Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education Executive Director Wendy Katten walked the distance between Earl Elementary and Goodlow Elementary Magnet School in Chicago. Earl is being closed, and its students will be sent to Goodlow where the staff is being replaced by the Earl staff.
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Posted by Tim Furman
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Had an interesting walk through West Englewood with Raise Your Hand’s Wendy Katten on Sunday morning. On this particular visit we walked the distance between Earle Elementary and Goodlow Magnet.
This is one of the scenarios that probably made sense to some TFA intern somewhere and it made its way up the ladder of yes-people to the top. I have trouble even explaining it— basically, the Goodlow staff is being shown the door, and the Earle staff is going to take over, and they’re going to bring the Earle neighborhood kids along. Earle may or may not be converted into some kind of magnet, and whether or not that magnet will have any seats reserved for the kids in the neighborhood is beyond me.
I also don’t know what’s happening to the Goodlow magnet concept, now that it’s a sorta-kinda magnet with a bunch of neighborhood kids and their teachers. The only thing reasonably certain is that it’s going to be a crowded, crowded school, and there aren’t very many people in the neighborhood who think it’s a good idea.