Chicago Public Schools
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Chicago Public Schools, commonly abbreviated as CPS by local residents and politicians, is a school district that controls over 600 public elementary and high schools in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago Public Schools is currently the third largest school district in the United States, with more than 400,000 students enrolled in the school district. It is led by CEO Arne Duncan. The position of CEO of the CPS was created by Mayor Richard Daley after he successfully convinced the Illinois State Legislature to place CPS under the mayor's control.
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[edit] Schools
CPS is a vast system of primary and secondary schools confined to Chicago's city limits. Some schools are new construction, some appear gothic in architecture, and others are deteriorating from years of lack of attention.
Most schools in the district, being K-8, elementary, middle, or secondary, have attendance boundaries, restricting student enrollment outside of any given residential area.
Attendance boundaries vary in shape and size, depending on how many schools are located within a neighborhood.
For example, Beverly has at least four public K-8 schools: Barnard, Clissold, Vanderpoel, and Sutherland. Each school restricts enrollment based on their individual attendance boundaries. A school may elect to enroll students outside their attendance boundaries if there is space, and or if it has a magnet cluster program. Full magnet schools, such as Gunsaulus Scholastic Academy, are open to student enrollment citywide, provided that applicants meet a level of high academic standards: living near a magnet school does not guarantee admission.
[edit] Employees
CPS offers incentives to maintain a competitive workforce. The district actively recruits teachers from around the world, with the Global Educator Outreach program bringing talent to Chicago to teach in the areas of math, science, and foreign language. [1] In 2005, the Chicago Department of Housing began offering mortgage assistance to CPS teachers buying homes and condominiums in redeveloped mixed-income CHA complexes. Teachers can receive up to $3,000 in mortgage subsidies.
[edit] 2005 Teacher layoffs
School administrators issued advanced dismissal notices to approximately 1,116 untenured teachers between March and April 2005. The leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union under Deborah Lynch allowed for a clause in the 2003 contract, giving principals the power to dismiss untenured teachers without due process. Principals can simply login to a website, select a reason from six items listed on a drop-down menu, and click a submit button. At least fifty-percent of the dismissed teachers experienced difficulty controlling their classrooms, granting justification. Other reasons for dismissal include poor communication skills and rapport with fellow teachers and parents. Controversially, principals can simply choose "other" from the drop-down menu concealing any reason for a dismissal. This practice is questionable because it conceals reasons, which may include budget cuts.
[edit] Performance
The April 21, 2006 issue of the Chicago Tribune revealed a study released by the Consortium on Chicago School Research that stated that 6 of every 100 CPS freshmen would earn a bachelor's degree by age 25. 3 in 100 black or Latino men would earn a bachelor's degree by age 25. The study tracked Chicago high school students who graduated in 1998 and 1999. 35% of CPS students who went to college earned their bachelor's degree within six years, below the national average of 64%.[2]
As announced on September 8, 2006, due to an ongoing series of campaigns and programs, including one which emphasized the importance of Fathers accompanying their children to the First Day of School, and parents picking up their children's report cards, First Day attendance rose from a previous year high of 92% in 2005 to 92.8% for the first day of classes, Tuesday, September 5, 2006.
[edit] Darfur protest Controversy
A Chicago Sun-Times column on June 8, 2006 reported a case involving approximately fifty students from Best Practice High School—one of CPS’s poorest performing inner-city schools (only 7.9% of the students passed Illinois’ achievement examination)—who planned a demonstration against the genocide in Darfur. The protest was to take place outside the Kluczynski Federal Office Building in downtown Chicago, which houses the offices of both senators from Illinois. The students received permission from the school’s principal and spent weeks planning for the demonstration. Less than a week before the demonstration, a CPS administrator overrode the school’s principal and withdrew permission for the rally.
Dan Rabinovitz, the students’ teacher, advocated on behalf of his students—he pleaded with CPS to reconsider, citing CPS magnet schools that were repeatedly given permission for demonstrations. Rabinovitz failed to obtain permission for the rally, but later succeeded in selling the story to Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown. On June 8, 2006, Brown detailed CPS's treatment in the lead column of the Chicago Sun-Times.
The column — http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20060608/ai_n16484142
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] News and Commentary
- 1,116 City Teachers Flunk Out Article on FY 2005 teacher layoffs
- CPS Blog
- "CPS career program sends fashion students out of classroom and into business" Article on recent CPS vocational programs
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