January 30, 2012 (Monday). Piccolo Elementary School turnaround hearing at 125 S. Clark St., 8:00 – 10:00 p.m.

January 30, 2012 (Monday). Casals Elementary School turnaround hearing at 125 S. Clark St., 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

January 31, 2012 (Tuesday). Herzl Elementary School turnaround hearing at 125 S. Clark St., 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

January 31, 2012 (Tuesday). Stagg Elementary School turnaround hearing at 125 S. Clark St., 8:00 – 10:00 p.m.

February 1, 2012 (Wednesday). Fuller Elementary School turnaround hearing at 125 S. Clark St., 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

February 1, 2012 (Wednesday). Woodson South Elementary School turnaround hearing at 125 S. Clark St., 8:00 – 10:00 p.m.

February 2, 2012 (Thursday). Marquette Elementary School turnaround hearing at 125 S. Clark St., 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

February 2, 2012 (Thursday). Wendell Smith Elementary School turnaround hearing at 125 S. Clark St., 8:00 – 10:00 p.m.

February 3, 2012 (Friday). Tilden High School turnaround hearing at 125 S. Clark St., 8:00 – 10:00 p.m.

February 3, 2012 (Friday). Chicago Vocational High School turnaround hearing at 125 S. Clark St., 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

January 23, 2012 (Monday). Price Elementary School closing hearing at 125 S. Clark St., 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

January 23, 2012 (Monday). Reed Elementary School closing (end of phase out) hearing at 125 S. Clark St., 8:00 – 10:00 p.m.

January 24, 2012 (Tuesday). Crane High School co-location hearing at 125 S. Clark St., 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.

January 25, 2012 (Wednesday). Best Practices High School closing hearing at 125 S. Clark St., 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

January 25, 2012 (Wednesday). Nash Elementary School co-location hearing (KIPP) at 125 S. Clark St., 8:00 – 10:00 p.m.

January 26, 2012 (Thursday). Doolittle Elementary School co-location (with Chi Arts) hearing at 125 S. Clark St., 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

January 26, 2012 (Thursday). Guggenheim Elementary School closing hearing at 125 S. Clark St., 8:00 – 10:00 p.m.

January 27, 2012 (Friday). Dyett High School closing hearing at 125 S. Clark St., 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

January 27, 2012 (Friday). Lathrop Elementary School closing hearing at 125 S. Clark St., 8:00 – 10:00 p.m.

Posted: 1/5/12 02:06 PM ET

The phrase “education reform” has been co-opted to mean a narrow party program advocated by the reform establishment (mainly billionaires and their designees) that includes a barrage of testing,  charter schools, and taking experienced educators out of the classroom.

None of these measures have a track record of success, but the actual facts get obscured by Hollywood films and connected charter groups. It’s hard to get into the conversation when the corporate side of education reform uses the term as a bludgeon against anyone who questions its agenda — even when the concerns are supported by research.

If we’re all in this together, why can’t we debate what reform should look like, roll up our sleeves and fix our schools — together? There’s a lot of work to be done and we need all hands on deck. This isn’t possible unless we can actually have free and open discussion about what schools need. That means that we need to look at all of the challenges involved and tackle them directly. We even need to look at the challenge of poverty, since that seems to be the largest impediment to educational achievement. That’s not to say it’s a brick wall to success, it’s just a crucial factor we must address.

Students in well-funded American schools from high-income families outscore nearly all other countries on standardized tests, yet our aggregate scores are low. Many call this an educational crisis. However, if we are looking at root causes, we cannot overlook the fact that the U.S. has the highest level of child poverty in the industrialized world and children living in poverty are achieving far below their affluent peers.

Schools do not operate in a vacuum. Poverty has devastating effects on a child’s social and emotional development. For our poorest students, just getting to school can be a challenge. Anyone who has studied education or psychology knows the venerated “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,” which shows the steps towards self-actualization — the level where students can effectively use their creativity and problem-solving skills. At the lowest level are basic human needs like food, water, and health. We need to do a better job of making sure those needs are met.

A 90 degree classroom at Hammond Elementary School on Chicago’s southwest side. Photo by Garth Liebhaber.

There are some reforms we can make within the walls of a school that will ameliorate the effects of poverty including:  wraparound services, small class sizes, and school libraries. This is by no means an exhaustive list of reforms we can provide to fix schools, but it’s a place to start and all three have a track record of success. None of these reforms are included on the lists of the reform establishment.

For many of our poorest students, the school nurse is the only medical professional they see and in many Chicago Public Schools, nurses are stretched between 2-3 schools. Schools need to hire more social workers, psychologists, and nurses to make sure students are healthy enough to take their learning to the next level.

One country that always comes up when discussing models for education reform is Finland, a nation that boasts some of the highest test scores in the world. It is also a nation where students are provided small class sizes and the child poverty rate is 3.4% compared to the United States’ 21.7%.

What does this mean? The most quoted and comprehensive study of class size, The Tennessee Study of Class Size in the Early School Grades showed significant advantage to students who had small class sizes in early grades. These small class sizes showed to be especially beneficial to students attending schools in poor districts.

In Chicago, 164 public schools — nearly 1 in 4 elementary schools and 51 high schools do not have school libraries. Library hours are typically one of the first cutbacks in city budgets, leaving many of Chicago’s poorest students without access to books. This puts them at a disadvantage as access to books has shown to shrink the “achievement gap.”

In this video, University of Southern California Professor Emeritus Stephen Krashen explains in detail the importance of access to books for students.

So what can civic-minded corporations do to help fix our schools?

They can start by paying their taxes, which will fund these reform efforts. That’s how they show real concern for the community. If they want to do more, they can look at the model used in McDowell County, West Virginia where a partnership was forged between corporations, foundations, and the teachers union.

The partners who signed on agreed to improve housing, transportation, and jobs in the poverty-stricken county. They know all of these factors contribute to low educational achievement. Instead of pointing fingers like the rest of the reform establishment, they offered a hand.

 

Follow Kenzo Shibata on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kenzoshibata

Mon. Jan. 30th, @125 S. Clark, 5:30-7:30pm

Thurs. Jan 26th @125 S Clark, 5:30-7:30pm

Fri. Feb. 3rd, @125 S Clark, 5:30-7:30pm

Tues. Jan. 24th @125 S Clark, 5:30-8:30pm

Friday Jan. 27th !125 S Clark, 5:30-7:30pm

Wed. Feb 1st @ 125 S Clark, 5:30-7:30pm

Thurs. Jan. 26th @125 S Clark, 8-10pm

Tues. Jan. 31st @125 S Clark, 5:30-7:30pm

Fri. Jan. 27th @125 s Clark, 8-10pm

Thurs. Feb. 2nd @125 S Clark, 5:30-7:30pm

Mon. Jan 30th @125 S Clark, 8-10pm

Mon. Jan 23rd @125 S Clark, 5:30-7:30pm

Mon. Jan. 23rd @125 S Clark, 8-10pm

Thurs. Feb 2nd @125 S Clark, 8-10pm

Tues. Jan. 31st @125 S Clark, 8-10pm

Fri. Feb. 3rd @125 S Clark, 8-10pm

Wed. Feb. 1st @125 S Clark, 5:30-7:30pm

In early December, 2011 Chicago Public Schools announced its “hit list” –
schools it is targeting for closings or turning-around. Recently, the Chicago
Education Facilities Task Force created guidelines, where the CPS followed none
before, on how targeting of schools had to be first discussed with those
communities affected. Gearing up for this next phase, the Chicago Teachers Union
held a teach-in about the hit list on Dec. 3, 2011 at MLK Prep High School. This
meeting and rally marked a new level of militancy underlined by Jitu Brown’s
(KOCO) statement: “This will not stop until we stop it!”

Speech excerpts from: Kristine Mayle (CTU Financial Secretary);

Angela Surnuy (Marconi school); Prof. Pauline Lipman (Univ. of Illinois-Chicago);

Jitu Brown (Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization).

There are also interviews with teachers and parents from Casals and Stagg schools,

which are on the hit list.

Video includes Valencia Rias-Winstead
from Designs for Change (and a member of the Educational
Facilities Task Force which legally formalized requirements mandating timely
public input on CPS school actions). Valencia Rias-Winstead talks with CTU
President Karen Lewis about what happens next in the public discussion period
and how Chicago Public Schools will manoeuvre between now and the final
decisions early in 2012. They also discuss the growing movement for an elected
school board instead of the undemocratic process now in place. Length – 26:35