District 299 The Chicago Schools Blog

5th Year Of Gains For Philly Schools

Philly's schools made some gains on state tests for the fifth year in a row. Should Vallas get some credit?
Link: 5th year of gains for Phila. schools | Inquirer | 08/08/2007.

Charters In Chicago & New Orleans

The great irony of many complaints about charts in Chicago is that its charter schools are among the smallest, most tightly screened set of charters in the nation, with few of the major disasters that have bedeviled charter schools in other cities.  And yet, they receive as much criticism locally as in other places -- Ohio, Arizon -- where there really is a free for all going on.  I'm not saying that the charters here are perfect, just that they could be a lot worse if the powers that be wanted to let them.  And that they are in many ways better-run than the charters in other places.

Speaking of other places, the test scores are in for Louisiana, which turned scads of NOLA schools into charters last year.  As you can see from the email and article below, the NOLA charters did exceptionally well.

UNO New Orleans In The News

There've been a slew of UNO-related news stories of late, in print and on TV, about the new school opening in New Orleans :

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/491739,CST-NWS-KATRINA01.article

http://abc26.trb.com/

http://wgntv.trb.com/news/

What Else You Got?

Wanna know what's going on in education outside Chicago?  Sure, you do. 

Here's a taste from the other blog:

How Congressional Earmarks Work

Former Washington Post Reporter Looks Into Testing Effects

Weighted Student Funding (Among Other Things) Collapses In NYC

What Anderson Cooper Should Have Asked The Candidates

Who's For, Against Letting Students Transfer To Better Schools

Turning Up The Heat On "Multiple Measures"

Learn Where The States Are, Waste Time

Top Spots in Philly Unfilled

Metro — Philly's free daily — has a story today about the vacancies at some of the school district's top posts.
Though an interim CEO has been named to replace Vallas, several of the other top district personnel have jumped (a sinking?) ship, including chief academic office Greg Thornton, who some thought was in line for the CEO job:  As the school year approaches, many district positions remain unfilled.

Want Integration? Blend City, Suburban Districts

Activists in New York are proposing a new, blended attendance system for the New York metropolitan area as an antidote to increasing segregation in city schools, according to this New York Sun article (Activists Revive Idea of Blending Students From City, Suburbs):  "School districts are man-made," a professor at Columbia University's Teachers College, Amy Stuart Wells, said. "They're not laws of nature, even though we act like they are."  Wilmington, Del., and St. Louis, Mo., pool urban and suburban neighborhoods into the same schools, Ms. Wells said."

Building A Great Schools Website

Recently named along with Joel Klein as one of the most influential parts of the New York City education scene, InsideSchools.org goes beyond the usual news coverage and profiles individual schools.  Now it has a blog to go along with all the rest.  I'm still working on having information and profiles about individual schools on the site, or some sort of guide for parents and teachers to go along with all the good discussion.  Wouldn't that be cool?

Vallas' Final Paycheck: $180,000 | Daily News | 07/10/2007

Not quite a golden parachute, but not bad: Vallas' final paycheck: $180,000 | Daily News | 07/10/2007.

Making Fun Of School Reform..At A "Granular" Level

Though I usually find articles in The Nation tiresome and predictable (even when I agree with them) , I knew I was going to like LynNell Hancock's recent article on school reform in New York City when she started out making fun of the word "granular," which is currently being over-used in certain circles when it comes to describing detailed data.

What's your favorite bit of consultant-speak, and what do you think about going to a more decentralized (ie, school- and principal-led), assessment-driven model (five times a year) like they have in NYC?

Remembering Barbara Sizemore -- Comparing Rhee To Her

A Washington Post columnist examines the history of Barbara Sizemore's tenure in Washington DC and wonders whether the city's newest chief, Michelle Rhee (right), will do any better. (Rhee's Determination Will Be Tested). 

Back in '73, Sizemore was the first African American woman to be named head of a major urban school system. 

Rhee, a 37 year-old Korean-American woman, is one of the youngest, least experienced (in the traditional sense) person to be so named -- as well as the first TFA alum to supe a district.