Education

Renaissance 2010

Few issues have divided the community more bitterly than Mayor Daley’s Renaissance 2010 Plan that has closed, turnedaround, consolidated and phased-out over 75 schools since its inception in 2004. Some excellent schools seem to be emerging from the process, but in sticking to its business-model approach Chicago Public Schools has opened the way for cronyism and political maneuvering. Meanwhile, school closings are concentrating in the most at-risk students in fewer, lower performing schools if not displacing them from the education system all together. Massive community mobilizations against “Ren 10” have saved schools from the school closure list and challenged CPS to reconsider the policy and approach in improving public education. more

Local School Councils

Local School Councils are a highly successful form of participatory community governance. They provide parents, teachers and students the opportunity to have real authority and say in the day-to-day happenings in their schools, including hiring the principal and approving school budgets..

Unfortunately, their powers is being eroded with the institutions of the Renaissance 2010 plan as charter and contract schools, which do not require LSC’s, begin to dominate the whole scene.

Recently, LSC’s are under attack by proposed legislation to turn local school councils into advisory committees, eliminating their power to select principals and approve budgets. more

Testing

Qualitative aspects of education are being undermined by the pursuit of quantitative approaches to education assessments. Standardized tests are used to judge teacher and student performance when a more comprehensive, holistic approach to assess students should be created to evaluate student and teacher performance

Simultaneously, changes in the Illinois Standard Achievement Test have made it easier to achieve a higher grade and have given a false indication of how equipped Chicago’s elementary students will be for high school, or how ready they will be for college. Furthermore, Chicago Public Schools’ manipulation of ACT test standards has resulted in false indicators of how high school students will fare in college and in the workplace. more

School Closings

Few issues have divided the community more bitterly than the shutting and restructuring of failing schools under Mayor Daley’s Renaissance 2010 plan. In ticking to its business-model approach by instituting frequently nonproductive changes without involving parents in those decisions, the city has alienated and angered communities.more

School funding

Mayor Daley continues to be a staunch advocate for changing the way the state funds public schools. He voiced support for a tax “swap” that would result in schools being funded based on state income taxes rather than local property taxes. He also supported a 2008 lawsuit against the State of Illinois and the Illinois State Board of Education by the Chicago Urban League calling for the current school funding scheme to be declared unconstitutional and in violation of the Illinois Civil Rights Act of 2003. more

Disabled students

Chicago Public Schools’ failure to include provisions for teaching disabled students in its plans for Renaissance 2010 schools has resulted in a widening gap between performances by disabled students and their non-disabled peers. A study found that Reaissance 2010 schools are no more effective in teaching students with disabilities to read than the average CPS schools. more