If you've got a question or comment for the blog, don't write it here -- cuz no one will see it.
Write it here, where the new site it, so that it can be read and responded to.
It's the same blog, just in a new home.
We'll move the past posts and comments over to the new site in a few weeks.
After nearly two years, District 299 is now moving over to Catalyst Chicago.
The address is changing, but not much else.
Check it out here. It looks pretty good.
Email me if you have any problems or questions (at District299 at gmail dot com).
See you over there.
Earlier today, word leaked out from the secret Catalyst corporate headquarters high atop the Sears Tower that this blog was moving to their site, starting tomorrow. And it's true. I'm actually pretty excited. Here's the announcement:
"Starting November 1st, Alexander Russo's District 299: The Chicago Schools Blog will move to Catalyst Chicago. It will be featured on our home page. Russo, a contributing editor to Catalyst, launched his CPS blog in December, 2005. Since then, the site has turned into a gathering place for parents, teachers, and activists to read the latest news, share the latest gossip, and find out what's going on in other parts of the city."
So that's where you should go starting tomorrow AM (here). The site won't change much in terms of its look and appearance, and as I've explained before your privacy, anonymity, and right to rant and rave (within reason) are all being preserved. Enjoy! And if you ever have any troubles, let me know at district299 at gmail dot com.
Sure, Jackson Language Academy got "Friends" actor David Schwimmer. And Bears cornerback Charlie Tillman was with Mayor Daley at Orr HS.
But who did the other schools in your neighborhood get, and were they any better (or worse) than in previous years?
Click here for the full list (pfads_2007.xls), courtesy of CPS, and let us know what your PFOD experience was like.
Just so you know, this site is going to have a new home starting on Thursday. I want to give you a couple of days to get ready. There will still be open commenting, and the site will still be independent editorially -- I criticize pretty much everyone and everything, as you know.
What will be different is that the site will be affiliated with -- but not controlled by -- another organization to be named soon, and I will (finally) get a little bit of Diet Coke money for the time it takes to post stories, monitor comments, add fun new functions, and call around once in a while for tidbits and gossip.
But, I repeat, the content is still going to be entirely mine, for better or worse. Your comments and contributions are still going to be yours. So don't get all paranoid on me. Or if you do, do so while reading the site and writing to tell us all about it.
Thanks as always for making this blog one of the most interesting (and fun) things I've done in recent memory. Onward and upward.
The Associated Press asked researchers to find out how many high-dropout schools there were nationwide and by state, and found stark but perhaps not surprising results:
Study shows nearly 10 pct of high schools are ‘dropout factories’
Peoria Star Journal
At Sullivan High School on Chicago’s North Side, 479 students —
the majority of them minority and low-income — enrolled in the class of
2006. By senior year, just 82 of them remained in school.
Too few grads Chicago Daily Herald
A separate report released in July by the Consortium on Chicago School Research found almost half of Chicago Public Schools students don't graduate.
Click below to see the list of 35 CPS sc
hools and their cumulative dropout rates. Click here to see the national view and where Illinois fits in. For some reason, the local dailies do not appear to have covered this story.
Some of you love Halloween for all its creativity and tradition, while others of you loath it for the disruptions and interruptions it brings to classrooms and learning. (My favorite part of it is that it comes at just the same time as the state test scores are officially released -- talk about "trick or treat.") Which side are you on, and why? Tell us what happens at your school, or home, or block -- currently or in the past -- and what's happening this year. Costumes? Candy? Parades?
It seems like the national press got lots of pics of Chicago area schools being cleaned, even though Chicago doesn't seem to be ground zero. Maybe someone called a press conference?
A (Sometimes) Deadly Scourge New York Times
Caption: A Chicago school where officials thought a student might have a staph infection ordered a heavy-duty cleanup.
Entire school system to be scrubbed after superbug case CNN.com
Caption: Workers clean a classroom in Chicago, Illinois. Staph infections have spread recently through several schools.
That's what's happening in one Oregon district, where,
according to EIA Mike, the local union president is so disgusted and
upset by what's being said about her that she's trying to force Google to reveal the blogger's identity so that he or she can be sued. If only there was a CPS-related blog that was good enough to warrant the same treatment here.
At a Chicago High School, A Renewed Focus on Security WBEZ
Last school year, these problems were compounded by
a series of shootings that traumatized teachers and students. We
decided to find out what, if anything, had changed this year.
After all that, the Board has determined that controversial LSC Chair Tom Ramos should be reinstated onto the LSC at Curie as of November 30, though not as chair (since that's already been given to Otis Davis). Amazing. There's no explanation, no apology, no nothing in the 10-19 letter from Duncan that was sent to me. I'm told that Ramos is also reinstated at Columbia Explorers, where he was on the LSC also.
And CPS confirms that Jones is now officially the AIO for Area 24. One thing I don't get is why they won't let him back until November 30th. Anyone have any ideas about that?
I'm a freelance education writer with too much time on my hands.
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