Jan 17
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Chicago Public Schools offer $100,000 grants for innovative use of longer school day

Fresh off the heels of $7 Million dollars in incentives Chicago Public Schools awarded teachers and schools for extending the school day, CPS is now distributing grants for those schools that display “ingenuity in how they use the extra 90 minutes” of classroom time.

“We are going to provide this grant to 30 schools that demonstrate innovative and creative ideas, and restructure the school day to deliver instruction and boost student achievement,” said CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll. “It’s our hope that best practices can be applied later at other schools in the district.”

All Chicago Public Schools will move to a 7 1/2 hour school day next year.

“Both the quantity and quality of instruction can mean the difference between a high school dropout and a college graduate,” said schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard in a news release. “What you do with instructional time in the classroom is critical to boosting student achievement.”

Read more of this story at the Chicago Tribune.

Jan 09
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Seattle students protest state budget cuts

High school (and some college) students from schools across Seattle staged a walk-out last December to protest further budget cuts to education. Chanting “Fund our future” and “No more cuts,” students from Roosevelt, Garfield, Ballard, Nathan Hale, and other area schools shared their stories on how the budget has affected their education. During the walk-out, students discussed  having to pay out of pocket for extracurricular and academic activities, lack of school supplies, teachers being cut, and fewer classes being offered.

To watch video of the protest, select the picture or go here. You can also learn more by checking out Students of Washington for Change website.

Jan 03
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A new angle on the achievement gap

new data shows African American students in Seattle performed lower on tests than non-native English speaking black African students in SeattleRecent data released from Seattle Public Schools brought a newly identified achievement gap to our attention: English-speaking African American students performed significantly lower on testing than black students speaking a language other than English at home.

The data got Paul Hill, director of the Center for Reinventing Public Education, to reflect on how other cities have taken this kind of disappointing discovery and used it to spur real change. In an editorial for the Seattle Times, he notes that the first step in making the change happen for many cities was admitting that they did not have the answers yet. He goes on:

These admissions have led other cities to open themselves up to experimentation in schools serving the most disadvantaged: longer school days and years; no-excuses instructional models; new sources of teachers; partnerships with businesses and cultural institutions that can provide enrichment and role models; use of online instruction to teach subjects like science where school staff are often not qualified; new schools run by national institutions with track records of improving achievement for the most disadvantaged.

While the challenge to close all achievement gaps remains, Hill writes that hand-wringing and good intentions will get Seattle nowhere. Instead, he advocates for an attitude of experimentation and perseverance, saying “What matters as much as what a city tries is its attitude — of determination to look for solutions anywhere they might be found, acknowledge failures and small successes, but keep searching for better.”

Read the whole editorial here.