Archive for August, 2010
Education Documentary: Waiting for Superman
I’m on the email list for the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute and just got an invite to a preview of a new movie about urban education in the U.S. It’s from the director of An Inconvenient Truth.
Man, I swear, the trailer alone is an emotional roller coaster ride. It’s like everything we discuss on here, all rolled into a well-executed, vivid, emotional clip. It looks like DC and NYC are featured, where the stakes are higher and there are kids who really stand to lose a lot (much like Chicago.) In one scene, they are actually performing the school lotteries in front of a live audience with actual bingo-type balls! Talk about full disclosure (and drama.)
http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/
UPDATE: here’s a link to a good clip of an interview with the director. I alternate between thinking he’s sane and thinking he’s just trying to go for a dramatic story.
http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/22056996#video=22056996
IL didn’t make it to the top
Looks like Illinois wasn’t in the 10 states that got the Race to the Top money from Arne. Not sure if that’s good or bad. I feel like our poor state has such a bad rap right now, I guess I’m not surprised. I *would* like to know (or actually would like someone in CPS to know) what the ideas were that helped the winning states get the money.
Boy, I am seeing a reality TV show idea where teams of parents compete to win money for their school district. When I think of some of the uber-committed parents I’ve met at various CPS schools over the past few years — get them together as a team and they’d be utterly unstoppable. In addition to eating bugs, etc there could be challenges like “work your way through the bureaucratic tape” or fundraisers on a corner in Time Square. OK, I’m off to call the networks….
I’m sure I’ll write this same post every year…
…but I just got back from Target where I was shopping for school supplies from our classroom list.
Good God. That was like some kind of bizarre and torturous scavenger hunt. I felt like I was forced to travel to every remote corner of the store to find one hard-to-spot item in every aisle. The back-to-school section was very picked over, as Target finds it much more important to stock cute-but-useless things for college dorm rooms than to have boatloads of PENCILs for crying out loud. And of course if you stop in the frozen food section, you better hightail it through the whole cleaning section before your food thaws. I also wonder what happened to the 27 pair of scissors that were purchased for our classroom last year, but must be re-purchased again EVERY year, it seems.
I know I should have gotten over the shock by now of having to supply so many cleaning products and cold-prevention supplies (with all the Kleenex, wipies, and hand sanitizer one might think the kids won’t actually get sick. ha ha ha, such folly.) Yet I still grumble about having to provide all these supplies, even though I know there isn’t anyone else who can pay for them and why shouldn’t I buy my own child’s tissues? (well, for my own child it’s because I know he’ll continue to use his shirt sleeve.)
And yes, every year I will gripe about the inefficiency of every family having to purchase 25+ different items in small quantities when someone could go to Costco and load up on this stuff for half the price (uh no, sorry, I don’t have time to be that person to actually GO to Costco though.) I also feel like the supply-delivery should be staggered throughout the year so the teacher doesn’t have to store a wall of paper towels in the classroom from day 1. And won’t the last tub of Clorox wipes be dry by June 2011?
In regards to backpacks, my son is acting the same way I do about purses – he’s having a hard time parting with his beloved and ratty backpack from last year. It’ll last a bit longer and he asked if we could eventually pack it away because it’s been “like a buddy to him.” Based on my purse experience, I know how comfortable one can get with the size, shape, and number and placements of pockets. None of the potential replacements I looked at tonight seemed like they could fill the shoes of his current pack.
OK, I’m sounding too much like Andy Rooney.
The start of a new school year is a little life event in each year. Friends are posting their first day of school pictures on Facebook and I love seeing the kids looking all clean and fresh and eager and maybe a little uncertain. Hopefully our kids will all look the same on that first day that’s looming in the next few weeks and we’ll all keep a (mostly) dry eye as we leave them to start Kindergarten or to begin a one-year-older grade.
CPS Budget Hearings Open to the Public
Thanks to a reader for sharing this information. I believe this is the same type of forum as the admission policy forums where you need to get therer and register before it starts and you will get a chance to state your opinion.
If anyone feels like they have a firm grasp of the budget stuff, please share. As I was discussing with a friend last week, it all feels a bit like fake money to me and politics as usual. I fully grasp that there is a budget crisis and that CPS appears forced to jump through hoops to get the money. But I don’t get where the state keeps “finding” money. It worries me…
Dear NoTo37 Supporters:
All next week, the Chicago Public Schools will be holding public hearings on the budget for the upcoming school year. This is another chance for your voice to be heard.
The public outcry you and thousands of other concerned citizens generated last spring succeeded in restoring critical funding. Thanks to you, there will not be 37 children in each classroom. However, budget cuts will still mean increasing high school class sizes and cuts to programs across the system.
Attending one of the hearings is a good way to learn more about the budget and keep pressure on our leaders to minimize cuts to important programs.
August 17 Community Hearing for Proposed 2011 CPS Budget
Lane Tech High School
2501 W. Addison St.
Registration begins at 6:00 p.m.
Hearing begins at 7:00 p.m.
August 18 Community Hearing for Proposed 2011 CPS Budget
Westinghouse High School
3223 W Franklin Blvd
Registration begins at 6:00 p.m.
Hearing begins at 7:00 p.m.
August 19 Community Hearing for Proposed 2011 CPS Budget
Corliss High School
821 E. 103rd St.
Registration begins at 6pm
Hearing begins at 7pm
Forum on Selective Enrollment and Magnet School Admissions Policy
This looks kind of interesting…
If only these meetings would set up a cash bar, I think attendance might be a bit higher.
CPS Blue Ribbon Commission on
2010 Selective Enrollment and Magnet School Admissions Policy
Community Forums
All are welcome!
Tuesday, August 10th
Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, 211 S. Laflin St.
All forums will begin at 7 pm.
Please call (773) 553-1477 with any questions.
At the very least, this will give me the incentive to figure out where Whitney Young high school is. Hopefully I can make it to find out what the talk is for the upcoming year. Anyone want to join me and we can be a pack of annoying parents who know way more than CPS wants us to? 
Which I guess brings me to the next questions: What should be the admission plan for next year? Assuming they’re open to opinions, I’m not quite sure what I’d recommend. I feel like the 4 Tier System worked OK (aside from the inherent issue that it isn’t house-specific.) I guess some issues I had would be:
-The twin issue (siblings get admission to magnets, but that doesn’t include twins for some reason.)
-What exactly is the rationale about making magnet schools into sort-of neighborhood schools?
-What will be done to prevent that 100 students from the worst schools getting the lucky spots at the end of the high school selection process (I support the idea of kids who bright and motivated but stuck at crappy schools getting a shot at a good high school, but I don’t know that this 100 in one fell swoop was the way to go.)
What else?
UPDATE: What I’m hearing from someone who attended one of these meetings is that CPS won’t be sharing any information. Rather this is the place for parents to express their opinions. They run it like they do the public input section of a CPS board meeting. You have to sign up ahead of time (right before the meeting starts) and then you get a minute or 2 to say what you want. They’ll listen, I assume not respond, and they’ll move on to the next person. I’m debating whether or not to go now. I was hoping to hear them give some information or have some discussion. I guess I need to think about what *I* would truly want to tell CPS about these policies that I felt there was reality for improving. I totally get the problem with the Tiers being unfair to some people. But I don’t know of a feasible solution. There’s no way CPS is going to verify income at a household level, nor is Tier totally about income either. Maybe I’ll just yell out “CPSOBSESSED.COM! read that and you’ll know our complaints!”
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