Emanuel: New Curriculum By End of First Term
Mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel made a campaign promise this week to implement a new math and English language curriculum in Chicago’s public schools by the end of his first term.
Emanuel said the new curriculum would be geared toward meeting the “common core standards” that education officials in Illinois and more than 40 other states have adopted. How exactly to try to meet those standards, however, is left up to school districts.
“I want us, the city of Chicago, to be the first city to adopt the curriculum that teaches toward the common standards,” he told the Chicago News Cooperative. “Nobody has taken on the initiative.”
The effort would better prepare high school graduates for college or the workplace, he said, “so diplomas, on graduation day, mean something.”
But Emanuel quickly made clear that he meant no disrespect to retiring Mayor Richard M. Daley, who
