Comment Of The Week: A Day At Crane High School

There are lots of folks who make great comments on this site, but sometimes one or two jump out from the pack because they are so vivid and compelling.  That's the case with this comment from an anonymous teacher who spent the day at Crane High School recently -- complete with security breakdowns, open gang activity, and all the rest.  Take a look -- let me know if anything doesn't seem right -- and share your own stories or impressions.  For background, here are some newsclips about Crane: Car, other prizes encourage kids to go to class (2007), Chicago gets $21M to retool schools (2006), Volunteers, police patrol near Crane High School (2003).

Comments

[got out of Crane]

Yes, its all true at Crane. Mr. Scott has been principal for a good number of years and the school is as bad as when he came. CPS can close Crane like they did Calumet and those kids can be sent to another high school which will also be equally bad. CPS can put in a charter school run by some well meaning company out of Ohio or Arizona. That will fix things up good.

[M]

As the parent of a future high schooler, this entry is pretty frightening to read. The task of "fixing" the situation is daunting, and I don't envy those whose role it is to address it. Hopefully the situation described not typical of most CPS high schools? If it is and my kid does not get into one of the college prep schools: Suburbs, here we come.

[CPS response]

Everything is fine at Crane. Kids are getting a high quality education.

[1.04]

Good Job

The horrible thing about the Crane story is that it is not unique to Crane
All the person mentioned goes on every day in lots of schools. Who ever wrote the
story must be new to the ghetto I have experienced a lot more than that, but am not
a very good writer. Well done.

[new to CPS]

Which CPS neighborhood high schools (not charters, not s.e., not magnet) do not fit this Crane profile? I've been told all the neighborhood high schools are like this. Is that true or just exageration?

9:47,

It's an exaggeration - not all neighborhood high schools are like that.

My neighborhood high school on the southwest side is nothing like Crane. Overcrowded? Yes. But it's safe, has a strong staff over all, and has great kids...from the neighborhood.

It's painful to hear that refrain about charters versus neighborhood schools again because it is so terribly misleading. If Crane is a wreck it is in part because it knows it is already marked for closure.

Charters and the other "small schools"--there's a horror story that has yet to be fully told--have yet to prove several key things. One: that they offer something really worthwhile to their students to replace the big schools' opportunities for self-discovery and connecting to the larger society. I mean elective classes, after-school possibilities, institutional traditions, and other incalculable benefits of a large school. Two: that they are sustainable--to succeed over time these schools require huge amounts of private grant money--some of the more well-regarded charters in Chicago consume over 2 million dollars per year EACH school in grants over and above their government funds. Three: that they can attract and, more importantly, retain good teachers better than schools like Crane, given the career-less path of teaching in such schools.

There is a runaway train policy in effect in Chicago that has foreordained the slow strangulation and ultimate closure of Crane and all of the other schools that 9:47 lumps together as "neighborhood" schools.

It hurts to hear the big lie repeated over again, that somehow unproven, diminutive, and isolated start-up institutions offer a serious alternative to Crane over the long-run. Not only does this fail to see the excellence of many of the "neighborhood" schools, but it puts the cart before the horse. That way of looking at things is a source of the problem, not the path to a solution.

"...of Crane and all of the other schools that 9:47 lumps together as "neighborhood" schools"

But the 9:47 poster didn't lump them together. The post says "not charters" etc., and asked only about the come-one, come-all neighborhood schools.

[M]

new to CPS: I know people with high standards whose children are or were enrolled in Taft, Mather, Lake View and Lincoln Park high schools (all of which have neighborhood programs), and they were relatively content with the school. There are always some rough edges at any high school, however.

[responding to 1:48]

1:48 were the parents of the Lincoln Park High School students black? If they were why in the world would they have been relatively content. Only 45.7% of black juniors last year met state standards in reading, whereas 88.1% of the white students did. Even more upsetting only 23.9% of black students met state standards in math compared to 86.1% of white students.

I can show you numerous schools in southern cities that have far smaller white black achievment gaps. By the way Lincoln Park has 33% black students and 30% white students. It is considered by some of the national media to be one of CPS's very best schools.

Lake View is an improving high school by all accounts and there are little or no achievment gaps between the races at the school. Mather has not made AYP for several years now. It is not Crane to be sure. Taft is not Crane either.

Lincoln Park has to keep it's membership up for one. two--teachers know how to teach students who were getting higher scores long ago. Three--do they really have funds and time for remedial programs? It's about the IB, it's about higher achievement. See the housing prices there? It's Lincoln Park man, LINCOLN Park. Know the game.

Wow, the blooms on the flowers are beginning to fade. If anyone thinks Crane is "off the chain" as the students would say they've never been in some of our high schools. Come on over and spend a day at Fenger. To answer the question, no, all CPS high schools aren't like Crane but many are or were. I can fill volumes about teaching in the city as well as why these things occur. I choose to refer to it as the city versus the ghetto because ghettos are man made and perpetrate a mindset. Just in case some of the commentors are new to the city or don't live here just take a look at the latest survey of property values. Our neighborhoods are being fixed up and built up readying for the influx of people who lived outside of the boundaries of the city but now find urban living very attractive. Many of our commentors so called ghetto schools are in these neighborhoods. Anyone check the going prices of houses and condos in Crane's immediate neighborhood lately?Look closely at Ren 2010 too. Go back and see what happened to schools like Cregier and King that were closed, faculty dispersed and selective enrollment instituted. Many of Cregier's students were sent to Crane but when the school reopened it was a mutiplex with all kinds of university support and curriculum enhancements. The neighborhood kids who would have gone to King were sent to Dyatt and that school has never been the same. Schools are being closed now only to reopen as a Ren 2010 school. 19 newly proposed schools are up for approval for fall 2008 or 2009 openings. Will the gangbangers, fire alarm pullers, class ditchers, bathroom smokers be admitted to these new schools? Possibly, but not in numbers like they exist today in some of our schools. They will be easier to mange through disciplinary procedures and some behavior just won't be tolerated.

Even in schools like Crane or Fenger there are some very good students and exceptional teachers. There are so many other longterm socio-economic effects that cause our schools to be this way. So to those teachers new to CPS and those new to the city welcome. Our students have extended their calling cards. Now the ball's in your court. Accept the task, begin to understand the "why" of their behavior and don't say its because they live in the ghetto, they're poor or they don't know any better. If not, there are other school districts that may be a better fit or if you find you really don't have the stomach for this kind of drama then pick up the Sunday paper, read the classifieds then hit the street with resumes in hand.

[George Schmidt]

The remaining neighborhood high schools are being sabotaged this week (and last) by Arne Duncan. While millions of personnel dollars are being poured into that hive of True Believers beyond Arne's office on the Fifth floor (and the Board just added two lawyers-- er "Senior Managers" -- last month to the Seventh Floor), the general high schools (from "good" to other) are being forced to reorganize based on irrelevant (and inhuman) computerized staffing formulas this week. As usual, the principals will express concern, but in most cases will do nothing more. (Can you imagine a principal getting up at the October 24 Board meeting and telling -- in detail -- how her school was torpedoed by Duncan & Co. between October 8 and October 19 (the spread of time between when the first hints came in, the hits were made -- October 11 and 12, for the most part -- and the reorganized new programs were issued to the majority of the kids (unless IMPACT crashes, that will be between October 15 and October 19).

So why won't there be headlines across the Chicago area this week that the real first day of schools is happening now for between 30,000 and 50,000 Chicago high school students?

And why won't there be hundreds of people -- students, teachers, parents, and community leaders -- packing the Board at its next meeting (October 24) demanding that Arne be fired for the sheer evil of what his policies do to kids and teachers who, a few weeks ago when Mayor Daley was ringing that school bell and Arne was getting face time on all the TV stations for having the "highest percentage attendance on opening day" in the history of the solar system (or maybe the galaxy this time)?

[eddifftzxcss]

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[private school]

Every thing is fine in the crane high school. This high school provides good education. The students of the school have very good academic records and doing well in other activities.

http://www.teensprivateschools.com/schooltypes/High-Schools/index.html

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[Bill]

I have worked at Crane for years and for someone to spend a short period of time and create a snapshot judgement is ludicrous. Of course there are problems, the school does not exist in a vaccuum, it is a reflection of the community. Why no mention of the students that go to Northwestern University or U of I?? I guess that just is not as exciting or sexy. Spend time in a place, develop relationships with the community and families before you pass any judgement. I could say that everyone in Lake Forest are rich, arrogant snobs....but I have never spent enough time there to confirm that. Just do not pass judgement until you get all the facts please. Thank you

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[Megan]

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