At the last forum, one of the questions asked related to the CPS selective enrollment process for high school students and is it fair for students who live on the northwest side of the city? Mr. Arena (from the 45th Ward) spoke about the process from his own personal experience and advocated for a change in the system to make it more equitable for students who come from the NW side.
Posted below are the guidelines that were set up for the 2011 - 2012 school year released by the CPS school board in November of 2010. Letters of acceptance for the school year 2011-2012 were mailed out this week.
Take a look at the process and how could it be made better for students living in the 41st Ward? What's right/wrong with the current system? And what steps need to be made to make sure 41st ward high students are allowed a fair shot for entry into the schools of their choice?
http://www.cpsoae.org/ourpages/auto/2010/11/4/48394361/Magnet%20and%20Selective%20Enrollment%20Admissions%20Policy%20-%2011-17-10.pdf
I read through the report. The first paragraph tells all when it talks about the goal of "socio-economic diversity." Just another name for affirmative action which means we pay the taxes and our kids get screwed. It's the oldest play out of the liberal hand book: Dumb every one down instead of raising people up.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the community demographic data from the 2000 and 2010 census and other available reports, all of the neighborhoods in the 41st Ward (Norwood, Edison Park, Oriole Park, OHare, Edgebrook) have had significant growth in population of children ages 0-18. But the city of chicago and the 41st ward have not kept up with the shift in demographics, and all of the schools are overcrowded.
ReplyDeleteMore parents want a public school option these days for a number of reasons...parents pay high property taxes, want accessible quality education, and have lost faith in private school options. We want to keep families in the community and need to accomidate the need to provide quality education for children who live here or we will lose even more people to the suburbs, faster than we already are.
We need another high school, a very large high school to serve the 41st Ward. And that high school needs to be designated for students who live in the 41st ward and needs to include AP and IB curriculi for advanced and gifted students.
To 9:24 A.M.: You nailed it. Whoever wins, it is only one vote on the council but I would like to know how each candidate will at least work to achieve those goals.
ReplyDeleteA second high school in this huge ward is a top priority. I am a CPS teacher and send my kids to private schools because of the overcrowding, but I wont be able to do that through high school, too. There is no time to waste. I was at the forum and thought the 45th ward guy made some good points about CPS.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering how the 41st could work directly with the CPS school board to have a high school built? Do we need an advisory board of parents to make a presentation before the CPS school board? And I'm wondering if there is a community leader who could lead the group in the adventure?
ReplyDeleteI think we need an "Alderman's Report Card" published every quarter. Let's continuously evaluate the wards goals and projects...but first they would need to be defined and posted somewhere.
ReplyDeleteSort of like I'm evaluated in the real working world.
The 45th ward guys both did far better on all topics - they both gave details about zoning concerns, property tax assessments and some strategies to address them, school reform, budgets, transparency, public input, communication.
ReplyDelete....the 41st candidates. not so much
ReplyDeleteSelective enrollment is set up to boost the poor and thats fine, but in doing so, there must also be mechanisms in place to not discriminate against middle class families. To me, this means strong community based schools in every neighborhood, so kids from all socio-economic groups get a fair shake at a solid education.
ReplyDeleteThat said, lets get our community high school built as soon as possible. I think we need to work with Rahm directly or we will lose many more tax paying families who will move for educational reasons.
The community leader is suppose to be the alderman, but in this case, we will need a genuine leader to pull this off. The next alderman hasn't even been elected and people are already trying to work around them. I agree - work with Rahm directly, or nothing will get done.
ReplyDeleteExpect nothing from the future alderwomen when it comes to schools.
ReplyDeleteO'Connor - has no kids. How can she be so pro schools when she doesn't have any skin in the game.
Gavin - Sent her kids to Immaculate Conception.