So last week I wrote about the new book The Make-or-Break Year, which details the challenges of keeping Chicago’s high school freshmen on track to graduate. While the book zooms in and out between the big-picture challenges and the teacher-student struggles to help keep kids in school, today I want to zero in on a foundational issue that starts well…
Author: Maureen Kelleher
Talking Freshmen On Track and “The Make-or-Break-Year” at 57th Street Books
Healthy skepticism fuels good journalism, smart research and thoughtful education. And yet, as Emily Krone Phillips tells us in her new book, The Make-or-Break Year, “the movement that occurred in Chicago to support freshmen hinged not on skepticism, but on belief. … Belief that the dropout crisis was something that could be solved. Belief in the research that showed ninth…
Preventing Sexual Abuse in Schools Starts With Training and Reducing Shame and Fear
We see the headlines about the new Title IX Office in CPS. The background checks. The handful of firings. But it’s harder to see what changes in culture are happening to stop sexual assault in schools. Back in the summer, I talked with experts about what CPS is doing to protect students. Today, I want to talk about what I’m…
Enyia and Preckwinkle Slay at Mayoral Forum
If you want to know what happened at the Chicago mayoral candidate forum last night, sponsored by a raft of progressive organizations and held at the Chicago Teachers Union offices, you can read the Tweets and even watch the Facebook Live. But if you want to know how the candidates came across to this taxpayer, homeowner and mom of a…
Future Kindergarten Parents, Get Your Child’s CPS ID Now!
Attention next year’s kindergarten parents: if you’re applying to CPS schools beyond your neighborhood, you must request an ID for your child with this form. Forms are due December 2. If you miss the deadline, you’ll need a paper form to complete your GoCPS application. Because the wheels of central office grind slowly, they need two weeks to get you…
It’s Hard to Leave the School You Love, But Sometimes It’s Necessary
I’m a parent and a person who watches schools for a living. This guarantees I’m a fussy school-shopper. In kindergarten, we tried three schools in five months before settling down at dual-language Namaste Charter School. I thought Antonia had found a home to last. Unfortunately, I was wrong. After starting the year at Namaste, with Halloween and Dia de los…
At Tarkington Elementary, Kids Do Science Right
At Tarkington Elementary on the Southwest Side, kids are talking science and doing science. Sadly, that’s news. As a mom, I can say my own 4th-grade daughter hasn’t done enough real science in her elementary school years. And study after study shows she’s not alone. What’s different at Tarkington? Teachers, supported by their principal, have made science a priority. They…
Christopher House Breaks Ground on Innovative Middle School
As a toddler, Camilla Ruelas had a life-saving liver transplant. She’s now a sixth-grader at Christopher House Charter School, with her sights set on college at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana and later, medical school. “I hope to learn more about the human body and anatomy to become a doctor someday,” and perform those lifesaving transplants herself, she told a…