In July 2020, Kids First Chicago spoke with 163 CPS parents about their recommendations for the upcoming school year. They included four dual-language focus groups to connect with Spanish-speaking parents. This is very important since the district and many individual schools still struggle to communicate effectively with parents who primarily speak Spanish. (Let alone parents who speak other languages!) You…
CPS Can Stop This Train Wreck and Start The School Year Smart
Parents, students and teachers are desperate to escape the box of choosing between a possibly life-threatening return to school and inequitable, inadequate remote learning.
What If We Radically Reimagined the New School Year?
Monday night I sat on my back patio staring up into a rare, starry Chicago night. I squinted and made out each point of The Big Dipper and then turned to see what I decided was Mars, twinkling in the distance. My partner and I sat in city silence, wrapped in a perfect, nearly unrecognizable temperature-and-breeze blanket. For an hour…
During the Pandemic, We All Must Step Up Our Planning Game for Postsecondary Ed
In the next few years, low-income students will be faced with the choice of foregoing college for working, going to cheaper colleges with far worse student outcomes, or taking on private “bad” debt. None of these options are acceptable. Here’s how we can do better.
After Last Weekend’s Police Brutality, Chicago Youth and Allies Call to Remove Cops from CPS, Defund Police
I know people all over town are having big feelings about what happened at Friday night’s protest in Grant Park. Many of us are outraged and appalled by CPD’s treatment of Good Kids Mad City organizer Miracle Boyd, who just graduated from the Chicago Public Schools and was recently featured in a Block Club article about an anti-violence march she…
For Students of Color, Representation Matters, So Let’s Increase It
We need a fully diverse teacher workforce. We need racial, ethnic, and gender diversity to help our teachers look more like our students.
CPS Will Likely Share Reopening Plans Soon–Here’s What I Want to See
Last Friday, Block Club reported that the Chicago Public Schools will release more details about its reopening plans this week. It also quoted Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Allison Arwady as saying some students may have a chance to go back in person this fall, “if we are able to keep our outbreak basically in control, as it is.”…
White Progressives Have a Lot of Work to Do, and I’m Not Here to Help
When I ran for school board it was Betsy Hodges, the former Minneapolis mayor, who was the first elected official to endorse me. She asked me a lot of questions, offered some straight talk about the political system and spoke very clearly about what it takes to win in a Whiter than White town like Minneapolis. Later, after winning a…