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Thursday, April 2, 2015

CPS students won't come by free City Colleges scholarships so easily | Chicago

CPS students won't come by free City Colleges scholarships so easily | Chicago:

CPS students won't come by free City Colleges scholarships so easily



Well it was kinda not a lie!
 Mayor Rahm Emanuel announces the Chicago Star Scholarship program on Oct. 1, 2014. | Brian Jackson/Sun-Times
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to give “B” students free scholarships to attend City Colleges of Chicago is a campaign promise he repeatedly cites in re-election talking points.
While it’s widely viewed as a free tuition program for those students, a look at the fine print shows it won’t be a cakewalk for graduating Chicago public school seniors.
An additional testing score required to win the Star Scholarship would rule out more than half of the pool of Chicago Public Schools students who graduated last year with a B average, a Chicago Sun-Times review of the numbers shows.
That’s because B students must also score at least a 21 on both the math and English sections of the ACT. This extra qualification alone cuts out more than half of the pool of more than 5,264 students who graduated from CPS in 2014 with B averages.
In 2014, 2,503 students in CPS fulfilled that requirement, according to numbers provided to the Chicago Sun-Times by CPS.
That same year, CPS students scored an average 18 on the ACT, 17.4 on English section and 18.2 on mathematics, according to Illinois State Board of Education statistics.
Typically, about 90 percent of City Colleges students need to take remedial courses in English and math to elevate to college-level classes.
CPS officials have estimated that between 500 and 1,000 students graduate with a B average and do not go on to college, many because of financial need.
But CPS did not have estimates on how many students typically don’t go on to college and meet the full requirements for the scholarship.
Students who apply for the scholarship must first apply for federal grants and financial aid. But if students are denied the federal aid, they still qualify for the scholarship, a City Colleges spokeswoman said.
“Star is a unique scholarship program for us in that it allows any student who meets the qualifications to automatically receive a full ride (after application of financial grant aid) and, unlike any other scholarships, is open to any and all students who qualify,” said Katheryn Hayes, City Colleges of Chicago spokeswoman.


Hayes said the colleges have received 1,220 applications and is working through the evaluation process, which cannot be completed until the end of the school year.
Emanuel has touted the scholarship to the two-year colleges as a way for deserving students who otherwise can’t afford college to eventually move on to earn a bachelor’s degrees.
But there are skeptics, including those who say the qualifications CPS students won't come by free City Colleges scholarships so easily | Chicago:

Ingraham High School staff object to the SBAC | Seattle Education

Ingraham High School staff object to the SBAC | Seattle Education:



Ingraham High School staff object to the SBAC

IngrahamHSLogo
By a vote of 48 to 1, Ingraham staff passed the following resolution:
A RESOLUTION OF DISAPPROVAL OF THE Ingraham High School
WHEREAS Ingraham High School strives to provide an excellent education

to every student;
WHEREAS the Smarter Balanced Assessment is not required for graduation;
WHEREAS this computer-based assessment will take approximately eight

hours for each 11th grader to complete and its confusing format is

unlike anything students will experience outside the testing

environment;
WHEREAS there are not enough computers to test the students in a

reasonable amount of time and it is unacceptable for computers to be

unavailable to non-testing students for such a long period of time;
WHEREAS the failure rate of the assessment is going to be

extraordinarily high (possibly 60%) for the general population and

even higher for students of color, ELL students, and students on

individualized education plans;
WHEREAS student performance on this test will in no way be indicative

of their learning and instead this test must be given to meet

arbitrary, antiquated and poorly considered state and federal

mandates;
WHEREAS graduation and standardized testing requirements in Washington

State are confusing and poorly communicated;
WHEREAS the sheer number of state-mandated standardized tests is unacceptable;
WHEREAS in addition to other assessments during the last seven weeks

of school, we must administer one month of International Baccalaureate

exams, several weeks of AP testing, many weeks of 11th grade SBAIngraham High School staff object to the SBAC | Seattle Education:

Eva Moskowitz: Turning Schools Into Fight Clubs - WSJ

Eva Moskowitz: Turning Schools Into Fight Clubs - WSJ:

Turning Schools Into Fight Clubs

If student A’s fist ‘impacts’ student B, they don’t need ‘to dialogue.’ Student A needs to be disciplined.



Eighth-graders in a Queens, N.Y., public elementary school recently organized a “fight club” for first-graders, beating up those who wouldn’t participate. This disgraceful episode comes at a time when many across the country are engaging in a misguided campaign to diminish the school discipline needed to ensure a nurturing and productive learning environment.
Leading the pack is New York City, where Mayor Bill de Blasio has proposed a disciplinary code due to take effect this month in the city’s district schools. The code is full of edu-babble. For example, the code promotes “restorative circles.” What is that? It’s a “community process for supporting those in conflict [that] brings together the three parties to a conflict—those who have acted, those directly impacted and the wider community—within an intentional systemic context, to dialogue as equals.”
This is nonsense. If student A “impacts” student B with a fist, they shouldn’t “dialogue as equals.” Student A should be disciplined.
“Collaborative problem solving” is another strategy. Teachers “articulate the adults’ concerns about the behavior and engage the student in a collaborative process,” the code explains, to “decide upon a plan of action” that is “mutually acceptable to both.”
New York City Mayor Bill de BlasioENLARGE
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio PHOTO:BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS
You read that correctly. Teachers’ views on proper conduct are mere “concerns” that must be explained, and students get to decide what resolution is “acceptable” to them.
The new disciplinary code also undermines principals. Under the old code, they could give out-of-school suspensions of up to five days; only a superintendent could impose longer suspensions. Under the new code, a principal can only impose a pretend suspension in which the student receives “alternative instruction” at school. Previously such instruction would be provided at an alternative location, which is preferable.
Suspensions convey the critical message to students and parents that certain behavior is inconsistent with being a member of the school community. Pretend suspensions, in which a student is allowed to remain in the school community, do not convey that message. Many students actually feed off the attention they get for misbehaving. Keeping these students in school encourages that misbehavior.
Proponents of lax discipline claim it would benefit minority students, who are suspended at higher rates than their white peers. But minority students are also the most likely to suffer the adverse consequences of lax discipline—that is, their education is disrupted by a chaotic school environment or by violence.
This is a real concern. According to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 4% of New York City high-school students carry a weapon to school; 2% carry a gun. Thus, in a high school of 3,000 students, 60 may carry weapons, posing an enormous risk to their classmates.
Last year at Success Academy Charter Schools, which I founded in New York City in 2006, we suspended 11% of the 7,000 students in our 22 schools, a rate higher than the 4% average for the city’s district schools. Yet strict discipline has not dissuaded parents. This year there were more than 20,000 student applications for 2,688 spots. Most of the Eva Moskowitz: Turning Schools Into Fight Clubs - WSJ:



Big Education Ape: Success Academy parent's secret tapes reveal attempt to push out special needs student - NY Dail... http://bit.ly/1gVSu2n


Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 4/2/15 #‎Chuy2015‬


Special Nite Cap - Catch Up on Today's Post 4/2/15


Special Nite Cap 

CORPORATE ED REFORM
 
#DUMPRAHM
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2015 National Conference – Chicago

The Countdown to Chicago Has Begun!

The Network For Public Education | 2015 National Conference – Chicago