TeacherX

Arne is going to talk with actual teachers!

Hey Everyone, guess what Dear Leader Arne wants to actually talk with teachers! Not only that, he's going to pay you your HOURLY WAGE! Will is be pensionable? (just kidding)

Anyway, has anyone heard about this at their school, or are we all learning about this in the paper?

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Public Schools system will spend about $2 million between January and February on a series of Saturday meetings that will gather thousands of city teachers downtown to talk about district-wide improvements.

This is the first time the district has attempted to summon all 25,000 teachers to meetings with schools Chief Arne Duncan and other central administrators. Duncan announced the plan Monday during his annual State of the City Schools speech at a City Club luncheon. Duncan outlined the district's accomplishments, challenges and future initiatives in his address to civic and business leaders

Just one question - WHAT IMPROVEMENTS ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? Closing down schools and giving them away is an improvement? Overcrowded high schools is an improvement. Someone please enlighten me.

I dont' know about anyone else, but I'm going for the show - also of course the money. Can I go to more than one?

Sometimes, I'm just amazed

I'm sorry, but the continued outsourcing of public education in the city and the give away of public property are personal sore points for me. After looking at the list of new schools approved by the board  that can be found at District 299, I don't even know where to start - I'm just amazed that  what the board has been doing seems to flying under the radar. At least the union has been actively fighting the ever increasing number of charter schools and public property giveaways. There are a couple of schools that I want to "highlight"

Austin Polytechnical   Academy, a performance school serving grades 9-12, will offer a   blended curriculum of career prep and college prep with an emphasis   on manufacturing, management and production. Ninth and 10^th-graders   will focus on school-based learning skills, while 11^th and   12^th-graders will gain experience in technology-based companies.   The school will open fall of 2007 at Austin High School, 231 N. Pine.

I've commented on this before, and I still think that this is crap. Austin kids are forced to go accross town to go to school, and their neighborhood scool is being turned into a vocational school that they may or may not have the chance to attend. I have no problem with schools that teach kids skills that can be immediately applicable after high school, but why isn't there a school like Austin Polytechnique being built on the north side? (please note, this is a rhetorical question).

Collins Academy   High School will be a performance high school with a college prep   curriculum offered by the Academy of Urban School Leadership. The school   will eventually become a site for teacher training, where student teachers   will receive intensive mentoring and exposure to best-practice models   for teaching in urban communities. The school will open fall of 2007   at Collins High School, 1313 S. Sacramento. AUSL currently operates   four elementary schools and one high school in Chicago

The kids who went to Collins are now at Manley. "They" took the building as everyone guessed would happen. Like Englewood, a public facility has been placed in the hands of a private operator. Manley is the older school and those kids in the neighborhood will have to go there while the more modern school goes to white and asian college prep kids. I wonder how much the board will spend to "upgrade" Collins while doing nothing over at Manley.

Marine Military   Math and Science Academy will be a performance school and serve   grades 9-12. The curriculum will be a combination of career and college   prep with a math and science focus to prepare students for careers requiring   a math or science background. It will be the first public Marine Junior   Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) high school in the nation. The   school will open fall of 2007 at 145 S. Campbell.

The militarization of the Chicago Public Schools continues.

Hey Arne, let's stop the creeping and just give away the system. Maybe a company will lease cps to some giant conglomerate for 99 years like the city did with the Skyway then the city could just wash it's hands of public education and get to the real business of running the city - giving away chunks of money to one's friends.

Fascism Chicago Style

AGGE: The Rebellion will continue to gain a support in the Imperial
Senate as long as....

           Suddenly all heads turn as Commander Tagge's speech is cut
        short and the Grand Moff Tarkin, governor of the Imperial
        outland regions, enters. He is followed by his powerful ally,
        The Sith Lord, Darth Vader. All of the generals stand and bow
        before the thin, evil-looking governor as he takes his place
        at the head of the table. The Dark Lord stands behind him.

TARKIN: The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us.
I've just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council
permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept
away.

TAGGE: That's impossible! How will the Emperor maintain control
without the bureaucracy?

TARKIN: The regional governors now have direct control over
territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line.

According to this article in the Tribune the Big Boys who really run things in  Chicago want to make chicago safe for huge multinational corporations to make even more money then previously by creating a city council (if we can even call what we have a city council) that is even less democratic than it is currently.

    The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce,
    which represents 2,600 companies, warned top business leaders they can
    no longer rely on Daley alone to protect their interests

    "Under Mayor Daley's leadership, the business community had,
    effectively, `one-stop shopping' in City Hall," the chamber stated in a
    presentation made at the Oct. 26 meeting of its board of directors.
    "Members of Chicago's City Council were relatively complacent until
    recently."   

    The presentation, contained in an e-mail obtained by the Tribune,
    offers an unusually blunt assessment of Daley's influence during his 17
    years in office. It warns of "decentralizing political power," signaled
    by recent council actions such as passage of the "big-box" minimum wage
    ordinance that Daley later vetoed.   

    The e-mail outlined a short-term strategy for the February city
    elections that targets key races to push its pro-business agenda.   

    But the 17-page plan focuses on a longer-term approach that calls
    for spending $1.2 million a year for political ads, lobbying and
    legislative research through the city elections in 2011.   

    Chamber President Jerry Roper said Thursday that the chamber is
    responding to what it views as "some independence in the council,"
    which he blamed largely on an aggressive political strategy by labor
    groups such as the Service Employees International Union, with 165,000
    Illinois members.   

    "We never want to go to war, but we're preparing for a war if that
    has to take place," Roper said. "We have a great pro-business mayor,
    but we haven't backed him up. Where we should help the mayor is to help
    him have an enlightened council."

So, this is what I understand from the article:  big business leaders in chicago don' t like that the council is mostly a rubber stamp. I guess that they - like Darth Vader and his buddies - would prefer that there be no city council. Since they can’t do what the Emperor did in Star Wars, the Business Big Boys want the government of Chicago to be completely owned by them, and damned if any concerned alderman is going to put up a fight so that the people who actually LIVE IN CHICAGO will have a say in what happens to OUR city.

To these people, an “elightened city council” is a council of people who are enlightened enough see that if they don't do what they are told then they will be forced off of the council. The big business people want a city council that will be enlightened enough to take their big old paychecks and then vote as they are told like good little children once a month and then go home, never to be seen until the next Wednesday council meeting.

    Roper said the chamber would use its own political organization to back pro-business candidates and target aldermen who are deemed unsympathetic to business. He said the chamber might recruit private-sector employees to assume the role precinct workers traditionally have played in Chicago's political campaigns.

So there, you have it - pro-business means pro their business.

Now Fascism could be described as the merging of corporate and state interests in an authoritarian context. This seems to be what they good people of the Chicago Chamber of Commerce want. I hope that 1) The people of Chicago fight this, but they keep voting for Daley, so that probably won’t happen. 2) Unions like the SEIU really do fight back with candidates that are dedicated to making Chicago a city for the people who live in it versus the Chicago envisioned by the corporatist community which would be a city for those who simple want to make a buck and don’t care about the citizens.

Hey everyone

It's Principal for a Day today - everyone smile at the clueless big shots!

Scholarships for some!

This was reported in the Sun-Times as well as other media.

The lede:

All 200 freshmen and sophomores at Chicago's new Social Justice High School now have a huge reason to stay in school and do well.

Roosevelt University is offering them a free four-year ride to college.

Roosevelt is committing to cover the tuition -- worth more than $15,000 this year -- of every graduate in Social Justice's classes of 2009 and 2010 if they apply to Roosevelt and can qualify for admission there.

I'm assuming the social justice school is CPS and not charter? Is it?

Shorter Marilyn's Pieces

I'm really really mad about the in which the Board has spent money. We don't like the fact that CPS schools have been closed down, fixed up and given to charters. We also don't like that special treatment that has been given to other special schools while many neighborhood schools are deteriorating. We're going to do something about it someday - really.

Cult of Personality October Edition

Only 15 pictures (I think) or Marilyn in the October Union Rag.

More reading between the lines (well, the lines aren't even that close, it's more like driving a truck through them) of the Chicago Union Teacher. I promise that I won't gag too much when I read the C.U.T. so you won't have to.

Barefoot and Pregnant

From the Sun-Times

If the republicans had their way, girls would be taught Home-ec and sent home to find a husband.

WASHINGTON -- For the first time in a generation, public schools have won broad freedom to teach boys and girls separately, stirring a new debate about equality in the classroom.

The Education Department on Tuesday announced rules that will make it easier to create single-sex classes or schools, a plan that's been expected for almost three years.

I love the next quote

The move comes as the value of same-sex education is in doubt. Research shows mixed results, as even the department's own review says.

That would make this decision scientific? No. Political? Yes.

I can't wait

A new Chicago Union Teacher is waiting to be distributed. I can't wait. What's the over under on pictures of Marilyn this time. I'm thinking 25.

We're all superstars really part II

Ahhh, superstar - the ideal principal - one who can come in and just do magic in a school. In early September, we were reading about superstar principals who were going in to save schools that needed to be saved. Now, we are reading about the hiring of superstar principals to some "super" schools that desperately need. . . superstars? I don't get it.

In the sun times on Monday, Chief education stenographer reporter Roz Rossi reports on the big deal that both Chicago High Northside College Preparatory Academy and Walter Payton are both looking for new principals.

Two of the state's highest-scoring public high schools--Northside College Prep and Walter Payton College Prep--both need new principals by June 30, creating a first-of-its kind talent search in Chicago.

Having two such top-flight Chicago public school openings at the same time is "unprecedented,'' said Barbara Radner, director of DePaul University's Center for Urban Education and longtime CPS observer.

"This is like Harvard and Yale,'' Radner said. "I guess this is the marathon.''

Well, maybe, but it's still CPS. If one is indeed a superstar principal looking for a school that is like a suburban school - then guess what, they'll go to a suburban school. I mean, c'mon, it's CPS and people aren't stupid. These schools might be top of the heap - but a CPS principal is still a CPS principal with 100s of emails everyday, the revolving door at 125, arbitrary rules that make one's job a hassle, etc.

Since Aug. 31, only 10 candidates have applied for the Northside job, despite two rounds and $5,000 of national advertising.

"I have to say, we are shocked," said Northside Local School Council chair and parent Mary Lou Schmidt.

"The question came up -- maybe people thought we already had a candidate and we were just going through the motions. That is not true. We are wide open to any and all candidates," she said.

I'm shocked, shocked that people thought that there was a deal in the works for who was to become the new principal. Shocked. (snark)

College prep principal jobs now up for grabs at Northside, Payton and Lane Technical --which closed its application period Oct. 12 -- all pay between $113,800 and $137,700, plus benefits.

"Salary may be a sticking point," Devine said. "Compared to New Trier and some of the North Shore schools, our principal probably makes as much as an assistant principal or a department chair."

Only Principals? Compared to New Trier and some of the North Shore schools, CPS teachers probably make as much as teachers aids and janitors.

Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan said he hopes the fight for the two jobs is very competitive.

"Those principals are superstars," Duncan said. "We want to replace them with two superstars."

The principals at those schools are not superstars - despite the fact that the schools are CPS schools, it's a turnkey operation. Principals on the south and west sides who are trying to turn things around are superstars - if the CPS is going to pay anyone more - those principals deserve to be paid at New Trier Salaries.