increasing family engagement.

“There’s just not enough money in the Community School Initiative model to address foundational issues of equity,” Patrick Brosnan, the executive director of the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council said. “In a perfect world, we need to move toward an expansion of both models.”

Students on the student voice committee at Brighton Park Elementary participate in an icebreaker activity as part of the school’s summer program in 2023.

For Chicago’s new mayor, the focus is on expanding the Sustainable Community Schools model. In fact, Brandon Johnson’s mayoral transition committee, on which Brosnan served, called for making that a district priority in a July report that did not mention the Community School Initiative.

Jen Johnson, the deputy mayor for education, youth, and human services, said in a recent interview with Chalkbeat that the administration’s vision is to work toward a “Sustainable Community Schools district,” even as she acknowledged the major cost of converting all or most campuses into full-service community schools. At current levels of funding, adding 180 schools to the initiative would cost $75 million to $90 million.

Sustainable Community Schools draw praise — and nuanced evaluations

Jhoanna Maldonado, a Chicago Teachers Union organizer and its Sustainable Community Schools point person, says the pandemic brought disruption — but also vindication for the model.

The schools and their community partners were better prepared than most to respond to families’ emergency needs — from food and housing assistance to internet access and laptops for remote learning. They were also often in better positions to address the heightened mental health needs of students and parents.

“That made really difficult work other schools were scrambling to figure out easier,” said Maldonado, a former teacher at Yates Elementary, one of the campuses in the program.

Chalkbeat compared some metrics at the 20 Sustainable Community Schools and at other neighborhood schools that had a poverty rate of 80% or more in 2018. Generally, these campuses have seen similar trends play out since 2018 amid the pandemic’s upheaval: Attendance dipped and chronic absenteeism spiked at comparable rates. Graduation at the high schools participating in the initiative ticked up at a slightly lower rate than at other high-poverty neighborhood high schools.

With the exception of Dyett and Richards high schools, the Sustainable Community Schools have not avoided the enrollment declines that the pandemic accelerated across Chicago. A number — including Brighton Park, Beidler, McCormick, Morrill, and Yates elementaries as well as Farragut and Uplift high schools — were particularly hard hit, losing a quarter or more of their enrollment since the initiative started.

Maldonado, the teachers union organizer, said the district needs better measures of students’ sense of belonging and pride in their school — rather than traditional metrics such as attendance — to capture the value of community schools.

“You walk into a school, and you feel a different vibe,” she said. “You see that people are having those tough conversations.”

Local and national evaluations of community school initiatives offer a nuanced picture, suggesting that smart and careful implementation is paramount to see payoff for students.

On the eve of the pandemic, an analysis of almost 20 rigorous studies of the model found some showed learning and school culture gains, and others showed little effect. Evaluations of Communities In Schools, a national program that works with about 200 schools in Chicago, found it led to academic and other gains in Chicago and in Wichita, Kan., but not in two other cities.

William Corrin, the director of K-12 education at the think tank MDRC, says research so far has not pinpointed why some schools appear more successful in rolling out the model. The mixed evidence likely reflects the heavy lift of getting that model right — and the fact that it takes time to see results.

“A school is a really complex system on its own, with many different players doing different work,” he said. “When you shift to a community school model, you are increasing the number of stakeholders working with students.”

In Chicago, evaluations of Sustainable Community Schools by the American Institutes for Research and the University of Wisconsin — largely based on interviews and surveys of staff at schools and partner agencies — found positive feedback as well as uneven implementation across campuses, though all studies stress the challenges of a pandemic-era rollout.

Educators, school leaders, and other staff reported embracing more culturally responsive teaching practices and offering more social-emotional and mental health support for children. The evaluations also captured pushback against restorative justice in some schools or a sense that educators needed more training and other help to introduce them.

Three principals told researchers that they felt their partner agencies were out to further their own missions rather than understand the needs of the schools and team up on pursuing them.

Campuses strive to get rolling out the model right

Carlos Reyes, a seventh grader on Brighton Park’ student voice committee, says the school’s emphasis on student wellness and leadership has shaped his experience there.

He felt better this past school year after he opened up about the death of his dog in a talking circle with sympathetic classmates. This summer, he also spoke at a City Hall protest as part of the mental health clinics campaign.

“I feel really accomplished when I get to speak out,” he said.

Carlos Reyes, 12, serves on Brighton Park Elementary’s student voice committee and is a member of the local school council. He was voted to the position by fellow students.

Meanwhile, Stephanie Concepcion Alonso, the mom of a Brighton Park Elementary first grader, got a job as a college mentor at nearby Kelly High — her alma mater and another Sustainable Community School — while she attended Harold Washington College. More recently, she tutored at Brighton Park Elementary, and come fall, she will work in its after-school program.

“Sustainable Community Schools has had this compound community-building effect,” said Brosnan, the head of the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council. “We are hiring from the neighborhood, and it becomes an engine for economic development in the community.”

Brighton Park Elementary made its part-time mental health clinician and parent coordinator full-time positions. It set up a “peace room” for talking circles and installed a washer and dryer to ensure clean uniforms for students.

Still, principal Berg says the rollout in some ways remains a work in progress. She wants the stable of student leaders the school is cultivating to be more involved in weighing in on school decisions. And while the school leans on a handful of active parents, she wants to see broader parental involvement.

At Richards High School, another Sustainable Community School on the Southwest Side, principal Ellen Kennedy says the program has been one of the most influential initiatives in her six years at the helm. It pays for a youth intervention specialist, parent engagement coordinator, a full-time clinician, after-school clubs, and tutoring. It has allowed the school to step up outreach to families and shift neighborhood perceptions of the campus — efforts that Kennedy credits for a 12% increase in enrollment since the program started.

“For us, Sustainable Community Schools is not this extra initiative,” said Kennedy. “It’s the way we want school to function and run on the regular.”

But Kennedy said that as a growing nonprofit with a citywide and national reach, Youth Guidance — the school’s partner agency, known for providing the Becoming a Man mentoring program — didn’t feel as connected to the local community and didn’t have the neighborhood presence the campus had sought. And she said “accountability issues” with programming Youth Guidance provides on campus also affected a decision Richards made this spring to replace it with the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council as its lead partner agency.

Two other Sustainable campuses had previously switched nonprofit partners.

In a statement, Youth Guidance noted it will continue to work with its other four partner high schools in the program and to provide mentoring at Richards, citing “an unwavering commitment to the city’s youth, families, and schools.”

Miguel del Valle, who stepped down as Chicago’s school board president in June, recently called for a closer look at the district’s nonprofit partners in both community schools programs. A former member of the Federation for Community Schools board, he says he is a passionate believer in the model. But he said he doesn’t believe all the partners involved in the district’s community school programs are delivering, though he declined to name specific nonprofits or share details about his concerns.

“I really feel we should have higher expectations of our community partners,” he said. “CPS has to keep track of how they are doing rather than leaving it up to principals.”

He also said many of the district’s community schools are not providing enough classes and services for parents and other residents to truly serve as a community hub.

Students play outside Brighton Park Elementary on July 20, 2023, in Chicago.

Some students on Sustainable Community School campuses said their schools need to work harder to make students feel involved in decision-making and to break with punitive discipline — central tenets of the model.

Rose Flores, a junior at Kelly High, said her school did not factor in student input before recent unpopular dress code changes. And she feels the campus has taken a harder line on student behavior post-pandemic. She recently got an in-school suspension for walking to class a few minutes late after she scrambled to change following gym class, she said.

Maldonado said the pilot campuses are “trying to break the mold of what school is from within the system.”

They are still expected to administer what the union considers too many standardized tests. They have contended with staffing shortages. And they have sometimes struggled to embrace the central idea of collaborating on key decisions with partner nonprofits, families, and students.

Still, she said, “This is the way forward for public education. It’s not perfect. It’s not easy.”

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago schools with mostly Black student bodies share less information about LSCs: report

2023-07-27T21:17:13+00:00

Chicago families on the South and West sides were less likely to have access to information about their Local School Councils, compared with their North Side neighbors, according to a new analysis about the 2021-22 school year.

The report, released this week by advocacy organization Raise Your Hand, also found that most schools — 61% — had at least one parent vacancy on their Local School Councils, or LSCs. These school-based elected bodies, made up of parents, other community representatives, and students, can make school-level decisions, such as evaluating and selecting principals and voting on the annual campus budget.

The findings suggest that white and more affluent parents are more likely to have access to accurate LSC information and LSCs without parent vacancies. On top of the neighborhood disparities, schools with mostly Black student bodies were less likely to have updated information online about their LSCs, compared with schools citywide. They were also more likely to have at least three parent vacancies on their LSCs.

Last year, following LSC elections with significant voter turnout, more than 1,400 vacancies remained, mostly on the South and West sides, Chalkbeat found at the time.

“Vacancies make it impossible for the schools that need LSCs the most to have effective LSCs,” the just-released Raise Your Hand report said. “This means student needs are ignored, budgets are cut, and more.”

On the city’s North Side, schools were more likely to list basic information on their websites about their LSC, the report found. That information includes a mention of the LSC’s existence, meeting times, agendas, minutes, a list of current members, and contact information for those members.

For example, an average of 67% of schools across the Far North, North, and Northwest sides had LSC meeting times listed on their websites. In comparison, meeting times were listed for less than a quarter of schools, on average, in neighborhoods across the South and West sides, according to the report.

“This lack of transparency and accessibility is unacceptable and leaves parents feeling frustrated and powerless,” the report said.

Other findings include:

About one third of all schools have an LSC meeting time posted online, while the same is true for 14% of schools with student bodies that are at least 90% Black.
32% of all schools have three or more parent vacancies. The same is true for 36% of schools on the South and West sides, and 23% of schools on the North sides as well as the Loop.
42% of schools with more than 90% of Black students have three or more parent vacancies.

Raise Your Hand said that school websites have not changed even after they raised some of their findings with Chicago Public Schools “months ago.” The group has urged CPS to ensure websites have updated information, including meeting times and locations, a list of current LSC members, and contact information for the LSC.

After Raise Your Hand members revealed some of the study’s findings at a Wednesday Chicago Board of Education meeting, Board President Jianan Shi said the district “has to do better.” Shi is the former executive director of Raise Your Hand.

In a statement, CPS spokesperson Evan Moore noted that the district saw a record-breaking 6,145 people apply for LSC positions last school year. He touted district efforts to raise awareness about LSCs, including roughly 100 “engagement sessions.”

Still, Moore acknowledged the need to improve and said officials are reviewing Raise Your Hand’s study.

“As a District, we are committed to continuing to work to improve awareness and access to this important democratic process,” Moore said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.