Thanks to a reader who suggested posting about the current principal selections.  If you have any scoop or updates, please post it here.
It was suggested that some of the candidates are interviewing at multiple schools, which could make things interesting.

Lane Tech High School selected the current AP (a former Lane student and teacher!) to take over the principal-ship.  It’s unclear whether the seriously considered other candidates for the search.  I’m also curious to see if any schools DON’T hire an AP for the principal spots.

http://www.roscoeviewjournal.com/news/lane-tech-lsc-chooses-new-principal-promotes-from-within

Amundsen High School (at Foster and Damen) is considering the current AP (who founded the IB program there) along with 2 other candidates.  There will be a public forum on Tuesday June 5th at 6pm.
http://www.centersquarejournal.com/news/amundsen-invites-public-to-principal-candidate-forum

Burley and Jahn are also searching according to this article.

Couple people have mentioned an interest in hearing about the new start times assigned to the schools to stagger the longer days.  We can’t all start at the same time for a range of reasons, so 7:45- 9am? is the range?  Or perhaps 8:45 is the latest.

My son’s school got 8:45. I’m pretty happy because we are not morning people.

I don’t know the rationale.  Skinner North got 7:45 which is pretty beastly considering a lot of kids take a bus there.  I believe CPS is trying to avoid having kids come home in the dark which can be scary in certain neighborhoods.

Schools can appeal if they have a good reason.

What start times did your school get and how do you feel about it?

Charters and neighborhood schools – can we co-exist? (I need something cute to take my mind off the school stuff.)

So one of the big news stories about CPS today was the approval to expand charters by another 60 schools in five years, which could tally up to 25% of CPS schools.  As you may have figured out, I’m neither fully in favor of nor against charters, but I have to admit that 25% is starting to sound like a lot.  The Trib story is below.  Apparently this move opens the city up to Bill Gate $ as well as some of the bigger (better?) charter operators.

Since I like data, I like Seth Lavin of Chicago Schools Wonks e-mail newsletter (subscription link is in the links list on the bottom right side of the page).  He says:

As always the big question is: Is this good for kids?

I’d say we have no power to predict, from the plan itself, whether any of this will actually make things better. These days everyone (or at least everyone I like) acknowledges that new charter schools are just as likely to be worse than existing options as they are to be better.

That means just opening 60 charter schools doesn’t improve anything. Quality’s all that matters. 60 new high-quality charter schools would be wonderful for Chicago and, as I see it, definitely worth the disruption caused by all that student, teacher and principal reshuffling and the opportunity cost of the money and attention this is going to soak up. On the other hand 60 new schools of uneven quality would be a trust-damaging, time-wasting disruption.

So are these 60 charter schools going to be quality charter schools?

CPS says YES. That’s the good news. Rahm, to his credit, has talked about quality (not school type) as the only variable that matters. This application’s full of promises about “quality” and “rigorous high quality standards” for the new schools.

I also thought this was an interesting spin on things on Diane Ravitch’s blog (below.)  Is this “failure?”  Or finding a way to bring resources to a failing school district.  Really, if Brizard had cracked the code on CPS that quickly, he’d have figure something out that has seemed to elude the rest of urban school systems.

From Diane: http://dianeravitch.net/2012/05/17/chicago-supt-brizard-admits-failure/

Chicago Superintendent of Schools J.C. Brizard has admitted that he does not know how to improve Chicago’s public schools. He did so by asking the Gates Foundation to supply millions of dollars to open another 100 charter schools.   Handing public schools over to private management is a frank admission of failure on the part of school leadership. It amounts to saying, “I don’t know how to improve them. Let’s turn the kids over to the private sector and see if they can do it.”

Trib story

Chicago Public Schools plans to create 60 more charter schools over five years, which would increase the share of privately run charters to about a quarter of all schools in the district.

The plan for charter growth, part of a larger proposal for 100 new schools over the same five years, is laid out in an application seeking $20 million for charter schools from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Right now the district’s 675 schools include 110 charters, which get tax dollars but are privately controlled. Private organizations also operate an additional 27 schools, 19 of which are managed by the Academy for Urban School Leadership.

There is a waiting list of 10,000 students for charter schools, which have been growing for the past seven years at a rate similar to what’s planned for the next five, according to CPS.

“I’m not looking for a quota, I’m not looking for a percentage, I’m looking to respond to a need,” said CPS chief Jean-Claude Brizard. “As a whole, people are not satisfied with their neighborhood schools. Clearly, there’s a demand.”

CPS said the 40 remaining schools in the five-year plan would include some privately run turnaround schools, as well as magnets, International Baccalaureate programs and STEM schools (which specialize in science, technology, engineering and math), all run by the district.

The application to the Gates Foundation, made jointly by CPS and stakeholders in charter schools, seeks $20 million to secure $100 million in funds for construction and renovation of buildings for charter schools.

Even with 60 new schools, charters would make up a smaller proportion of all schools at CPS than they do at some other large urban districts — in New Orleans, for example, about 70 percent of schoolchildren attend charters.

But critics — prominent among them the Chicago Teachers Union — say the growth of charters signals the decline of CPS-run neighborhood schools. Additionally, state report card data released last fall suggested many charters in Chicago are performing no better than some of the same neighborhood schools. More than two dozen charters scored below district averages.

“If a new charter opens up or a charter expands, they are heavily marketed and parents are aggressively recruited,” said Sarah Hainds, a researcher with the Chicago Teachers Union. “So the neighborhood schools have had a declining enrollment, and that further facilitates the excuse of why (CPS) should close down these schools. More schools will be on the chopping block.”

In December, CPS became the latest large urban district to sign an agreement with the Gates Foundation, pledging greater cooperation and collaboration between the city’s charter and neighborhood schools. That compact brought an initial award of $100,000 but also allowed CPS to apply for money from a $40 million pool of funds.

A reader suggested we talk about the school budgets that will be coming out soon.  I am never very knowledgeable on this topic, so feel free to add whatever you know.

Each school gets a budget of discretionary funds that are used to pay for “extra” things that the board doesn’t cover.   This CAN (and usually does) cover some teaching positions because the formula through which positions are assigned is sort of crazy.  Position assignments work best in a school where the grades are all evenly balanced and the number of kids per grade splits nicely into an even number of classes.  In schools that have a lot of kids in the lower grades and very few in the higher grades, and some grades with an oddly high number of kids, it gets out of whack.  I believe the number of teachers assigned is basesd on the school enrollment total, so it just doesn’t always fall out evenly, leaving the need for a couple extra teachers here and there.

The money that many schools get is very very dismally small.  As we all know, the challenge for 2012/13 is about how to cover this extra time in the school day, when the teachers’ time is pretty restricted in terms of supervising recess, etc.

There is talk that there will be some extra money to help schools cover the time, but it’s still unclear how much and where it’ll come from given that CPS has a budget shortfall.   Brizard has talked about PRIORITIZING for months now and I guess this is where we’ll see how it shakes out.  We know that the IB coordinators will be cut.   Someone wrote to tell me that the program called Freshman Connection (is that just for SE high schools or all high schools) that gives freshman a few weeks to get acclimated to their new (bigger) school is also being cut.  I’m sure there will be other cuts as well.

In regards to covering the extra school day time, I wanted to report back on the interviews I did with the principals from Fiske and Disney II.   I’ve mention this before, but I was really blown away by both women.  The longer day made total sense the way they talked about it.  They have vey high standards for their schools and have a LOT they want to teach the kids.  Of course I asked about the coverage of recess, etc.  They both handle it “creatively” within their school/community.  Neither school is using their pioneer money to make it work.

Fiske uses and outside volunteer organization that the principal has forged a relationship with to bring people into the school to help.  I asked whether it was difficult to get people to show up, schedule them etc.  I was told that the organization (via outside funding or grants or something) actually provides a stipend to some of the volunteers.  So that is a pretty awesome setup.

At Disney II, the principal mentioned that they (*updated to reflect input from DII that the use security and classroom assistants for supervision times.)

Both women felt that each school needed to use their particular resources to find a way to make it work, and they didn’t consider it a major obstacle. (just paraphrasing here.)

Each year the big funding questions in the elementary schools tend to be about : Free Pre-K, Full day kindergarten, specials (gym, library tech, etc.)   I’d imagine these may still be uncertain this year?

Feel free to share any thoughts/info/speculation on the budgets…..

*See comment #39 for input from CPS.  Also below is a link to Brizard’s recent webcast where he answers questions in response to parents’ video questions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yWyI4jooJM&feature=g-upl

Couple random things to post about shake-ups happening.  I need to read more about more of these topics to make coherent comments.  I *feel* like it’s ok for changes to be made if they’re for the better, but how much “experimenting” can we keep doing?  Is it really all so trial and error? 

MESSAGE BOARD (from me) And yes, this *will* be trial and error.

I’m on the verge of having a message board to launch (with the help of a reader/parent who has generously paid for and is programming the board.  Yay!)  I’m not sure if it will catch on, but I think the city needs one central education message board to help people share questions and mobilize for so many things.   I’d like to keep the blog going as a place to focus on one topic at a time where we can all come together to discuss.  I know I would really miss this ongoing discussion/debate we have here.  But as you all know, it’s increasingly difficult to find previous posts, even for me.  I’ll probably need some help and suggestions on how to best organize the different topics.  People will be able to start their own threads, which will be great.  The one downside (or upside) is that anyone will need to register to post on it.   So hopefully that’ll be up soon.

I’ve got a couple things from Seth Lavin’s awesome Chicago Schools Wonks email newsletter.  To subscribe click here:  http://bit.ly/uvk1dy.  These shakeup rumors are interesting because they come on the back of Seth’s report that CICS is parting ways with one of the education companies who they employ to teach in some of their schools.  So there’s a whole lotta shakin’ going on.

SHAKE-UP RUMORS (by Seth)

When does staff change become a shake-up? Brizard entered as CPS’ new leader a little under a year ago. Here’s the original org chart for his leadership team, showing his eight direct reports (click, then scroll down).

 Just nine months later two of the people brought in for those roles are already out. There’ve been intense rumors lately that more will soon be—or already are—gone.  So what’s the shake-up threshold? Is 2 of 8 a shake-up? 3 of 8? Half? What would crossing that line say about the success of our new mayor on schools? And as internal confidence in CPS leadership plummets what are the rest of us supposed to think and feel?  

I see all this as an acknowledgment from Team Rahm that they’ve messed some things up on schools and are attempting to hit the reset button. That could end up being a really good thing. If they replace the original folks with the right new team there’s still plenty of time to create long-term school improvement wins for Rahm and for kids. My prediction (as it has been) is that Donoso ultimately goes. Brizard stays, but only because it’d be too public an admission of defeat for Rahm to switch him out. Look for Robert Boik, new CPS Chief of Staff, to fill some of the leadership vacuum.  Anyone have a better sense of what’s happened/going to happen?

 $130M MORE FOR PRINCIPALS’ DISCRETION (from Seth)

 There are a couple things you’re supposed to do if you’re running a reform school district these days. For a moment let’s put aside portfolio realignment (closings, turnarounds, charter expansions). You’re supposed to push common core adoption, increase rigor of student tests and increase availability/importance of accompanying student achievement data. Create clear student achievement metrics and make that data a big part of how you evaluate instructors and schools. Meanwhile, give principals and teachers as much autonomy as possible in hitting those achievement goals. Throw resources at whoever’s generating student achievement, according to the data; get rid of whoever isn’t.

 Whatever their problems current CPS leadership has been consistent in promising more principal autonomy and more central office money redirected to schools. They announced this week they’re pushing $130M in new money into principals’ discretionary funds—about $250K more on average for each school.

 The big wonky issue here isn’t how much money’s being spent in schools. It’s who’s deciding how money’s being spent in schools. Does district central office decide? Or do those decisions get made at the school level? Currently principals get a certain amount of discretionary money and a lot of money that comes pre-earmarked by CPS for spending on certain teachers, textbooks, staff and programming. Practically, increased principal autonomy means less earmarked money and more discretionary money.

CPS says $50M of the $130M is existing central office spending (earmarked money) that’ll now be discretionary. The rest comes form $100M in unidentified central office cuts. Plenty of people are skeptical, particularly about those ambiguous cuts.

Sarah Karp’s Catalyst story has the best detail on what this all means.

NEW PRINCIPALS – where will they come from?

From a reader: 
I am concerned because there aren’t enough potential candidates on the eligibility list to fill all the vacancies. Sadly, the principal at my children’s school is retiring and I heard the estimate puts the number at 140. There will be a lot of instability in our entire school system. The Chief Ed Officer (Donoso) is resigning and she makes the 4th resignation at central office of key employees. We may be looking at an unfunded longer day and a teacher’s strike. Elementary principal’s don’t have their budgets and it looks like from the story above that the principals don’t get to decide the start/end times for the schools and CPS will TELL them when the start/edn times will be. They are calling this “Chaos on Clark Street” and it sure looks like it!!!

I talked to Linda a few months ago and launched into my pre-high-school freak-out conversation that is always in the back of my mind.  She’s very reassuring about the range of “hidden gems” in Chicago, as someone who spends her days visiting schools across the city.  She assured me that the bad rap that many high schools have is unfounded — that a lot of good things are going on that parents don’t know about.  That kids won’t become gang members, ruin their futures, etc by attending non-SE high schools.

I’ve certainly learned a lot about the IB programs lately and they sound very promising.  They don’t use Tiers for entry.  Some of them look at the “whole child” rather than test scores.  Certainly seem like a good option….

Fifteen years after Chicago embedded International Baccalaureate programs in tough neighborhood schools, the programs have not attracted the middle class.

April 25, 2012

If their kids don’t get in, for many it’s private school or the suburbs.

But Chicago has another set of high-quality high school programs—considered gems of the district—that middle-income parents have rejected. WBEZ looks at why.

* * *

Hidden away inside a dozen Chicago public high schools—struggling high schools, really—is some of the best teaching in the city.

That’s according to University of Chicago researcher Melissa Roderick.

RODERICK: It feels like a bunch of kids learning to be intellectuals. Critical thinkers, problem solvers, learning to think differently…

Roderick has been studying these International Baccalaureate programs, which the city embedded in tough high schools 15 years ago. She can’t stop talking about them:

RODERICK: …really great academic skills and a whole conception of themselves as learners…

IB classes are rigorous, there’s an international focus.

RODERICK: The ability to write. Everyone talks about writing, writing, writing.

Roderick’s research says these IB kids get great results, even though they don’t start out as the highest scoring kids in the city. 

LUTTON: So basically they come in with test scores that are lower than the selective enrollment kids…
RODERICK: …and they walk out I would say highly qualified and more qualified.

One private school in Chicago charges $26,000 a year for the same International Baccalaureate curriculum, originally developed for the children of diplomats.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is expanding IB, and has pitched that expansion as a hook to keep the middle class in the city.  Only thing is, at least until now, the middle class hasn’t been interested.

PARIS: It’s a nonstarter.

Jim Paris lives near Morgan Park High School. He doesn’t care how good the school’s IB program is: he has police officer friends who work in the neighborhood.

PARIS: And they would have my head examined if I brought my two daughters to that school.
LUTTON: Why? What’s going on over there?
PARIS: Drugs, prostitution. There’s shootings, there’s just a plethora of gang problems over there.

A police helicopter flies over Morgan Park and other South Side high schools at dismissal some days.

At Hyde Park High School one recent afternoon, two police cars are parked, ready for fights. An officer tells me there was already a fight earlier, during school. He says police took 4 or 5 students out. Locked ‘em up, he says.

I tell assistant principal Antonio Ross that’s the sort of thing that makes parents with any other option reluctant to send their kids here—no matter how good the IB program is.

ROSS: That happens anywhere, though. I mean, incidents happen—you’re dealing with 14-,  15-, 16-, 17-, 18-year-old students. Things happen. And usually those kids that are not involved in those kinds of activities, they never have problems in four years of high school.

Inside Hyde Park High, Deshonda Wright helps coordinate the International Baccalaureate program. She agrees safety concerns are exaggerated.

WRIGHT: Absolutely, without a doubt. Exaggerated, yes, yes.

Wright faces other obstacles to attracting students. Selective enrollment schools have cachet; the neighborhood IBs don’t.

Parents who look up Hyde Park’s test scores see the dismal average for the whole school. The IB kids score miles above that, but there’s no way for a parent to know.

Hyde Park High sits at the edge of one of the most diverse middle-class neighborhoods in Chicago. But in the IB program here, 9 of 10 kids are poor. Ninety-nine percent are black. That means for now, IB kids are studying an international curriculum in a diverse city—from a segregated classroom.

Christine Whitley is an educational consultant who helps parents navigate Chicago school admissions.

WHITLEY: People say, ‘Oh, we live in a diverse city. We want diversity in our kids’ classrooms.’ But at the same time, white people won’t put their kids in a school that’s 99 percent black.

Whitley says she’s recommended neighborhood IBs, but says they’re a tough sell with parents.

The principal at North Side Senn High School, Susan Lofton, hears all the time there are not enough good high school options in the city.

LOFTON: It’s frustrating. It’s one of the reasons why I’m sitting here talking to you now. We need to get the word out. The glamorous schools—and they’ve earned it, props to them. They have had a lot of media attention. The smaller schools with the IB, the neighborhood schools… there has not been a lot of attention paid.

Lofton has spent hours plugging IB. Her best advertising is probably her students. I met a group of IB freshmen hanging out after class one day. Their families hail from Nigeria, Ghana, China, Pakistan.

SENN IB STUDENTS: When you wake up in the morning it’s like, ‘I can’t wait to go to Senn! Let’s go!’ I can’t wait to meet my friends…like first period I have Survey of Literature. And it’s fun! I can’t wait to get there!  ‘Cause we have educated debates. We get different viewpoints from everybody.
LUTTON: Like what did you do today? Do you remember?
SENN IB STUDENT: Oh, we did Romeo and Juliet—and we’re putting it in our own translations because we’re gonna act in front of people. And here’s the thing about the IB program…

Some days, she tells me, she feels like an author, like a philosopher.

Whitley, the educational consultant, says there are lots of reasons why Chicago’s middle class might start signing on to the neighborhood IB programs: Increased competition at selective schools. An economy that makes it harder to move to the suburbs or choose private school. A broader cultural shift back to the city.

But even as teachers and principals continue to wonder why middle-class families won’t go to the neighborhood IBs, some worry about what might happen if the programs do catch on. David Gregg is an IB coordinator at Senn:

GREGG: Part of me almost likes the fact that it was sort of a well-kept secret, because students who are lower scoring have been able to take advantage of this program.

Gregg fears that the kids who most need what IB has to offer—low-income and minority students, first-generation college goers—will get squeezed out if more privileged kids with higher test scores decide they want to come.
 

*ACT avg is the school’s average 11th grade ACT score for current seniors seeking an IB Diploma. All race, ethnic and low-income data is from 2011-12 school year. Source: CPS.  

The neighborhood IB programs were modeled after Lincoln Park’s IB program, which began more than three decades ago. Lincoln Park’s program is highly exclusive.     

Many LSC elections are decided by just a few votes one way or another.  This is a case where your vote (and your mobilization of friends/neighbors) really CAN make a difference in the makeup of a school’s local council.  Many schools could use a fresh start and have potential for change if parents keep pushing.

News from Buena Park schools (since I used their nice LSC logo):

http://www.uptownupdate.com/2010/04/uptown-local-school-council-elections.html

Two groups I am supporting if you happen to live in the area:
Waters Elementary:

• Terri Versace
• Christine Weldon

Amundsen High School (I really think this place has potential, contingent upon the hiring of a new principal by June 30th).  These community spots are critical as they could be some of the only new blood on the LSC.  The neighborhood group would like to unseat a longtime member with strong political ties.  Seems like a good guy, but it just is time for some new ideas to get the school on people’s radar.

• Jeff Newman
• Michael Cohen (husband of Wendy from RYH)

Feel free to post your own endorsements below.  Please vote!  And tell your friends!  And even if they don’t win, still go to the meetings and ask the tough questions!

This is kind of cool… Nightline will have a segment on NYC schools gifted program that makes our system look like Mayberry. (Andy Griffith reference for you youngsters.)  A reader had also just sent me an article on the program that is posted below.  They have WAY more seats out there than we do and any child in 90%+ is guaranteed a seat.  Somewhere in the city.  So that could mean an insane commute, obviously.  And not in an SUV either.  The beauty of this program is that you get your score BEFORE you apply to the schools, which makes so much sense.  Take a read and/or watch.  These NYC parents take anxiety to a new level, I guess because even the cheap privates there have tuition in the stratosphere.

ABC Nightline to Air a Full Segment on Entry for Gifted and Talented Programs 
Tune in Friday, April 13th at 10:35pm CST

April 11, 2012 8:20am | By Julie Shapiro, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

NEW YORK — Thousands of parents across the city began to receive word Tuesday about whether their preschooler won a coveted spot in one of the city’s gifted and talented programs.

The 4-year-olds all took the same standardized test over the winter, and the city began emailing parents on Tuesday with the results. Only those children who score in the top 10 percent have a chance of getting admitted to one of the elite public school programs, which many parents believe rival the best private education.

“I’m sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to hear,” said Evie Porwick, an Upper West Side resident who hopes her 4-year-old son will score high enough to join his big sister at P.S. 163′s gifted program. “It’s very nerve-wracking.”

The city will continue notifying parents about the scores this week, and then families whose children qualify for a gifted and talented program will have until April 20 to fill out an application and make the difficult decision of how to rank the schools they would like their child to attend.

Mark Lynch, a Lower East Side father, was also still waiting Tuesday afternoon to find out his daughter Annabelle’s score.

“We’re on pins and needles,” Lynch said.

To help, DNAinfo put together a guide that includes advice from parents and experts on what families should do and expect during this stressful and complicated process. It also includes a neighborhood-by-neighborhood breakdown of gifted and talented options.

WHAT TO DO BETWEEN NOW AND APRIL 20

Since schools are closed for vacation this week, families will have to cram in all of their school tours next week, giving them very little time to weigh their options before the applications are due, said Michael McCurdy, co-founder of TestingMom.com, a test preparation website.

“Everyone’s in high-stress mode,” said McCurdy, a Battery Park City resident whose daughter is in the gifted program at Chelsea’s P.S. 33. “This is your kid’s future. People want to review their schools and have some time to think about it. They want to make a good decision. But they have to rush.”

Despite the tight timeline, McCurdy encourages parents to visit as many schools as possible to meet the principal, observe classes in action and test out the commute. The city only provides buses for students who live less than 5 miles from the school and in the same borough, though at some schools parents pool their funds to charter private buses to pick up the far-flung students, McCurdy said.

Parents may also want to ask about the school’s curriculum and enrichment activities, and they should try to get a sense of the school’s vibe and whether their child would be comfortable there, McCurdy said.

Parents whose children scored in the 90th percentile or above on the hour-long gifted and talented test — which asks the youngsters to solve basic logic puzzles and demonstrate that they can sit still and listen — can apply to any of the G&T programs in their local school district. If parents want to guarantee their child a seat, they must list every single gifted program in their district on the application form.

Those who score in the 97th percentile or above can also apply to the five citywide gifted schools: New Explorations Into Science, Technology and Math (NEST+m) on the Lower East Side; The Anderson School on the Upper West Side; TAG Young Scholars in East Harlem; the Brooklyn School of Inquiry in Bensonhurst; and the STEM Academy in Astoria.

Although the 97th percentile is technically the cutoff for citywide gifted schools, in practice kids need a higher score, often in the 99th percentile, to get in, experts said.

Last year, out of the 14,088 preschoolers in New York City who took the gifted and talented test, about 4,000 qualified for a district G&T and just 970 scored in the 99th percentile. The city has not yet publicly released the number of applicants and how high they scored for this year.

Younger siblings of current students in gifted programs have first priority in the admissions process, and then the remaining seats are distributed by lottery, first to children in the 99th percentile, then those in the 98th percentile, and so on, until all seats are filled.

Robin Aronow, founder of School Search NYC, advises parents only to apply to schools that they would actually consider attending and to list their choices in order of preference, not prestige.

“There’s no gaming this,” Aronow said.

While hundreds of parents received good news on gifted and talented seats this week, many more found out that their children did not qualify.

Rather than focusing on the missed opportunity, those parents should find after-school programs and other enrichment activities to nurture their child’s talents and ensure that he or she is challenged, said Kim Har, director of childhood education at Aristotle Circle, a test preparation and admissions counseling company.

“It isn’t the end of the world,” Har said. “They can supply their kids with whatever experience is best for them. It may not be called ‘gifted and talented,’ but as long as it’s helping their kid, it doesn’t matter.”

Families can also ask to see a copy of their child’s test, if they believe the score is inaccurate, and they can appeal the city’s decision that their child is ineligible. Children can also take the test again next winter and enter a gifted and talented program in first grade instead.

To help parents choose a gifted and talented school for this fall, parents at the five citywide gifted schools are holding a panel April 17 at 7 p.m. at P.S. 20, 166 Essex St. on the Lower East Side. TestingMom.com is holding a separate information session on G&T programs April 18 at 6:30 p.m. at Poets House, 10 River Terrace in Battery Park City.

Press release from CPS.  I’m not sure how to react.   I am happy it will be less than 7.5 hours which seemed insane.

I’m still not getting how he gets off calling it a “Fuller Day” when we’re barely scraping by on the funding.  I know we all want it to be a nice, well rounded, full day (and I feel that even Rahm really wants this) but the money just ain’t there.  Not his fault, but it’s not.  We are being asked to all step up to the plate to use this time wisely, creatively, and effectively so I guess we’ve got to give it the best we’ve all got.  We can celebrate not having the pathetically shortest day in the country.  We can celebrate what hopefully is recess for more kids and a leisurely lunch.  Let’s hope we can celebrate an enjoyable day for more kids in the city and especially better results for the most disadvantaged kids in the city.  I really hope this works in their favor.  And I really hope my son learns all he needs to know about in math next year without my having to argue with him every night at home.

MAYOR EMANUEL, CPS ANNOUNCE 7-HOUR DAY FOR ELEMENTARY STUDENTS

After Input from Parents and Teachers, Elementary Schools Adopt 7 Hour Day Next Year

CHICAGO – Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Jean-Claude Brizard today announced that elementary schools will adopt a 7-hour day next year and high schools will adopt a 7 1/2-hour day as CPS moves from the shortest school day and year of any major city to a calendar aligned with national averages. This announcement comes after meetings and discussions with parents who expressed concerns and wanted to be more involved in setting the length of the day.

“Knowledge is the key to the future in today’s world – you earn what you learn. By having the shortest school day and shortest school year of any major city, we shortchanged Chicago’s children,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “By adopting a longer day and a longer year, we are working to shape the future of our children for the better and give them an education that matches up with their potential.”

Beginning next fall, all elementary students will move to a 7 hour school day, and high school students will have a 7 1/2-hour school day, with a 75 minute early release one day a week. Earlier this year, CPS presented the SY 2012-2013 calendar, which includes 10 additional days of instruction, moving CPS from the shortest school year in the country to a 180 day year that is on par with the national average. With the Full School Day, a student entering kindergarten next year will receive nearly 2.5 additional years of instructional time by the time they graduate high school. Along with implementation of the Common Core State Standards, a more rigorous curriculum that will better prepare students for college and career, and the new instructional framework, which will fundamentally change and improve the quality of teaching, the additional instructional time provided by the Full Day and year will give both teachers and students a valuable tool to improve teaching and learning in every school across the district.

The announcement was made at Disney II Magnet Elementary School, one of the schools that implemented the Full School Day last fall. Since launching the Full Day last September, students at Disney II have received an additional 185 hours of instructional time, with that time primarily focused on reading, math and science.

“We’re grateful for the example our Pioneer and Charter Schools have set, and their experiences, along with the direct input from parents across the city, have helped us shape a better, fuller school day,” said CEO Jean Claude Brizard. “The changes to the Full Day reflect hours spent listening to parents and taking action based on their input, and demonstrate our willingness to work as true partners with parents to make decisions that will boost student achievement across the district.”

Elementary Full School Day:

• Students will receive 52 additional minutes of instructional time each day.
• Students will receive 6 hours of instruction and 45 minutes for recess and lunch.
• Students will be in school for 7 hours each day, an increase of 75 minutes.
• Teachers will be in school for 7 hours and 40 minutes, an increase of 85 minutes.

High School Full School Day:

• Students will receive 46 additional instructional minutes four days a week.
• Students will receive 6 hours and 8 minutes of instructional time four days a week.
• Students will be in school for 7 1/2 hours a day, an increase of 36 minutes four days a week.
• One day per week the day will end 75 minutes early.
• Teachers will be in school for 7 hours and 40 minutes, an increase of 39 minutes.

The Full School Day will provide significant benefits to all students across the district, including:

• Elementary students will receive an additional 207 hours of instruction each year, and high school students will receive an additional 116 hours of instruction. Principals will no longer have to choose between reading, math or science because of limited time in the day.
• Additional time will create opportunity to add more intervention to ensure students who are falling behind in math and reading can get up to speed with their peers.
• Elementary students will have time for lunch and recess every day to relax, re-boot and return to the classroom ready to learn.

The Full School Day was structured with an eye toward providing teachers with adequate professional development and prep time to support their practice. Benefits of the Full Day include:

• Elementary teachers will have almost two additional hours of prep time each week.
• Elementary teachers will have self-directed prep time in the mornings, as well as additional prep time throughout the day to meet with parents informally, prepare for their lessons and supervise students who arrive at school early.
• Both elementary and high school teachers will receive an average of 75 minutes for professional development each week.

Have any of you changed your mind either way as a result of CPS’ point of view or that of the parent protest groups?

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/04/09/parent-groups-want-meeting-with-mayor-on-longer-school-day/

CHICAGO (CBS) – Several parent groups are questioning how the Chicago Public Schools can lengthen the school day starting next fall, without solid plans on how to use the extra time, or enough money to pay for it.

WBBM Newsradio Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports a coalition of parent groups spoke out in front of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s City Hall office on Monday.

Jonathan Goldman, who has children at Thomas Drummond Elementary School, said the group Chicago Parents for Quality Education has compiled all the research on a longer school day.

“A lot of the information that the mayor and CPS have been putting out is just either misinformation that they are either unaware of, or that they’re deliberately using to mislead the public about this program,” Goldman said.

Goldman said parents support more classroom time for their kids, but most think 7 1/2 hours is too long. They prefer a 6 1/2-hour day, about 45 minutes longer than the current school day.

“I think that there is a consensus among parents across the city, and numerous surveys have shown that we need a day longer than (5 hours and 45 minutes),” he said.

Wendy Katten, whose children are at Augustus Burley Elementary School, said CPS hasn’t shown it has the plans for how to spend the extra class time meaningfully.

“There are hundreds of studies that show that children need P.E., they need things like music, they need all of these things,” said Katten, co-founder of the parents group Raise Your Hand.

CPS officials defended their plans for a longer school day, saying it was about more than just more time in the classroom.

“This is about more than adding time to the school day – we’re strategically investing in initiatives that will ensure that additional time is quality time, and the result is to boost student achievement,” CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll said. “Next fall, we will begin implementing the Common Core State Standards, which is a more rigorous curriculum that will better prepare students for college and career, as well as the new instructional framework, which will fundamentally change and improve the quality of teaching across the district. These initiatives, combined with the additional instructional time provided by the Full School day will provide both teachers and students with the tools needed to improve teaching and learning in every classroom.”

But parents questioned how the district could achieve the goals of the longer school day when it’s already running a significant deficit.

“There’s clearly not the budget, with the $600 to $700 million deficit, to provide all of these new (programs). Whether they can provide a few programs here and there, we know they don’t have the money to staff a full day,” Katten added.

Goldman said school officials should present a budget for the longer school day, noting in Boston and Houston, schools are spending an extra $1,300 to $2,000 per pupil to lengthen the school day.

“If you extrapolate those costs to Chicago Public Schools, we’re talking about between $500- and $800-million in new costs, in order to roll this out effectively,” Goldman said. “That’s on top of the $600- to $700-million deficit that CPS has already announced that they have. How are they going to make this work?”

The parents demanded a meeting with Emanuel to discuss plans for a longer school day.

In a statement, CPS officials said they’re making investments district-wide to give students more time in the classroom and a more rigorous curriculum.

“We share a deep commitment and passion with parents to ensure we are taking every step to boost student achievement throughout the District. These district-wide investments include giving our students more instructional time in the classroom, implementing a more rigorous curriculum to better prepare students for college and a new instructional framework that will improve the quality of teaching,” Carroll said in an email. “All of these will give principals and teachers more tools to help students achieve success in the classroom and beyond.”

The Chicago Board of Education has already unanimously approved plans to extend the school year by 10 days next year.

But the district has yet to explain exactly how it plans to pay for the longer school day or longer school year at a time when it is facing a budget deficit of $600 million to $700 million next school year. Officials have said that deficit could exceed $1 billion by the 2013-14 school year. The district is also negotiating a new contract with the Chicago Teachers Union, which is seeking significant teacher raises to pay for the changes.

The union has also repeatedly blasted the CPS plan for a longer school day, saying officials haven’t sufficiently explained how the extra time would benefit students or how the district would pay for the extra time teachers would be required to work.