Chalkbeat

After delay, Chicago school board renews charters amid revamped oversight

2026-06-10T18:15:14+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education renewed contracts Wednesday with six charter school networks after a controversial move in late May to put off the vote.

The board approved contracts for more than a dozen schools, for terms that range between four to seven years.

Elected board member Yesenia Lopez, who helped pass a resolution last year calling for tighter charter school oversight, was the only person to cast no votes but did not say why. She voted no on renewing contracts for the Acero, Chicago Collegiate, Chicago Mathematics and Science Academy, and Intrinsic charter school networks, and she abstained on the vote for Christopher House Charter School.

These are some of the longest term lengths that the board has approved in recent years, but Chicago Public Schools officials said these new contracts are paired with a revamped oversight process that involves checking in on schools midway through their terms and flagging possible financial missteps earlier than it currently does.

The newer oversight process comes after a year of upheaval and financial turmoil in the charter sector that led to several closures, including the more recent midyear closings of two ASPIRA charter network high schools, forcing hundreds of kids to find new schools months before the end of the year.

The board approved contracts for the following networks with the following renewal terms:

Academy for Global Citizenship for seven years
Acero for five years
Chicago Collegiate Charter School for four years
Chicago Mathematics and Science Academy for four years
Christopher House for four years
Intrinsic for four years

The vote was delayed last week after many board members pushed district officials for more information on how they planned to tighten charter oversight. Those board members, who are aligned with Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Teachers Union, a sharp critic of charters, raised concerns that a network like Acero would earn one of the longest contract terms after several of its schools closed last year.

That day, other board members decried the effort to delay renewals as children and families needed to know the future of their schools. No school the board was considering was on the chopping block. In an unusual move, both board President Sean Harden and CPS CEO Macquline King pushed the board to approve the renewals and said the discussion about accountability would be ongoing.

Karen Zaccor, an appointed board member who wanted stronger oversight and pushed to postpone the vote last month, praised the district’s new oversight process, saying that it offers “frequent opportunities for intervention if needed.” She believes the new process can help stave off sudden closures, such as at EPIC Academy, which announced its closure plans last spring, just months after the board had renewed the school’s contract.

Still, she said, “This year and this cycle are a test — a test of how well our systems work to flag problems in a timely way and an intervention’s implemented in order to minimize harm.”

The Illinois Network of Charters praised the longer terms and a greater emphasis on academic performance as part of the district’s new oversight measures, but still criticized CPS for waiting until the summer to tell charter families and staff how many more years their schools would survive.

Jodie Cantrell, chief of public affairs for INCS, described the delay as a political move for which “children pay the price.”

Before Wednesday’s vote on Acero, appointed board member Debby Pope said she’s still concerned about how Acero handled its abrupt closure plans last year. The board at the time voted to absorb five of the seven schools Acero wanted to close. Still, Pope said she’s “very glad we have strengthened the provisions for ongoing oversight.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Dozens of Chicago seniors were forced to change schools this spring. Here’s how one got his diploma.

2026-06-03T20:37:38+00:00

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Jonathan Escobar sat among roughly 350 students in royal purple caps and gowns waiting to walk across the stage at Carl Schurz High School as hundreds of relatives and friends periodically erupted in cheers.

Just two months ago, Escobar and about 70 other kids seated around him hadn’t expected to graduate from the Irving Park high school — because until this spring they attended other schools.

Jonathan Escobar, who was forced to leave his old ASPIRA high school after it closed in the spring, holds up his diploma from Schurz High School

Those schools — run by the ASPIRA charter network — abruptly closed midyear, forcing more than 500 students like Escobar to transfer after ASPIRA said it had run out of money. The Chicago Board of Education officially shuttered ASPIRA Business and Finance and Early College high schools in April.

Schurz received the most ASPIRA transfers — roughly 250 – and 73 were in their senior year.

They had to get used to new teachers, new classrooms, and new classmates. Up until his last week, Escobar was unsure he’d pass every class.

The experience could become more common as Chicago’s charter schools experience financial turmoil and declining enrollment, which have resulted in multiple closures in recent years.

Leaving was a ‘big disaster’

Escobar enrolled at ASPIRA Business and Finance because his older sister had gone there, and the school was known to prepare kids for the real world, he said.

He liked his teachers at the school, including Juan Elias, who taught finance and entrepreneurship classes at ASPIRA.

Elias said the school’s final days were “eerie as hell.” Students like Escobar, who Elias taught as a sophomore, were no longer there to stop by his classroom and say hello.

“I saw the tears, uncertainty, especially with our students that needed the most support,” said Elias, who protested the closures. “I saw a lot of stress.”

The two ASPIRA campuses that closed enrolled a total of about 570 students at the start of the school year. By late-March, CPS said more than 500 had transferred out to about 20 district schools, and nearly half had picked Schurz. Another 70 went to Roosevelt and 50 went to Kelvyn Park, CPS said at the time. Ten of the kids went to other charters.

Escobar decided to transfer to Schurz, about a 15-minute drive from his home, because he knew of a classmate already there. The Chicago Teachers Union pushed the district to keep as many students and teachers together as possible.

Having to leave his old school like this was a “big disaster,” Escobar said later.

Schurz principal Heidy Moran had said it was “unprecedented” for her school, which enrolled roughly 1,000 students before the ASPIRA kids came, to welcome this many new students at once. The school created a team of staffers who organized events and initiatives to help ease the new kids in.

Former ASPIRA teacher Juan Elias greets his former students who graduated from Schurz High School.

A mixed transition process

On his first day at Schurz in March, Escobar was nervous about not knowing his new teachers or students and navigating a new building.

Then he saw some ASPIRA students he had known since elementary school and felt some relief. He wasn’t alone.

Some Schurz staffers said the transition went well for some students. Several had even joined sports or clubs.

There were signs, however, that others were struggling.

“Every day I receive emails from my former students asking for help and guidance when I should be receiving emails asking about recommendation letters and exciting updates,” said Stephanie Diaz, a former counselor at ASPIRA Business and Finance, during a Chicago Board of Education meeting in early April. “Others are writing to me about transfer options for next year because they feel like they don’t belong there yet.”

In his first few weeks at Schurz, Escobar wished he could go back to ASPIRA.

Escobar, who describes himself as a shy person, would have lunch with old classmates, and they would crack jokes or talk about their old teachers. But mostly, he kept to himself. He said he didn’t have time to join clubs.

After the closures, Elias began working as a substitute in CPS. During one stint substitute teaching at Schurz, a couple of former ASPIRA students spotted him in the hallway and “sprinted” toward him to say hello. It was a sign, he thought, of how much they missed their old school.

Schurz High School students celebrate graduating by throwing streamers into the air.

Ready to move on

By late April, Escobar was talking to his new Schurz teachers more. He thought his classes were easier than at his old school. He liked when students would work on assignments together in class.

“I’m almost done with high school,” he said in an interview with Chalkbeat about a month after transferring to Schurz. “Just trying to focus.”

By May, graduation was getting closer. But Escobar, who has a learning disability and is entitled to extra support in the classroom, was having a hard time in physics.

The class was difficult to understand. He worried he was at risk of failing and not graduating if he didn’t do well on the final exam.

Escobar said his counselor helped him get some extra attention in the class.

The help paid off: Escobar passed the physics final, bumping his grade to a 76. He got As and Bs in the rest of his classes.

On graduation day, Elias, Escobar’s former ASPIRA teacher, stood in the back of the Schurz auditorium to cheer on his former students. He clapped and yelled when their names were called, then rattled off some facts about each person: Steven was in National Honor Society. Dayana won second place during a Shark Tank competition for ASPIRA students. Oscar loves the Chicago Bears.

After the ceremony, former ASPIRA students spotted Elias and wrapped him in big, tight hugs. One student picked him up.

Later, Elias saw Escobar outside and gave him a high-five. Elias said he was proud of him, and Escobar thanked him.

Of the 156 former ASPIRA seniors who transferred into district-run schools, 154 were cleared to graduate as of this week, according to a CPS spokesperson, who noted that official graduation totals are typically finalized at the end of the summer.

Jonathan Escobar poses for a photo with his mother after graduating from Schurz High School.

After months of longing and adjustment, Escobar, holding his diploma in his left hand, said he was happy to be done. He is planning to enroll in community college.

But something unexpected had also happened: He said he’s going to miss Schurz, where the classes felt easier and his teachers cared about him.

“It was a good school with good people,” Escobar said of Schurz the day after graduation.

About 70 students are expected to attend a voluntary graduation ceremony Saturday for former ASPIRA kids at Lane Tech High School.

Escobar isn’t planning to attend, even though months ago he wished for such an event. He said he is ready to move on.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago school board formally closes ASPIRA charter network

2026-03-19T22:21:32+00:00

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The Chicago school board formally voted Thursday to shutter two high schools in the troubled ASPIRA charter network, as hundreds of students have moved to new campuses months before the end of the school year.

In a unanimous vote without any discussion, the board revoked ASPIRA’s charter after months of district cash advances to the network and escalating demands for financial information Chicago Public Schools said the charter’s leadership never provided.

About 500 ASPIRA students have migrated to some 20 district and charter high schools. The largest group transferred to Carl Schurz High School in Irving Park, which this week held an in-person event to introduce some of the 235 new students and their families to clubs and other activities.

In addition to Schurz, about 70 students transferred to Roosevelt and 50 went to Kelvyn Park, a CPS spokesperson said. Charters have accepted about 10 ASPIRA students.

At the board’s Thursday meeting, interim CEO Macquline King praised Schurz efforts to welcome students — and decried what she described as an ongoing lack of cooperation from ASPIRA leaders in transferring student records and other issues, a charge an ASPIRA official strongly disputed.

In an unprecedented move earlier this month, the district started moving students out of the network’s Early College and Business and Finance campuses after concluding that the school could not furnish the money needed to complete the year. ASPIRA’s leaders at first struck a defiant posture, arguing the district was undermining the schools midyear, but they eventually moved to lay off all their employees at the two campuses, though the layoff notices indicated the closures could be temporary.

The vote at Thursday’s board meeting made the closure permanent.

Edgar Lopez, the head of ASPIRA, said in an interview that he is exploring legal actions against the board’s vote.

The district’s charter sector has faced a turbulent stretch, with a string of schools closing or turning to CPS for help with making payroll. Citywide enrollment declines hit charters especially hard last fall, putting a strain on campuses whose funding is largely based on the number of pupils they serve. Charter advocates have also blamed a district practice of withholding thousands of dollars per pupil for CPS’ massive debt and pension obligations.

But critics of the industry have held up the case of ASPIRA to argue that financial missteps and insufficient transparency have at least contributed to the crisis.

District officials have said ASPIRA leaders wildly overestimated projected enrollments in budgeting and failed to come up with a feasible plan to finish out the school year, despite $2.5 million in advances from CPS.

On Thursday, King said the district is backing proposals at the state legislature that would empower CPS to monitor charters more closely and intervene more quickly if it has concerns about their finances. She spoke of the “traumatic” disruption to students, families, and staff when charters flounder without much notice.

“We cannot allow this to be the status quo,” she said.

ASPIRA students scattered to other campuses in recent weeks

King said 75% of ASPIRA students have transferred to district schools, and officials are working to ensure the rest have found a new campus. The district has waived all student fees for them and is providing Ventra cards, mentoring, and mental health services, she said. Making sure seniors can transfer all credits and stay on track for graduation is “top priority,” King said.

She said Alfonso Carmona, the district’s acting chief education officer, met with ASPIRA’s board this week, “imploring them to do the right thing” and help students transition smoothly to new schools.

Jennifer Conant, the charter division chair of the Chicago Teachers Union, which represents educators at ASPIRA, said about 50 students remain enrolled in the two network campuses, though few are coming to school.

Lopez called the district’s claims that ASPIRA hasn’t been cooperative a “fat lie.” Lopez said the network held a fair with about a dozen other schools in the area to help kids decide where to transfer. He also claimed district officials have only visited the school once in recent weeks.

In response to Lopez’s claims, a CPS spokesperson said the district and ASPIRA had partnered to host two fairs for students, and CPS staff had made multiple visits to ASPIRA schools over the last two weeks.

Lopez said he was disappointed but not surprised by Thursday’s outcome. He doubled down on his claims that the district has worked against charters, including not providing enough funding to the network, and that a longtime deficit was made worse by ASPIRA’s overprojections of enrollment. He added that high salaries for teachers unionized by the CTU put pressure on finances. Lopez said he approved of pay raises in the last teacher’s contract, in part to avoid talk of a strike, but he ultimately could not afford them.

Asked what his message is for students and families who left ASPIRA, he said, “I’m sorry, even though it’s not my fault, but I’m sorry.”

There is no immediate impact to ASPIRA’s alternative school, which is officially managed by Youth Connection Charter School. A CPS spokesperson said Youth Connection “expressed its commitment” to keeping the school open for the rest of this academic year. But the Youth Connection board would have to decide if it wants to continue its partnership with ASPIRA, and CPS is discussing the matter with the school, according to the spokesperson.

Schurz principal Heidy Moran said ASPIRA students began enrolling on March 6, just a couple of days after she found out through staff that they may receive an influx of kids. That same week, the 1,120-student school received more than 100 calls from parents with questions about the school, prompting her to hold a virtual welcoming event for families.

Schurz High School has stepped up to welcome students

At Wednesday’s event to introduce new students to activities, the school’s staff and students manned booths in a small gymnasium, where families could sign up and ask questions about activities such as sports, craft club, and Gender and Sexuality Alliance, known as GSA. A panel of current Schurz parents and students shared tips with an audience of roughly 50 people in the school’s auditorium about getting acclimated at the school.

Jonathan Escobar, 18, a senior who attended Wednesday’s event with his mother, said his experience so far at Schurz has been “strange.” He didn’t want to leave ASPIRA Business and Finance, but he and his family agreed he had to transfer after hearing repeatedly that ASPIRA did not have money.

He said many of his friends joined him at Schurz, but he still misses his teachers and his old classes. He’s also waiting for confirmation from Schurz officials that he’s on track to graduate. If it was up to him, Escobar would graduate in a small ceremony with just his fellow ASPIRA classmates.

“It’s still sad for me, but we have to move on,” he said.

Jonathan Escobar, a senior who formerly attended ASPIRA Business and Finance High School, poses for a photo during an welcoming event at Schurz High School for new students like him.

Schurz has enrolled 150 transfer students since September who come from other local schools, other states, or even other countries, so to receive 235 more students in a short period of time is “unprecedented,” Moran said. She’s also sensed a feeling of grief among students who miss their old teachers and building and described the transition process for them as “very challenging.”

The school created a “welcoming team” made up of staffers charged with organizing events and initiatives to make the new kids feel more comfortable, Moran said. One of their initiatives was to pair each new student with a more veteran Schurz student, who helps them find classes.

“It’s nice — you see them greeting each other in the hallway afterward,” Moran said.

Moran said that for the most part, credit requirements at Schurz have been “a perfect match” for most ASPIRA seniors, meaning they should be on track to graduate. There are some remaining wrinkles, including ensuring ASPIRA kids who were taking dual enrollment classes can still do so virtually at Schurz. Some students may also need to take credit recovery classes in order to graduate, but Moran did not know an exact number of students.

The Thursday vote left uncertainty for employees at the two ASPIRA schools. Conant, the CTU charter chair, urged the district to hire educators and staff at campuses welcoming ASPIRA students, which she argued would ease their transition.

Cindy Camacho, who has worked at ASPIRA Business and Finance High School for eight years, said she was aware that ASPIRA was grappling with declining enrollment but the impending closure came as a “big shock.”

Camacho, who is still at the high school, said she’s unsure how she’ll manage her finances once she’s laid off, especially since she’s currently enrolled in a master’s program. She said she’s worried about the students — especially seniors — and how they’ll navigate a new environment this late in the school year.

“I think that all of the actions that [CPS] started taking a few weeks ago should have been taking place last semester,” she said in a recent interview.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

ASPIRA to close Business Finance and Early College high schools by next month

2026-03-05T22:36:43+00:00

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ASPIRA charter network will officially close two of its high school campuses and lay off all of its staff at those campuses next month, according to a layoff notice provided to staff Wednesday.

The announcement comes one week after Chicago Public Schools decided to begin transferring students out of ASPIRA Early College and Business and Finance high schools if they wanted to because it does not believe ASPIRA has enough money to keep the schools running for the rest of the academic year.

As a charter network, ASPIRA’s schools are privately managed but publicly funded and operate based on a contract with CPS.

In layoff notices to staff obtained by Chalkbeat, ASPIRA CEO Edgar Lopez said high schools will close by April 3, when all staff at the two campuses “are anticipated” to be laid off.

“At this time, we hope the closure will be temporary,” Lopez wrote.

Lopez did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement, CPS said it will soon share with ASPIRA staff a process to apply for open positions at district-run schools.

Students and staff have worried about a massive disruption to their education and jobs mid-year. Earlier this week, some students and network leaders pressed CPS to help keep the schools open. During a Chicago Board of Education meeting last week, other students and staff, as well as their representatives from the Chicago Teachers Union, sharply criticized the charter network for misleading them and worried about their futures.

Last week, district officials said they were planning a transition for students to other nearby high schools and would provide those students with certain individual supports, including providing letters to college admissions offices explaining the mid-year transfers. CPS will also ensure seniors who are on track to graduate from ASPIRA will still graduate on time, acting Chief Education Officer Alfonso Carmona said during a Chicago Board of Education meeting Wednesday.

But during the Wednesday meeting, interim CPS CEO Maquiline King said CPS could not make further moves, including fully carrying out a transition plan, until ASPIRA decides to self-close. CPS had planned to present a transition plan Thursday to ASPIRA families, officials said.

“We are walking a fine line, and just know that we are responding to the call to the greatest extent possible,” King said.

Until the layoff notices, ASPIRA officials had not said the campuses would close, but said they only had enough funding to make it to five weeks before the end of the school year, or late April. Lopez said last week he was working on securing more money, including through a GoFundMe campaign advertised on the network’s website and other fundraising efforts.

ASPIRA, which the district had placed on a financial remediation plan, had also requested more funding from CPS, which has provided millions of dollars in advances to the network this school year. CPS has said it cannot provide ASPIRA with more money because it has hit the state-imposed legal limit of funding the district can provide to charters.

District and charter leaders have linked growing financial problems in the charter sector to declining enrollment, tighter funding, and rising costs, such as for salaries at unionized schools. While charter leaders have decried a district move to withhold thousands of dollars per pupil for CPS’ pension and debt costs, charter critics say schools like ASPIRA have not responsibly managed their finances. Those critics also argue the district should have caught problems sooner. In November, CPS blasted ASPIRA for its financial management, months after the board had renewed ASPIRA’s contract with conditions to monitor its finances. Lopez has previously denied mismanaging money or misleading anyone.

In a press release earlier this week, ASPIRA officials said a closure would risk “students with English language learner/special education needs, graduation timelines, millions of dollars in scholarship eligibility, and student placement continuity.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

After possible building sale, Chicago Public Schools agrees to lease space for Acero Santiago

2026-03-05T17:52:04+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education has agreed to rent the building housing Acero Santiago charter school in the West Town neighborhood, avoiding a potential sale and loss of the school site.

The property at 2510 W. Cortez St. is owned by the Archdiocese of Chicago, which had put the building up for sale last July.

Last week, the board approved adding the building to its master lease agreement with the archdiocese, a move that also added the buildings of other Acero charter schools the school board took over last year to prevent Acero from shuttering those schools.

In total, Chicago Public Schools will transition five Acero schools — De las Casas, Cisneros, Fuentes, Tamayo, and Santiago — into district-run schools by the 2026-27 school year.

“I’m not gonna lie, this past year, especially the last six months, have been so scary because we knew that the CPS board members wanted to save us, but then we didn’t know if we’re going to have a building,” Reyna Rodriguez, a Santiago parent who pushed for CPS to keep the building, told reporters during a press conference Monday. “It feels like a dream.”

During that press conference, elected board member Carlos Rivas, who represents the area that includes Santiago, said the board’s vote means CPS will lease the building for at least the next decade.

The lease agreement represents the latest development in CPS’ gradual and unprecedented takeover of these charters, as other schools in Chicago’s charter sector face financial challenges, closures, and some accusations of mismanagement.

CPS did not respond to a request for comment. Archdiocese spokesperson Yasmin Quiroz said the sale was planned after the school faced closure last year but it changed course once CPS “expressed its desire to retain the school.”

“In recognition of the important service the school provides to the local neighborhood, the parish decided to retain the building and lease it to CPS rather than sell it,” Quiroz said in an email to Chalkbeat.

The cost of the master lease agreement with the archdiocese will increase by about $2 million with the addition of the Acero buildings, to a total of roughly $7 million for the next fiscal year.

Rivas said he began pushing to keep the building after being “caught off guard” by the archdiocese’s listing of the building, which at the time was reported to be $6.75 million.

On the first day of school at Santiago, parents and teachers held a press conference decrying the possible sale and pressing CPS to intervene.

Rivas and Ald. Gilbert Villegas, who also represents the area, told reporters that the “X-factor” in negotiations with archdiocese was twofold: The continued pressure from Acero parents to keep the school and an agreement with the archdiocese that it could still sell off a church building on the Santiago site that’s separate from the school.

Correction: A previous version of this story mistakenly said CPS had taken over Acero Octavio Paz; it did not, and that campus was closed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools to start moving students out of troubled charter ASPIRA

2026-02-26T21:32:23+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools will begin transitioning students from two ASPIRA charter high schools to other schools after months of financial turbulence at the network and deep uncertainty for its families and staff.

In a letter to the district this week, ASPIRA leaders insisted they will keep the campuses — ASPIRA Business and Finance and ASPIRA Early College high schools — open through the end of this school year. But district officials say the charter has not spelled out a clear plan to pull that off, even after the district steered millions of dollars in cash advances to it this winter.

CPS told the charter network in a letter dated Thursday that it will start the transition process this week and expected ASPIRA to assist with providing student records. During a Chicago Board of Education meeting Thursday, officials said students who wish to leave the ASPIRA campuses will have a guaranteed seat at a group of nearby district-run high schools and will have access to a “transition coordinator” for regular check-ins and other services.

CPS will host a town hall for families about the transition process sometime next week, officials said.

ASPIRA’s two high school campuses together serve about 700 students, who are predominantly low-income and Latino. The district said a third ASPIRA campus, an alternative high school on the Northwest Side operated in tandem with the charter network Youth Connections Charter School, is not facing closure.

In an interview with Chalkbeat after this story published, ASPIRA CEO and President Edgar Lopez attributed the network’s financial challenges to rising salaries and what he described as underfunding from the district.

Lopez said he’s upset CPS won’t give ASPIRA more runway to secure more funding. The network currently has enough money to operate the campuses in question up until about April, and he said they have “some leads” on ways to close the funding gap.

“If this is for the kids, what’s the rush?” Lopez said. “What’s another month?”

The Chicago Teachers Union, which represents staff at ASPIRA, held a rally with ASPIRA teachers, students, and parents outside the Chicago Board of Education headquarters Thursday ahead of the board meeting. They called for CPS to help families find new schools now that would “keep students and staff together.”

Lavelle Turner, a senior from ASPIRA Business and Finance High School, told reporters he’s “very concerned about my future” and that closing the school will impact many of his fellow seniors.

“Will my credits be transferred if I change schools? Will this affect my college applications? I would like CPS to answer these questions,” Turner said, adding that he’d like to attend a school with his peers so he can be around familiar faces.

The district is “reviewing and assessing” graduation requirements for juniors and seniors, Conrad Timbers-Ausar, the district’s acting chief portfolio officer, who oversees charters, told the board. He added that CPS plans to provide a letter that graduating seniors can provide to college admissions offices so they can “understand the recent events.”

Griselda Hermosillo, parent of a freshman at ASPIRA Early College High School, told reporters in Spanish that she is worried about what happens to student credits and their individualized education programs, or IEPs, which spell out legally required services for students with disabilities, if the school closes midyear. She said Lopez, the ASPIRA president, has left her in constant doubt about the school’s future.

“If this has been a false hope, we would hope CPS will give us the actual plan,” Hermosillo said.

CPS accuses ASPIRA of mismanaging finances

The move comes months after the district said ASPIRA had failed to responsibly manage its finances and was struggling to make payroll. CPS said it has already provided $2.5 million in advance payments to ASPIRA, which faces a $2.9 million deficit, and has reached a state-imposed legal limit for how much it can steer to a charter school.

CPS had asked ASPIRA to provide multiple documents by Wednesday, including proof that it could obtain funding from a third party and a plan showing how it would make it through the rest of the school year. ASPIRA provided neither, according to the district.

Instead, in its letter to the district, ASPIRA asked CPS to provide the network with the legal maximum amount of funding for the last four school years to reduce or eliminate its deficit. By state law, the district must provide charter schools with per pupil funding that’s equivalent to 97% to 103% of funding at district schools; ASPIRA is requesting 103%.

The network also said it was working on other funding fixes, including obtaining a bridge loan, raising money from alumni, and crowdfunding. But in its response, the district said it cannot provide funding for previous fiscal years retroactively, and it will start transitioning students out in light of “the emergency situation created by ASPIRA’s failure to demonstrate financial sustainability, which places the education of ASPIRA’s students at risk.”

Lopez denied that the financial issues are due to mismanagement. He said his network isn’t the only one facing financial problems, and he believes the district’s response is part of a broader plan to shutter charter schools. Asked how confident he feels that third party money will come in, Lopez said, “We’re working on it.”

ASPIRA is latest in string of charter troubles

The ASPIRA turmoil is playing out against the backdrop of larger turbulence and uncertainty in the city’s charter and contract sector — schools that are publicly funded and overseen by the district, but operated by private entities.

Last year, the Chicago Board of Education voted to absorb five campuses of the charter network Acero into the district to prevent their closure. It also moved to chip in so the South Sides’ EPIC Academy High School could finish out the year before closing and take over the Chicago High School for the Arts, or ChiArts, a West Side contract school. This week, the district held a meeting with ChiArts families concerned that the school would lose its conservatory model, in which professional artists work with students during an extended school day.

District officials and charter leaders have said the larger upheaval is due to declining enrollment across the city and tight finances, including a district move to withhold thousands of dollars per pupil from charters to chip in for its massive pension and debt costs.

But charter critics say schools such as ASPIRA have also made major fiscal missteps and should have been monitored more closely by CPS. The district has taken ASPIRA to task for budgeting based on wildly unrealistic enrollment projections and for withholding key financial information from CPS.

At the board meeting, appointed board member Debby Pope blasted ASPIRA for the possible closures. She said the situation should be a message to other charter operators to be financially responsible and turn in required documents on time to CPS.

“We cannot do this to our children,” Pope said. “It is just not OK.”

Appointed board member Karen Zaccor called for the district to find a way for ASPIRA students to spend planned activities together, such as already planned field trips and graduation.

In addition to the documents CPS requested, ASPIRA has not yet submitted a required financial audit or the monthly cash flow reports the district requires of charters such as ASPIRA that it has placed under financial remediation.

In a Wednesday interview with Chalkbeat, Timbers-Ausar said CPS will strive to work closely with families to find high-performing schools where students can transfer this spring.

“It has to be a process that is first and foremost student-centered and family-centered to provide as many options as possible,” he said. “We have to stay very engaged every step of the way with those families.”

The district expects it will have conversations with the Chicago Teachers Union about the possibility of finding other roles for them, Timbers-Ausar said.

This story has been updated with additional comment from school board members, ASPIRA CEO Edgar Lopez and Conrad Timbers-Ausar, the district’s acting chief portfolio officer.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Underfunding or mismanagement? Financial troubles at multiple Chicago charters spur a push for answers and solutions.

2026-02-11T17:21:23+00:00

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Jema Fabara knows what can happen when a charter school hits financial turbulence. She lost her teaching job when the Acero network’s Cruz campus closed last year.

Now Fabara, who is teaching at the ASPIRA charter network’s alternative high school, worries the same thing could happen again as that network struggles to make payroll and considers merging schools. This time, the turmoil could also affect her son, who is a senior at her school, and a nephew attending ASPIRA’s nearby Early College campus.

ASPIRA is one of a string of charters in the city that have floundered financially and in some cases moved to merge or close schools over the past year and a half. Two other charters asked Chicago Public Schools to front them money this winter just months after the district chipped in to help the South Side’s EPIC Academy High School finish out the school year before it closes this summer — and less than a year after the school board’s unprecedented decision to absorb five of seven Acero schools the network had slated for closure.

The district, which oversees most city charters, has flagged some of the struggling charters for financial issues for years and still renewed their contracts. CPS officials say they have taken numerous steps to tighten fiscal oversight in recent months, even as some charter critics say CPS should be doing more.

But in a confidential memo sent in October to interim CEO Macquline King and the school board and obtained by Chalkbeat, Alfonso Carmona, the district’s interim chief education officer, says charters face a widespread and systemic “crisis.”

Citywide enrollment losses have hit charter budgets hard, even as CPS has stepped in to heavily subsidize its own shrinking schools. Meanwhile, the district is withholding thousands of dollars per pupil from charters to chip in for CPS’ massive pension and debt service costs, forcing them to rely on increasingly uncertain funding sources, such as federal grants and fundraising, the October memo said. At the time, the district projected that six charter operators would end this fiscal year in the red.

In the memo, Carmona, who was overseeing the district’s charter schools, also voiced alarm about the school board’s decision to absorb the Acero campuses rather than letting them close — a precedent that created a “moral hazard,” he wrote.

“We are confronting a structural financial problem with the potential collapse of a significant portion of the charter sector, which now looks to the district as its financial backstop,” Carmona wrote.

About 50,000 students, or about a fifth of CPS’ enrollment, attend charters, which are publicly funded and privately managed — a student body that’s overwhelmingly Black or Latino and low-income. For Farbara’s family and others at charters, the financial issues have brought protracted uncertainty and even the specter of having to switch schools midyear.

Now, a new working group made up of school board members and charter and district leaders has started meeting to seek solutions, hard as they might be to come by for the budget deficit-plagued, shrinking district.

Does CPS fund charters equitably?

In recent months, charter leaders have blamed the sector’s budget struggles on chronic underfunding by CPS. The district is required by law to give charters at least 97% of the “per capita tuition charge,” a calculation the state sets that’s meant to ensure per student funding for charters is comparable to that for district-run schools. For the current school year, that 97% portion is about $19,740.

The district then charges a 3% fee to cover expenses related to overseeing the charters and withholds thousands of dollars for its long-term pension liabilities, short-term borrowing costs and — for charters in district-owned buildings — long-term debt related to facility spending. That brings the per-pupil amount down to $14,800 for charters in CPS-owned buildings and $17,600 for other schools, according to the district’s memo, which means the district is providing just 83% of the per capita tuition charge on average.

CPS officials say state and federal grants round out these funding amounts, and all schools — district-run and charter — should share in pension and debt costs the entire district is facing. The district is allowed to deduct these costs from charters under state law, notes Justin Marlowe, director of the Center for Municipal Finance at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.

But charter leaders such as Serdar Kartal, the Illinois regional superintendent of Concept Schools, note that not all schools receive added grants at the same level; those tend to be increasingly uncertain and come with many strings attached.

Charter officials say it’s unfair to pass on massive pension and debt costs to charters, arguing that these costs exist because CPS leaders historically underfunded the district’s teacher pension fund and made bad borrowing calls without any input from charters.

“These are longstanding decisions that have created a structural deficit for CPS, and the gap should not be closed on the backs of charter students,” said Mike Madden, president of the Noble charter network.

For charters, other financial pressures also have ramped up recently. Even as the district shifted to a school funding model that guarantees core positions to all district-run schools regardless of size and takes into account their students’ needs, charters — where 87% of students live in poverty, compared with 69% in district-run schools — still get dollars largely based on enrollment.

For years, charter enrollment remained more stable than that at other district schools, but this fall, it dipped about 4.5% compared to 1.7% in CPS-run schools. Some charters felt budget pain — with none of the financial cushion CPS gives its own small schools.

The advocacy group Illinois Network of Charter Schools holds up the example of Noble’s Baker College Prep campus and the district-run Bowen, two high schools with fewer than 300 students that share a building on Chicago’s Far South Side. Baker got $15,800 per student this year; Bowen got $25,150, according to CPS data Chalkbeat reviewed.

Charter leaders say recent changes to the district’s GoCPS school choice site have made it harder to find charter options, and the district has held the line on enrollment caps in charter contracts even for thriving schools.

Carmona, who oversaw the district’s charter schools from 2022 to 2025, told Chalkbeat the end of COVID relief funds, a drop in philanthropic support for charters, the cost of maintaining aging buildings, and rising labor costs, particularly for charters that have unionized, have added to the pressures.

“What we’re seeing today is not even close to what we have seen in the past,” he said.

Should CPS watch charter finances more closely?

Some school board members and the Chicago Teachers Union have blamed at least some of the charter issues on poor financial management — and called on CPS to hold charter operators on a tighter fiscal leash.

The union points to EPIC, the South Side charter high school serving about 240 students, whose board of directors announced in September the school would close by the end of this school year. The union has said EPIC’s demise had a lot to do with an ill-conceived purchase and planned $22 million renovation of an old church building to house the school even as enrollment dropped for years.

EPIC has argued it needed the space to replace its crumbling building, and leaders hoped an attractive new campus would help arrest steep enrollment declines.

EPIC had gotten a clean bill of fiscal health on a financial scorecard CPS keeps and uses in deciding whether to renew charter contracts. But other charters that have reported money problems recently had shown signs of “living beyond their means” on that scorecard. In a letter to ASPIRA leadership late last year, CPS officials criticized the school for financial missteps and lack of transparency, including for budgeting based on unrealistic enrollment projections.

In recent years, CPS repeatedly determined that both Passages, a Far North Side elementary school serving about 380 students, and Urban Prep, which operates two small all-boys high schools, did not meet all standards for good financial health. The two schools were the latest to turn to CPS for help with cash flow issues this winter. The district, which itself resorts to short-term borrowing to make payroll and pay vendors, said that as of last month it has advanced $3.9 million to Urban Prep and ASPIRA. Carmona says he expects Passages and Urban Prep to “end the school year without any financial issues.”

Dennis Lacewell, Urban Prep’s chief academic officer, said the school has cut administrative positions, among other recent steps to strengthen its fiscal health. After a protracted legal battle, the school averted a CPS plan to shutter it and take over based on allegations of financial mismanagement and sexual misconduct the network vehemently denied. But Lacewell said its recent issues stemmed primarily from the federal government freezing a payment from a COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program the school was counting on.

ASPIRA board members and Passages did not respond to requests for comment.

Despite flagging their financial shortcomings, the district last May proposed renewing contracts for ASPIRA, Passages, and Urban Prep for two more school years, and the school board approved.

That was by design: Two-year renewals are a way to signal there are issues that must be fixed, and not doing that in time could mean closure, Carmona said.

As a condition of their latest contract renewals, CPS placed ASPIRA, Passages, and Urban Prep on financial remediation plans, which include submitting monthly cash flow statements to CPS.

Matthew Luskin, chief of staff at Chicago Teachers Union, said the district should consider asking for oversight of charter budgets in order to prevent midyear closures by catching “risky spending,” such as spending down their reserves.

CPS “can actually make the effort here to police this a little bit and get out ahead of these crises,” Luskin said.

At Chalkbeat’s request, Marlowe, the municipal finance expert, reviewed the district’s financial scorecards and characterized them as “the absolute bare minimum” and a “very retrospective” way of looking at a school’s finances.

While audits show how money was actually spent, they’re usually not available until nine to 18 months after the end of a fiscal year for public sector agencies, such as school districts or charters, Marlowe said. In order to get a more current picture, CPS could consider requiring monthly cash flow reports for all charter networks, not just those in financial remediation, or examining who they’re contracting with for certain services, Marlowe said.

Carmona said the district has tightened up financial oversight in several ways. That includes using actual enrollment figures from the previous school year rather than projections for the first quarter of payments for charters so they can budget better, requiring more reporting on charter debt obligations, and asking for more years of budget projections.

Meanwhile, some school board members and charter operators say they have been encouraged by the first two meetings of the new charter working group that school board President Sean Harden formed late last year.

Board member Ellen Rosenfeld said the group is focused on better cooperation between CPS and charters and on solutions, such as a request that the Illinois Network of Charter Schools start providing a “watch list” of schools that are struggling so the board isn’t caught off guard if some need help from CPS.

Fabara, the ASPIRA parent and teacher, says after months of fingerpointing, families are hungry for a proactive push for solutions that takes in their input and ideas.

Otherwise, she said, “You’ve already fallen off the boat, and you’re crying for help as you’re going down.”

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois investigating Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy for special education violations

2025-12-18T21:19:32+00:00

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The Illinois State Board of Education has escalated a yearslong investigation into violations of special education law at Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy, a charter school in the Little Village neighborhood, Chicago Public Schools officials announced Thursday.

Instituto, which has been open since 2010, has “repeated and unresolved failure to correct documented special education violations over multiple school years,” according to a letter from Josh Long, the district’s chief of the Office of Students With Disabilities, to the Chicago Board of Education describing the state’s investigation. Long read his letter aloud, as required by the state, to the board at its meeting.

Despite the ongoing state investigation, CPS renewed Instituto’s contract in May for another three years.

State officials estimate Instituto failed to provide more than 100 students with disabilities with services they were legally entitled to last school year, amounting to a loss of between 12,000 to 80,000 minutes of instruction.

The state is now requiring CPS to provide additional oversight to Instituto, including biweekly check-ins, monitoring how the school is providing paraprofessional services, and monthly visits from CPS to Instituto to ensure the school is completing its requirements to compensate kids with services they missed over the previous two school years, the letter said.

As a charter school, Instituto is a privately run, publicly funded school and operates under a contract with CPS. CPS considers various factors when deciding to renew a charter school’s contract, including how well a school serves its students with disabilities.

The charter school enrolled 479 students at the start of this school year, and about 16% of those students have disabilities, on par with schools citywide, according to district demographic data. Schools create plans — either Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, or 504 plans — for many students with disabilities that outline which services students are entitled to and how often they should receive them.

As part of its recommendation to renew Instituto’s contract, CPS said the school must “demonstrate progress” toward implementing unspecified recommendations from the Office for Students with Disabilities.

CPS did not immediately respond to a question about why it recommended renewing Instituto’s contract despite the investigation. But in a separate statement, a spokesperson said it “takes seriously its responsibility to uphold students’ rights and to ensure compliance with all applicable special education requirements.”

The state says Instituto has not yet provided documentation to show that it has fixed five of the 10 violations alleged by the state, including failure to provide speech and language services to students who require them and maintain required class size limits for special education classes. There are still students who are owed services from the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, according to the state letter.

“This delay resulted in students graduating, transferring from the school and district, no longer being eligible or revoking consent for special education services, further impeding their access to required compensatory education minutes,” according to the letter.

Board members did not discuss the matter or ask questions after Long finished reading the letter.

Several educators from the school spoke to board members during the public comment portion of Thursday’s meeting, saying their issues worsened with the mass departure of special education staff shortly before the 2023-24 school year. They said the school has now hired more staff and improved its services for students under the school’s principal, Alberto Mendez, who took over during the 2024-25 school year, after the state investigation began in July 2023.

In a brief interview with reporters, Mendez said more staff has allowed the school to be able to offer compensatory services for students during and after school.

“When I first stepped in, it was almost like I inherited the systemic issues that pertain to the past and it’s been a priority to rebuild the special education department and program,” Mendez said. “We’re progressing in the right direction; unfortunately it takes time.”

Since the state first opened its investigation into Instituto, ISBE found Instituto had failed to follow special education laws. For example, in August 2023, the state said Instituto had not made up services to three students who required special education services, and for three other students, had provided only a fraction of what was required.

Instituto had at one point offered summer school to students, according to the letter. But the state said such an offer “did not dismiss Instituto’s obligation” to provide services to students who have not received them since the 2023-24 school year.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago school board votes to keep ChiArts open, close EPIC Academy

2025-11-05T00:08:46+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education voted Tuesday to end agreements with independent operators of two high schools after those operators decided they could no longer run the campuses.

The school board decided to keep Chicago High School for the Arts, or ChiArts, an integrated arts high school serving 559 students who had to apply and audition, open as a district-run school and provide $1.5 million for the transition. The contract school is known for its arts conservatory, which has special departments for creative writing, dance, music, theater, and visual arts.

After a contentious debate at a special meeting, the board also voted to wind down EPIC Academy, a charter school in South Chicago with 244 mostly Black students enrolled and provide the school with $1.4 million to stay afloat through the end of the school year. EPIC’s operators previously said they faced closure in the middle of this school year if they couldn’t find additional funding.

For ChiArts, several students, teachers, and parents who spoke to board members Tuesday demanded the board maintain the school’s arts “conservatory” and keep its teachers and “teaching artists” intact.

“You hold the livelihoods of more than 60 arts teachers, you hold the sanctuary of over 600 art students run toward in a world that frequently tells us we aren’t necessary,” said Maya Davis, a senior at ChiArts who said the school has helped her flourish as a young actress. “Let it be the haven I’ve experienced it to be.”

The debate around EPIC’s future began last week at the board’s regular monthly meeting for October. That’s when elected board member Jitu Brown introduced an amendment attempting to keep EPIC’s students and staff together at a high-performing school next year. But a vote was delayed to Tuesday after district officials raised concerns about the tight timeline for producing a plan and other board members asked for the district’s general counsel to review it.

Ultimately, the board voted to require the district to offer enrollment to students at a district-run school, as well as job opportunities for “qualified” EPIC staff at receiving schools. An amendment to Brown’s amendment removed the term “high-performing.”

“I can support it if this would get us to a resolution,” Brown said. “But historically, 88% of the people that have been impacted by school closings have been Black students. The overwhelming majority of those students did not go to a better school.”

Past research from the University of Chicago found that not only did the city’s school closings disproportionately impact Black children, but most of those students did not go to better performing schools.

“How do we make sure a child doesn’t go from one school that’s closing its doors in the middle of the night, then they end up at a school that’s going to be in discussions for school closings the next year?” Brown said. “This has happened over and over and over and over again, and this is the concern. Now if that’s acceptable, then say that.”

Elected school board member Che “Rhymefest” Smith, whose district includes EPIC Academy, said he doesn’t want to limit parents’ options.

“Parents choose different schools for different reasons,” Smith said. “What one person may consider high-performing may be subjective to another person. I speak with parents who send their children to a school because it’s the safest school in the district for their kid to go to, even though another school may have better academics.”

Some board members echoed concerns raised by the principals union about hiring autonomy. Other board members said the language merely offers opportunities for teachers to apply and doesn’t require principals to hire them.

During the meeting, appointed board member Debby Pope added an amendment — later approved by the board — that commits CPS to preserving ChiArts’ conservatory “to the greatest extent practicable” and look for other ways to financially support the school’s model going forward, including through partnerships with other groups. It committed board members to reconvene on the issue of funding to support ChiArts transition to a district-run school by its January board meeting, after it engages with the school community.

The board spent about four hours in closed session where it planned to discuss interviews it had conducted with candidates for CPS’ next CEO and decide on a list of finalists, Jessica Biggs, an elected board member helping to lead the district’s CEO search committee, told Chalkbeat before the meeting.

Becky Vevea and Mila Koumpilova contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Board of Education members call for a solution to closure of EPIC Academy charter school

2025-09-25T22:20:47+00:00

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Several Chicago Board of Education members called Thursday for a solution to support students at EPIC Academy, a South Side charter high school that’s planning to close.

During a Chicago Board of Education meeting, some board members also asked for a deeper look into the district’s process for renewing contracts with charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run institutions that operate based on legal agreements with CPS.

EPIC’s independent board voted last week to close the charter school, citing enrollment declines and financial challenges. While EPIC leaders said they planned to close the school by the end of the 2025-26 school year, they have not ruled out closure before the end of the year. The Chicago Tribune reported that school officials are in talks with CPS for financial help, but the district’s finances are tight.

In May, the school board voted to approve a two-year renewal for EPIC on the district’s recommendation.

But by July, EPIC put up for sale a building it had purchased a few years ago to do a multimillion-dollar expansion that it hoped would improve facilities for students and draw more kids to the school.

EPIC’s impending closure comes months after the board decided to save and absorb five of seven Acero charter schools that were also slated for closure.

“It is beyond disappointing to see a community once again be disrupted by an abrupt closure,” said elected board member Yesenia Lopez, who sponsored a resolution this spring to tighten oversight on charter schools. “It is clear the process needs to be revisited.”

EPIC enrolls just over 250 students, about half the number it enrolled before the pandemic. Chicago’s charter sector has seen sliding enrollment for years, as have district-run schools.

Several EPIC students expressed frustration during Thursday’s meeting with EPIC leadership’s decision to close.

Ayomide Olatunji, a 17-year-old senior at EPIC, told board members that he and his classmates have “worked tirelessly” toward graduation and are in the middle of working with EPIC staff to apply for college. A midyear closure, he said, would “take away our sense of stability and strip this very moment we’ve been building toward for four years.”

The Chicago Teachers Union, which represents teachers at EPIC, called on the board to help prevent the school from closing midyear. Moving forward, union leaders want the district to turn EPIC into a district-run school or transfer all the charter’s remaining students to nearby South Shore High School so they can stay together.

“We should not have schools opening in the fall that have budget deficits that mean doors can close midyear,” said Jen Conant, the union’s charter division chair.

Some board members raised concerns about whether the district provided enough oversight before EPIC closed. Appointed board member Karen Zaccor said she wants a “more precise scrutiny of finances” for charters.

Elected board member Che “Rhymefest” Smith, whose district includes EPIC, said he supports the school and wants to look “deeper” into the issues contributing to the closure. Appointed board member Michilia Blaise, who represents the West Side, said she’s “ready to roll” with Smith on finding a solution to EPIC’s closure. She cited how difficult transfers can be for students.

“That’s heavy for a kid to show up at another school, and now they’re graduating with a bunch of kids who are graduating together, and they don’t know who they are,” Blaise said of a midyear closure.

CPS officials previously said their assessments of charters include slightly older financial data — which it considered as satisfactory for EPIC ahead of its renewal — and that the district doesn’t assess a charter’s future financial outlook. LeeAndra Khan, EPIC’s executive director, previously told Chalkbeat that the school informed CPS in January of its projected budget shortfall; CPS still recommended renewal for the school in May.

In a letter to EPIC families earlier this month, CPS officials said they would host a “joint initial parent town hall, host town hall meetings on an ongoing basis, and provide individual student support.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema atramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago charter school EPIC Academy could close at the end of the school year

2025-09-15T23:27:55+00:00

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EPIC Academy, a charter high school on the South Side, may close by the end of this school year due to low enrollment — just months after the Chicago Board of Education extended its contract.

EPIC’s board of directors is scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss shuttering the school, located at 8255 S. Houston Ave., because of enrollment declines and financial challenges, according to LeeAndra Khan, EPIC Academy’s executive director, and a letter sent to families Friday by Alfonso Carmona, the director of Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Innovation and Incubation.

EPIC enrolled 254 students as of Friday, according to preliminary enrollment data analyzed by Chalkbeat Monday.

“Despite our best efforts at trying to boost enrollment and trying to elevate our profile and kind of let the public know about some of our unique signature experiences and programming, we just have not been able to get enrollment back up to 500,” Khan said in an interview.

EPIC’s board notified CPS of the closure on Aug. 21, according to the board’s letter to CPS. The charter school held meetings for families on Friday and also sent them letters about the impending closure after CPS sent out its own letter, Khan said. André Golston, the head of security at EPIC and a Chicago Teachers Union member, said staff was notified a couple of weeks into the school year of the possible closure.

“Our ultimate goal is to provide school options that will meet the needs of all students for the 2026-27 school year,” Carmona said in the letter to families. “With that in mind, CPS will work with EPIC leadership to schedule a joint initial parent town hall, host town hall meetings on an ongoing basis, and provide individual student support.”

CPS’s letter also suggested that the school could close before the end of the school year, which Khan did not dispute but said is “not our hope.” Jennifer Conant, the charter division chair of the Chicago Teachers Union, said in an interview that a midyear closure would be “incredibly destabilizing and harmful” to the school community — a concern it has expressed to CPS.

The union and staff also plan to attend Wednesday’s EPIC board meeting to “demand answers,” including why leaders didn’t share sooner that a closure was possible, Conant and Golston said.

If EPIC Academy closes, it would be at least the 15th Chicago charter school to do so over the past six years and represents a continued trend of enrollment declines and financial problems in Chicago’s charter sector — issues the district also faces with its own schools.

The possible closure also raises questions about how, if at all, Chicago’s new school board might intervene as they did in another charter closure scenario earlier this year.

EPIC leaders hope for help from CPS

In February, about a month after the city’s new half-elected, half-appointed board was sworn in, the school board made the unprecedented decision to absorb and save five Acero charter schools planned for closure, following heavy protest from Chicago Teachers Union and Acero families. The district budgeted $20 million this fiscal year to absorb the Acero schools.

During EPIC’s July meeting, the board discussed CPS absorbing the school as one potential option instead of closure, as well as merging it with another charter, according to meeting minutes posted online.

“The only reason that idea was floated was because of the Acero thing,” Khan, EPIC’s executive director, told Chalkbeat in an interview.

Khan said she doesn’t know if CPS is willing to absorb the school, but “we’d love that” or other options “just so that our school community can stay together.”

Conant said the union would also support moving the EPIC students and staff together to another school as “a precedent of how you move a school into another school community to keep it whole, to keep the students and staff together.”

As a charter school, EPIC Academy receives public funding, but is privately managed. It operates under an agreement with the school district but is allowed to close so long as it provides notice to CPS. It wasn’t immediately clear how much time EPIC was required to give under its contract, but CPS said the charter operator followed legal parameters even with a new Chicago Board of Education resolution that aims to tighten oversight of charters.

Khan said the school’s leadership has been discussing dipping enrollment at board meetings and with its staff over the past several years. EPIC leadership informed CPS of its projected budget gap about nine months ago. She said the school used “every ounce of reserve” cash that it had left after investing in a new campus site that it’s now selling. During the July EPIC board meeting, board members discussed the charter network’s $1.4 million budget gap and the school’s six-year enrollment decline.

In May, the Chicago Board of Education approved a two-year contract renewal for EPIC, representing the shortest renewal term the board offered this year for charters. As conditions of EPIC’s renewal, CPS required the school to submit an annual report on disciplinary practices, show progress on properly serving students with disabilities, follow state and local laws on serving kids learning English as a new language, and ensure its teachers are properly licensed. CPS did not, however, flag concerns with the network’s finances or enrollment.

CPS reviewed EPIC’s financial performance for fiscal years 2023 and 2024 for this year’s contract renewal process, and rated EPIC’s financial performance as “meeting standards” on several indicators, which include the network’s net assets and how much cash on hand it has, a CPS spokesperson said. The network’s finances have received even higher ratings over the past eight years. CPS’s review looks at a “point-in-time” snapshot, the spokesperson said.

Conant said both EPIC and CPS failed to provide “oversight,” and neither “did that job well enough.”

“It’s really students and staff who will suffer if the school closes midyear or even at the end of the year,” Conant said. “It’s not fair to students, and so CPS really needs to come up with a plan to protect the school community.”

Like CPS, EPIC sees years of declining enrollment

EPIC Academy first opened in 2010 for a maximum student enrollment of 480, which was expanded to a maximum of 600 by 2015. But enrollment began to drop by 2019, when the school enrolled 521 students at the start of that school year. Enrollment at the school is about half of what it was before the pandemic.

Funding for the charter, which is more directly tied to the number of students, has dropped as the number of students has dropped, Khan said. Expenses have increased, including the cost of salaries, health insurance, and services for students with disabilities, she said.

Khan said the school tried spreading the word about EPIC Academy through radio and billboard advertisements, as well as home visits to potential students.

CPS enrollment has largely dipped over the past decade as birth rates have also fallen, but a wave of newcomers from Central and South American countries helped boost enrollment slightly over the past couple of years. That appears to have been temporary and preliminary data show the district’s enrollment is poised to drop again this school year.

In 2023, as EPIC’s enrollment dipped, Chicago City Council approved a $22 million renovation and addition for EPIC at the former St. Michael the Archangel Catholic School, which closed in 2018 due to low enrollment and is about a quarter of a mile from the school’s current site. Charter officials had hoped the new building would help grow the school’s enrollment to more than 600 kids in the short term, according to its website. The current school, located in a former CPS school, doesn’t have a gym, library, kitchen, “adequate” bathrooms, or computer labs, according to CPS.

But during its July meeting, EPIC officials discussed the sale of the St. Michael’s site, which is listed online for $3 million. An agent overseeing the listing told Chalkbeat that the site was listed for sale on July 5 and has attracted multiple offers.

Khan said a potential sale of the site could help save EPIC Academy for the next two years, but a structural deficit would still exist after that if student enrollment didn’t shoot up. She added that the South Chicago neighborhood where EPIC is located has three other high schools nearby, including Bowen, a neighborhood school. All are competing for the same students.

“So this is complicated: I don’t want Bowen to close, I don’t want EPIC to close, but we might have too many schools,” Khan said.

Conant, from the union, said that EPIC “used up important resources” when it tried to create a new facility, that should have been used on the current school site.

Golston, the school’s head of security, said most students are saddened by the possible closure and staff feel caught off guard.

“This news has devastated [staff], it has knocked the wind out of them, and so that’s why we’re going to push hard to try to keep our doors open and do what we have to do to continue to keep this building and these doors open,” Golston said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s Acero Santiago charter school faces another year of uncertainty with potential sale

2025-08-14T23:06:24+00:00

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Outside the Acero Santiago charter school campus in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood, Principal Melissa Sweazy greeted students and parents as if they were celebrities.

Under a sunny sky and one of the mildest mornings the city has seen all summer, Sweazy cheered and waved glittery maroon and gold pompoms as the kids, dressed in white shirts and navy blue pants or skirts, walked down a paper red carpet into the big brick building.

“Vivir Mi Vida” by Marc Anthony blasted out of a portable speaker perched in a planter near the entrance. “I missed you,” Sweazy said to one young student who hopped toward the front door. “Buenos dias, mi amor,” she called to another.

A mother asked Sweazy what was going on at the other end of the school.

“We’re just trying to make sure CPS buys our building,” the principal replied.

On the east side of the building, in sharp contrast to the first-day hugs and hellos, the scene was somber. Two elected officials hosted a press conference, surrounded by dozens of teachers, students and parents who held signs that said, “Save our school,” and “Not For SALE.”

Ald. Gilbert Villegas and school board member Carlos Rivas hold a press conference calling for Chicago Public Schools to purchase the building where Acero Santiago, a charter school, is located. The Archdiocese, which owns the school's property, has put the building up for sale.

Santiago and four other Acero campuses narrowly avoided closure this year, when the Chicago Board of Education took an unprecedented vote to save the campuses in February and turn them into district schools by the 2026-27 school year. Now, the school is facing a new obstacle: The Archdiocese of Chicago, which owns the school building, put it up for sale last month for $6.75 million, according to elected officials and a Zillow listing.

“The Santiago community is once again – once again – facing another threat of closure,” Ald. Gilbert Villegas, flanked by school board member Carlos Rivas, told reporters. “It caught many folks off guard.”

The split-screen action reflected a small, tight-knit school celebrating another year of existence, while grappling with a potential sale that the community worries could end with their building being razed by a developer.

In a statement, Yasmin Quiroz, communications and public relations manager for the Archdiocese, said the property where the school is located is part of the unified Our Lady of Unity parish, which has “multiple worship sites,” and the church campus where the school is located is “no longer needed.” Quiroz said there is no additional information about potential buyers or how the property might be used in the future.

It’s unclear what would happen if a developer or another private buyer purchases the campus. The school has a lease for the building through the 2025-26 school year, Quiroz said.

The Zillow listing says the neighborhood is in high demand, and the plot has the zoning to build 48 units.

Villegas and Rivas held the press conference to urge Chicago Public Schools to purchase the building. CPS has already proposed to budget $20 million this fiscal year for “incubation” costs as it works to transition the five Acero campuses into district-run schools, according to a district budget presentation this week. The district is facing its most severe budget crisis since at least the pandemic. However, Rivas argued that it’s possible to negotiate an affordable deal for the building. Part of the expenses CPS has already accounted for, according to Rivas, is fixing Santiago’s roof.

“If CPS is saying that they’ve earmarked millions of dollars to replace this roof on a building that isn’t ours, I’d much rather work on finding a deal with the Archdiocese to be able to take over this building,” Rivas said.

Acero, which will oversee the school until next year, did not respond to a request for comment. CPS did not say whether it is considering purchasing the property.

“Regardless of the building’s future ownership, the District’s primary focus is on ensuring a smooth and successful transition for all students and staff,” Sylvia Barragan, a CPS spokesperson, said in a statement.

Acero abruptly announced last fall that it would close seven of its 15 campuses, including Santiago. After pressure from staff and families, the Chicago Teachers Union, and the mayor’s office, the Board of Education voted in February to save five of the campuses and turn them into district-run schools. Some board members opposed the move because they wanted the opportunity to consider whether absorbing the schools would be a viable decision amid district financial pressures.

As district enrollment has largely dipped over the past decade, the same has happened in Chicago’s charter sector, prompting several networks to call for consolidations and closures.

Rivas said co-locating Santiago with a nearby district school is not an ideal option because doing so would require complicated coordination between two different sets of staffers and school leaders.

“I’d much rather that we try to get this done as fast as possible to ensure that our families know they’re here for years to come,” Rivas said. “We’ve already made that commitment as a board.”

Erick Alonzo, father of a fifth grader and eighth grader, said his girls felt relief when the board blocked the closure. Last year was “very hard” on his daughters, who have attended Santiago since kindergarten and faced the prospect of leaving their friends.

Alonzo’s older daughter will move on to high school elsewhere after this school year, but his younger child once again faces the possibility of leaving Santiago sooner than she anticipated.

“If they sell the building, then you know, she’s gonna have to start making new friends and going to a different school,” Alonzo said, before hugging his girls goodbye for the day.

The school’s close-knit culture was apparent Thursday morning as children and parents pulled up to the school.

Acero Santiago Principal Melissa Sweazy embraces a student on the first day of school. After months of fearing the campus would close, Acero Santiago staff and families are worried the building will be sold to developers.

Alexandra Pabon, joined by her 17-year-old daughter Isabelle, dropped off Pabon’s 10-year-old son. The family used to live around the corner and later moved about a half-hour out of the neighborhood but has continued coming back to Santiago. They like that the school, which enrolled just under 230 students last year, has small class sizes and everyone knows each other.

Isabelle, who attended Santiago from kindergarten through eighth grade, embraced an old teacher, who talked to her for several minutes.

“A smaller school like this, it seems like you’re getting less experience, but it’s actually more impactful for your life because you form kind of like a family bond, not just with your teachers but with your friends,” said Isabelle, a senior at an Intrinsic charter high school downtown. “The teachers still see me, and it’s like I never graduated.”

Just before the first day of school started Thursday, a little girl wept outside the front doors. As her mother knelt down to reassure her, a Santiago staffer approached and said, “C’mon, we’ll go find our friends.”

The staffer invited the mother as well, and the three walked in together.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago school board again delays vote on future of 21 charter schools

2025-04-25T01:02:21+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education again delayed voting on renewing contracts with 21 charter schools, leaving families and staff with more uncertainty just months before the end of the school year.

The board voted 15-5, with no discussion, to remove the charter renewals from its Thursday agenda. All ten of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s appointees, plus elected members Therese Boyle, Che ‘Rhymefest’ Smith, Yesenia Lopez, Jitu Brown, and Ebony DeBerry, voted to do so.

Since February, the board has pushed back the vote on most charter renewals by removing the agenda item before the meetings took place.

It’s not clear yet if the charter school renewals, which historically have happened in January, will move to next month’s meeting in late May. The district has so far not recommended closures for any of the schools up for renewal this year.

Neither the school board office nor board president Sean Harden, who moved to delay the vote, responded to a request for comment. According to two school board members, the renewals were pulled because the board is still discussing the proposed renewal lengths. One of those board members said several board members want changes to what the district has already proposed — which include renewal lengths that range between two and four years.

Several charter students and educators spoke during public comment to persuade the board to give them the maximum renewal term of 10 years.

The board also decided to pull a resolution that would have imposed stricter rules for charter schools, though a vote was not needed for that.

The proposed resolution would mark a shift in how this board may want to govern charter schools, which over the past two decades have grown and are now seeing enrollment declines and financial issues. It is already being opposed by the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, which lobbies for charters, while earning some praise — and a push for stronger language — from Chicago Teachers Union leaders.

Two months ago, the board voted to save five of seven Acero charter schools that were slated to close and commit to flipping them into district-run schools.

The resolution that was pulled said charter operators would need to provide the board with an 18-month notice before closing a school, and the operator would be financially responsible for costs associated with any closings. Charter operators would also have to spend most of their “publicly-funded revenues” on services for students, the resolution said.

The resolution had also called for operators to stay neutral in the event their schools move to unionize. Currently, the Chicago Teachers Union represents teachers at schools run by 10 operators.

Jennifer Conant, the Chicago Teachers Union charter division chair, expressed support for the sort of ideas included in the resolution. She said the district should use shorter terms to hold charters accountable when they’re not meeting standards, but that it should also be checking in more frequently on charters so that they have the help they may need to stay open.

She noted that ASPIRA-Haugan received a seven-year renewal in 2018, the longest contract length the school board has awarded. Enrollment dropped “precipitously,” she said, and the network announced in January it would close the middle school.

“The renewal process should be about accountability and support,” Conant said.

Charter operators and staff have pushed for their schools to receive longer renewals. Under Mayors Lori Lightfoot and Brandon Johnson, the district has more frequently renewed schools for two or three years.

Charter operators and staff have argued that longer renewals mean more stability for families and staff. The district, however, says a shorter renewal incentivizes charter operators to improve on student academic performance or other areas highlighted by CPS.

This year, the district recommended two-year renewals for about half of the 21 schools. Before the items were removed from the agenda, four schools were to get three-year renewals, and a four-year extension would have been afforded to six schools — four run by the operator Perspectives.

The district outlined several concerns with each of the schools up for renewals and outlined for more those recommended for two-year renewals. Those concerns included academic performance, how the school serves students with disabilities, and even accurate teacher licensure information. It asked those schools to address those concerns during their renewal terms.

In one notable case, the district recommended a two-year renewal for two Urban Prep campuses located on the South Side. In the fall of 2022, the board moved to close both schools amid allegations of financial mismanagement, failure to properly serve students with disabilities and sexual misconduct allegations against the school’s founder, Tim King. King has denied those allegations.

Urban Prep appealed its closure to the state, which sided with CPS. Urban Prep filed a lawsuit, but an appeals court ultimately decided that CPS had the right to close Urban Prep’s campuses, which were on track to close last June and become district-run. The district extended their contracts for one more year to provide stability for students and staff — and this year is moving to extend the contracts through 2027.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s partially-elected school board plans changes to charter school oversight

2025-04-23T19:35:41+00:00

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Micha Thurston, a teacher at Octavio Paz Elementary School, was recently collecting funds for field trips and other activities when a student asked her what the money was for. Thurston explained it was part of a school fundraiser. The student gasped.

“So we can stay open?” the student asked.

Paz, an Acero charter school on the Southwest Side, is slated to close by the end of the school year.

“And I said, ‘No, so we can give you the best school year we can give you,’” Thurston said. “She just looked so confused.”

Paz is one of two Acero schools closing by the end of this year. Another charter middle school — ASPIRA-Haugan — will also shut its doors for good. These three closures come after nearly a dozen charter campuses in Chicago ended operations over the past five years, with at least half of those tied to financial problems and enrollment declines. And, in a first, Chicago Public Schools plans to convert five Acero campuses into district-run elementary schools by fall 2026.

These closures and conversions of charter schools in Chicago mark a shift in the district’s approach to governing these privately-run, publicly-funded schools, which have existed since 1997. Though charters grew rapidly over the past 20 years, operators are facing declining enrollment, tighter budgets, and a 21-member, partially-elected school board with few charter allies.

Now, the relatively new school board is proposing changes to how it handles charter oversight. A resolution on Thursday’s meeting agenda would impose new requirements on operators and is already being opposed by the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, a special interest group that lobbies on behalf of charter schools.

The proposed resolution would, among other new stipulations, require operators to give the district 18 months notice of closing a school and assume financial responsibility related to the closure. It also calls on the district to lobby state lawmakers to change state law to stop charters from closing during their renewal term.

It comes as 21 charter schools — and the thousands of students they serve — have been in limbo this year as the school board delayed its vote on their renewals. While that has historically happened in January, the board pushed back its decision to this month.

As the district stares down a growing deficit, several questions about charter schools lie ahead for the board: Should the district absorb charter schools that networks decide to close — or should it allow the campuses to phase out? Should it work harder to enroll kids from closing charters at district-run schools that have long suffered from declining enrollment — or would that infringe upon family choice?

Elizabeth Todd-Breland, who was vice president of the Chicago Board of Education under Mayors Lori Lightfoot and Brandon Johnson and was more critical of charters than her predecessors, said deciding a path forward for how the district manages charter schools directly impacts students, their families, and educators.

She noted that charters grew rapidly under Renaissance 2010, an initiative under then-Mayor Richard M. Daley that led to the opening of 100 new schools, many of which were charters. By the time most of those schools opened, CPS’s enrollment growth had slowed and would ultimately start dropping.

Board members “also have to grapple with the realities of past and ongoing policies that have set up a school system that doesn’t work for everyone,” said Todd-Breland, an associate professor of history at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “How to find our way out of that as a city … is just really difficult.”

CPS spokesperson Quan Vu said in a statement the board’s decision to absorb the Acero campuses “to minimize disruption for affected students and families” shouldn’t be seen “as setting a precedent for how the district will handle future charter school closures.”

Could more charters become district-run schools?

Given the current mayor’s own critical views on charters in the past, many expected the first board appointed under Johnson to take a harder look at the charter sector.

The new board is made up of 11 of his appointees, plus four other allies. In November, during the first historic school board election, four people backed by the Illinois Charter Schools Network won.

But in an unexpected twist, after the Acero charter network decided to close half of its campuses, the Board of Education voted in February to save five of the seven Acero schools slated for closure and committed to financially support the schools through next school year, while also committing to turn them into district-run schools. That vote came after months of protests from families and the Chicago Teachers Union, which represents staff at Acero.

The vote raised a key question: Will other charter operators who are in trouble expect the cash-strapped district to provide a financial lifeline?

Elected school board member Yesenia Lopez, whose district includes some of the Acero schools, voted to save the five campuses by converting them to district-run schools. She said it was the right way to settle a deeply complicated problem. In an op-ed published Wednesday in the Chicago Sun-Times, Lopez wrote that the Acero situation caused “stress, heartache and uncertainty” for families and that charters should be required to notify the public at least a year in advance of closing a school.

“If a charter wasn’t up front about the financial situation or whatever the cause might be and they’re considering closure of schools, at least for myself, the families are the ones left hanging and scrambling,” Lopez told Chalkbeat.

Lopez said she feels that some charter networks fail to have meaningful engagement with families. With Acero, Lopez said she heard from multiple parents who felt confused about what comes next and that the network was uninterested in their feedback.

Acero has previously said it made one-on-one informational sessions available to families to explain their options moving forward.

But another elected school board member, Jennifer Custer, voted no. She supported saving the schools but worried about language that committed the district to absorbing the five elementary campuses after next school year. She supported a version of the resolution that would have allowed the district to consider whether it was viable to take over the campuses, rather than commit to that.

“We have to understand that this is a vote between making a financially responsible decision that doesn’t have greater effects across the district and saves some of these schools, or keeping these schools open at the cost of teacher and staff jobs in millions of dollars across the entire district,” Custer said before casting her vote.

CPS came close to taking over two charter high schools a little over a year ago. The school board voted to revoke the charter agreement with the once-nationally-lauded Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men after financial mismanagement, problems with serving students with disabilities, and allegations of misconduct against the organization’s former leader Tim King, which he has denied.

The plan was for CPS to turn the high schools into district schools.

But Urban Prep launched a legal battle that involved the state and the courts. Ultimately, an appeals court ruled that CPS had the right to close the school, which was set to happen by the end of this school year.

However, the district is recommending a two-year renewal for Urban Prep with several conditions, providing those families certainty for at least the next two years just months before the expected closure, according to the agenda for Thursday’s meeting.

For Thurston at Octavio Paz, amid the uncertainty of the past several months, students she works with have asked frequently about the school’s closure, she said. She said she can see the detrimental impact of Paz’s closure already, with some kids wondering why they’re bothering to come to school at all. And she’s unsure about her future, too.

The impact of closures on kids and families is why board member Jitu Brown, who voted to save the Acero schools and turn them into district campuses, said he doesn’t believe in closing charters even though he’s critical of the charter sector.

“That might mean absorbing them when they close, or it can mean them getting their act together, but what we have to have is accountability to the public,” Brown said. “You can’t just have the Wild Wild West in regards to schools operating in our community and being able to pick and choose their children, or not serve particular populations, or just shut down when it becomes less profitable.”

Timeline for charter renewals a moving target this year

In Illinois, charter schools must be run by nonprofits and operate in accordance with an agreement approved by a local school board. Only if a local board denies a charter applicant, can the operator appeal to the state for authorization.

Most of the state’s charters are in Chicago and are overseen by Chicago Public Schools. The school board decides whether contracts should be renewed and under what conditions.

At one time, that process in CPS would happen around November and December, according to Andrew Broy, president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools. It shifted to late January during the last two school years before this year’s delay.

When it comes to financial oversight, the district doesn’t get audits from one school year until the following fall, said Hal Woods, the former head of the CPS’s office that oversees charter schools and current chief of policy at Kids First Chicago, an education advocacy organization.

“A school could be deep in financial trouble before CPS has the full picture,” Woods said. “Even when a school is placed on financial remediation, it has up to two years to course correct before CPS could step in to close it — if they act at all.”

The result, often, can be an abrupt decision from charter operators or the district to close campuses in a matter of months. Broy, however, argued that if charters had a better relationship with district leaders, then they could work together to figure out a solution for financial or enrollment issues.

The board’s proposed resolution on Thursday’s agenda would require the district office in charge of charter oversight to conduct annual site visits and provide school board members with copies of the rubrics used to evaluate charter school performance.

Another issue is the length of renewals, Broy said. His organization lobbied the state legislature to allow charters to be renewed for up to 10 years from their local school boards. That’s never happened in Chicago. But a handful of operators did get seven-year renewals prior to 2019. For the past several years, the school board has not renewed networks for more than five years and has done more one- or two-year renewals.

Broy is advocating for at least minimum three-year renewals this year. The district is recommending between two- and four-year renewals this year for 21 schools. About half are slated to receive two-year extensions, according to Thursday’s agenda.

“They look at charter schools and say, ‘How do we hold them accountable?’ They look at district schools [and say], ‘How do we support them?’” Broy said. That’s a sign the board “is not oriented towards helping charter schools prosper, helping the students in them grow. It’s oriented towards holding schools accountable, which is really a thinly veiled critique of the model itself.”

Still, Todd-Breland said, the renewal process is “often the only point of real accountability” for charters because they operate independently and don’t have other check-in structures that district schools do, such as network offices.

Vu, the CPS spokesperson, said the district uses shorter renewal terms “to promote accountability” and encourage operators to improve outcomes at their schools.

“These shorter terms allow for quicker adjustments in strategy, while ensuring operators remain responsive to the needs of students and communities,” Vu wrote in a statement.

Charters serve more than 50,000 students, but enrollment is dropping

Over Lori Cannella’s two decades at ASPIRA-Haugan Middle School, the health care worker-turned-teacher has seen the enrollment drop from about 500 students to about 80 this year.

The enrollment drop — in part due to new CPS middle school grades nearby and fewer families having kids — led to financial constraints and cuts in music and computer classes, Cannella said.

Then, just before winter break, the network’s leadership sat Haugan’s staff down and told them the school will close at the end of this school year.

The ASPIRA board voted in January to close the Haugan campus because of enrollment declines and financial issues.

ASPIRA board members did not return a request for comment.

Just as enrollment has dipped in district schools, the same has happened at charters, though at a lesser rate.

Charter enrollment in Chicago began falling after the 2015-16 school year, later than the district’s student count began to shrink, according to enrollment data provided by CPS. Since then, charters have seen a 14% drop in students and district schools saw a 17% dip.

The reasons for decreasing enrollment vary, including falling birth rates and dropping city population.

The district changed its budget formula to help protect against these enrollment shifts: Now, instead of basing funding on the number of kids in a building and increasing those funds based on need, the district guarantees certain staff positions to all schools, plus some discretionary funding. Schools with more pressing needs are allocated more positions.

But charters are still largely funded based on the number of students they’ve enrolled. State law requires the district to fund charter schools proportionally to per pupil funding at district-run schools. But generally, fewer kids at charters will mean less funding.

Board of Education member Brown believes more funding could help relieve the district of the thorny questions they face. He said he and other board members are advocating with the state to provide more funding to CPS and relieve it of costs that other districts don’t cover, such as teacher pensions.

But with fewer students overall, the district and its charter schools will continue to grapple with the challenges associated with operating schools with low enrollment.

Back at ASPIRA-Haugan, Cannella said she doesn’t see any hope the closure decision will be reversed. She now worries about how her sixth and seventh grade students will adjust to new teachers and classmates during the already challenging middle school years.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools is relaunching a program to reel in dropouts

2025-02-28T15:40:16+00:00

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Chicago’s school board voted Thursday to spend up to $25 million to revive a troubled program that aims to reengage some of the city’s toughest-to-reach dropouts.

The new contract enlists the social services agency Metropolitan Family Services to oversee a revamped Back to Our Future program. So far, the city of Chicago has kicked in $1.5 million and the state another $4 million to fund the initiative, and district officials said they hope philanthropists will also chip in.

Last summer, the district wound down Back to Our Future, launched during the pandemic to help 1,000 students ages 14 to 21 who had disconnected from school. The district teamed up with three nonprofits to provide 12 weeks of high school credit recovery, job skills, mental health support, mentoring, and a stipend to participants, among other services.

A Chalkbeat Chicago investigation last fall found that recruitment stumbles, a lack of a clear education plan, and frustration at the state with a dearth of outcomes data ultimately led to the decision to pause the program, which lost its funding from the Illinois Department of Human Services last spring. Ultimately, the program cost roughly $8 million. It steered about 150 students back to school and helped 60 graduate, most of them from alternative high schools.

The board unanimously approved the contract with Metropolitan Family Services Thursday without discussion. During a meeting earlier this month, some had praised Back to Our Future as a worthwhile and innovative initiative to help young people whom school districts have traditionally written off. Others wondered whether the district would work more closely with alternative high schools, which were brought in late in the game last time around after CPS found few students were successfully completing an online credit recovery program at partner nonprofits.

At that earlier meeting, CPS officials said the original program showed small results, which were nevertheless significant given its focus on extremely vulnerable students.

“While this was really ambitious, and we set out to do something really great for the school district and the city of Chicago at large, this was a very hard to reach population,” Toni Copeland, director of student supports and violence prevention programs at the district’s Office of Safety and Security. “That was something we anticipated, but maybe not in the way we should have.”

Copeland said the program drew the attention of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Office of Community Safety, which included a revamp of the program into his $100 million People’s Plan for Community Safety, rolled out last year.

The consensus was that the program needed an agency to oversee spending, train the partner nonprofits, monitor results, and ensure that both CPS and the nonprofits are pulling their weight, Copeland said. The district got three bids from organizations interested in serving in that role. Metropolitan Family Services has no experience working with disconnected youth, but was picked based on its experience working with nonprofits that serve vulnerable adults, officials said.

Metropolitan Family Services provides a wide range of programs in the city and suburbs, including after-school programs, job training, legal assistance, and counseling. Its president and CEO, Ricardo Estrada, who has led the nonprofit since 2011, is married to Beatriz Ponce de León, Chicago’s deputy mayor for immigrant, migrant, and refugee rights.

Back to Our Future was the brainchild of former CPS chief of safety and security Jadine Chou, who left the district earlier this month for a job in the private sector.

Earlier this month, school board members peppered CPS officials with questions about the program, asking for a written plan for its implementation, inquiring why the district needs a middleman like Metropolitan Family Services, and wondering if there is a better plan to engage alternative high schools.

“The vast majority of students who were able to graduate from the program were graduating from options schools, and so it seems like they ought to be engaged from the beginning,” board member Jessica Biggs told officials, using the CPS name for high schools serving students who had dropped out or are at risk of dropping out.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Board of Education votes to save 5 of 7 Acero charter schools slated for closure

2025-02-28T01:22:36+00:00

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After emotional pleas from the community, the Chicago Board of Education moved Thursday to keep five of seven Acero charter schools open — overriding the independent operator’s plans to shutter half the schools in its network.

The decision means two charter schools — Paz and Cruz — would still close in June. Paz is an elementary school, and Cruz is a K-12 school. CPS, which will cover the costs of the five campuses, must still hash out a formal agreement with Acero, which officials said they will move to do immediately.

The school board’s 16-3 decision — its first major one since becoming a hybrid elected board — caps an intense months-long back-and-forth between the charter operator, school district officials, the teachers union, and the school board, which changed more than once since news of the planned charter closures first emerged.

“It feels devastating for the Paz and Cruz families,” said Caroline Rutherford, the CTU’s charter division vice chair and an Acero teacher. “There is room at Casas, which is not far from Paz, to move the entirety of Paz into Casas if that’s an option for us. Cruz — there are not Acero schools that are close by, but we do want to create a transition plan to keep those school communities whole.”

The change came after district officials warned that helping Acero keep all seven campuses could violate state law and be financially risky for CPS at a time when the district has at least a half-billion-dollar deficit next fiscal year.

Families and teachers, who have blasted Acero for moving to close the schools in the first place, celebrated the board’s decision and loudly cheered after their vote. District leaders said risks still exist with keeping even five schools open.

Board member Che Smith said the board had to make a decision that was financially responsible. At the same time, he said the board “must be vigilant against the bad actors and as you can see, you have much support from members on this board.”

The board’s decision moves away from a December plan that called for covering the costs of running all seven campuses for next school year. It does stick with a plan to make five of the campuses district schools by the 2026-27 school year. CPS had presented an amended resolution to the board Thursday, which would have saved just four of those schools for next year, but board members moved to change that language in order to save five.

“My name is not going to be connected with some garbage; it’s not,” board member Jitu Brown said. “We made a promise to these communities.”

A handful of board members opposed committing to turning five schools into district-run campuses by the fall of 2026, arguing that the district may not have the resources to keep those campuses afloat. Those members instead supported exploring the option.

“We have to be able to ask ourselves, ‘Is it functioning, is it effective, is it financially sustainable, what is the strain on the district office?’” said board member Ellen Rosenfeld. “We must stay within state law at all times.”

The decision came four months after Acero announced that it would close seven schools due to a $40 million deficit, impacting about 1,800 students and 200 staff members. The Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ reported in November that the network still had tens of millions of dollars in cash available.

However, it leaves open the question of where students at Paz and Cruz will go and how the district will absorb the five schools in the future.

Parents and staff speak out against closures

In sometimes tearful testimony, more than a dozen parents, staff and union leaders asked the board to keep the schools open, with several saying they felt their trust was broken. Parent Lucy Salgado, described the combined pain of school closures and immigration concerns, citing a Wednesday incident in which federal immigration agents detained a father who was dropping off his children at an Acero school in Gage Park.

“I beg you: Don’t do this,” Salgado said through tears. “Help these children out.”

Acero families and teachers speak out against planned school closures on Thurs., Feb. 27, 2025 at the Chicago Public Schools board meeting.

Luis Delgado, a sophomore at Northside College Prep who attended the Santiago campus, praised the Acero school for making him less shy and getting him involved in sports and student government.

“I urge all of you to uphold the resolution not because it interests yourself, but because it interests the constituents who elected you to this position,” Delgado said, who added that if the board approves closures, “in the next election, you will have consequences.”

In a presentation to the board, Chief Portfolio Officer Alfonso Carmona and Chief Budget Officer Mike Sitkowski said that state law prevents school districts from spending more than 103% of what it spends per student at district-run schools on charter schools. A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education did not immediately outline the consequences for violating that law.

And after an analysis of Acero’s campuses, officials calculated that it would cost about $4 million to replace two 80-year-old Cisneros campus boilers, which officials said are 40 years past their life expectancy, and would push the district past the limit of what it’s legally allowed to spend on the Acero network. Saving just four schools and excluding Cisneros would eliminate the legal issue, Carmona said. Saving five would mean the district could spend up to $200,000, which would exceed the legal limit and doesn’t account for other costs that could come up, Carmona said.

“When we go into these negotiations, I could not agree more with some of the students — we shouldn’t be talking about finances, we should be talking about the kids,” Carmona told the board. “Every single one of those schools are commendable … why the presentation is about finances is because of the constraints of the law.”

Several board members asked if the boiler problem could be pushed off another year, with board member Anusha Thotakura noting that CPS has more than $3 billion in critical repairs throughout the system. CPS officials said the board could choose to wait to replace the boilers, but that would open the district to risks, such as losing heat because of broken boilers.

CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said CPS doesn’t “have a choice but to address” the issues because they involve “the safety of the children…that is the highest risk of all.”

Board member Jenni Custer asked what would happen if the boilers broke and the district was restricted on how much it could spend to fix them due to legal issues; Chief Operating Officer Charles Mayfield said the district would have to move students and staff to another location.

CPS directed to convert schools into district-run programs

Ultimately, the board voted to keep five, assuming the potential risk of covering expenses — including accounting for possible enrollment loss and other expenses — at those campuses.

Thursday’s meeting capped off a confusing week for families and staff, who learned two days ago that the original plan from December could change. Parents received an email Tuesday morning from Carmona, who said the board would vote on a plan to save just four of the Acero schools — not all of them — for next year, and allow another three to close.

On Wednesday, dozens of staffers and parents attended an evening vigil alongside the Chicago Teachers Union, which represents Acero teachers, to call for board members to vote against the proposed changes to the plan. Board members Anusha Thotakura, Norma Rios Sierra, Yesenia Lopez, Ed Bannon, and Michilia Blaise attended the vigil and committed to voting against the amended resolution.

Since Acero announced the closures in October, families and the union have held rallies and attended multiple board meetings to push CPS to save the schools. Charters are privately run, public funded schools that are allowed to operate under a contract with CPS. Parents and staff have said they’ve felt ignored by Acero leadership.

Parents and the union celebrated the December decision from the previous board, made up of seven people appointed by the mayor, but weeks later pressed CPS and Acero for more updates about how it would keep the campuses open or a formal agreement to do so.

Person detained by federal immigration officials during school dropoff at Chicago school

2025-02-27T23:52:24+00:00

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This story has been updated with a statement from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirming the arrest.

Principals at a charter school campus on Chicago’s South West side told families Wednesday that an adult who was in a vehicle with two students was detained by federal immigration enforcement officials during school dropoff.

In a letter to families, the administration of Acero Schools’ Soto High School and Idar Elementary said they escorted the students into the building away from the scene, which took place at the corner of 51st and St. Louis Ave. in Gage Park.

“We understand how stressful and upsetting this is to our school communities,” the two principals, Elizabeth Obrzut and Nicolle Macias, wrote. “Focused support is being made available for those directly impacted by this event. Both schools will have additional social work support available for scholars.”

According to the Acero administration, agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, also known as ATF, detained an adult in a vehicle outside the schools around 8:15 a.m. The school leaders said the agents did not attempt to enter either school.

A spokesperson for ICE confirmed agents in Chicago arrested Francisco Andrade-Berrera, 37, on Wednesday “without incident.” The statement said he is a citizen of Mexico and “a known member of a violent street gang with criminal convictions for drug trafficking, gang loitering, and damage to property” and had been deported twice before in 2005 and 2013.

Collectively, the two Acero schools on the single campus serve more than 1,000 students and 98% identify as Hispanic.

Helena Stangle, Acero’s chief culture officer, said the campus staff followed the network’s protocols Wednesday and also contacted Chicago Public Schools Office of Safety and Security. She added that Acero administrative staff undergo “intensive training” on what to do in these scenarios and the network provides families with a “Civil Rights Resource Hub.”

Last month, the Trump administration ended a policy that treated schools and child care centers as “sensitive” or “protected” locations where immigration enforcement could not take place unless there was an immediate danger to the public.

Yesenia Lopez, the elected school board member representing District 7 where the schools are located, commended the Acero principals and school staff who stepped in to support the students “during such a traumatic moment.”

“No child should be afraid of going to school because they fear seeing their parents ambushed during school drop offs,” Lopez said in a statement to Chalkbeat. “Our schools should be places of safety and learning, not fear and separation.”

Ald. Jeylu Gutierrez, whose ward includes the Acero schools, said the person arrested is a father of three kids, two at Idar and one at Soto. He was dropping the two younger kids off to school when he was arrested, she said. Gutierrez, who said she got in touch with the family, said Wednesday she didn’t know why the father was arrested.

“All the family is devastated and the school community,” said Gutierrez, who was at a candlelight vigil Wednesday night focused on saving three Acero schools, which serve a largely Hispanic student population, from closure. She said several families decided not to attend the event to take extra precautions.

When the gathering — hosted in conjunction with the Chicago Teachers Union — ended, union staff told families to watch out for each other.

“Remember your rights,” Hilario Dominguez, the union’s legislative director, told the crowd. “You don’t have to talk to ICE.”

The incident during school dropoff Wednesday comes weeks after another Chicago elementary school in Back of the Yards on the city’s South West side mistook U.S, Secret Service agents for ICE, prompting a flurry of confusion and fear in the community.

Many of Chicago’s South West side neighborhoods are predominantly Latino and home to many immigrants. These communities, like many across the country, have been on high alert since the Trump administration took office and stepped up immigration enforcement.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago school board to consider saving 4 of 7 Acero charter schools slated for closure

2025-02-26T00:36:17+00:00

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After months of uncertainty for hundreds of families and teachers who are facing closures at seven Acero charter schools, Chicago’s Board of Education will vote this week on keeping four of the schools open — backtracking from a plan to prevent the closures altogether.

According to Chicago Public Schools officials, the funding needs for all seven Acero campuses on the chopping block exceed a legal state limit on how much money the district can provide to charter schools.

A resolution included on the board’s agenda for its Thursday meeting calls for CPS to provide financial help to Acero in order to keep the Casas, Fuentes, Tamayo, and Santiago campuses open next school year. It then calls for CPS to figure out “the viability” of absorbing those campuses and turning them into district-run schools after next year.

Charters are privately run, publicly funded schools and are allowed to operate under a contract with Chicago Public Schools. Acero announced in October that it would close seven of its 15 campuses due to financial problems.

Under the resolution for Thursday’s board meeting, the Paz, Cruz, and Cisneros campuses would close at the end of this school year.

In a statement, Helena Stangle, chief culture officer for Acero, said Acero has been “cooperative, transparent, and open to all remedies,” and it’s “essential” for CPS to cover all operational and capital costs, as well as deficits, “so students get the educational experience they deserve in a safe building.”

“We await CPS BOE action to determine the next steps for our impacted scholars, families and colleagues,” Stangle said.

State law requires districts to fund charters by at least 97% and up to 103% of what it spends per student at district-run schools, which CPS said it would exceed under a plan to save all seven schools. A “per capita tuition charge” is calculated annually and this year’s budget set it at $19,339.34 per student enrolled.

The new plan would walk back the previous seven-member Board of Education’s directive to keep all seven Acero schools open by helping cover any deficits for Acero. That directive also called for the district to create a plan to turn five of the schools — Cisneros, Casas, Fuentes, Tamayo, and Santiago — into district-run buildings by the 2026-27 school year and explore whether it could do the same for Paz and Cruz, which CPS previously said contributed the most to Acero’s debt.

Parents and union leaders celebrated that resolution when it passed in late December on the same day the school board voted to fire CPS CEO Pedro Martinez. The union did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Plan would leave future uncertain for 4 Acero schools

Not only would the new resolution keep just four of the schools open next year with CPS’s financial help, but unlike before, it leaves open the possibility that those schools could also close by the 2026-27 school year.

Alfonso Carmona, CPS’s chief portfolio officer, had originally endorsed a plan to keep five of the seven schools open because it was the least expensive option CPS, which is facing at least a $500 million deficit next fiscal year. In a Feb. 4 email that Acero sent to schools staff, the network said its senior staff had met with CPS leadership to “reach agreement” on how they would keep the seven campuses open. Both parties also had additional meetings about “critical funding and liability matters,” the email said.

Board of Education member Carlos Rivas Jr. said district leaders have been meeting with board members to explain their options. He was not provided specifics of the problems that would need to be fixed at the Acero schools if CPS took over. The resolution appeared to be the only legal and financially viable way forward, he said.

CPS did not immediately say how much it would cost to keep the four campuses open; multiple board members said they didn’t know. CPS plans to provide an update on Acero at the meeting Thursday.

“This is obviously very damaging to our school communities and our families, especially [from] an organization that serves Latino families,” he said. “We can’t have Acero doing this willy-nilly. We need to figure something out in order to hold charters accountable for things like this.”

Carmona informed Acero parents in a Tuesday letter of the pending resolution.

“If the Board approves the amended resolution, the district will inform the affected families by Friday, February 28th, to begin the transition process and will provide information regarding options for families for next year,” Carmona wrote in the email obtained by Chalkbeat. “Throughout this process, CPS will continue to work in good faith to carry out the Chicago Board of Education’s vision.”

Acero Schools, once known as the UNO Charter School Network, opened the Paz campus in 1998. It was the network’s first and one of Chicago’s first charter schools after state law authorized the publicly-funded, independently-run schools. It ran into trouble about a decade ago with the Securities and Exchange Commission for defrauding bondholders, and CPS threatened to end the network’s charter in 2015 amid the fallout. But the school board ultimately renewed their agreement. In 2017, the charter network separated from the neighborhood organization and rebranded as Acero.

Acero announced in October it would close half of the schools it operates before the start of the 2025-26 school year due to a $40 million budget shortfall. Closing all seven schools would impact more than 1,800 students and about 200 staff members. Families and the Chicago Teachers Union — which represents staff at those schools — launched rallies and began attending board meetings to press CPS to prevent the closures.

But since then, parents say they’ve received no updates from Acero or CPS on what would happen next. At a board meeting earlier this month to review its agenda, several Acero parents and teachers pressed the district for more answers.

When Martinez told board members that CPS was “working diligently” on the issue, an audience member shouted back, “We’ve been hearing that for 126 days. There needs to be more.”

‘They kick us while we’re down'

Micha Thurston, an academic interventionist at Paz, said she felt blindsided when she learned that Paz was once again slated for closure. She’s taught at Paz for about a year. Despite hearing that families at other Acero schools on the chopping block were transferring out, just one family at Paz had left, she said.

“We’ve had parents that now have kids at our school, that went to our school, their siblings went to our school, their uncles and aunts went to our school,” Thurston said. “So they’re making it very clear that, like, they’re waiting it out with us.”

In its Feb. 4 email to staff, Acero said staff could enroll families for next school year, and that Acero would provide a disclosure to those families saying the network was still working with CPS on how it would keep the campuses open next year, according to an email obtained by Chalkbeat.

Thurston said the Paz campus just enrolled two students who had previously attended Acero schools, and their first day is Wednesday. Paz staff was planning a meeting this week with parent leaders to discuss strategies for boosting enrollment next year, she said.

It used to feel like CPS was on their side, Thurston said. Now it feels like Acero and CPS are teaming up.

“It just feels like every turn they kick us,” she said. “They kick us while we’re down, they kick us some more and then they stomp on us.”

Becky Vevea contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

CPS shares plan to keep open 5 of 7 Acero charter schools due to close

2024-12-13T04:05:56+00:00

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As angst grows about the planned closure of seven Acero charter schools on Chicago’s Southwest Side, CPS suggested Thursday that the best option would be to support keeping five of the schools open.

The district’s recommendation came after nearly two-and-a-half hours of public comment during which teachers and families pleaded with the district to help save the seven campuses.

Acero charter network announced in October that before the 2025-26 school year, it would close seven of its schools — where more than 1,800 students are enrolled and staff are members of the Chicago Teachers Union — because of a $40 million budget shortfall. Since then, families and the union immediately launched rallies and began attending board meetings to press CPS to prevent the closures.

Alfonso Carmona, chief portfolio officer who oversees charters in the district, presented a slew of options during Thursday’s board meeting. These included transitioning the seven campuses into CPS-run schools, or just helping affected students enroll at district schools. Carmona said that based on the feedback they’ve received, “what we’ve heard from these families is that we should not close these campuses.”

But the option he ultimately recommended was more of a “hybrid” option: He said CPS supports keeping five of the seven campuses open and “phasing out” the other two, known as the Paz and Cruz campuses.

Under this option, the district would help Acero cover its budget deficit. Carmona said this could be the best option because it’s likely CPS won’t actually have to open its wallet under this scenario. He said the charter network would “break even” if it closed the Paz and Cruz campuses — both of which are for sale — because they both “contributed substantially” to the network’s projected deficit, according to a district analysis. He added that the buildings are in disrepair and would need significant investment.

“That will also allow enough time for us to also potentially transition those schools as district managed schools after the 25-26 school year,” Carmona said. It was unclear how many schools would potentially be absorbed.

Ultimately, the district would help students from Paz and Cruz enroll in CPS or charter schools, according to Carmona’s presentation.

Acero did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the CPS proposal. Acero operates a total of 15 charter schools in the city.

But it’s unclear what option the board will ultimately choose — or how soon. Sidestepping Carmona’s recommendation, Vice President Mary Gardner asked Carmona to provide more details by Monday on the option of absorbing all seven Acero campuses, which the district estimates would cost between $21 million and $28 million. Board member Michilla Blaise said the board is “working hard” to give families direction on the issue.

The district had planned to present most of these options at a special meeting last month, but the board canceled the presentation without explanation.

The board, which passed a resolution last month calling for Acero to address the board, has criticized Acero for not attending board meetings to discuss the issue. Acero subsequently sent the board a cease and desist letter, accusing the board of sharing defamatory statements about the network and its closure plans.

“There has been 200 children I think leaving Acero schools that we might not get back again, and that’s disrupting your community because people are scared and worried, so we’re trying to make sure we’re moving thoughtfully and with the appropriate guidance,” Blaise said to the families who attended Thursday’s meeting.

Acero’s charter schools are publicly funded but privately managed. The Acero network operates based on a contract with CPS, and the network announced the closures in accordance with rules set out in that contract.

The union and families have held rallies, attended multiple board meetings, and met with elected officials in an effort to save the campuses.

On top of dismaying Acero students and families, the planned closures have increased tensions between Mayor Brandon Johnson — a union ally and opponent of school closures — and Chicago Public Schools leadership. Johnson, who has generally been critical of charter schools, said he doesn’t want to see any school close and last month called for CPS to create a “contingency plan” for the closures.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

GoCPS deadline extended to Dec. 15

2024-11-15T23:01:03+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools is extending the application deadline for students who want to go to schools outside their assigned neighborhood option.

GoCPS applications will now be due at 5 p.m. on Dec. 15 instead of Nov. 15. This applies to all eighth grade students who are applying to high school.

The district had extended the deadline earlier this month from Nov. 15 to Nov. 22. But amid concerns over pending charter school closures at the Acero network, the school board urged the district to again extend the deadline. The district also extended the GoCPS deadline in 2022.

Last year, the High School Admissions Test crashed on the day CPS eighth graders were scheduled to take the exam, but the deadline remained in early November. However, high school applicants were given extra time to re-rank their choices.

The HSAT did not have any technical problems this year. CPS students took the exam on Oct. 9. The test will be given to non-CPS students applying to district high schools for the last time on Nov. 23 and 24.

The process for applying to school in CPS has been criticized for being stressful and inequitable. Even so, in Chicago, about half of all public elementary school students go to a school that is not their assigned neighborhood school. At the high school level, about 75% travel to a high school and attend an option that is not their zoned option.

The new CPS five-year strategic plan hopes to shift away from an overemphasis on school choice and increase the number of students attending school in their neighborhood or closer to home.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Board of Education pushes Acero to find alternatives to planned charter school closures

2024-11-15T00:40:31+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education passed a resolution Thursday that called for a later deadline for GoCPS applications and sought to find alternatives to the Acero charter school network’s plan for seven campus closures on the Southwest Side.

The board’s resolutions came during a specially called meeting and were the latest in an increasingly tense situation surrounding the charter network’s planned closures, which have increased friction between Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office and Chicago Public Schools leadership.

The Acero charter network announced last month that it will close seven campuses because of a $40 million budget shortfall. The staff at those campuses are members of the Chicago Teachers Union.

The board’s Acero resolution called for Acero officials to meet with the board to discuss alternatives to the campus closures, which would impact 2,000 students and 500 staffers.

Families and teachers have rallied against the closure since the network’s announcement. Earlier this week, the mayor said he directed CPS leadership to dig into the network’s finances and wanted to see a “contingency plan” from CPS related to the closures.

The board’s resolution demands that if the network declines to find alternatives, Acero “shall return all unspent public funds and property” to the district.

Resolutions are nonbinding in nature and don’t compel Acero to meet with CPS or discuss alternatives. However, Acero must meet with CPS by Nov. 15 to discuss the school closures as part of its agreement with the district. All charter networks — which are privately run entities that receive public funding — operate based on conditions set in agreements with CPS.

Based on Acero’s agreement with CPS, the district does not appear to have a legal pathway to prevent the closures.

In an emailed statement, Acero said “there are no winners when high-quality schools are forced to close their doors due to the implications of inequitable and inadequate public school funding.”

“While we are disappointed by the misinformation surrounding this heartbreaking circumstance, we welcome working with the Chicago Public Schools to find long-term and sustainable solutions for everyone impacted by these anticipated closures,” the statement said. “This is clearly evidenced by the nearly 20 meetings Acero Schools has had with senior CPS officials before the special meeting to provide timely information to advance this initiative.”

CPS was expected to give a presentation at the meeting that would provide “a more complete picture” of the Acero closures and “provide options for impacted families, address the questions raised and the feedback received during the briefings and meeting, and outline several solutions for the Board to consider at a future meeting,” CPS said in an emailed statement earlier this week.

But that presentation was canceled, Board Vice President Mary Gardner said at the top of the meeting. Asked why, Bogdana Chkoumbova, the district’s chief education officer, said, “I don’t know,” and said the board’s office would have a better idea. Board members Frank Niles Thomas and Rafael Yañez declined to comment to reporters after the meeting.

Chalkbeat obtained a copy of the presentation, which included options the district could pursue in response to the closures. One option is that CPS would provide “support” to Acero to keep the campuses open. The presentation said the district has “confirmed and identified the financial needs” but didn’t elaborate, saying more budget information would be shared at upcoming board meetings.

A second option would be helping affected students enroll at CPS-run schools, which the district says is in line with what it has done in the past when charter operators moved to close their own schools. It would provide more money to district schools that enroll “a significant number” of additional students.

A third option would have the district absorb the seven Acero campuses slated for closure and reopen them as CPS schools in the 2026-27 school year. The union has previously asked the district to absorb the campuses.

This option “may provide the least amount of disruption to students and families,” the presentation said. The presentation noted that the district would have to take a number of steps to add the schools to CPS’ portfolio, including getting board approval and amending the capital budget, but that long-term costs “may not increase significantly.” Still, there would be costs associated with transitioning the schools from charters to district-run buildings, the presentation said.

The presentation also laid out the steps the district has taken since Acero announced the closures Oct. 9. City Hall officials have criticized how CPS leadership has monitored Acero and responded to the planned closures.

According to the presentation, between Oct. 11 and Nov. 1, the district met with the charter operator and requested more financial information. It also provided families with information on what to do next. The presentation noted that this was standard operating procedure, and the Board of Education did not ask the district to deviate from that until its Nov. 1 meeting, which followed weeks of upheaval, including the entire former Board of Education announcing its resignation Oct. 9.

Asked if the board was trying to block CPS CEO Pedro Martinez from presenting at the meeting, the mayor told reporters Thursday, “I’m not aware of this blockage that you’re speaking of, and there’s no particular directive outside of making sure that we invest in children,” according to a tweet from a Chicago Tribune reporter.

In an extraordinary moment before the board passed the resolution, board member Michilla Blaise criticized district leadership and thanked Acero families for raising their concerns about the closures. Caroline Rutherford, an Acero teacher who is currently on leave, asked CPS “to take action to keep our schools open” during the public comment portion.

“It seemed that CPS was kind of resigned to letting it go and giving up, and that based on your work and how your words touched us, we’re making sure we’re putting our feet down, and we’re going to stand with you in terms of at least exploring what the opportunities are,” Blaise said.

The board also sought to push the deadline for GoCPS — an application families use to get seats at a variety of schools, including charters and selective enrollment programs — to Dec. 15 to give affected families more time to choose a school for next year. District officials are expected to officially move back the date, a spokesperson said.

The district has already pushed the deadline back to Nov. 22.

Separately, the board also retained outside law firm Cozen O’Connor, which offers legal services for a wide range of subjects. District officials did not respond to questions about why the board decided to hire the firm.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Mayor Johnson calls for CPS to craft ‘contingency plan’ for planned Acero closures

2024-11-13T00:14:12+00:00

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Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday criticized Chicago Public Schools leadership in relation to a heated school closure proposal by the Acero charter school network and used the moment to call for greater accountability of charter schools.

Johnson, however, did not elaborate on what steps he would like to see the district take to prevent those closures. The Chicago Board of Education does not appear to have a legal path to stop the closures, according to its agreement with Acero.

While Johnson emphasized that he’s not saying CPS CEO Pedro Martinez did something wrong, he said the district needs to put together a “contingency plan” in response to the proposed Acero closures and that he and his team “haven’t seen that type of leadership” from the district.

The proposed Acero closures have added tension to the already tense relationship between Chicago Public Schools leadership and Johnson, who in September asked Martinez to resign. Martinez has refused to step down.

On Tuesday, Johnson also questioned how the Acero network — whose staff is unionized by the Chicago Teachers Union, a Johnson ally — reached its current financial situation just a year after CPS deemed it worthy of a three-year contract extension. The network has blamed the closures on a $40 million budget shortfall, Block Club Chicago reported.

“This is not about pointing the finger at someone doing something wrong — this is about how we course correct so families don’t lose out,” Johnson said.

Acero did not immediately responded to requests for comment.

In an email statement to Chalkbeat, a CPS spokesperson said the district is working with the charter network’s leadership to schedule a parent town hall, hold ongoing town hall meetings, and provide support for students.

According to the CPS spokesperson, when a charter decides to close, CPS implements internal procedures including contacting families to review options, such as neighborhood schools or schools with available seats, and providing financial support to district schools that could see an influx of students from the closed schools.

Last month, the Acero network announced that it was planning to close seven of its schools, or about half of those it operates, impacting about 2,000 students at those campuses. The network cited a $40 million budget shortfall. It’s unclear where students will enroll, but those students, like any Chicago resident, have the right to enroll in their neighborhood school.

As a charter school network, Acero is privately managed but publicly funded. It is allowed to operate 15 campuses, largely on the Southwest Side, based on conditions set out in a contract with Chicago Public Schools. Acero’s current contract was last renewed in July 2023 and runs through June 2026.

Acero’s contract allows the network to close schools but says the network must provide written notice to the district by Oct. 15, and that closures can’t happen before June 30 or the end of the school year — whichever happens last, “except in situations of an emergency where the health, safety or education of the Charter School’s students is at risk.”

CPS did not immediately say whether the network notified the district by Oct. 15. The news of the proposed closures became public Oct. 9 — which CPS CEO Martinez has said publicly is around the same time he found out.

Since the network’s announcement, Acero families and teachers have rallied against the closures and have aired their concerns with the Chicago Board of Education.

Union officials have asked the district to intervene or to absorb the campuses and keep them open for another school year. When the district declined to renew an agreement with Urban Prep charter schools in 2022, CPS officials promised to keep those schools open as district campuses. That ultimately did not happen and the two campuses remain open under an agreement with Urban Prep until June 2025.

CPS did not immediately respond to questions about the options it might be considering pursuing at this point.

The Chicago Board of Education plans to hold a special meeting Thursday during which it will vote on a resolution calling for Acero representatives to come before the board and discuss alternatives to the closures. The resolution also says that if Acero ultimately closes the seven campuses, it “shall return all unspent public funds and property,” and that the district should extend its deadline for GoCPS — the application Chicago families use to apply to various schools, including charters and selective enrollment campuses — until Dec. 15. That deadline has already been pushed back to Nov. 22.

Asked why the mayor is advocating so strongly for Acero given his past criticism of charter schools, Johnson said he doesn’t want “any family to endure that type of trauma” that comes along with school closings.

Still, Johnson invoked a long time position of his — that as privately-run entities, charter schools should get more accountability. CPS is already tasked with monitoring charter schools, setting out conditions in each operator’s contract, and deciding whether operators’ schools should be renewed.

“Part of what my task is to challenge CPS and its leadership to respond to charter operators who have these structural elements within their budgetary framework that are not sustainable long term, and that will require audits,” Johnson said. “It will require CPS digging in a little bit deeper to look at the trends that are happening.”

Tensions continue to build between Johnson, CPS

On Monday, mayor’s office staff, including Chief of Staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas, and two of the mayor’s closest allies — Alds. Carlos Ramirez Rosa and Byron Sigcho-Lopez — met with CPS staff, including Martinez, about the proposed Acero closures. Chicago Board of Education members Olga Bautista and Frank Niles Thomas were also present, according to a source with knowledge of the meeting, who was not authorized to speak to the press about private discussions.

It was a “contentious discussion,” in which mayoral staff questioned CPS leaders about when they discovered the proposed closures, whether it has combed through the charter network’s financial documents, and what CPS has been doing about the issue, the source said. Martinez said the district has engaged with Acero families and is thinking through best options, the source said.

“Pedro’s story stayed consistent with what he’s said privately and publicly: He found out when the district did around the same time they went public,” the source said.

In an interview with Chalkbeat, Sigcho-Lopez said the meeting left him “concerned with [Martinez’s] leadership style” and, like the mayor, wanting an audit of Acero’s finances.

“He had a lot of excuses, a lot of contradictions, but not a lot of answers in terms of actually what he is going to do to ensure that those 2,000 kids are not forced, you know, into a transition that is not in anyone’s interest,” Sigcho-Lopez said.

Pacione-Zayas told Chalkbeat that CPS officials were asked if the district had reached out to the Illinois State Board of Education for guidance and if the district had considered absorbing the campuses – including how it would affect their budget.

“None of that was prepared,” Pacione Zayas said. “All that was revealed to us was that they extended the GoCPS [application deadline] by seven days.”

Families use the district’s GoCPS application to apply to schools, including preschool programs, selective enrollment, and magnet schools.

CPS has reviewed the costs behind a number of scenarios, including absorbing the campuses, according to a CPS source who was not authorized to speak with the press. The source declined to elaborate whether it was a viable option and said they were unsure if City Hall was aware of the district’s analysis.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

How much has been spent on Chicago’s school board elections? Almost $7 million.

2024-10-31T12:31:39+00:00

Data analysis by Thomas Wilburn

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Chicago’s first school board elections are getting expensive, with nearly $4 million pouring directly into candidates’ coffers and almost $3 million spent separately by pro-school choice super PACs as of Oct. 28.

Super PACs, which face no contribution limits and are not allowed to coordinate with candidates, have sent direct mail, texts, and run political ads supporting seven school board candidates.

The Chicago Teachers Union and a number of groups allied with and funded by the union have spent at least $1.5 million directly on CTU-endorsed candidates, according to campaign finance disclosures.

In eight of the 10 school board races, the CTU-backed candidate has raised the most cash. CTU-endorsed Rev. Robert Jones, Felix Ponce, and Jason Dones top the list of candidates citywide who have received the most direct cash and in-kind contributions, with a quarter of a million dollars or more each, based on the most recent data reported to the Illinois Board of Elections.

The candidate with the most money so far, however, is Bruce Leon, who is self-funding his campaign and loaned himself $550,000.

As the pace of spending has picked up, so has the heat in a war of words between the teachers union and school choice proponents, who have decried greater scrutiny of charters, selective enrollment, and magnet programs in the city amid a push to revitalize neighborhood schools.

The union and its supporters held a Monday press conference in front of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools’ downtown offices, calling out large checks the network’s super PAC got from wealthy individuals outside of Illinois — including Netflix executive Reed Hastings, a major Democratic Party donor and charter school supporter — and vowed to push for legislation curbing such spending. Two other super PACs have spent money on Chicago’s school board races, Urban Center Action and Parents for Great Schools Illinois.

But some school board candidates have decried how CTU is spending money in the election. The union and allied groups, such as Chicago Working Families, have sent mailers presenting candidates they don’t support as puppets of former President Donald Trump and tying them to Project 2025, the conservative playbook on how to remake the federal government. The mailers have incensed candidates who say they are registered Democrats known for yearslong involvement in liberal causes.

The charter network shot back this week, arguing the union is borrowing from Trump’s playbook with a divisive effort to distribute “fake news.” The group said the union — in close alignment with a network of groups which it has helped fund — is spending big to cement its influence on the board.

Chicagoans will elect 10 school board members from 10 geographic districts this Nov. 5. Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former CTU employee and close union ally, will appoint 11 people to serve on a hybrid board for two years. In 2026, all 21 seats will be up for election.

In an interview with Chalkbeat, Hilario Dominguez, the union’s political coordinator, said the union has had to step up its spending to keep up with the influx of cash from the charter network and Urban Center, another pro-school choice group led by former UNO charter network CEO Juan Rangel and affiliated with former mayoral candidate Paul Vallas, who lost the 2023 mayoral race to Johnson.

“We’re being forced to spend because they are outraising us,” he said. “Our spending is in response to their war chest.”

CTU bankrolled effort that removed 12 candidates from ballot

The latest campaign spending disclosure data also offers the first clear evidence that the union paid several law firms to mount challenges to the ballot petitions of numerous candidates, successfully knocking 12 of them off the ballot this past summer.

The union paid a collective $40,000 to Stephen Fine, Mike Kreloff, and Sorling Northrup, the firm where Kevin Morphew is an attorney, according to campaign disclosures filed Oct. 15. Fine, Kreloff, Morphew, and one other attorney, Michael Kasper, were listed as representing people challenging 19 candidates.

The CTU also paid legal fees to Sorling Northrup on behalf of Dones and Jones, both of whom fought challenges to their own petitions.

The Illinois Network of Charter Schools has called the union’s spending to remove candidates from the ballot “hypocritical,” coming from an organization that has long advocated for turning decisions on who serves on the board over to Chicago residents.

Dominguez declined to comment on that spending but argued the issue is a distraction from the real problem with the board races: a massive influx in large donations from billionaires the CTU argues have little connection to local schools. The union says these donors have a shadowy, pro-Trump agenda to shutter public schools, expand charters, and boost private schools.

Andrew Broy, the head of the charter network, said claiming that candidates backed by the group are Trump supporters or pushing Project 2025 is “absurd.”

“If anyone is trying to buy the election, it’s the CTU,” he said.

Project 2025 mailers ignite misinformation charges

In the past month, Chicagoans’ mailboxes have been filled with mail from candidates running for school board — and from their opponents.

One paid for by the Chicago Teachers Union pictures a faceless puppet with the claim that “Donald Trump and out-of-state billionaires are pulling the strings” of certain candidates.

One of the candidates targeted by these mailers is District 2’s Leon, a retired human resource company executive whose campaign is entirely self-funded.

Campaign mail ad in Chicago.

Asked about evidence that the targeted school board candidates are connected to Trump, Dominguez at the CTU said the mailers are fair game. He noted that some contributors to the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, such as Arkansas-based Walmart heir Jim Walton, have supported efforts to elect Republicans in the past. Walton has given $738,000 to the charter group’s independent expenditure committee in 2024.

The Waltons have a varied track record of giving, with charter schools and environmental conservation among their top causes. (The Walton Family Foundation is a supporter of Chalkbeat.)

Dominguez also pointed to candidate endorsements by the right-leaning Illinois Policy Institute and, in a social media post the CTU has circulated, by the Chicago Republican Party. The Chicago Republican Party has said it is not endorsing any Chicago school board candidates and the post was not authorized by party leadership.

Still, Dominguez argues that some candidates’ pro-school choice message echoes the education policy proposals in Project 2025, which calls specifically for expanding tax-credit programs that allow families to send their children to private schools, like one that sunset in Illinois last year.

Carlos Rivas, a candidate in District 3, said the CTU-funded fliers targeting him — a lifelong registered Democrat who said he already cast a vote for Vice President Kamala Harris — are “shameful.”

“I am a gay Latino man who grew up in poverty, and I am being called a Trump puppet,” he said. “It’s sad how much money is being spent on these ads.”

Rivas raised about $60,000 as of Oct. 28, with about half coming from Jim Frank, an automotive fleet leasing executive who has also donated to the charter school network’s political fund. Most of Rivas’ remaining donations are less than $1,000 from individuals, including $250 from Miguel del Valle, the former Democratic state legislator and school board president.

Rivas’ opponent, Dones, has received more than $250,000 in donations and in-kind support from the CTU’s two PACs and union allies United Working Families and Grassroots PAC. He said the recent influx of money came after spending by the charter network’s super PAC in support of his opponent led to the lifting of a state campaign contribution cap.

But the totals do not include roughly $280,000 spent in the District 3 race by the two pro-school choice super PACs in support of Rivas. Rivas, a former CPS teacher, said he doesn’t control or coordinate with the charter network on its spending backing his campaign. He said he is a strong proponent of strengthening neighborhood schools — while maintaining selective enrollment and other options.

“I am someone who does believe in protecting choices for families, and that doesn’t mean just charters,” he said.

Dones said he is proud that the CTU, SEIU, which represents some support staff in CPS, and other unions rallied to keep his campaign viable. He said his candidacy has come under attack as well, in the form of text messages that said he would do the bidding of Mayor Johnson if elected to the board.

“I’m running in a district where the line is so clear,” Dones said. “Against me is someone almost entirely funded by people who support privatizing schools.”

Asked about his stance on private school vouchers, Rivas said his focus is on equitable funding for CPS.

Matt Dietrich, a spokesman for the Illinois Board of Elections, said his agency does not get involved in evaluating the veracity of political advertising. It only investigates campaign finance violations when people file complaints. He said no formal complaints have yet been filed in the Chicago school board elections.

The elections board, however, has reached out to the CTU to ask how its two separate political action committees are different; state rules do not allow separate PACs for the same purpose.

Candidates running for office in Illinois are bound by limits on how much they can raise, such as $6,900 from an individual contributor, or $68,500 from a political action committee. But as soon as the spending by super PACs, which face no such limits, exceeds $100,000 in a certain district, the caps for all candidates in that district are lifted. Those caps have since been lifted in all but one of Chicago’s school board districts.

Teachers union wants limits to out-of-state spending on school board races

At Monday’s downtown press conference, the union and its allies doubled down on ringing the alarm on charter advocates’ spending, which they described as a bid by billionaires to “buy” seats on the school board.

State lawmakers, such as Sen. Robert Martwick, one of the architects of a 2021 law that cleared the way for an elected school board in Chicago, vowed to take action to limit such spending in future elections. They did not share a specific bill but suggested legislation could be modeled on cities where local candidates only receive a set amount of taxpayer funding to campaign — or could take the form of limiting contributions from non-Illinois residents and requiring candidates to disclose their top five donors on all materials.

“This type of money pouring in our school board elections is shameful. What are they trying to do? What are they trying to buy?” said state Rep. Lilian Jiménez.

Several CTU-endorsed school board candidates also attended the event.

“CPS ain’t for sale today, tomorrow, and not forever,” said Jones, a school board candidate in District 10.

Campaign finance filings show Jones has raked in more than $300,000 in donations and in-kind contributions, primarily from the CTU — the most of any candidate in District 10. However, the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and Urban Center superPACs spent $250,000 to support another District 10 candidate, Karin Norington-Reaves.

Jones told Chalkbeat the influx of financial support has allowed him to send mailers and hand out fliers with the help of some 40 volunteers he said his campaign has enlisted.

Norington-Reaves was targeted with a CTU-funded flier linking her to Trump. She said the mailer was “gross” and disturbing in a highly polarized and volatile political climate in the days leading up to the presidential election.

“I am a lifelong Democrat,” she said. “I have never pulled a Republican ballot in my life, and the worst part is the CTU knows that.”

She said she is pushing back on the negative ads in community forums, on social media, and via phone-banking and door-knocking. Norington-Reaves, a nonprofit CEO, said that after decades working in public service, her campaign has drawn varied support, including from an “anti-CTU coalition” concerned about the union’s influence expanding beyond the mayor’s office.

“I have a very large network,” she said. “The people who are supporting me are doing so because of who I am.”

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Pro-school choice super PACs nearly double the money spent so far in Chicago’s first school board elections

2024-10-02T22:36:38+00:00

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The super PAC of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools poured more than half a million dollars into Chicago’s school board elections in the past week, nearly doubling the total money flowing into these historic races so far.

The influx of cash also lifted the limits on campaign contributions to candidates in certain districts, according to state campaign finance reports.

In what the charter advocacy group has described as an effort to counter the influence of the Chicago Teachers Union and a shift away from school choice in Chicago, the money will pay for digital ads and mailers supporting seven candidates and opposing one. In all, 35 people are running across 10 electoral districts in the Nov. 5 school board election, Chicago’s first after decades of mayor-appointed boards.

The nearly $557,000 spent by INCS Action Independent Expenditure Committee is a significant amount in the city’s historic school board elections, which as of mid-September had seen more than $650,000 flow into campaign coffers of candidates.

The wave of expenditures puts the charter advocacy group at the top of all special interest groups spending in Chicago’s first school board elections — more than double the $238,000 spent by the political action committees of the Chicago Teachers Union and a CTU-led coalition of community organizations.

The union was quick to take aim at the spending, which it described as an effort by rich out-of-towners to buy board seats. Hilario Dominguez, a political coordinator for the union, said the influx of dollars from the charter group was not surprising.

“We anticipated that we were going to be outspent by charter school groups as well as billionaires, minimum of three to one,” Dominguez said.

Andrew Broy, the executive director of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, said the group is backing candidates who are supportive of charter schools, school choice, and fiscal stability in the district — and who have a likely path to victory in November. The group’s independent expenditures committee, which is fueled mostly by large donations from a handful of billionaires, will report another significant spend in the coming week, he said, though the amount and beneficiaries have not been finalized.

“The question is do these candidates running for school board support the concept that parents should have a choice of where to send their kids to school,” he said.

In recent years, school board races in cities such as Denver, where $1.9 million was raised for three open seats in 2023, and Los Angeles have seen special interest groups pump significant dollar amounts to influence the outcomes, with national teachers unions going against supporters of charter schools and school choice.

In addition to the 10 candidates Chicago voters will elect this fall, the mayor will appoint another 11, as part of a transition to a fully elected school board by 2026.

Latest spending does away with campaign cash caps

Candidates running for office in Illinois are bound by Illinois State Board of Elections limits on how much they can raise, such as $6,900 from an individual contributor, $13,700 from a corporation or a labor union, and $68,500 from another candidate for office or political action committee.

However, so-called super PACs, such as the charter network’s independent expenditure committee, face no limits on how much they can raise and spend in a race in support or opposition of candidates, as long as they are not coordinating this spending with candidates’ own campaigns. And as soon as the collective spending of these super PACs exceeds $100,000 — either to back or oppose a candidate in a certain district — the campaign contribution caps for all candidates in that district are lifted.

“To make it a fair playing field, limits are lifted so that candidates who are not supported by that particular spending can raise any amount as well,” said Matt Dietrich, a spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Elections.

Though the INCS Independent Expenditure Committee cannot legally coordinate with candidates, it will spend the following amounts to support or oppose the following candidates:

$40,000 for digital media supporting Michelle Pierre, District 1
$60,000 for digital media and $30,990 for mailers supporting Carlos Rivas Jr., District 3
$30,000 for digital media opposing Karen Zaccor, District 4
$40,000 for digital media and $36,416 for mailers supporting Andre Smith, District 6
$30,000 for digital media and $22,326 for mailers supporting Eva Villalobos, District 7
$40,000 for digital media and $27,290 for mailers supporting Angel Gutierrez, District 8
$60,000 for digital media and $41,484 for mailers supporting Miquel Lewis, District 9
$60,000 for digital media and $38,468 for mailers supporting Karin Norington-Reaves, District 10

This spending resulted in lifting campaign contribution caps in Districts 3, 9, and 10. In some cases, such as District 10, the total spending from the charter network’s super PAC did not exceed $100,000, but it did once added together with another super PAC.

The other super PAC spending in Chicago school board races is Urban Center Action. It is run by Juan Rangel, the former head of the UNO charter network, now named Acero, and a former strategy director with Empower Illinois, one of the state’s top scholarship-granting organizations under the now-sunset tax-credit scholarship program. It is also affiliated with Paul Vallas, the former Chicago Public Schools CEO who lost the 2023 Chicago mayoral race to Johnson.

Urban Center also has a political action committee it created in April that has contributed to at least one school board candidate directly – Eva Villalobos. In all, the two committees have spent $123,000 on Chicago school board races since June.

The Illinois Network of Charter Schools’ super PAC reported $2.8 million in its coffers as of June 30. Since then, three billionaires donated six-figure sums: Helen Zell, wife of real estate tycoon and former Tribune Media owner Sam Zell, gave $500,000 in early September, while Netflix co-founder and chairman Reed Hastings and private investor Craig Duchossois each gave $100,000 in July and September, respectively. Previous donors to INCS Super PAC include former Wheels Inc. CEO James S. Franks and billionaire Jim Walton, the youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton.

Candidates weigh in on charter advocate spending

In addition to spending to support candidates in most school board districts, the Illinois Network of Charter Schools’ super PAC also spent to oppose one would-be board member: former teacher Karen Zaccor, the CTU-backed candidate in District 4.

“The fact that they are targeting the one retired teacher is, I think, just another indication of their agenda to destroy public unions in schools and push the privatization agenda.” Dominguez, with the CTU, said.

Broy of the charter network declined to discuss the group’s campaign strategy, but said it has spent in opposition of candidates to help its preferred contenders in political races before.

Angel Gutierrez, the INCS-backed candidate in District 8, said the idea that he is part of a scheme to privatize schools in Chicago is untrue. He said he has vowed to respect two moratoriums currently in place in the city: one the school board approved last month against closing any schools for four years and another against opening new charter campuses, which are public schools managed by private entities.

He said the CTU’s own candidates are receiving financial, in-kind, and volunteer support — and argued he is a pro-labor candidate who believes the city should keep investing in high-performing magnet, selective enrollment, and charter schools.

“The CTU is really nervous because you are starting to see a coalition coalesce — people who don’t always see eye to eye politically, but who love this city and are adamant that the CTU and their mayor don’t gain any more power,” Gutierrez said. “The CTU is trying to hire their next boss so that the board will give them anything they want, no questions asked.”

Like Gutierrez, two other INCS-backed candidates – Carlos Rivas and Miguel Lewis – said in separate statements they did not know much about the spending on their behalf and the upcoming ads and mailers supporting them. They both said they are concerned about limits on school choice and the possibility of taking out a short-term loan to close the district’s budget deficit under Johnson.

“The mayor and his candidates are trying to limit educational opportunities for kids that look like us and bankrupt their future with high-interest loans,” Rivas said in his statement.

Zaccor, the District 4 candidate the charter network is spending to oppose, said she was not surprised by these expenditures. She said her priority as a candidate is advocating for under-resourced neighborhood schools, campuses she said lost students and funding amid the city’s charter school expansion in the 2000s. She said she hasn’t yet seen any ads or mailers opposing her campaign, but she stressed she is against closing any schools, including any charters.

“I am the one candidate in this district that’s clearly standing up for public education and clearly opposes privatization,” she said. “They are working to buy seats while we’re working with grassroots groups.”

Candidates and political action committees are due to report all money raised and spent between June 30 and Sept. 30 by Oct. 15

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Explaining Chicago Public Schools: The types of schools

2024-09-18T10:00:02+00:00

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In Chicago, all children are guaranteed a spot in their zoned neighborhood school.

But Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s fourth largest district, also offers other choices, such as magnets, charters, and selective enrollment schools — and leaving your neighborhood to attend school has increasingly become the norm.

Explaining CPS

Roughly 44% of elementary school students enrolled at a school other than the one they were zoned for in the 2022-23 school year, while about 75% of high schoolers did the same, according to district data.

Twenty years ago, shortly after Chicago rapidly expanded school choice, only about a quarter of elementary school students enrolled in schools outside of their attendance area and 46% of high schoolers did the same.

The current appointed Chicago Board of Education — which will be replaced in January by a hybrid board made up of elected and appointed members — now wants to increase the percentage of students who go to school close to home. This new stated goal comes after the board expressed a desire last December to rethink the district’s school choice system. Board members said they want to invest more resources in neighborhood schools while also improving racial disparities at some of the district’s most sought-after schools that require applications and testing to get in.

Elected school board members will represent a varying number of different types of schools in their districts. Some have more magnet and selective schools than others, while others have a large percentage of charter schools.

Decades of policies approved by past school boards have created a school system where most students can and do attend beyond their zoned school, known more generally as school choice. District leaders, the school board, and even federal courts have also overseen the rules that govern who goes to which schools.

Today, Chicago families have a lot of options when it comes to public education: magnet schools, language academies, public Montessori, gifted centers, STEM schools, International Baccalaureate programs, and more. Students apply for different schools using an online system called GoCPS.

While hundreds of schools across the city enroll students based on where they live, dozens of schools and programs – such as the district’s 11 selective enrollment high schools – require students to take tests and meet other requirements for admission.

CPS also offers magnet programs, which often have a specialized curriculum and require an application, offering seats based on a lottery system. And then there are Chicago’s roughly 120 charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately managed and operate on contractual agreements with CPS. Charters also require an application to get in and also admit students by lottery.

The variety of options allows families to find the best fit for their child, but can be dizzying to navigate and has been criticized for being stressful and cumbersome.

Desegregation order paves the way for school choice

Chicago began offering public education in the 1840s, shortly after it became an official city, at just a few schools. The district officially established a board of education in the 1850s, and student enrollment rapidly grew as the city’s population ballooned.

By the 1960s, Chicago’s public schools were starkly racially segregated, due in part to racist housing policies that prevented Black families from finding housing in neighborhoods where white families lived. On the city’s South and West sides, schools serving mostly Black students were overcrowded and had fewer resources than schools in more affluent, white areas.

Families and civil rights activists protested segregation, even organizing a massive school walkout in 1963. The district’s superintendent at the time, James Redmond, attempted to spur integration by opening magnet programs.

By 1980, the federal government intervened and forced Chicago to sign a consent decree that required CPS to integrate its schools. Though some magnet and selective schools already existed, the federal court oversight prompted the district to create more. These schools were open to students from across the city and the district created racial quotas for schools in order to desegregate them.

Selective enrollment schools grew in the 1990s under then-CEO Paul Vallas, who more recently ran for mayor against current Mayor Brandon Johnson.

With the city’s pleading, a federal court ended the consent decree in 2009. The district replaced its racial quota system with a tier system, which assigns students a tier based on where they live using socioeconomic data about their neighborhood, including income, education levels, how many single-parent households there are, how many homes are owner-occupied, and how many households speak a language other than English. The district then prioritizes seats at selective schools, in part, based on each student’s tier. A decade after the consent decree ended, many of these selective schools had become more racially homogenous.

Today, school board policy stipulates that the first 30% of seats at selective enrollment schools go to kids with the highest scores on the High School Admissions Test. The rest of the seats are split up among those who scored the highest across each of the four tiers. Magnets, which do not require a test, split their seats across the four tiers.

School choice accelerates under education reform plan

In 2004, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley announced an ambitious plan to open 100 new schools under an effort to provide better school options. He called it Renaissance 2010.

As part of that initiative, the district began opening more charter schools, which were authorized by state law in 1997. The board approves contractual agreements with charter schools.

But in recent years, as district leaders have more closely scrutinized charter schools, boards under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Johnson have approved shorter terms for charters. For example, in January, the board renewed contracts for a majority of charters that were up for renewal by three or four years, even though state law allows extensions for up to 10 years.

Most of the schools that opened under Renaissance 2010 did not have neighborhood attendance boundaries and many had specialized academic programs.

Daley’s massive school reform effort came hand-in-hand with school closings. Annually, district officials would target schools with poor academic performance or under enrollment for closure.

Over the course of almost two decades, the appointed school board approved roughly 200 school closings, including 50 under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2013, as it expanded the district’s market-based system of choice with specialty schools that families could choose over their zoned school.

Today’s leaders are pushing back on choice

Many of the magnet and selective enrollment schools meant to help desegregate the district never became integrated. Some have also become more segregated since federal court oversight ended.

Others are racially and economically integrated, but serve more white and Asian American students than the district as a whole and have been enrolling fewer Black students than in the past.

Additionally, families have for years said the high-stakes process of testing and applying to high school is stressful for their children.

On the campaign trail, Johnson promised to bolster neighborhood schools and make them places families want to enroll their children in.

In December, his appointed board promised to rethink school choice, signaling potential changes to admissions or other policies governing those schools. However, in its recently released strategic plan, the board did not call for any such policy changes. It did set goals to invest more resources in neighborhood schools and grow the percentage of children attending schools within their neighborhoods or community areas.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org

Noble Street College Prep heads back to school — 25 years after first opening its doors

2024-08-23T21:08:26+00:00

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As Brenda Cora weaved around noisy teenagers who filled the cafeteria of Noble Street College Prep on the first day of classes for the charter school network, she thought back to her time as a student. Twenty-five years ago, she had three different classes in the space: science, math, and advisory.

“This was my advisory classroom,” she said, pointing to a storage room now stocked with food and three large refrigerators off the main room of Burnside Hall.

That was in 1999 and Cora, now Noble’s chief of schools, was one of around 100 freshmen attending what was then an entirely new school still under construction when the school year began.

The previous year — in April 1998 — Chicago’s Board of Education gave two Chicago Public Schools high school teachers and the Northwestern Settlement House permission to open Noble Street College Prep in the city’s West Town neighborhood as one of the district’s first charter schools.

At the time, these privately-managed, publicly-funded schools were a new concept, created by Illinois law in 1997. The idea — which emerged out of the progressive movement and was popularized by Albert Shanker, the former president of the American Federation of Teachers — was to create schools free from bureaucracy and certain regulations to experiment and innovate.

Cora heard about Noble when she was attending Ames Middle School in Avondale, now a military high school. Knowing she wanted to go to college, she applied and went to Noble’s auditorium where she waited to find out if she got a spot through the lottery admissions.

“I do remember there was one of those bingo rollers, where they were pulling out names,” Cora said. “I was just paying attention to whether or not I was going to be able to get into the school that I really wanted to attend.”

Noble Street College Prep school on the first day of classes on Fri., Aug. 23, 2024.

Throughout the 2000s, CPS greatly expanded charter schools, including Noble, which now operates 17 high school campuses and one middle school serving more than 12,300 students. The network has evolved over the past 25 years. After the resignation of co-founder Michael Milkie in 2018, the network moved away from a “no excuses” approach to discipline, loosened its dress code policy, and adopted a more transparent pay scale with higher pay for experienced teachers.

There’s no more bingo roller for lottery admissions either. Now, all CPS eighth graders use a centralized application to get into high school.

Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Teachers Union have criticized the district’s system of school choice, in which families can leave their assigned neighborhood school to attend a wide array of selective, magnet, and charter schools, for creating “a Hunger Games scenario” for students. Chicago’s Board of Education is reevaluating how school choice works and is expected to share more details in a forthcoming strategic plan.

That looming debate over policy was a world away on Friday, as the cafeteria of Noble’s original campus, dubbed “The OC” by staff and students, buzzed with first-day energy. A group of seniors sitting at a table under an ornate chandelier reflected on why they chose Noble.

“I chose Noble because it prepares you for college,” said senior Lianisse Rodriguez, who hopes to attend Arizona State University next fall. “My sisters went here. They told me it was a good school, and when they went to college it prepared them.”

Senior Mileani Solis, the youngest of 10 children, said she also chose Noble because her siblings attended the school and one now works there.

“I chose Noble because my sister came here,” said senior Ethan Del Valle. “I know that they will get me college ready for when I need it, because I have big aspirations. My dream school is M.I.T.”

These students remind Cora of her younger self. She graduated from Noble in 2003. As a member of the first graduating class, Cora worried that she might not get accepted to college because admissions officers might not know about her newly-created high school.

Brenda Cora stands in the hallway of Noble Street College Prep school on the first day of school on Fri., Aug. 23, 2024. Cora was in Noble's first graduating class in 2003 and now works for the charter school network as chief of schools.

“What if they don’t accept me because they don’t know about Noble? What if this portfolio doesn’t really mean anything to the colleges across the nation?” she remembered thinking.

But that was not the case. Cora went to Grinnell College in Iowa and returned to work at a new Noble campus, Rowe-Clark Math & Science Academy, as dean of students in 2007. Now, as chief of schools, she oversees six campuses, including Rowe-Clark, where she served as principal for six years.

There are about 28,700 Noble alumni, 5,000 of whom have earned their bachelor’s degrees, according to Noble spokesperson David Brown. Thousands more are actively pursuing degrees.

Ellen Metz, Noble’s head of schools, said getting students to and through college is still the charter network’s main focus, despite strong headwinds making it a tougher sell for many families, including rising costs, the end of affirmative action, and troubles with the FAFSA.

“We believe that our students deserve college for all the things that college provides whether it’s social mobility, whether it’s longer life expectancy, whether it’s the likelihood that a college graduate will participate in democracy, to just those years in college that hopefully provide an opportunity to explore one’s own identity,” Metz said.

Metz served as the principal of the original Noble Street College Prep from 2014 to 2019. As she walked the halls Friday, she greeted and hugged dozens of teachers, many who were entering their 10th, 18th, even 20th year teaching at the school.

Metz acknowledged there have been “really dire errors that were rooted in structural racism” that led to many neighborhood schools not being funded properly. But she added it’s not possible “to go back and fix history.”

As part of the renewal process for charter schools, the Chicago Board of Education recently renewed Noble to operate another five years.

“We’ve got to move forward,” Metz said Friday, adding that she hopes Noble will continue to work in partnership with CPS for at least another 25 years to come.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

On the cusp of Chicago’s strategic plan release, charter schools demand more details

2024-08-14T20:48:32+00:00

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Charter school officials and families rallied Wednesday to press the Chicago Board of Education for more clarity on their campuses’ prospects as the district is poised to shift away from school choice with the upcoming release of a new strategic plan.

About two dozen parents and staffers dressed in T-shirts for the Noble, Acero, and CICS charter networks and other schools joined a protest before the board’s meeting to review the agenda for its Aug. 29 meeting.

Kobey Lofton, a graduate and employee of North Lawndale College Prep, led the group through chants of “Our children, our choice/ Don’t silence our voice,” and “Hey, hey, he, he, charter schools are best for me.” Lofton later told the board that participating in that charter school’s lauded Peace Warrior violence prevention program built his leadership skills, while its scholarship program sent him to National Louis University on a free ride.

The district is gearing up to put out a five-year strategic plan — one its leaders have signaled will aim to revitalize district-run neighborhood schools and rein in a choice system that officials say has undermined those campuses.

In December, the school board backed a resolution spelling out its intent of breaking with choice and privatization. Charter advocates read privatization as code for charter schools, which are public campuses run by private entities. They have demanded reassurance from the district and the board that the plan won’t be an assault on charters.

District officials have stayed mum on details of the plan, which also has caused some anxiety among families at district-run magnet and selective enrollment schools. Officials have said they wanted to first gather community feedback at a series of public meetings and in other settings this past spring.

“This silence is not just an oversight,” said Constance Jones, the CEO of the Noble Schools network. “It’s a deliberate attempt to dismantle school choice in Chicago.”

After roughly a dozen parents and officials addressed the board later Wednesday morning, member Elizabeth Todd-Breland said she appreciated families’ advocacy. She said charter parents were heard during strategic plan community meetings; some had a chance to speak with Alfonso Carmona, the district’s chief portfolio officer and point person on charters, at a meeting Todd-Breland attended in the spring. The district is still putting the finishing touches to the plan before its release, she said.

“Certainly we will let everyone know when that happens as it will be forthcoming,” she said.

After rapid growth in charter campuses during the 2010s, Chicago has largely lost its appetite for charter expansion in recent years and has placed these schools under growing scrutiny. The district has added requirements to its process for renewing charters and opted for much shorter renewals.

District leaders have said this approach is a key course correction, bringing greater accountability for charters and ensuring they are managing their finances well and addressing issues such as excessive student discipline. Charters were created to provide distinctive, academically rigorous options to families, Todd-Breland has said, and if they are not doing that, they shouldn’t exist and siphon students and funding from traditional schools.

Chicago charter schools serve about 55,000 students, or about a fifth of all students in the district. Their student bodies are predominantly Black and Latino and low-income.

Charter advocates have argued that the charter renewal process has become too cumbersome, and detracts time and energy from serving students. Addressing the board on Wednesday, Jones said “excessively short” renewals of almost 50 charter campuses in January sent an unsettling message, “essentially telling parents their schools are temporary.”

Myisha Shields, the parent of a Catalyst Maria charter student, said she credits the school with helping propel her four older daughters to college.

“You all say you support neighborhood schools,” she told the board. “Well, look around you. Charters are neighborhood schools.”

Allison Jack of the advocacy group Illinois Network of Charter Schools, which organized the protest, said the charter community is nervous that there won’t be much time to review and offer input on the strategic plan before the school board votes on it.

She said families are eager to see a plan that clearly spells out the district’s goals, funding, and other support for charters in the next five years. The group and others have demanded written responses to questions about the role of charters in the strategic plan.

“It’s been radio silence since the resolution they put out,” she said.

The district said in a statement that its leaders are listening closely to charter officials and families, and are putting students’ interests first in the charter renewal process.

“The District’s Strategic Plan outlines a commitment to schools — including selective enrollment, magnet, and charter schools — where access to a wide range of high-quality options for families are continually offered,” the district’s statement said.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

CPS won’t guarantee busing for general education students this school year – but is piloting new strategies

2024-07-25T22:10:02+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools won’t guarantee busing for general education students next school year, but officials are trying two new strategies to help more kids get to school.

Those strategies, officials said Thursday, include plans to adjust bell times at 36 district schools and piloting a program where buses pick students up at “hubs,” officials said.

The efforts are meant to help free up more buses to serve more students after the district cut service last year for about 5,500 general education students who were largely attending selective enrollment and magnet schools.

The district’s decision resulted in a constant drumbeat of criticism over the last school year from families who had lost busing. The policy even led some families to transfer out of their school.

CPS officials cited a bus driver shortage when it decided to only bus students with disabilities and those who are homeless, groups entitled to transportation under federal law. But CPS had been working to comply with a state corrective action plan imposed in 2022 that called for shorter bus rides for students with disabilities. The state closed that corrective action plan in April.

The district’s bus vendors transported just over 9,300 students last school year, with most of them students with disabilities. Another 3,600 students received a stipend to cover transportation costs. The district budgeted $146.3 million for student transportation last fiscal year, which ended on July 1, according to budget records.

CPS announced Thursday it will still offer stipends of up to $500 to students with disabilities who are eligible for transportation, but will now limit these to students who live at least five miles away from their schools. Officials said they made the change to save money and get more of these students on bus routes.

Charles Mayfield, the district’s chief operating officer, said the district is forecasting to enroll more students with disabilities next school year, which starts Aug. 26. CPS said the district intends to provide bus routes to all students with disabilities whose Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, or 504 plans call for busing, as well as students who are homeless who qualify for busing before launching the new efforts for general education students.

Last year, about 1,900 general education students who were previously eligible for busing also received Ventra cards upon request.

The bell time adjustments will allow bus vendors to cover more routes and increase the number of students they carry, according to CPS. For example, a bus could drop off kids at a school where the start time is 7:30 a.m., then pick up and drop off students to a school that starts at 8:45 a.m., a district official told the board.

The timeline for the “hub stop” pilot program was less certain. Officials said they hope to launch it during the first quarter of the school year. Under the model, students would get on buses to their school from another school. It was unclear how close these hubs would be to students’ homes.

Once the hub pilot program starts, students in “underserved communities” will be given initial access to the hubs, officials said.

It is “the district’s goal” to provide access to the hub stops to “all general education students who are eligible,” said Mary Ann Fergus, CPS spokesperson, in a statement.

Natasha Haque, a leader in the CPS Parents for Buses group, said parents are thrilled that the district will at least try to provide rides for general education students though families still face uncertainty weeks before the school year’s start. The group, which formed last year to advocate for more transportation options, had pushed for the idea of hubs as a way to make school bus routes more efficient.

“This is a vastly different message from CPS,” Haque said. “They are trying to fill all those empty seats on school buses, which they refused to do last year.”

Haque’s husband drove their sixth grade daughter from their Lincoln Park home to her gifted program on the South Side last school year, picking up another student bound for the same school on the way and logging as much as three-and-a-half hours on that commute every day. The husband, who works multiple jobs, had to adjust his work schedule to make the trips possible.

This fall, Haque’s daughter will start seventh grade on a campus much closer to their home, largely because of how tough commuting to school was on the family.

“It was a real struggle last year, with families taking many different modes of transportation,” she said.

Over the course of last year, the district said it held multiple hiring fairs and increased driver pay to attract more drivers, but saw little movement with those efforts.

“It is too early to say how one strategy, such as adjusting bell times or establishing the hub stops, will increase student bus riders as it is contingent on other factors, including the hiring of sufficient drivers,” said Fergus in a statement.

Mila Koumpilova contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s Noble Schools CEO Constance Jones stepping down after six years

2024-07-19T19:35:00+00:00

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The head of Chicago’s largest high school charter network is stepping down after six years on the job.

Noble Schools CEO Constance Jones announced in an email to staff and families that she will “pass the torch to a new leader” and work with the network’s board and an outside consultant to find a new CEO.

In a statement, Jones said she is focused on the start of the school year and plans on staying and overlapping with the new CEO “for several months to support a smooth transition during the year ahead.”

“Noble is in strong and stable shape, both organizationally and financially, and recently secured the longest charter renewal term granted by Chicago Public Schools,” Jones wrote in a statement.

Noble opened its first campus in 1999 and now serves more than 12,000 students across 18 campuses.

Jones took the role in 2018 after the sudden resignation of Noble’s CEO and founder Michael Milkie amid concerns over an alleged “pattern of inappropriate behavior with alumni.” At the time Jones took over, Noble staff was also considering unionization, which ultimately didn’t happen.

As the first woman and first Black person to hold the position, Jones led the organization through a series of policy changes impacting Noble’s mostly Black and Latino students, including the relaxing of the network’s once-stringent dress code and a shift away from a “no-excuses” approach to discipline in 2020 amid a broader racial reckoning following the police killing of George Floyd.

Noble CEO Constance Jones stands in front of a window at the network’s downtown office.

The Noble Schools network has had a reputation for strong academics and a college-going culture. In her email, Jones said the network’s recent graduating class received 17,000 college offers, including from Yale, Brown, Howard, and Stanford Universities. The network enrolled more than 2,800 seniors last school year, according to district enrollment data.

Charter schools are publicly-funded, but privately-operated and go through an authorization process with the Chicago Board of Education. Chicago opened and expanded charters throughout the 2000s, but a moratorium on new charters was put in place in 2016 amid declining student enrollment and overall drops in Chicago’s child population.

Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s appointed school board increased scrutiny of existing charter schools. Mayor Brandon Johnson, who was a former Chicago Teachers Union organizer, opposed charter school expansion and has said he would like to move away from a competitive school choice system.

Despite shifting political winds, Jones has been a vocal advocate for school choice and charters. She was recently selected for an Eisenhower Fellowship, for which she plans to travel to Ghana and Brazil to study community engagement and violence prevention.

Before joining Noble in 2014, Jones was the national development director at KIPP, a network of public charter schools.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Union members assail Chicago Public Schools budget plan ahead of board vote

2024-07-17T21:37:04+00:00

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Tensions are flaring over the approval of Chicago Public Schools’ $9.9 billion budget, with a looming school board vote on it next week.

The district held public hearings on the budget proposal at Jones College Prep High School on Tuesday amid unusual uncertainty over its prospects. Mayor Brandon Johnson has said he does not support the proposal, which includes some cuts to central office staff and other expenditures to close a $505 million deficit.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Teachers Union, which helped elect Johnson last year, has lambasted the budget since it was unveiled last week, and its members packed Tuesday’s hearing to demand that the district spend more to improve schools, rather than cut back.

The mayor-appointed school board is slated to vote on the budget a month later than usual. Notably, the proposal does not factor in raises for educators. The district is negotiating new contracts with its teachers and principals unions, and officials noted that the budget would need to be revised to account for the cost of these contracts once they are settled.

An internal CPS memo Chalkbeat obtained last week shows that Johnson pressed the board to cover those costs by borrowing money through what would likely be a high interest, short-term loan. But the board and district leaders pushed back, multiple sources said. The memo, prepared by district staff, argued that taking out a short-term loan would add to the district’s already significant debt burden, potentially weaken the district’s already poor bond rating, and merely defer its fiscal problems until next year.

Earlier on Tuesday, the teachers union also held an event calling on state lawmakers and Gov. J.B. Pritzker to provide more funding for Chicago schools. That followed a spring trip to Springfield by Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez and union leaders, who tried to make a joint case for more dollars. During that trip, they noted that though the state has markedly boosted funding for the district in recent years, CPS is still about $1 billion short of what would be considered adequate under Illinois’ own formula. But lawmakers granted only a fraction of the district’s request during the session they wrapped up in June.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Jackson Potter, the teachers union vice president, argued the district must budget more money as it steps up efforts to lobby state and federal officials for more funding, including during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August. He said Chicago needs to invest more in schools so it can “get away from a choice district” and reinvigorate neighborhood schools.

“We won’t accept austerity when we need expansive, bold fiduciary advocacy,” he said.

Pavlyn Jankov, another union official, suggested the district should also push for higher taxes for corporations and high earners in the city, acknowledging that raising property taxes now would be a “political flashpoint.”

Jianan Shi, the school board president, said board members are aligned with the mayor’s push for more school funding, nodding to financial pressures that the city and state also face.

“That’s not just Mayor Johnson’s north star,” he said. “It’s all of our north star.”

On Wednesday, during a meeting for the board to review its agenda for next week, neither Shi nor other board members made any comments or asked any questions about the budget. A second budget hearing is scheduled at Jones College Prep at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

At Tuesday’s hearing, more than a dozen union members addressed the board to demand that the district back union proposals for smaller class sizes, a librarian in every school, more special education support staff, updated curriculums, substitute-teacher pay increases, and other investments.

Some members decried the layoffs this spring of teaching assistants and other support staff. The district has committed to reassigning those employees to other schools or covering their salaries for the coming school year, but the union argues that the process is nevertheless disruptive for students.

Several charter leaders also addressed the board, requesting that it increase their schools’ budgets. They said that as with district-run schools, their communities are seeing an influx of English learners and other students with high needs. Overall funding for charters is up slightly, but many campuses with declining enrollment will experience steep cuts.

“Charter schools are part of the CPS portfolio and deserve to be funded equitably,” said Joanne Tanner, CEO of Civitas Education Partners, which runs the CICS charter network.

Martinez’ budget proposal includes more money for district-run campuses, extending a period of adding school staff and other spending powered by federal COVID relief dollars since the start of the pandemic. The district said a proposed $149 million increase in funding for schools is largely driven by increased services for students with disabilities, as well as modest boosts for charter schools and bilingual services.

The district is spending the final $233 million of its $2.8 billion in pandemic recovery funds this fiscal year. It is adding about 800 school-based positions — including 500 teachers — while eliminating about 40 central office and citywide support positions and freezing 200 vacant jobs in its district office.

“Despite some of our budget pressures, we are still investing in people,” the district’s chief budget officer, Michael Sitkowski, said at the Tuesday hearing. “That’s what drives our success.”

Overall, this year’s budget is slightly larger than last year’s because of an increase in capital spending, which comes after the district froze most projects and repairs last year to craft a longer-term blueprint for facility spending.

Reema Amin contributed to this report.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Amid anxiety about Chicago charters’ fate, CPS proposes a slight overall budget boost

2024-07-15T11:00:00+00:00

Data analysis by Thomas Wilburn

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Melina Pereyra, a mom at the Acero charter network’s Cisneros campus, heard earlier this summer that her child’s Southwest Side school might cut staff.

She’d heard talk of city leaders’ disenchantment with school choice and of looming fiscal deficits tied to the end of federal COVID relief dollars. She worried: Would the district balance its budget on the backs of its charter schools?

But in a $9.9 billion proposed budget for next year released this week, Chicago Public Schools has avoided this approach. The district increased funding at charter schools by about 2.5% — even as some charters with shrinking enrollments are in line for steep cuts in the new budget blueprint.

This year, CPS overhauled budgeting for traditional campuses to deemphasize enrollment size and prioritize student needs. But for now, the district is sticking with so-called student-based budgeting for charters, which is more closely tied to enrollment; CPS says state requirements make it trickier to change budgeting for charter campuses. Yet as the district prepares a strategic plan to revitalize neighborhood schools, anxiety about how that vision will impact charters persists.

With roughly 55,000 students, charters serve about a fifth of Chicago’s public school student population. State law requires districts to provide charter schools money proportionate to what it spends at district-run campuses.

On a per-pupil basis, proposed funding for Chicago charters in the budget released this week grew less than 1% over last year, with average spending at about $16,200 per pupil, according to a Chalkbeat analysis.

Charter parents such as Pereyra have packed recent public forums on the upcoming strategic plan and school board meetings. The board appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson — a charter school critic and former teachers union official — has increased its scrutiny of charters and has given them shorter contract renewals.

“We feel like we are in limbo,” Pereyra said of charter parents. “We want to know now what’s the plan for charter schools.”

A Chalkbeat analysis of preliminary charter budgets in the new CPS fiscal proposal shows they tracked closely with enrollment. As with district-run schools, there was a slight enrollment uptick at charters overall last fall. Generally, charter enrollment stayed more stable during the pandemic than at district-run schools, where there have been steep declines in the number of students.

While some charters that saw an influx of students this past school year are projected to get robust budget boosts, others with declining enrollment face steep cuts of 30% or more.

Andrew Broy of the advocacy group Illinois Network of Charter Schools said his organization is analyzing the budget plan to ensure charter funding complies with state requirements.

He said his group has fielded calls from some schools that question the adequacy of their special education and bilingual learner allocations. Generally, he said, campuses that don’t occupy district-owned buildings — and therefore receive facility dollars — fare better.

Broy noted that since CPS is still negotiating contracts with its unions for principals and teachers, the impact of labor costs on the budget is still in flux.

“These initial figures do show a slight per-pupil increase, but that masks a lot of variation among our members,” he said. “Until they vote on the budget, nothing is set in stone. We’re always concerned about financial pressures on CPS.”

Broy said he would like to see the district include charters, which primarily serve Black and Latino students from low-income backgrounds, in its new budgeting approach that focuses more on student needs.

In a statement, CPS said that the district stuck with its student-based budgeting approach for charters due to state law. But the district does plan to transition charters away from the method at some point, the district’s statement said.

Several charter schools declined to discuss the specifics of their proposed budgets or did not respond to requests for comment. One charter official who asked not to be identified in order to speak more freely said he was largely reassured by his school’s allocation. Though base funding from the district essentially remained flat, his school would get increases in special education and bilingual dollars as it has come to serve more students with those needs.

“It seems like this year the places where we saw increases were more need-based,” he said.

Pereyra, the mother of a third grader at Acero’s Cisneros campus, said she heard about likely staff cuts while volunteering at the school in June. Proposed funding data shows the school’s budget would be cut by more than 10% this year, to about $6 million. That comes on the heels of steep cuts the previous year as well.

Pereyra was especially distraught that last year the school lost its dean of students, whom she described as “the connection between parents and the school.”

Acero did not respond to requests for comment.

These possible cuts come in the wake of a 15% decline in enrollment last year to about 350 students at Acero’s Cisneros campus. The students at the Cisneros campus are overwhelmingly Latino and from low-income backgrounds. About 60% are learning English. Pereyra said the school’s supportive environment remains the best fit for her son — and she worries about its future.

“I don’t want other people making that choice for me,” she said.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

CPS did not violate state law in moving to take over Urban Prep, appeals court rules

2024-06-06T23:02:08+00:00

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An Illinois state appeals court ruled Thursday that the Chicago Board of Education was within its rights when it tried to revoke the charter for embattled Urban Prep Charter School’s two high school campuses — raising questions about what’s next for Urban Prep’s students.

The court in Illinois’ First Judicial District reversed a ruling by the Cook County Circuit Court and said that a state law preventing school closures in Chicago until Jan. 15, 2025, does not apply to charter schools. Urban Prep had argued that Chicago Public Schools violated that law when it moved to revoke Urban Prep’s charters in October 2022.

The court’s decision is the latest twist in a nearly two-year battle between Chicago Public Schools and Urban Prep, which has fought to stay open amid allegations of financial mismanagement, violation of special-education rights, and sexual misconduct.

The appeals court’s decision comes as charter schools face greater scrutiny under the new board of education appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teacher and union leader. In January, the board renewed contracts for 49 charters, most by three or four years. State law allows extensions up to 10 years.

Urban Prep has operated in Chicago for more than two decades and currently runs two high schools — one in Englewood and the other in Bronzeville — serving exclusively Black boys. State officials closed another one of its campuses in 2022 due to enrollment declines.

After the circuit court’s decision, the board agreed to renew Urban Prep’s charter in December 2023 until this month, while it pursued an appeal.

In its decision posted online Thursday, the appeals court sided with the district, and said the closure moratorium is included in a section of state law, Article 34, that applies only to district-run schools. A different section, Article 27A, applies to charter schools, the order said.

“The circuit court erred when it concluded that the moratorium temporarily stripped the school board of its statutory authority to vote against a charter school’s renewal,” the order said.

The court noted that when the Legislature has wanted any additions to Article 34 to apply to charter schools, such as laws around COVID-19, lawmakers have expressly referenced charter schools and also added that language to 27A.

In a statement, Chicago Public Schools said the ruling “has no immediate impact” on Urban Prep students. The district, which had originally planned to take over the schools, did not offer further details about what happens to Urban Prep students when school starts again in the fall.

“District officials and the Chicago Board of Education will review this ruling and determine a path forward that best supports our students,” said CPS spokesperson Mary Ann Fergus. “The district will take all necessary steps to ensure clear communication and engagement with impacted families prior to bringing forward any possible recommendations regarding this charter to the Board of Education.”

Urban Prep did not respond to an email or phone call seeking comment. Rulings by the state’s appellate courts can be appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court.

The Chicago Board of Education voted in October 2022 not to renew Urban Prep’s charter’s contracts, citing several financial and legal allegations, as well as accusations that Urban Prep founder Tim King had groomed and sexually touched a student, then hired that student as part of a quid-pro-quo scheme. King has denied those allegations. Other school leaders previously said they had complied with most of the district’s requirements; district leaders said the opposite.

Urban Prep appealed CPS’s decision to the State Board of Education, where a hearing officer sided with CPS. The school then sued in Cook County Circuit Court, arguing that their charter could not be revoked because of the state moratorium on school closures. The circuit court sided with Urban Prep last summer.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson pushes education agenda with ‘urgency’ during first year in office

2024-05-14T11:00:00+00:00

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On a recent Tuesday morning, Mayor Brandon Johnson visited classrooms at Kelvyn Park High School in Hermosa to present certificates of recognition to teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week.

Flanked by an alderman and the chief of finance for the teachers union, Johnson posed for photos and created a scene rare to find before last year: The mayor standing side-by-side with teachers, some wearing bright red Chicago Teachers Union shirts.

The scene was an indicator of the pivotal role education has played in Johnson’s agenda in office.

When Johnson, a former middle school teacher and Chicago Teachers Union organizer, was elected last year, it was no surprise education would be a central priority.

The union catapulted Johnson into office, and his win was the result of a decade of CTU organizing against how previous mayors approached public education. Instead of a system in which schools compete for students and parents choose the best option no matter how far they may have to travel, Johnson promised to focus on bolstering neighborhood schools, many which have seen declining enrollment and fewer resources.

As Johnson hits the one-year mark in office, his appointed school board has overseen a change in the district’s funding formula and directed district leaders to come up with a new five-year strategic plan, to be voted on this summer, that would rethink the city’s school choice system, which includes charter, selective enrollment, and magnet schools that require applications for admission.

“We have to fund our schools based upon the need,” Johnson said in a February 2023 video interview with Block Club Chicago. “Every single school should have a social worker, counselor and nurse as the bare minimum.”

But Johnson faces a big challenge in carrying out his education agenda: Chicago Public Schools is facing a projected $391 million budget deficit next fiscal year and has provided little detail on how it will close the gap. Federal COVID money is running out and he must bargain a new contract with the teachers union.

Johnson’s agenda also called for free public transit for students, housing for the district’s 20,000 homeless students, and creating up to 200 more Sustainable Community Schools – a partnership with the CTU that provides wraparound services at needy schools. None of these promises have seen any progress.

Still, education may be the one area where Johnson has made progress during his first year in office, said Dick Simpson, professor emeritus of politics at University of Illinois at Chicago and a former alderman.

“In comparison to, say, his other problems — solving crime, for instance — he is much further along on the school agenda,” Simpson said.

The speed with which Johnson can deliver on his education promises is important because he will soon lose exclusive control over the Chicago Board of Education, as the school board begins to transition to a partially elected body this November.

In an interview with Chalkbeat, Johnson said his focus on education “has more to do with the urgency that families are calling for.”

“We’re talking about decades upon decades of school closures, the defunding of our schools, the attack on veteran educators, particularly Black educators,” Johnson said. “So our urgency is really centered around the needs of our young people and the needs that our families have.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson visits the classroom of English teacher Noe Castro at Kelvyn Park High School with Principal Keith Adams and Ald. Felix Cardona Jr. (31st) in Hermosa on May 7, 2024.

Bolstering neighborhood schools, but not without backlash

Johnson’s plans to bolster neighborhood schools kicked into gear last December.

Just before winter break, the board of education passed a resolution aimed at boosting neighborhood schools and rethinking Chicago’s school choice system, which encourages kids to enroll in public schools outside their attendance zones. Half of all elementary students go to schools that are not their zoned neighborhood schools and more than 70% of high schoolers do.

Johnson has described the choice system as a “Hunger Games scenario” that forces schools to compete for students and resources and results in less investment in neighborhood schools. The resolution said the choice system “reinforces, rather than disrupts, cycles of inequity” and must be replaced with “anti-racist processes and initiatives that eliminate all forms of racial oppression.”

Though many selective enrollment and magnet schools were created under court-ordered desegregation, many still lack the diversity of the city and are largely segregated by race and class. A couple dozen are integrated, but serve more white and Asian American students than the rest of the school district.

The board’s resolution did not change any current policies or suggest the closure of any schools. Board members emphasized that public feedback would drive any changes, such as to admissions policies. Board members have, however, said they plan to scrutinize charter schools more.

The resolution was praised by advocates who have long pushed for more investment in neighborhood schools and the Chicago Teachers Union.

Johnson “ran on equity,” said Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union. “He said that our school district had to be more equitable, and the resolution that came from the Board of Education is speaking to the inequity and their efforts to ameliorate inequity that are often disproportionately experienced by neighborhood schools.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson meets students as he tours Kelvyn Park High School in Hermosa on May 7, 2024.

But the resolution also sparked backlash from families whose children attend schools of choice, including those already frustrated that CPS was not providing bus service to general education students, largely those attending selective and magnet schools.

Those concerns pushed state lawmakers to file a bill that is up for a final vote this week, which would prevent the district from changing admissions policies for selective enrollment schools – something the current board signaled it may do. The bill would also prevent CPS from cutting funding for selective enrollment schools or closing any school until 2027, when the school board will be fully elected. The bill is supported by powerful state lawmakers and Gov. J. B. Pritzker.

Johnson said the bill would prevent the board from taking actions to help create “real equity” and would prevent the district from balancing its budget. He began rattling off the relatively small percentages of Black students at some of the city’s most sought after selective enrollment high schools and noted how those figures were higher about two decades ago.

“What I’m troubled by is that you have a school district that is hypersegregated and that stratification has continued to grow because you haven’t had leadership like mine directing the school board and the Chicago Public Schools to commit to real equity,” Johnson said. “So is Springfield intervening to protect segregation?”

Simpson noted that Johnson has “a more strained” relationship with the legislature and Pritzker, meaning he doesn’t have a lot of clout to fight for what he wants.

Mayor Brandon Johnson pats the head of kindergartner Triston during a back-to-school event at Jackie Robinson Elementary School in Bronzeville on Aug. 21, 2023.

CPS changes funding formula

In March, CPS announced it would change how it distributes money to schools, delivering on another major promise Johnson made on the campaign trail to end student-based budgeting, which provides schools a set dollar amount for every child enrolled.

The new funding formula will now give every school a base level of staff and discretionary money based on need, which principals can use flexibly. This “needs-based” formula is meant to break a cycle in which underenrolled schools in underinvested neighborhoods lose money because they’re losing students.

That change, too, has drawn a fresh batch of concerns.

Parent leaders at selective enrollment and magnet schools said their budgets provide for fewer staffers next year under the new formula. Some Local School Councils are voting against their budgets for next year.

CPS officials have said that overall funding to schools remains the same as last year but individual schools could see changes. The district is looking for cuts at the central office to address the $391 million deficit, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez has said. CPS has not yet released school budgets for next year to the public.

The union also raised concerns about the formula, saying it lacks guaranteed positions, such as teacher assistants, and said some neighborhood schools have also seen cuts. Davis Gates blamed Martinez – not the mayor – for those flaws, because she said he is not explaining the changes well to the public or lobbying the state legislature hard enough for more money to prevent staffing cuts to some schools.

Mayor Brandon Johnson hugs art teacher Meredith Kachel at Kelvyn Park High School as he surprised her for Teacher Appreciation Week. Johnson visited the school with Principal Keith Adams and Ald. Felix Cardona Jr. (31st) in Hermosa on May 7, 2024.

Sylvia Barragan, a spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools, said “multiple staff members” have visited Springfield throughout the session to advocate for more funding, and Martinez has pushed for more funding “for well over two years in Springfield, at our Board of Education meetings and beyond.”

CPS officials have said that no type of school is being disproportionately impacted. But Martinez has acknowledged that they are working to fix concerns at individual schools.

Mayor inconsistent on police out of schools

Some education-focused organizations have criticized the mayor’s administration for pushing big changes through or flip-flopping on commitments without properly engaging the public.

Hal Woods, director of policy and advocacy for Kids First Chicago, shared some examples. For one, the board publicly posted its resolution stating its intent to rethink school choice two days before the board voted, leaving little time for the public to digest it, Woods said. The district is currently holding hearings to collect feedback for the next strategic plan.

Parents and schools have also demanded more information about why the district is changing its funding formula, Woods said. He added that the former formula wasn’t working for many schools, but the district hasn’t shared enough about the new formula or its impact on schools.

Woods also said the mayor could be more clear with communities on his position to remove police from schools. Johnson supported getting rid of campus police on the campaign trail but later said local schools should have the power to choose whether to have school resource officers. Then in February, the mayor backed the school board when it voted to unilaterally remove officers from all campuses by next school year.

School police officers in the hallways of Lane Tech High School in Chicago.

“There’s plenty of data that shows how police in schools impact youth mental health, right, and the disproportionate impact on Black students and Latino students, but … they’re kind of making a decision based on their values without kind of educating the public on why they’re making that decision,” Woods said.

Johnson said “he will talk to anyone” and rejected the idea that his administration isn’t transparent enough. He pointed to the handful of board of education meetings that have been held at high schools in the evening instead of downtown during the day. He believes some of that criticism comes from people who “have had unfettered access” to previous mayors, and there are “people who now have access who were shut out before.”

“I’ve said all along,” Johnson said, “there’s plenty of room at the table for everyone.”

Fulfilling other promises before school board shifts

There are several promises Johnson hasn’t made progress on, including expanding Sustainable Community Schools, a CPS partnership with the teachers union that pairs needy schools with community organizations that provide wraparound services to families. Each program costs about $500,000.

While Johnson has shifted focus toward neighborhood schools, his administration is struggling to support the 8,900 migrant students and families who have arrived in Chicago from the southern border since at least August 2022.

As a candidate, Johnson promised to invest more money in bilingual education. Between August 2022 and last August – five months after he was elected – the number of bilingual-certified educators grew by 90, according to CPS. Between last August and the end of April, that figure grew by another 106 teachers.

CPS and the city also opened a welcome center to help migrant students enroll in school and access other resources. CPS said it helps direct families to schools with the proper resources when they are struggling with enrollment.

Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks at a press conference at Roberto Clemente Community Academy before the opening of a pilot CPS welcome center for newly arriving families on July 17, 2023.

Still, the union, lawmakers, and families have reported that many schools are struggling to meet the needs of migrant children, most of whom are learning English as a new language and are homeless. Those challenges include lacking enough staff to help children with specialized English instructions.

Johnson again blamed state lawmakers for their efforts to protect selective enrollment schools, saying it would “prevent us from having the type of budget, autonomy, and flexibility to invest in those schools” that lack resources to help English learners.

Johnson also hasn’t gained ground on providing the district’s 20,000 homeless students with housing — a bold promise tied to a signature campaign promise to pass the Bring Chicago Home referendum. That ballot measure, which would have used a tax on property sales over $1 million to help fund housing for homeless families, failed in March.

Ultimately, Johnson’s education legacy and the fate of his preferred policies will depend on what the future elected school board does, Simpson said.

“I do think the new school board, as it begins to take shape, will revisit these issues and either move forward with the general direction of Johnson and the current school board, or will roll them back to an extent,” he said.

It could also depend on the ongoing financial challenges for Chicago Public Schools. Asked how he will achieve his goals in the absence of more money from Springfield, Johnson said he’s exploring other “measures and steps that we can take as a city.” When pressed for details, Johnson’s office declined to elaborate.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

The results are in. Here’s where four Chicago 8th graders plan to go to high school in the fall.

2024-02-28T22:35:00+00:00

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Nicole Watson began checking the GoCPS website early in the morning on Feb. 23, in case Chicago Public Schools released the high school enrollment results early.

Results were scheduled to go online at 5 p.m. that day, but she couldn’t stop herself from looking at the website every hour.

After months of touring schools, preparing for the High School Admissions Test (HSAT), and ranking school choices last fall, her son Daniel Watson was about to find out where he would be spending the next four years of his academic career.

Daniel’s grades in seventh grade were stellar and he did well on the HSAT — both criteria considered in the application process, alongside their neighborhood’s “Tier,” which is based on socioeconomics, and the order in which they ranked their preferred high school programs. The Watsons felt good about his chances of getting accepted at his top choice schools, but Nicole Watson was still anxious.

When she checked the website shortly after 5 p.m. and saw that he’d been accepted to his top choice selective enrollment school, Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep, she had to hold back tears.

“I knew he could get in, that the possibility was real, but seeing it felt really nice,” she said, letting out an audible sigh. “Not quite overwhelming, but a relief.”

Some families also felt that relief last Friday evening as they saw their results; the uncertainty and stress of the high school enrollment process came to a successful end for them.

But others found disappointment and further uncertainty staring back at them from their screens after their children were denied or waitlisted at their top choice schools.

“It worked out for us. But I think about all of the kids and families who were disappointed because they didn’t get an offer, or they didn’t get their first choice,” said Watson. “Break that news to a kid, and then how do you continue to build their confidence and let them know ‘it’s not you, it’s the system?’”

Students who are unhappy with their offers can apply for Principal Discretion, which allows selective enrollment high school principals to fill seats outside of the regular selection process. Students can also appeal the decision, or they can wait a few more months to see if they get off the waitlists and into their top schools.

But, after the Board of Education’s December vote to develop a new five-year strategic plan that would, among other things, shift “from a model which emphasizes school choice to one that supports neighborhood schools,” even families whose eighth graders were offered seats at their top choice high schools have a lot to think about. Some worry about how much the plan will impact the schools they chose while others worry about how the process and the schools will be different for their younger kids.

Last year, Chalkbeat followed four families as they went through the CPS high school enrollment process. Now, after results have been released, we’ve checked in with them to see how they fared, what they think of the process now that they’ve received results, and how they’re thinking about the future as the school choice system stands to undergo big changes.

Daniel Watson leaned on art techniques to help manage his stress during the enrollment process. His mother Nicole Watson has helped him apply to career-focused high school programs in hopes of broadening his options.

Daniel Watson

Daniel Watson played it cool when he learned he had an offer for a seat at his top choice schools, said his mother. But “he couldn’t stop smiling,” so she knows he was excited.

Nicole Watson said she wouldn’t do anything differently, but when the Watsons potentially have to go through the process again for her third grade son, she’ll do exactly what she did for Daniel and make sure that he is the one who picks his top choices.

“Because this is his high school experience,” she said. “I’m glad that I did that and that I just didn’t make the decision myself, that I really allowed it to be his decision.”

Now that the process is over, the Watsons will focus on the big transition to high school, but the fact that her youngest son’s turn will be coming up in the midst of the Board of Education’s next five-year strategic plan, which could de-emphasize school choice, is on her mind.

“That means that this particular kid potentially could be impacted by it,” she said. “We understand that strong neighborhood schools indicate a strong, thriving neighborhood. But at the same time, there’s nothing wrong with having a more rigorous academic setting for kids who need that.”

For Daniel and the Watsons, they’re already onto the next thing — thinking about college. Nicole Watson said that looking ahead she’s most excited about the potential for dual-credit and Advanced Placement classes for her son to help reduce the cost of college.

Katherine Athanasiou, left, and Chloe Athanasiou. Chloe Athanasiou hopes to one day help to repair some of the flaws in the youth mental health system. She hopes that attending a high school where she can take an Advanced Placement Psychology course will be a step towards that dream.

Chloe Athanasiou

When Chloe Athanasiou first began considering high schools, one of their goals was to attend a school where they knew people. For Chloe, that school was Walter Payton College Prep, her top choice.

So Chloe was relieved when they were offered a seat at Payton, but “it wasn’t happiness until I heard from friends that are important to me,” they said.

Chloe advises students going through the process this year not to worry about “what other people are doing. Worry about yourself first, then you can worry about others.”

Focusing so much on attending Payton to be with their friends, Chloe said, put even more pressure on getting into the school, “even if it wasn’t the best decision for me,” they said. “If I were to do it all again, I probably would have put a lot less pressure on myself.”

Even with their success in the process, Chloe still thinks the whole system needs to be changed.

“I think it’s a ridiculous amount of stress and pressure for you to deal with. And it’s not necessary,” they said. “We could figure out a different solution.”

Katherine Athanasiou, Chloe’s mother, also felt the pressure and said she would’ve tried to stay, or at least appear, calmer if she had to do it over again, which she will next year when her sixth grade son goes through it.

“But this is a really crazy process and I feel like we all have to show ourselves a little bit of grace,” said Katherine Athanasiou.

Even with the Board of Education’s move away from school choice to support neighborhood schools, Katherine Athanasiou said she’s still going to push her son to get straight A’s next year, because in the current process, “if you get a B in seventh grade, you’re pretty much locked out of selective enrollment schools,” she said.

But Chloe, who attended a neighborhood school through sixth grade before transferring to a selective enrollment elementary school, said they are hopeful that the board’s plan will improve things for everyone.

“It would have definitely changed my experience [at the neighborhood school] if more time and effort was put into making sure that those spaces were safe and that they were receiving a good amount of resources,” said Chloe. “I think it will, in the long term, benefit everyone.”

Selah Zayas, left, hoped to follow in her mother Andrea Zayas’ footsteps and attend her alma mater Lane Tech College Prep. Selah was accepted to one of her other top choices: Noble Street College Prep.

Selah Zayas

This year’s high school enrollment process has changed everything for the Zayas family.

Selah’s HSAT scores came back lower than expected. So they weren’t surprised when she didn’t get an offer at her top choice selective enrollment school, Lane Tech College Prep, but the family was disappointed.

The HSAT cut-off scores for Lane Tech were among the top five highest this year. Students who scored below that cut-off score did not get offers.

The other schools with higher cut-off scores were Walter Payton, Whitney Young, Northside, and Jones College Prep, all of which consistently rank as the top high schools in Chicago in the U.S. News & World Report rankings.

Students rank selective enrollment schools and “choice” schools — charter schools, magnet programs, and other non-selective enrollment schools — separately. Selah did receive an offer at Noble Street College Prep, which she ranked as her number one “choice” school, largely because it is where her brother attends — so she could take advantage of sibling preference. Although she is disappointed, Selah said she still feels relieved to “have some clarity” about where she’s going in the fall.

“At least I didn’t have to go to my neighborhood school,” said Selah, but she envies the kids who had more choices. “I just wanted the same opportunity and selection.”

Her mother, on the other hand, is questioning everything.

Andrea Zayas teaches at a dual-language charter school where Selah and her two younger sons attend, and now she’s worried that the school did not adequately prepare her daughter for high school and also may be underpreparing her younger sons.

Specifically, she no longer trusts the school’s grading system.

A low grade is supposed to be a “red flag,” she said. But Selah had a 4.0 grade point average in seventh grade. So Andrea Zayas was surprised when her test scores were low.

“It definitely makes me reconsider the elementary school that they’re currently at,” she said. “It’s kind of like the fruit of my discontent over the years with their instruction.”

“My children have not been acknowledged as having challenges, because they were always compared to their peers versus being compared to a standard,” she said.

To help her daughter cope with the disappointment, Andrea Zayas has been reaffirming that Noble Street is a good school, but she is really rattled and is questioning not just her daughter’s elementary school preparation but the school choice system as a whole.

“I feel like sometimes there’s an illusion of choice. The true preparation doesn’t begin in middle school or eighth grade, the true preparation begins in kindergarten, when you choose a school that is going to prepare your child for their next step.”

“There’s all these schools,” she said. “But do you have access? There might be options, but without access, what do options matter? And access is the instruction that occurs every day. It’s the elementary school that you’re going to and what they are doing.”

Elias Gray’s interest in engineering has him eyeing schools with strong STEM programs, but this process has directed his thoughts even further into the future as he considers college and beyond.

Elias Gray

“Three words,” said eighth grader Elias Gray three days after receiving enrollment results, “It’s. Finally. Over.”

Gray was genuinely surprised when he learned that he had an offer to attend Brooks College Prep, which was his top choice selective enrollment school. Although he did very well on the HSAT, he got a couple of B grades in seventh grade, bringing down his overall score on the high school enrollment rubric.

“I just feel excited because I never thought I’d be able to get into Brooks,” Elias said.

At school the Monday after results were released, however, his classmates had a mix of emotions, he said.

“Some are happy. Some are depressed because of how low they got.”

Either way, he said, he doesn’t know a single kid at his elementary school who will be attending the neighborhood school — Morgan Park High School.

“Our neighborhood school is like the final line, the last line,” said Elias. “It used to be good, but I don’t know what it is now.”

With the board’s plan to shift from school choice, Elias’s mother Shanya Gray wonders what that will mean for her younger son when he considers high schools.

“I just don’t want my kid to be a guinea pig,” she said.

But, she said, she feels much more prepared now that she’s gone through the process and understands how everything works. That’s the advice she has for families preparing for this year’s enrollment process — learn everything you can about the system.

“There’s no one place where you can go and get all the information, all the tips and so on,” she said. “There are these pieces that you have to find or have to know. The people who are most successful in this system are the ones who have cracked it. It isn’t necessarily the smartest. It isn’t necessarily the best. It’s the people who have cracked the system.”

‘Productive struggle’: Chicago educators search for ways to close math gaps

2024-02-05T23:31:44+00:00

Arika Henderson’s kindergarten class at LEARN South Chicago campus usually starts the day with a math lesson. On this early morning in January, the kindergartners are working through addition problems.

Henderson, an 18-year veteran teacher, asks a student to help model to the class how to solve 1+2. Together, they use brightly colored blocks to represent the numbers in the equation and count out loud together.

Henderson then pairs off the kindergartners to solve more problems on their own — a strategy she uses to see if students are grasping the concept and provide additional guidance to those who need a little more help.

As schools across the country grapple with low math scores that have dropped over the last decade and plummeted even further during the COVID-19 pandemic, educators like Henderson are searching for ways to engage students and build proficiency in math.

In Chicago, some schools have brought in math coaches to help teachers hone their instruction, while other educators are turning to a concept called “productive struggle,” where students are encouraged to find their own strategy to solve math problems before a teacher steps in to give them a solution.

Finding ways to help young learners build a solid foundation for math learning is key to students’ success in later grades, experts say.

Math concepts build over time, so instilling those basic math skills is critical, said Susan Levine, a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago.

“Evidence shows that the level of math that you go into kindergarten with is predictive of your long term-trajectory,” said Levine. “It doesn’t mean students can’t catch up, but research shows that it is better to start early.”

Students who skip pre-K or K may miss early math skills

In kindergarten, students learn how to count to 100, add, subtract, and identify shapes — building blocks for more advanced skills such as multiplication, division, order of operations, and the Pythagorean theorem.

In Illinois, state law does not require parents to put children in school until the age of 6. It is unclear how many young children do not attend preschool or kindergarten, since the state only tracks the number of children in publicly funded programs.

But research has found that students enrolled in kindergarten, especially full-day programs, have significant gains in reading, math, and social emotional skills. Young children who don’t attend school before first grade may fall behind in being introduced to foundational math.

Enrollment in the early grades also took the biggest hit during the pandemic as parents were concerned about safety and virtual learning.

That may have further stalled progress in math for many young children.

The Illinois State Board of Education’s KIDS exam is an assessment given to students in the fall that measures the readiness of children entering kindergarten. Teachers are asked to assess students’ readiness in math, social-emotional skills, and language and literacy development. In Chicago, teachers found that 31% of kindergarten students were ready for math during the 2020-21 school year, down by 3 percentage points from 2019.

When Illinois shuttered schools in 2020 in response to the pandemic, Henderson’s kindergarten class that year was in its second semester. During virtual learning, she said, only 14 students showed up consistently on the computer.

“It was only so much you could control from your end,” Henderson said.

Now, those students are third and fourth graders. Henderson suspects many did not have a good kindergarten experience to build their foundational knowledge in math, she said. “I just feel so bad.”

At Ruggles Elementary located on the city’s South Side in Chatham, Shekinah Curry, a second grade math teacher who has only been in the classroom for three years, said she’s noticed gaps in students’ foundational skills when it comes to writing numbers and counting.

“You may have students who are still writing numbers backwards. There was one student, she put 97 when it was supposed to be 79,” said Curry. “I have students who may not know how to count by fives or students who are questioning ‘if I’m counting by 10s correctly.’”

Schools turn to math coaches, shifting strategies

As districts work to close the learning gaps, educators are shifting to different strategies, such as productive struggle, and schools are scrambling for ways to help teachers become more effective in teaching math. In CPS, the district has started to roll out the Skyline curriculum, which encourages students to be active participants in class.

Katie Gleason, a first grade teacher at LEARN South Chicago campus, learned about productive struggle during her monthly meetings with teachers who are a part of the charter school network’s math professional learning community.

The approach — which Henderson used in her classroom and involves allowing students to work out ways to solve problems on their own after the teacher has first modeled a strategy — is effective because it requires students to make a connections between math concepts they are learning in class, Gleason said. However, the approach can be difficult for teachers to adapt to because some were taught to stand in front of the class and show students how to get the right answer.

“The math professional learning community has really taught us to allow students to have that productive struggle to try it on their own first and to teach them that it’s okay to make mistakes,” said Gleason. “We actually learn a lot through our mistakes.”

Some Chicago schools are also investing in math coaches — who observe educators in class to provide them with feedback and instruction strategies — to help bridge the gap in student learning and get students engaged in math.

At LEARN, math coach Midm Yi, who was a teacher for 11 years working with third, fourth, and fifth grade students, understands how difficult it can be for classroom teachers to catch students up to their current grade level while teaching new material.

In his role as a math coach, Yi spends his time observing teachers from anywhere between 25 to 45 minutes to evaluate engagement strategies teachers are using. Then he provides debriefing notes to teachers and resources they can use to improve their instruction. At the end of each week, he meets with other coaches in the network to go over training plans, professional development plans for teachers, and other projects.

Yi said he not only wants to see how teachers are working to fill in holes in students’ foundational skills, but also how they are “delivering that high, rigorous content that the curriculum is also providing for us. Are you intentionally using your plan time to effectively carve out specific time where you will be addressing those needs?”

In CPS, Corey Morrison, director of mathematics at the district, said his department has a math specialist for each grade who looks at research to see what math strategies are useful and a program manager who analyzes real-time data to see what interventions students need.

A CPS spokesperson said the district also has 198 coaches who support teachers in literacy and math. In addition, the district has also given funding to every school to hire at least one academic interventionist to work with students.

Shekinah Curry stands next to her second grade class on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024 at Ruggles Elementary school in Chicago, Illinois.

CPS’s Skyline curriculum, which is still being rolled out across the district, has also been a main force in changing how students learn math, Morrison said. Lessons are designed to encourage students to try their own math strategies in class, while teachers help students facilitate the conversation.

“It allows students to form their understanding based on what they’re naturally bringing to the classroom,” said Morrison. “Then, the onus is on the teacher to facilitate them to a point of deep understanding.”

School officials see promising growth

With the new support for educators and students the district added last year, Morrison said, schools are starting to see growth on students’ test scores.

“Last year was our first real year back from COVID,” said Morrison. “We saw a lot of promise from the strategies we put in place, and I think more of the intentionality around building positive math identity.”

Chicago Public Schools assesses students in reading and math between kindergarten and second grade three times a year on the i-Ready exam. At the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, 12% of K-2 students were at grade level at the beginning of the year. That number jumped to 50% by the end of the school year, according to data Chalkbeat Chicago received from a Freedom of Information Act request.

LEARN charter school network found that teachers who received math coaching or were a part of the network’s professional learning council during the 2022-23 school year saw their students score a higher proficiency rate on the NWEA and Illinois Assessment of Readiness exams, compared to teachers who were not receiving coaching. The charter school network — which serves 4,200 students across 11 schools in Chicago, northern suburbs, and Washington D.C. — went from one math coach last coach to five this year, according to a spokesperson. Three are shared between schools in Chicago and North Chicago; the schools in Waukegan, Illinois and Washington D.C. have one school-based coach each.

Teachers at LEARN like Katie Gleason have found math coaching and being a part of the professional learning community helpful. While Arika Henderson doesn’t receive math coaching, she is practicing productive struggle in her classroom.

Since the pandemic has eased, Henderson says she has seen growth in her students — some of whom had never been in school before — this year.

“They are getting in a routine of things,” she said. “The lightbulb has kind of come on and I can see the difference.”

On the cold January day in Henderson’s classroom, after she modeled a way to solve addition problems, her students worked on their own in their textbooks for about 10 minutes, tackling equations such as 2+1, 2+2, and 2+3.

Most students sat at tables named after flowers — sunflowers, tulips, lilies, roses, chrysanthemums — and worked with cubes. Others were asked to sit with Henderson’s instructional aide to get more hands-on support. Henderson walked around the classroom, keeping students on task and offering support where needed.

Some needed time to solve the problems, while others already found the answers. One student told Henderson: “I don’t need the counters. I already know it.”

A few minutes later, Henderson asked the class to share their answers and how they solved the problem.

Nearly every hand shot up, as the kindergartners jumped with excitement to tell their teacher and classmates what they had learned.

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education, and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Board of Education renews contracts for 49 charter schools

2024-01-25T23:01:29+00:00

The Chicago Board of Education voted Thursday to renew agreements with 12 charter networks, impacting 49 schools. The decision followed months of pleading from charter school leaders, educators, and students.

The board extended contracts for all of the schools up for renewal. It renewed most of the contracts by either three or four years, starting this July. The maximum extension allowed under state law is 10 years.

Each renewal came with a set of conditions, ranging from monitoring services for students with disabilities and students learning English as a new language to improving facilities, financial compliance, and accuracy of teacher licenses. Those conditions were a result of “issues that were identified during our comprehensive review,” said Zabrina Evans, executive director of the district’s Office of Innovation and Incubation in the Office of Portfolio Management.

The vote represented the first round of charter renewals under the current board. In the months leading up to Thursday’s vote, Chicago’s charter school community worried that the board, appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, would make it more challenging for charters to get renewed. Johnson, who rose to power as an organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, has long been critical of charter schools, but has also said he doesn’t oppose them.

More recently, the board passed a resolution stating its intention to move away from school choice and focus on sending more resources to neighborhood schools. The resolution does not call for the closure of schools of choice, such as charters, but board leaders said they would be more closely scrutinizing charter schools.

The board’s vote to renew all contracts isn’t surprising: State law has barred school closures in Chicago until 2025. In July, a Cook County judge overturned the previous board’s decision not to renew its contract with Urban Prep Charter Academy after ruling that the state’s school closure moratorium applies to charters.

Board Vice President Elizabeth Todd-Breland said she appreciates the improvement she’s seen in some charter schools, but said that others have failed to keep up finances or follow federal laws.

“I still maintain that as a private operator getting public money, there should be a higher level of scrutiny,” Todd-Breland said.

District officials said they evaluate charter schools based on performance in three criteria: academics, finances, and operations, which focuses on 13 areas related to state and federal law, requirements in their charter contract, and CPS policy. Five-year extensions are awarded to schools that meet or exceed academic and financial standards and receive the highest rating for operations. Extensions beyond five years go to schools that exceed all standards.

Board President Jianan Shi said he wanted the district to continue focusing on the student experience portion of the operations category for charter evaluations. He said he was concerned to see schools not meeting expectations focused on students with disabilities, students who are learning English as a new language, and student discipline. No school met standards for all three of those categories.

“‘I’m elated that we have schools that are doing well academically and financially, but I want kids to enjoy going to school every day,” Shi said.

During several board meetings since the summer, charter school leaders have asked the board to renew their contracts for the maximum 10 years. While it was previously common for schools to receive five-year extensions, district leaders have more recently renewed charters for shorter terms. Last January, the previous board – appointed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot – handed out two-year extensions to nearly half of the charter schools up for renewal, while another two got five years.

On Thursday, no school received five years. Just over half were extended for four years, and just over 40% were extended for three years. The board approved a one-year extension for Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy Charter High School and a two-year extension for Chicago High School for the Arts.

Ebonie Durham, executive director of Great Lakes Academy, a charter school that received a three-year extension, asked the board to provide schools and families with more clarity on what it takes to get a 10-year extension.

Great Lakes met academic and financial performance standards, but did not meet benchmarks for operations, including for student discipline, students with disabilities and students learning English as a new language.

As conditions of Great Lakes’ extension, the board called for the school to implement the district’s recommendations for serving students with disabilities. The conditions also call for monitoring how the school is serving English language learners, its disciplinary practices, and how it tracks repairs to facilities.

“If the CEO’s recommendation is accepted and we receive three years, in two years I will be back in front of this board again pleading to be renewed,” Durham said.

Before the board vote, some teachers raised concerns about Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy, which serves students ages 16-21 who became disengaged with school. The teachers at the school, who are part of the Chicago Teachers Union, have voted to strike Feb. 6 in response to concerns over several issues, including staffing levels for students with disabilities, “sanctuary protections” for immigrant students and employees, and compensation, according to the CTU.

Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, highlighted the fight at Instituto as one reason the renewal process should reflect “what the people, the stakeholders in that school community deserve.” One of her recommendations included creating Local School Councils so that charter parents have more of a voice.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago charter school advocates urge Mayor Brandon Johnson to back school choice

2024-01-18T04:31:09+00:00

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Charter school advocates delivered 2,000 letters to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office on Wednesday, urging the mayor to keep school choice alive, after his hand-picked school board signaled they may try to shift more resources toward neighborhood public schools.

Charter proponents are concerned about the future of their schools under a new mayor who campaigned on a pledge to boost neighborhood public schools — just as dozens of charters are up for renewal and a city moratorium on closing schools ends next year.

For roughly two decades, Chicago Public Schools has operated a system in which families can apply to myriad charter, magnet, test-in, or other district-run schools.

Having options for school was critical, said Myisha Shields, a parent of three former charter school students, during a news conference Wednesday at City Hall.

“My five babies, my Black babies — they’re gonna go where I choose for them to go, because that’s the choice that I was given,” she said. “I really don’t need Mayor Johnson’s help in choosing anything for my children.”

Shields, who lives near Marquette Park on Chicago’s South Side, said she has three children who attended charter schools and are now all pursuing nursing degrees.

She credits Noble Schools for the success of her eldest, who pushed through “severe learning disabilities” to get straight A’s at Alabama A&M University, where she’s a senior. Shields said her other two daughters are in their freshman and sophomore years at the University of Illinois Chicago. Shields said her kids wouldn’t have had the success they’ve enjoyed if they’d gone to traditional public schools.

“Her self esteem at one point was so low, but now it’s as big as City Hall,” she said of her eldest.

Myisha Shields, far right, delivers thousands of letters to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's office from parents, administrators, and alumni in support of school choice programs on Wednesday.

Noble Schools is one of 47 charters up for renewal during the 2023-24 school year. More than half of Chicago’s roughly 51,000 charter school students are enrolled at one of Noble’s 17 campuses across the city.

“We are calling for Mayor Brandon Johnson and his CPS board to demand a fair charter renewal term that protects school choice,” Shields said “If charters are not treated fairly, please believe: We will be at your door every day. This is not the last time you’ll see this face.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the mayor said: “The Johnson administration believes in investing in neighborhood schools so that all of Chicago’s families have the choice to send their children to fully-funded, well-resourced, and celebrated schools in their community. As a former public school teacher, Mayor Johnson knows first-hand the harm that sustained disinvestment has on Chicago’s communities and youth. Furthermore, as the father of three CPS students, the Mayor is personally invested in ensuring the success of Chicago’s public school system.”

During the renewal process, district officials scrutinize charter schools’ academic performance, financial practices, and compliance with other standards. Chicago Board of Education members vote on the final renewal terms.

CPS spokeswoman Sylvia Barragan said in a statement that district leadership and the Chicago Board of Education “do not make charter renewal or revocation decisions lightly.”

The board voted last month on a resolution to move away from school choice and ensure “fully-resourced neighborhood schools, prioritizing schools and communities most harmed by structural racism, past inequitable policies and disinvestment,” according to the resolution.

It was the first time the board formally stated it wants to move away from its embrace of selective admissions and enrollment policies, because it “reinforces, rather than disrupts, cycles of inequity,” according to the resolution.

In response to worried charter and school choice advocates, Chicago Board of Education President Jianan Shi said during an Agenda Review Committee meeting on Wednesday that the resolution “is, again, about prioritizing neighborhood schools, creating pathways from K-12 and (helping) schools and neighborhoods farthest from opportunity, so that we are not sorting our children and favoring those with more means.”

He added that it’s “not directing us to close selective enrollment schools.”

Even before Johnson took office, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration started a trend of shorter charter renewal periods. Johnson, a former educator and organizer for the teachers union, historically opposed charter expansion and said during the mayoral election runoff campaign that charter school expansion “forces competition for resources and ultimately harms all schools.” But he also has said he does not oppose charter schools.

This story was updated after publication to include a comment from the Chicago mayor’s office.

How do families use Chicago’s vast school choice system? Five people tell us their stories.

2023-12-20T22:53:13+00:00

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One mother in West Pullman on Chicago’s South Side sends her daughter to a charter school even though there are two neighborhood schools down the street.

Up in Albany Park, a mother is for the first time confident in her daughter’s neighborhood school after two decades of sending her older children to magnet and test-in programs.

A high school student attends one of the district’s most coveted high schools — but wants the city to undo the system she used to get there.

There’s a lot that goes into how families choose a school in Chicago.

Last week, the city’s school board made waves by announcing they want to move away from that system of choice and build up neighborhood schools, especially in areas that have lacked investment from the city. The board passed a resolution last week stating its intent, but does not call to close any schools or change specific admissions policies.

Originally established to help desegregate schools, the system has recently earned a reputation for stressing out students, who are competing for seats at a limited number of sought-after schools, many of which are segregated by race and income.

Despite that, students have increasingly chosen schools they’re not zoned for. Last school year, 56% of students attended their zoned neighborhood school, or roughly 20 percentage points fewer than in the 2002-03 school year. A quarter of students attended their zoned high school last year, compared to 46% 20 years ago.

The district also won a federal grant in October that they will use to collect community feedback on how they can make neighborhood schools more attractive. In the grant application, Chicago Public Schools said its goal was to reduce the percentage of families attending school outside of their regions by 3%. The district did not answer questions to clarify their definition of region or why 3% was their goal.

How much the district will try to change the city’s school choice system will depend on feedback from the community, board members said. Already, a mix of reactions have emerged. Some community groups praised the board’s support of neighborhood schools. But former CPS CEO Janice Jackson wrote in an op-ed to the Chicago Sun-Times that moving away from school choice would ultimately hurt Black and Hispanic children.

“Trying to do anything in a district that large is going to take a long time if you’re going to do it right,” said Jack Schneider, a professor at University of Massachusetts at Amherst who studies education policy. “It’s going to turn quite slowly and particularly so if your effort is rooted in engaging communities and really listening to them and trying to respond to what you’re hearing.”

Chalkbeat asked readers for their thoughts on school choice and got nearly 80 responses from families across the city about how they’ve navigated the system. We spoke to some of those families to understand how — and why — they chose their schools.

From left to right: Tiffany Harvey walks her dog, Mila, alongside her daughters Isabel Harvey, 21, and Amalia Harvey, 10, as they walk to Haugan Elementary School in Chicago on Dec. 18, 2023. Amalia is a fourth grader at Haugan Elementary School.

Preschool sells mom of four on neighborhood school

About 20 years ago, when Tiffany Harvey was deciding where to send her firstborn to school, she kept hearing that aside from some gifted and magnet programs, Chicago’s schools were “terrible.”

Harvey applied to magnet schools and had her son tested for gifted programs. She also toured a kindergarten classroom at the neighborhood school, Haugan Elementary, a couple blocks away from their Albany Park home. But at the time, Haugan didn’t have before- or after-care programs to accommodate her work schedule, while magnet and gifted programs came with busing. And Haugan’s test scores seemed low to her, she said.

“I honestly felt like I was a bad parent if I didn’t explore all the options and find the best option,” she said.

Over the next two decades, Harvey would send her first three children to magnet, gifted and selective enrollment schools outside their neighborhood.

A few years ago, that changed.

In search of preschool for her fourth child, Harvey applied for the district’s full-day pre-K program and saw that Haugan had seats. She didn’t want to pay for preschool again, and after so many years in Albany Park, she wanted to invest in her neighborhood school as someone who was better-off than some of her neighbors. Her daughter got a seat at Haugan, where 89% of students come from low-income families.

Some research shows public pre-K programs can “attract a more integrated group of families” to schools, while some districts notice families flee after preschool, said Halley Potter, senior fellow at The Century Foundation, who has studied school segregation.

Harvey, who had low expectations, found Haugan was “phenomenal,” she said. Her daughter’s teacher was creative and kind. There was a good combination of play-based learning and introduction to academics. Her daughter was meeting kids from all kinds of families. The next year, she enrolled her daughter in a nearby lottery dual-language program, but they missed Haugan. Her daughter returned for second grade and is now in fourth grade.

“We never looked back,” Harvey said.

Harvey supports families having the ability to choose a school for their child. However, she wishes more parents would realize that schools can’t be measured by test scores alone, and more-advantaged children, like hers, can flourish alongside peers who are different from them. It’s also easier for parents to get involved at schools that are nearby, she said.

As district leaders consider how to invigorate neighborhood schools, they should add more services, such as pre-K programs or after care, as ways to draw in more families, she said.

“I don’t know what the right balance is,” Harvey said. “I do want our neighborhood schools to be celebrated and promoted and have the resources they need, where parents don’t feel like they have to drive across town to find a better option.”

A mom who chose a charter school

Charity Parker lives a couple of blocks away from two neighborhood schools in West Pullman. But her daughter, Aikira, attends a Chicago International Charter Schools, or CICS, campus that’s a roughly 15-minute walk from their home.

Parker, who attended Catholic and charter schools growing up in Chicago, said the neighborhood schools close to her — Curtis and Haley — are “poorly funded” and don’t have good test scores. At both neighborhood schools and Aikira’s charter school, more than 90% of students are from low-income families. But CICS is designated as “commendable” by the state, the second- highest designation out of five. Haley and Curtis have lower designations.

Charity Parker, left, and her daughter Aikira Parker, 8, right, smile as they pose for a portrait together outside of CICS Prairie Chicago International Charter School, where Aikira is a second grader, in Chicago on Dec. 18, 2023.

Aikira is learning more advanced topics than other neighborhood kids Parker knows, she said. She placed fifth in the school’s science fair for a solar panel project, Parker noted.

“An 8-year-old doing engineering work — I’m not getting that at my local CPS school,” she said.

Another selling point for Parker, who is Black, is that about one-third of Aikira’s peers are Hispanic, so she’s exposed “to another culture besides her own.” At Curtis and Haley, more than 90% of students are Black, which is common in Chicago’s segregated neighborhoods.

Parker said all parents should have the right to choose where their children go to school, and the district should never mandate attending neighborhood schools. While Parker loves some things about CICS, she has some issues with the school.

Aikira “loved” kindergarten at CICS, but the next year, Parker had some disagreements with Aikira’s first -grade teacher over coursework. This year, Parker has some concerns about behavior issues in Aikira’s classroom and has considered transferring her out.

But other charters are far away, and she doesn’t have a car. Private school is too expensive.

So, she’ll stay at CICS, she said.

“I’ll admit there are some things about my daughter’s school that rub me the wrong way, but the education is awesome,” Parker said.

Dad sought out selective schools for his son

Since kindergarten, Clyde Smith’s son, Kadin, has exclusively attended selective public schools located 5 to 6 miles south of their Bronzeville home.

Kadin tested into McDade Classical School, a selective enrollment elementary school in Chatham. Then, he tested again in sixth grade and got a seat at an accelerated middle school program located inside Lindblom Math and Science Academy, a selective enrollment high school in West Englewood. Kadin, 16, is now a sophomore at Lindblom.

The stressful nature of admissions never felt “unhealthy,” Smith said. His son has always been surrounded by peers who aimed for similar programs, so he was used to the competition.

“It’s always been in the air,” Smith said. “It’s almost like asking a fish, ‘How’s the water?’”

Kadin Smith, left, stands with his father, Clyde Smith, at their Bronzeville home.

A simpler option might have been to attend his neighborhood school where he’s guaranteed a seat: Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts. District officials closed Dyett in 2015, but the school was revived in 2016 after protests and a hunger strike that Mayor Brandon Johnson participated in as an activist.

The district hosted a press conference in October at Dyett about the school’s rising graduation rates, and officials noted that the school’s 86% graduation rate had surpassed the citywide average.

Smith said he “understood the activism” that brought back Dyett, but it wasn’t enough to win him over.

“The test scores, the classes offered, the colleges they get accepted into overall, to me, doesn’t lay proof that that’s the strongest academic environment like some of these selective enrollment schools are,” Smith said.

Smith complimented the district’s desire to boost neighborhood schools, adding that segregation and “racial inequities” have left many schools under-resourced. Neighborhood schools need “strong teachers,” challenging courses, and more internship opportunities, he said.

Paul Hill, an architect of the idea that districts should create a mix of school options for parents, said the district could risk driving away parents like Smith.

“If the district is really serious about working hard on the neighborhood schools and trying to figure out what would keep people in them… that’s responsible,” said Hill, the founder of the Center for Reinventing Public Education. “On the other hand, if they really attack the schools of choice that probably will drive down enrollment.”

Smith agrees. After all, if Kadin didn’t get into a selective enrollment high school, he and his wife would have sent him to private school.

Mom is daunted by high school admissions

Laura Irons loves Logan Square and their neighborhood school, where her 7-year-old daughter is in first grade. But the thought of choosing a high school is so daunting, the family is considering leaving Chicago by the time their daughter finishes eighth grade.

Irons’ daughter passed up a seat at a magnet school to attend her zoned school, Brentano Math and Science Academy, because the family liked walking to school and didn’t want their daughter to lose friends.

“Being nearby the school, I think, has tremendous social-emotional benefits,” Irons said.

For the future, her family would consider the neighborhood high school. But other parents tell Irons it’s dangerous, with lots of fights and nearby shootings. Irons doesn’t know whether to believe them.

Laura Irons, far right, poses for a photo with her husband and two children at the Logan Square Blue Line stop.

Irons worries about the impact of the competitive application process on her daughter. Through friends and community Facebook groups, Irons hears about kids being “so tremendously stressed out” by the application process. She hates that some schools are considered good or bad without any clarity about why.

“I don’t like [the idea of] making such a big decision at such a young age,” Irons said. “It feels like the college process, which is hard already in itself.”

Even though Irons and her husband love city life, they’re leaning toward leaving unless there is more clarity and transparency around how the choice system works, she said. And she doesn’t know where to find accurate information.

“I do value choice in certain situations so I’m not anti-choice,” Irons said. “I think the system that we have, though — to sound so cliche — it’s just a broken, very opaque system. I wonder if kids would even be stressed if the parents weren’t so stressed.”

Selective enrollment student sees problems with the system

One of Tess Lacy’s earliest memories of discussing school choice was in fourth grade. Her physical education teacher told her class, “I want you to go to good high schools,” Tess recalled.

Comments like that were common throughout Tess’s elementary and middle school years. Teachers talked often about applying to sought-after high schools. Many of her friends felt they’d fail their parents if they didn’t get into those schools. While her own parents didn’t care where she went, the stress around Tess conditioned her to focus on selective enrollment schools, she said.

Tess Lacy poses for a portrait in front of George B. Swift Elementary School, which she used to attend, in Chicago on Dec. 18, 2023. Lacy is currently a sophomore at Jones College Prep.

She took the High School Admissions Test and got into her top-ranking: Jones College Prep in the South Loop.

Now, three years later, Tess wants to see the selective enrollment system abolished.

Selective enrollment schools tend to have more resources, not just from the district, but also from families who can fundraise, sometimes millions of dollars, Tess noted.

“If you intentionally, institutionally, structurally create schools that have more resources, parents with more resources will send their kids there,” Tess said. “I feel like a lot of people are able to realize that’s not normal, but there’s a lot of people who would rather forget about the tens of thousands of students who don’t have that privilege.”

Tess doesn’t regret attending Jones, where she has made friends from all over the city. She enjoys doing technical work for the school’s drama department.

But her decision to attend Jones now feels like it was influenced by everyone around her. She regrets not ranking Edgewater’s Senn High School higher. Senn was not her zoned high school, but is a neighborhood school closer to home that has a good arts program — one of Tess’s interests.

She would encourage eighth grade students to “really, truly think about what they as a student want.”

“Now I look back, and I see how my decision was so not my own decision,” Tess said.

Correction: This story orignally stated that McDade Classical School was a gifted program. McDade is another type of selective enrollment elementary school in Chicago.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

After court order, Chicago Public Schools extends contract with Urban Prep charter schools

2023-12-14T22:36:49+00:00

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Forced by a court order, the Chicago Board of Education voted Thursday to extend charter school contracts run by embattled Urban Prep Charter Academy.

The board approved an extension until June 2024 for the network’s Bronzeville and Englewood campuses.

The extension comes more than a year after the board voted not to renew the contracts, with plans to take over those schools. The board’s decision was based on allegations that Urban Prep mismanaged finances and failed to comply with special education laws, as well as allegations that the school’s founder, Tim King, sexually abused a now-former student. King has denied those allegations.

Urban Prep appealed the board’s decision to state education officials, who sided with CPS. The charter network then filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court alleging that their agreement couldn’t be revoked because of the state’s moratorium on closing schools until 2025. In July, the court ruled in Urban Prep’s favor.

“That is why we are here — to be in compliance with the court’s order even as it may be contrary to previous actions by the board,” Board Vice President Elizabeth Todd-Breland said last week at a meeting to review the board’s agenda.

CPS has appealed the court’s decision.

Mayor Brandon Johnson, who currently appoints the school board, is critical of the charter sector, but he has also stressed that he doesn’t oppose charter schools. The board recently passed a resolution signaling that it wants to boost neighborhood schools and move away from the district’s school choice system, which families use to apply to magnets, charters, and test-in schools and other programs.

Several teachers and families from other charter networks have pleaded with the board to renew their contracts over the past several months, including on Thursday. Christian Feaman, director of district advocacy for Illinois Network of Charter Schools, suggested the board’s new resolution attempts to “claw back the basic rights” of school choice for “Black and brown families.”

The resolution — which doesn’t create or get rid of any current policies or schools — isn’t intended to signal a closing of all charter schools, Todd-Breland said Thursday. Rather, the board wants to “hold charters accountable to the promise that was made at their founding,” she said.

The Urban Prep agreement approved Thursday comes with more than a dozen conditions, including cooperation in district investigations and complying with financial oversight. Those conditions are generally the same that Urban Prep has had to follow in the past, most of which Urban Prep has not attempted to comply with, said Zabrina Evans, executive director of the district’s Office of Innovation and Incubation in the Office of Portfolio Management, last week.

In remarks to the board Thursday, Dennis Lacewell, chief academic officer at Urban Prep, said the district is spreading “lies and propaganda” about the charter failing to meet nearly all the requirements CPS has asked of it. Lacewell said Urban Prep has complied with eight of ten previous conditions and submitted evidence to the district.

Separately, a few public speakers raised concerns about the board’s resolution, specifically saying the board shouldn’t be moving to close any selective enrollment or gifted schools. Todd-Breland emphasized that there is no current plan to close any schools.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools leaders want to move away from school choice

2023-12-12T18:45:13+00:00

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Chicago school leaders want to move away from the district’s system of school choice — in which families apply to a myriad of charter, magnet, test-in, or other district-run programs — according to a resolution the Board of Education will vote on this week.

The move puts in motion Mayor Brandon Johnson’s campaign promise to reinvigorate Chicago Public Schools’ neighborhood schools. On the campaign trail, Johnson likened the city’s school choice system to a “Hunger Games scenario” that forces competition for resources and ultimately harms schools, particularly those where students are zoned based on their address.

District leaders’ goals include ensuring “fully-resourced neighborhood schools, prioritizing schools and communities most harmed by structural racism, past inequitable policies and disinvestment,” the resolution, which was released Tuesday, said.

The board wants to pursue that policy goal — and several others — as part of the district’s five-year strategic plan, which will be finalized this summer. In an interview with reporters on Tuesday, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, Board President Jianan Shi, and Board Vice President Elizabeth Todd-Breland declined to specify changes or say how far they want to move away from the choice system. That’s because they want to collect community feedback on how far the district should go, which would be outlined in a final five-year strategic plan this summer, they said.

The board is expected to vote Thursday on the resolution, which doesn’t create or get rid of any policies; rather, it formalizes and publicizes the district’s goals.

The district wants to “transition away from privatization and admissions/enrollment policies and approaches that further stratification and inequity in CPS and drive student enrollment away from neighborhood schools,” the resolution says.

This marks the first time the board has formally stated it wants to move away from selective admissions and enrollment policies. It says the school choice system, as it exists today, “reinforces, rather than disrupts, cycles of inequity” and must be replaced with “anti-racist processes and initiatives that eliminate all forms of racial oppression.”

Some selective enrollment and magnet schools lack the diversity of the city, enrolling larger shares of white and Asian American students, while others remain largely segregated by race and class.

Martinez said it is painful to hear of students traveling far distances to attend school, or when parents ask if they should get their 4-year-old child tested for gifted programs. He said he can “scream as loud as I can” about all that he believes neighborhood schools can offer to families versus highly sought-after magnet or selective enrollment schools — but “it’s not going to be enough.”

“We see this as an opportunity to, again, build trust, because I want to keep calling that out — that is a huge challenge for us,” Martinez said.

Any number of big changes could be on the horizon, Todd-Breland said.

“There likely will be policies that need to be revised and changed, so the admissions and enrollment policy is on the table as something that through this process of engagement, likely there will be some changes to it,” Todd-Breland said.

Todd-Breland and Shi said they’ve heard many pleas from the community to overhaul the choice system. The board’s goal to move away from school choice is framed in the resolution as a response to the district’s ongoing challenges, such as budget deficits and academic disparities between students citywide and Black and Hispanic students, students with disabilities, those who are homeless, and children learning English as a new language.

District leaders imagine prioritizing neighborhood schools to receive more resources and programming. Martinez said universal preschool is one example of an initiative that can draw families into a school.

The system of school choice in Chicago grew over many decades.

Data shows around 56% of elementary school students attended their zoned neighborhood school last school year and 23% of high school students did. Twenty years ago, during the 2002-03 school year, 74% of students attended their zoned elementary school and 46% of high schoolers did.

Many of the district’s most popular magnet and selective schools were created in the 1980s and 90s under a court-ordered federal desegregation consent decree that officially ended in 2009. In the 2000s, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley opened 100 new schools under an initiative known as Renaissance 2010. Most of those schools did not have neighborhood attendance boundaries and many were charter schools run by third-parties.

The expansion of school options also contributed to the mass closure or shakeup of nearly 200 schools, including 50 schools in 2013. Enrollment has further declined since then, but under state law, the district cannot close schools until 2025. Officials would not say if the five-year plan would eventually include closing schools and emphasized their plans to engage communities.

However, Todd-Breland did signal that the board might move to close charter schools.

“If you are a privately-managed school, taking public dollars from our taxpayers that would otherwise go to the other schools that we know need to be invested in because they haven’t [been] for years, and you are not performing at a level that we find to be a high quality educational experience for young people, then why do you continue to exist in this system?” she said.

Nearly half of the charter schools authorized by the Chicago Board of Education are up for renewal this year and dozens more will be next year. If a charter is not renewed, it most likely would close, though operators can appeal to the state.

The previous administration, under the leadership of former CPS CEO Janice Jackson, also tried to reinvigorate underenrolled neighborhood schools. In 2018, the district offered additional funding for specialty programs to local schools looking to attract more students.

Though the current system has long been criticized for stressing out students and families as they compete for spots at the most sought-after schools, many families value having options outside of their assigned neighborhood school. Student admissions to gifted programs rely on a test, while admissions to selective enrollment high schools are based in part on the High School Admissions Test and previous school performance.

The board’s policy priorities come less than a year before Chicago will for the first time elect school board members. State law currently says 10 members will be elected and the mayor is to appoint another 11. That shift is one reason the board is focused on getting a lot of community feedback on their vision, so new board members “understand this is the direction that the district is moving in,” Shi said.

Political shifts, such as this transition to an elected school board, could upend what the current board wants to do, said Jack Schneider, an education policy expert and professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

“The last thing you want is to put all of this effort into something like promoting neighborhood public schools and then have a massive change in the composition of the board that then leads to a 180 in priorities,” Schneider said.

The resolution also highlights several other policy goals under the district’s next strategic plan, including creating more community schools over the next five years. These schools provide wraparound services to students and families, another priority for Johnson. It also includes adding staff, ensuring culturally relevant, anti-racist lessons for students and similarly framed professional development for educators, and prioritizing collecting feedback from students and the community.

The board also wants to ask the community’s help in creating plans for “previously closed and currently ‘underutilized’ schools,” the resolution says.

Read the full resolution on page 21 of the board’s agenda posted online.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

How does it feel to apply to high school in Chicago? Four eighth graders share their experiences.

2023-12-11T11:00:00+00:00

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Chloe Athanasiou was rippling with nervous energy. It was Oct. 11 and they — and 28,000 of their eighth grade peers — were about to take Chicago Public Schools’ High School Admissions Test, or HSAT.

“Everybody’s so nervous. Either everybody’s really quiet or screaming their heads off,” Chloe said. “I was one of the people who was screaming their heads off to try to feel better. It actually worked, strangely.”

The test would be a crucial factor in determining the next stage in their lives: where they will go to high school.

In Chicago, every eighth grade student is guaranteed a spot at their local neighborhood school, but according to data from previous years, about 70% of high schoolers attend schools outside their neighborhood.

What was once an effort to desegregate Chicago Public Schools has turned into a fiercely competitive process to get a seat at top-performing, well-resourced high schools. Admissions decisions are still based on a “tier system,” which assigns every student’s address in the city a “tier” based on the socioeconomics and educational attainment of people living in the census tract and admits a mix of students living in different tiers.

Applicants spend months attending open houses, researching schools, and ranking them in order of preference. Next, they take the HSAT. When their scores come back a few weeks later, students have a chance to re-rank their school choices — a new twist added this year.

Then, everybody waits — until May, when admissions offers are made.

The whole process, as eighth grader Elias Gray put it, causes “mostly anxiety and fear.”

CPS made some changes to this year’s test meant to help alleviate stress, said Sara McPhee, executive director of the CPS Office of Access & Enrollment. After feedback from families, for example, the HSAT was shortened to one hour instead of two-and-a-half and reduced from four sections to two.

But the anxiety is deep-seated because what’s at stake, these students say, are their futures.

Chalkbeat followed four eighth graders from different parts of the city and different types of schools through this year’s enrollment process – which came with some changes and a test day glitch. Here’s what it’s like to go through Chicago’s high school enrollment process.

High school is one key to unlocking dreams

Many students begin thinking about where to apply to high school well before eighth grade.

That’s partly because students’ grades in seventh grade factor into admission at the city’s selective enrollment schools. The other half of a student’s overall score is based on their HSAT results.

Students try to prepare however they can, including by shelling out for private tutoring – even though CPS warns that it has seen no correlation between test preparation and acceptance rates.

Katherine Athanasiou (left) and Chloe Athanasiou (right). Chloe is in eighth grade in Chicago Public Schools and hopes to one day help to repair some of the flaws in the youth mental health system.

Chloe Athanasiou wants to be a therapist when they grow up. In their own personal experiences with therapists, Chloe has seen many ways that mental health treatment for young people, especially queer youth, needs to be improved.

That is why Chloe hopes to attend a high school that offers an Advanced Placement Psychology course, something available at the city’s top selective enrollment high schools.

In order to make that hope a reality, Chloe began preparing for the admissions process in the spring, but it’s been in the back of their mind for years.

“You start thinking about it in sixth grade a lot, because you’re like, ‘Okay, next year is the year that I have to get all As,’” said Chloe. “And then in seventh grade, you’re like, ‘Okay, [now] I have to get all As. So how am I going to do that? How am I gonna accomplish that with the amount of homework and the different really big projects?’”

To prepare, Chloe did test prep courses, took practice tests, and participated in a Test Anxiety group offered through their school. Despite all of the preparation, said Chloe, the anxiety and stress remained.

“Logically, I know that really all that’s at stake is the next four years of my life. But mentally, it turns into this gigantic thing,” said Chloe. “It turns into a bigger thing than it actually is because of peer pressure and parent [pressure] just evoking a lot of anxiety.”

Nicole Watson (left) and Daniel Watson (right), a CPS eighth grader who is applying to career-focused high school programs. Daniel said he leaned on art techniques to help manage his stress during the enrollment process.

Art helped Daniel Watson ease some of the pressure of going through the admissions process, but his interests in science and technology are driving his and his family’s choices about high school.

His mother, Nicole Watson, began looking into Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs at local high schools as a strategy to counter the high competition of selective enrollment high schools.

“It’s just another way of potentially having my child at a high-performing school,” she said. “I’m looking at all of the options because I think we all know that selective enrollment schools only have so many seats.”

For admission to high school in the 2022-23 school year, 6,239 students ranked Lane Tech, which has about 1,200 seats for incoming freshmen, as their top choice school.

Whitney Young and Jones high schools were the second and third most frequently ranked as student’s top choices, with over 3,400 students ranking them as their first choices.

Nicole Watson wants to give her son more options, but as a social worker she worries about the kids who don’t have “parents or community that’s invested in their education and don’t have access to programming that can make up and fill in those gaps.”

Shayna Gray (left) and Elias Gray (right) outside of Kellogg Elementary in Beverly on Chicago’s South Side. Elias is eyeing high schools with strong STEM programs, but the application process has him thinking even further into the future.

Eighth grader Elias Gray let out a long sigh and shook his head before describing his feelings about the impending HSAT last month.

“This test basically decides the next course of your life in education,” he said.

His mother, Shanya Gray, admitted to feeling just as nervous. A few days before the test, she took the day off from work just to help her son study and try to ease the anxiety for both of them.

“This whole thing is very new to me, because I didn’t grow up in the US. I grew up in the Caribbean,” said Shanya Gray. “So I’m learning as I go along, learning about this process here in the U.S., and there are, even now, some things I wish I knew a year ago.”

She was surprised that there was not more preparation for the test built into the CPS curriculum. She ended up paying for tutoring and a test prep workshop to help her son prepare, but she’s keenly aware of the fact that such preparation isn’t available to everyone.

Elias says he wishes there was more preparation and support from CPS and within the classroom in the form of practice tests and lesson plans specifically targeting the HSAT.

While Elias is hoping to attend a school that can best support his interests in engineering, his goal is simply to attend “an actually good school.”

This whole process, he says, forces students to look forward, even beyond high school, and consider how the choices they make now will have a significant impact on where they go to college and their entire future.

Selah Zayas (left) hopes to follow in her mother Andrea Zayas’ (right) footsteps and attend her alma mater: Lane Tech College Prep.

Selah Zayas looked on as her grandmother evaluated her little brother’s vital signs this summer. He had started having difficulty breathing and Selah’s grandmother is a nurse. Watching her jump into action, she saw how important that kind of knowledge can be, and she wants to help people in the same way some day.

Following in the family’s footsteps is kind of a thing in the Zayas family. All of Selah’s siblings attend the same public charter school where her mother teaches fifth grade, and Selah’s sights for high school are set on Lane Tech, which her mother attended.

After her older brother went through the high school enrollment process last year, Selah went in with eyes wide open. Plus, her school has a High School Placement Manager who prepares students for high school and the enrollment process.

Even so, Selah and her mother had some concerns.

Selah learned some of the foundational math skills tested on the HSAT when schools were fumbling with virtual learning during the pandemic. Studies show that students have had significant and lingering learning loss due to the pandemic, and as a teacher, Selah’s mom, Andrea Zayas, has seen some of these impacts first-hand.

This, she said, is part of what makes the enrollment process inequitable.

“I feel like this system is unfair,” she said. “It’s one test, one day. It’s an hour of their life to determine the high school that will lead to their college.”

In addition, Selah learned math at her dual-language school entirely in Spanish, and while CPS offers the opportunity to take the HSAT in Spanish, Selah feels she is stronger at reading in English. So she opted to take the test in English.

These concerns compounded the pressure, said Selah, because the stakes are so high.

It’s about “who I’m trusting to take the next four years of my life at school [and who] will help guide me,” she said.

Chicago Public Schools canceled and rescheduled the High School Admissions Test after technical problems caused problems on the original date all eighth graders were scheduled to take the exam.

Glitch adds to test day stress

On HSAT test day, the test that 20,000 eighth graders had spent months worrying about malfunctioned. Some students had been able to complete the test before the system crashed, others had completed half, some had never even been able to log in.

Meanwhile, at schools across the city, cell phones were buzzing as eighth graders texted friends about what was going on – discussing questions they remembered from the test, telling friends what to expect, and maybe freaking out a little bit.

CPS decided to reschedule the test, allowing those who finished the chance to keep their scores from this session or retake it at a later date.

Before scheduling a retest date, CPS worked with the vendor to make sure the test wouldn’t crash again. The new testing dates were finally set for Oct. 24 and 25.

Chloe

“I thought the stress would be totally gone, the stress of actually counting down the days until the test,” said Chloe Athanasiou the day after the initial test. “It’s not gone, it’s still there, because nobody knows what’s going on.”

Although Chloe was able to finish the test before the system crashed, their mother was incredibly frustrated by the technical issue.

“It really feels like a nightmare. The kids who are in tier four and have supportive parents and have resources, their parents are going to be able to navigate this in one way or another,” said Katherine Athanasiou.

Families with means, she said, might leave CPS altogether, “and then it’s just inequity upon inequity upon inequity.”

Daniel

Daniel completed the reading section on Oct. 11 and finished the test “with one minute to spare” when he retook it on the 25th. Knowing he had cut it so close made it more stressful as he awaited his scores

He had more anxiety leading up to the retake than he’d had for the initial test, he said, because there was less information available about when the test would be rescheduled. So he didn’t know how to schedule his studying time.

Elias

When Elias Gray sat down on Oct. 11 to take the test, he said all “the questions were in Spanish, and there were numbers all over the screen.”

After hearing the district would cancel and reschedule the exam, Elias felt “shock and relief at the same time.”

No one at his school was able to finish the test, he said. The principal shut down the test once malfunctions started. Knowing that kids at other schools were able to finish the test, Elias felt that the whole testing situation this year was compromised.

“That was unfair because kids at our school are friends with kids at other schools and they might use the answers there to try to [do better] on the test,” he said.

Selah

At Selah’s charter school, students were able to complete the reading section, but when they came back from break, the test was no longer working.

The whole situation had her feeling “a little bit salty,” she said.

For her, there had been more surprises than just the technical difficulties. While she had signed up to take the test in English, she found out on test day that students taking the test in Spanish were allowed to use a dictionary.

Knowing that, she said, might have changed her mind about taking the test in Spanish.

In addition, Selah was particularly put off by the timer that pops up in the corner of the screen as a warning that time was almost up.

“It was very stressful to have to keep seeing that,” she said. “I kept checking in, seeing how much time I have left.”

In the end though, Selah was mostly relieved to have more time to study and go into the test with a little more knowledge about what it would look like.

Selah Zayas is currently in eighth grade at a public charter school where their mother teaches.

After scores come back, reality sets in

After HSAT scores were released just before the Thanksgiving holiday, families had a week to re-rank their school choices if they wanted to. McPhee said people are encouraged to rank by their preference, not by where they think they have the best chance of getting in.

Many seats go to students who have ranked a school second or third, she said. “The seats aren’t gone because we filled them up with the kids who put them first.”

“If school A is your dream, always put your dream at the top of the list.”

But McPhee, a mother of two CPS students herself, hopes families will consider their neighborhood schools and realize that there are more than just a few good options for their soon-to-be high school students.

Chloe

After watching Chloe waiting for their scores and seeing the stress this process has caused, Katherine Athanasiou can only think of two words to describe the process: “developmentally inappropriate.”

“You think these kids can handle so much,” she said. “Now you turn around and you’re like … ‘they are just brand-new teenagers.’”

Despite Chloe’s high scores, the Athanasious have begun an application process for a local private school just to keep their options open. Both were disappointed by the way CPS handled the system malfunction in October.

“I really believe in public education, and I’m still hopeful that it will work out – we’ll get into either the top choice or the second choice,” said Katherine Athanasiou. “But I also want to think about a place where the application process sees a child for not just test scores and grades but for all of the things that make the child who they are.”

Chloe feels pretty good about their chances at one of their top choices and excited that their friends received similar scores so they might attend the same selective enrollment school together.

Chloe switched schools in the middle of elementary school and it made a significant difference in their mental health and happiness.

“It really makes you see that school environments can be really different,” said Chloe. “You have to find the one that’s right for you and that’s not so easy to do.”

Daniel

Daniel’s test scores – in the 90th percentile – were almost exactly what his mother expected. She feels that gives him a good chance at getting into some of the selective enrollment schools on his list.

They evaluated last year’s cutoff scores for each school and decided to re-rank his top three schools, believing he had the best chance to get into Brooks or Lindblom – both selective enrollment schools on the South Side.

While they wait for offers to be made in the spring, she plans to help her son prepare for the Algebra Exit Exam. If he passes, he’ll be able to take geometry as a freshman.

But Daniel’s mom also hopes for broader improvements for all public schools.

“The fact that there are selective enrollment schools shows us CPS knows how to create high-performing schools,” she said. “There needs to be some more equity, so that we have high-performing neighborhood schools.”

Elias

While waiting for his scores to come in, Elias went to a second open house at Gwendolyn Brooks High School, a selective enrollment school in the Pullman neighborhood. The first visit was with his class earlier in the year. This time he was impressed, and it prompted him to re-rank his top school choices – his number one is now Brooks.

Now he’s nervous again. He did well on the test, but the few Bs he got in seventh grade brought his overall score to only a little bit above last year’s cutoff score for Brooks.

He’s trying not to think about what-ifs. Instead he’s reflecting on the process so far and thinking about where he can improve. He’s already thinking about how his experience with the high school enrollment process might prepare him for four years down the line when he’s applying to college.

Selah

When Selah’s scores came in at slightly above average, she was crushed. She had expected to do better.

Her dreams of attending one of the top selective enrollment schools in the city suddenly felt out of reach and she decided to readjust her rankings during the re-ranking period. She began to think her best option might be the charter school her brother attends where sibling preference guarantees her a seat.

Her mother, on the other hand, was baffled. The scores, she said, were inconsistent with her daughter’s grades and how she performed on other standardized tests throughout the year. It made her rethink everything. Is the school not adequately preparing her children? Was there a problem with the test? Did she miss something?

This isn’t the first admissions rodeo for Andrea Zayas and it likely won’t be the last. Her eldest son went through the process last year and did not get an offer at his top choice school.

“That was a disappointment for him and it wasn’t just one day; that disappointment lingers, you know?” she said. “I really feel like it impacts how they see themselves.”

Zayas has two younger children as well – a second grader and a sixth grader – and after seeing the ways this process has impacted her two older children, she isn’t sure if it’s worth it to put her youngest two children through it too.

Her focus now is making sure her daughter understands that “a person is not one thing.”

“A person is many things all at once and there are different strengths” she said. “What is that famous quote? If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will spend its whole life believing it’s stupid.”

What do you think of Chicago’s school choice system? Chalkbeat wants to hear from you.

2023-11-20T20:13:53+00:00

Chicago’s system that allows families to apply for magnet and selective enrollment schools — often outside their neighborhoods — traces back decades. It was initially seen as a tool for desegregation.

But, in recent years, many of those schools have since been criticized for enrolling a larger share of white and Asian American students, even though those students make up a minority of the district, compared to their Black and Hispanic peers.

In addition, the emergence of charter schools in the late 1990s presented families with options outside of their local district-run school.

More recently, officials have seen Chicago’s school choice system as a way to offer families more choices, allowing them to enroll their children in a school they like, instead of being tied to a neighborhood school that may not have the resources they’re seeking.

Still, the admissions process, accessed through an application called GoCPS, has built a reputation for being confusing, cumbersome, and stressful.

Since his election earlier this year, Mayor Brandon Johnson has expressed a desire to boost investments into neighborhood schools, so families don’t feel like they need to leave their communities to get a good education for their children.

We want to know from Chicago Public Schools families: What has been your experience with the city’s school choice system? Tell us here or in the short survey below. (We will not use your answers or your name in our reporting without your permission.)

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Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Many states are moving toward private school choice. Illinois is letting its program lapse.

2023-11-14T19:35:49+00:00

A little over three years ago, Eva Villalobos was searching for a public school for her four daughters, two of whom she had recently adopted in March 2020.

She wanted a school that would provide the mental health and academic support her new daughters needed. Then she discovered St. Gall School on the city’s Southwest side. It had everything she was looking for: small class sizes, before- and after-school child care, and social emotional support.

The price tag for the Catholic school was steep — Villalobos said it cost her almost $20,000 a year for all four children. But her oldest daughter received funding from Illinois’ tax-credit scholarship, Invest in Kids, to bring the price down to about $10,000 a year.

Next school year, however, Villalobos’ children — and more than 9,000 other Illinois students who received tuition support this year through Invest in Kids — will no longer benefit from the state-sponsored financial help.

That’s because Illinois lawmakers are letting the tax-credit scholarship program lapse on Dec. 31. Students who already receive the tax credit scholarship will have their tuition paid for through the end of this school year.

Illinois’ move comes at a time when more than a dozen states across the country have created new private school choice programs or expanded existing ones.

Neighboring red states, such as Iowa and Indiana, have recently made nearly all of their students eligible for private school choice programs, which give families public dollars to pay for private educational options. Wisconsin, which has a Democratic governor and a Republican-dominated legislature, increased the dollar amount of its school vouchers over the summer.

But in Illinois, state lawmakers did not pass a bill during the fall veto session to extend the program despite a last-minute push from families and advocacy groups. Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker struck a neutral position that frustrated both sides — underscoring the shifting political winds in a state that has become more blue since the program passed six years ago.

Invest in Kids allows individuals or corporations to donate to scholarship-granting organizations that then distribute money to students from low-income families who need help paying tuition for private schools. Donors get a tax credit worth 75 cents for every dollar donated, up to $1 million. The state capped donations at $100 million and credits at $75 million — limits that were never hit, according to state data.

Michael Petrilli, president of the right-leaning Fordham Institute, said Illinois is likely the first state to kill an existing private school choice program without court intervention.

“It’s very hard to take government benefits away from people, especially when they are sympathetic individuals, especially low-income parents trying to do right by their kids,” Petrilli noted.

But opponents of private school choice programs applauded Illinois lawmakers for not extending the program when the veto session closed last Thursday evening.

Dan Montgomery, president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, one of the state’s largest teachers unions, said in a press release that “there is a nationwide push to divert public dollars from our public schools through vouchers or voucher-like programs like tax credit scholarships and education savings accounts.”

He praised Illinois lawmakers who “chose to put our public schools first.”

For Villalobos, the end of the program likely means taking her children out of a school where they are thriving.

“We would be forced to try to find different ways to still be able to support them because they need all this additional help,” she said, noting that she doesn’t see how paying for private school would be feasible. “It just won’t happen.”

How politics shifted during Invest in Kids’ existence

Last week, Villalobos and other families and supporters of Invest in Kids filled the halls of the state capitol in Springfield for the final days of the fall veto session. Wearing blue shirts that read “Save My Scholarship,” they pushed state lawmakers to call a bill, HB 4149, that would extend the program until 2029 with some new limitations around donations.

But Illinois Speaker of the House Emanuel “Chris” Welch never called the bill for a vote.

The moment stood in stark contrast to 2017, when Republicans and Democrats were engaged in a tense, drawn-out battle over how to pay for public education. A budget impasse had stretched for two years.

At the time, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner favored the idea of tax-credit scholarships and said he was “hopeful” a compromise deal would include such a program. Democratic leaders — all of whom are no longer in office — wanted a compromise to end the stalemate and better fund public schools. Behind the scenes, they were open to including a tax-credit scholarship.

Invest in Kids emerged from the closed-door negotiations that finally broke the impasse.

State lawmakers agreed in 2021 to extend the program for a year, with the backing of trade unions that supported additional money for the creation of private vocational schools. Those unions offered their support again this year.

Some advocates, who hoped for another extension, became concerned in the spring when Brandon Johnson, a former middle school teacher and organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union, became mayor of Chicago. Johnson beat Democrat Paul Vallas, a former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, who favored school vouchers and charter schools.

“His victory surprised a lot of people,” said Greg Richmond, superintendent of the Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Schools. “I had a friend who works in the political arena, he called me two days after the mayoral election and he said, ‘I hope I’m wrong, but I’m just letting you know the scholarship program is now dead.’”

The perception was that “elected officials would want to be on the right side of the CTU,” he added.

Still, in October, Pritzker said he would sign a bill if lawmakers sent it to him. A spokesperson from the governor’s office told Chalkbeat Chicago in late October, “he won’t veto something that passed with a majority supporting it.”

Republican lawmakers urged Welch to bring the bill to a vote on the House floor last week and expressed deep frustration that he didn’t do so.

Rep. William Hauter, a Republican representing a district in central Illinois between Peoria and Springfield, mocked his colleagues from the floor Thursday. “I stand to just congratulate the majority power party who has stood firmly against the Invest in Kids program.”

He called Democrats’ commitment to kill the program “breathtaking.”

In a veto session, a bill requires three-fifths vote to pass. Cassie Creswell, executive director and president of Illinois Families for Public Schools, a public education advocacy group, said Welch might not have wanted to call the bill because it didn’t have enough support from Democratic lawmakers.

“He does not want to call bills that are going to divide his caucus,” she said.

Opponents celebrate ‘historic win’

When the veto session ended on Thursday, opponents cheered the end of Invest in Kids. They said the program lacked transparency and accountability when it came to reporting who received public dollars, and it gave public money to religious schools that discriminate against LGBTQ students.

Public schools have to report academic and disciplinary data to the Illinois State Board of Education, which is included annually in the state’s report card. Similar data for Invest in Kids is not available, though students enrolled in private schools with the help of a tax-credit scholarship are required to take state standardized tests.

“We do not know test scores. We don’t know graduation rates. We don’t know discipline information. We don’t know who attends,” said Creswell. “We don’t know how anyone spent $250 million they got over these last five years. So no transparency and no oversight.”

The Illinois Department of Revenue has issued an annual report on Invest in Kids for the past five years. But much of the individual school level data is suppressed because of student privacy laws. Aggregate data collected in the most recent annual report showed 56% of students supported by tax-credit scholarships last school year were white, 32% were Hispanic or Latino, 20% were Black, and 12.5% identified as other.

Roughly two-thirds were from families whose income was below 185% of the federal poverty line — or $49,025 for a family of four in the 2022-23 school year.

Rep. Angelica Guerrero-Cuellar, a Democrat and the lead sponsor of HB 4149, said she hopes to bring new legislation in the spring.

Guerrero-Cuellar, who represents neighborhoods on the city’s southwest side and west suburbs, said more than 400 students in her district use the tax-credit scholarship to attend private schools.

“This is a critical and needed program for a lot of people,” she said. “We have food deserts, health deserts, and educational deserts.”

But some supporters of the program think a last-minute save is unlikely after lawmakers declined to act last spring and then again in the veto session.

Anthony Holter, president of Empower Illinois, one of the largest scholarship-granting organizations for the program, said he doesn’t know how “feasible it is and whether the conditions in the spring would be any different.”

Parents and students hold signs inside the Illinois State Capitol building as they rally in support of the state's tax-credit scholarship program. The tax-credit scholarship is set to sunset at the end of 2023 after lawmakers didn't act.

Supporters worry about the future for scholarship students

Some supporters of Invest in Kids worry about the long term-effects on students and schools when the tax-credit scholarship program ends.

Tracy Smith, a mother of twin boys whose tuition is supported with the help of a tax-credit scholarship, said that without an extension, private schools could close and teachers could be laid off from their jobs. She also said that ending Invest in Kids would take away families’ right to choose a school that is right for their kids.

“You’re going to have an influx of more students going into a system that they don’t want to be a part of,” said Smith. “If they don’t extend the program, you’re taking away their choice.”

Richmond, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Chicago, said some Catholic schools could face closure without the scholarship program.

“Some of our schools have 50 kids on scholarship or more,” he said. “When a school loses that number of students then the school’s future is also at risk. It’s not just the 50 students whose education is at risk.”

Some donors have already reached out about helping students stay in their schools, he said.

Christine Boyd, principal of St. Mary of the Lake and St. Thomas of Canterbury Catholic schools on the North Side of Chicago, said the vast majority of the schools’ 300 students were on scholarship. Most of the students are African immigrants who speak two languages at home, she said, and the school has a “robust” program for English language learners.

The loss of the scholarship program “will be very devastating to our community and to the school,” Boyd said.

Roni Facen, principal at St. Francis de Sales High School on the city’s Southeast Side, said that she has 55 students who are a part of Invest in Kids. She said some of the students won’t be able to continue attending the school.

The school is located in a predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood and many families are low-income, she said. Facen said that the school gives a scholarship to all students to help them attend.

“I’m gonna do everything I know how to do to keep my babies here. But it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be an easy fight,” said Facen.

Villalobos, the mother of four, was angry when lawmakers waited until the last minute to make a decision on the scholarship and disappointed that the program was not extended.

“There’s so many unforeseen things that happen in life. No matter how financially stable or healthy you are, things can change in the blink of an eye,” said Villalobos. “This is such a wonderful cushion to have for hard times.”

Now she’s trying to figure out her next step. She wants to keep her daughters at St. Gall, which offers before- and after-school care and social-emotional and academic support. But now that Invest in Kids is ending, she doesn’t know what she’ll do.

Becky Vevea contributed reporting.

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

Cara Fitzpatrick is a story editor at Chalkbeat. Contact Cara at cfitzpatrick@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago charter schools face potential crossroads with new mayor, dozens of renewals

2023-11-01T12:00:00+00:00

“What happens if our school isn’t renewed?”

Claudia Rodriguez read aloud that question, which was submitted from an audience of more than 100 parents gathered inside Noble School’s UIC College Prep’s gymnasium in mid-October.

Rodriguez, the chief of public affairs at Noble Schools, answered confidently: Non-renewal isn’t really something we’re worried about.

Noble opened one of the first charter schools in Chicago in 1999, when the concept of privately managed public charter schools was brand new. Since then, Noble has expanded to 17 campuses, and the Chicago Board of Education has renewed Noble’s charter agreement four times.

Noble is one of a record 47 charter schools up for renewal in the 2023-24 school year. In all, about 27,600 students are enrolled at these campuses — more than half of the roughly 51,000 students enrolled in charters this year.

The high-stakes renewal process, which scrutinizes charter schools’ academic performance, financial practices, and operational compliance among other factors, comes at a pivotal time, as Chicago’s political landscape is shifting under a new mayor and looming school board elections. Charter communities wonder what it could all mean for their schools.

There’s been a trend toward shorter charter renewals that began under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. In January 2020, the school board renewed seven charter operators for terms of five or more years. But in the years since, only two have received a renewal of five or more years, according to Chicago Board of Education records.

Lightfoot’s successor, Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former educator and organizer for the teachers union, has historically opposed charter expansion. During the mayoral election run-off, Johnson said that charter school expansion “forces competition for resources and ultimately harms all schools.”

But he has also stressed he does not oppose charter schools — and he is strongly against closing schools, which is what could happen if a charter is not renewed. There’s also a state-imposed moratorium on school closings in Chicago until 2025. The mayor’s office did not respond to Chalkbeat’s requests for comment.

An important limit on charter schools’ footprint is already in place for the next several months. In the 2019 contract agreement between Lightoot’s administration and the CTU, the district extended an agreement from 2016 to have a net zero increase in the number of charter schools until the contract expires in June 2024.

Johnson’s recently appointed school board will manage the charter renewal process alongside the CPS Office of Incubation and Innovation. Board President Jianan Shi is a former teacher who has taught at a district-run school in Chicago and a charter school in Boston. Before joining the board, he served as executive director of Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education, which has previously gotten funding from the Chicago Teachers Union Foundation.

CTU President Stacy Davis Gates believes the way the district handles charters altogether needs to change significantly. She wants more oversight of budgeting at charters and more-equitable engagement of parents and staff.

“The renewal process has to reflect the realities that we’re dealing with. There has been financial mismanagement, there is bloated administrative pay, there is a blind eye to culturally relevant curriculum and practices within the school community,” she said. “Now what do we do about it?”

In a statement, a district spokesperson said CPS is “committed to working with charter leaders and listening to members of our school communities to ensure we make the best possible decisions for our students.”

Nevertheless, charter school administrators, teachers, and parents are keeping a close eye on this year’s renewal process for a hint of what the future holds for the charter sector.

“I think renewal is very important in January,” said Andrew Broy, president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools. “I think that will be a first signal from this board about what they think about charter public schools.”

The ‘renewal hamster wheel’ can impact classrooms

During the renewal process last school year, 11 of 13 charters up for renewal were granted terms lasting three years or less. In 2022, six of the seven charters up for renewal were given terms of three years or less.

Parents and staff in charter school communities have different views about what the renewal process can mean for charters.

Although Noble staff are confident about their renewal, Rodriguez said the possibility they and other charters might get a shorter contract is a concern.

“From a staffing point, it takes a lot of energy,” she said. “From our parents’ [perspective], the uncertainty and instability that that could cause if we’re always thinking in renewal mode.”

Claudia Rodriguez, left, the chief of public affairs for Noble Schools, is in charge of running the renewal process for the charter school network this year.

The heavy lift, Rodriguez said, is due to the large amount of paperwork required and the amount of data the school has to collect. In addition, Rodriguez — who runs the renewal process — said since the process requires reporting on different aspects of the school’s academic, operational, and financial performance, she has to pull in staff and educators from other departments to get the information she needs.

That, she says, “does take time and resources away from the work that we could be putting back into managing our schools and supporting our students.”

“Having to be in a renewal hamster wheel is not the best option for everybody,” Rodriguez said.

Stephen Palmerin, principal at Horizon Science Academy Southwest, feels roughly the same way.

His charter received just a two-year renewal last January, due to concerns about its suspension numbers compared to those of neighboring district schools, as well as the underperformance of elementary students with disabilities.

The K-12 school, which serves about 760 students, is working to reduce suspensions by 50 percent each year before its charter is up for renewal again in 2025. But Palmerin said it’s not entirely fair that Horizon Science’s stats are being compared to both elementary and high schools, since traditionally, elementary schools have lower suspension rates than middle and high schools.

And apart from his concerns about why his school got a relatively short renewal, Palmerin called the renewal process “so time consuming.”

“I wish people would keep the students at the forefront of all decision making,” he said.

But for some parents, the renewal process serves as a way to make sure their children’s schools hold up their end of the bargain.

Blaire Flowers, a parent liaison for education non-profit Kids First Chicago, which specifically supports Black and Latino families, said when her children were at Plato Learning Academy, a contract school, and North Lawndale College Prep, a charter, renewal season was when the schools would begin to “get themselves together.”

Plato is run by a different principal than when Flowers’ children attended three years ago. But at the time, she said, there was no Parent Advisory Council, which is meant to give parents a voice at schools that receive federal Title I funds for students from low-income backgrounds.

When renewal time came, the school established a PAC and began having meetings, created more programming, and held more enrichment events for students, such as a book fair and a Christmas gym shoe drive, she said.

“That’s when they were really doing what they were supposed to,” she said.

Plato received a two-year renewal term in January. Dating back to 2017, the district has given the school relatively low ratings for its financial status and student performance on standardized tests.

Hal Woods, the executive director of the Office of Innovation and Incubation from 2018 to 2020, said he advocated for more regular check-ins with schools to ensure they were staying on track and to make renewal time “a non-event.”

Giving shorter-term renewals to charter schools that aren’t in compliance is one way the board can show schools that they “mean business” and encourage them to do better, Woods said. But with school assessment data often coming in at renewal time, he felt like his office was playing catch up and addressing issues after they’d already taken a toll.

“I just want to make sure that CPS [is] providing better and more real time information to my old department so these things can be corrected in real time,” said Woods, who is now chief of policy at Kids First Chicago.

Palmerin said there is some concern among his staff about the Johnson administration’s sentiments about charters.

“I have no choice but to remain hopeful, because thinking that our days are numbered here, that’s going to affect our work,” he said. “I just know that if we’re committed to the work that we’re doing, let’s not give them an excuse but to give us a maximum renewal.”

Closing charters could be unlikely under moratorium

By law, a charter school must be given notice that they’re failing academically, operationally, or financially. And they must be given time to resolve the issues before officials can revoke a charter agreement and close the school.

The school can also appeal the decision to the Illinois State Board of Education and if successful, it can still operate under state management in Chicago. If that fails, they can appeal in court. That was the course recently taken by Urban Prep after CPS ended its charter; the state voted to uphold the district’s decision.

After a challenge in court, a Cook County Judge ruled that CPS could not “close, consolidate, or phase-out Urban Prep” until after the school closing moratorium expires in 2025.

Woods said he doubts that there will be any charter closings in the coming years, given the legal requirements and the appeal process. But more importantly, Woods said, “it’s very very hard to close a school … because every school is a community.”

At the same time, Woods said that charter expansion is also unlikely given the decline in school-aged children in the city over the past decade.

Flowers said charter schools have served her family well. Her daughter takes three buses to her school each day because Flowers wants her to take advantage of the Phoenix Pact college scholarship option available through North Lawndale.

Blaire Flowers’ three oldest children, pictured above, attended North Lawndale College Prep and Plato Learning Academy, both charter schools. Flowers hopes Mayor Brandon Johnson will “trim the fact” from the charter sector.

Nevertheless, Flowers said she does hope that the Johnson administration will “trim the fat” from the charter sector.

“Some of these charter schools are not really helping the community like they once were,” she said.

There is quite a bit of variation in student outcomes among Chicago’s charter high schools, according to a 2017 study by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, one of the first studies to evaluate Chicago charters according to metrics beyond test scores. The study considered school organization and policies, the incoming skills and characteristics of enrolled students, school transfers, and student performance.

“The single most important takeaway from the study was how much variation there is within the charter sector,” said Julia A. Gwynne, the senior research scientist on the study. “There’s a little bit of a tendency for people to see the charter sector as being sort of monolithic all one way or all another way. And we just didn’t find that to be true.”

With the uncertainty about what a new mayor and new school board will do, Rodriguez said Noble representatives are attending more board meetings and encouraging parents and staff to speak at them to provide “a holistic view of what Noble does in the community and how we support our overall community in Chicago.”

Despite the challenges of the renewal process, Rodriguez said she doesn’t necessarily think the process needs to change. But she does believe that all schools, including traditional public schools who might not be serving students well, should go through that process.

Gates, CTU’s president, said she’s hopeful the education backgrounds of the mayor and new school board will play a role in how the district handles charters going forward. She thinks that the charter renewal process needs to be overhauled to make sure teachers and families have a voice.

Self-proclaimed “charter school mom” Myisha Shields is working to have her voice heard — she spoke at a school board meeting in August and attended Noble’s parent meeting earlier this month. She has had three children graduate from Noble charter schools, and two are current Noble students.

“It’s almost like charters have to prove a point just to stay open. We have to work harder. We have to work our kids harder to prove that these should be an option in the city of Chicago,” she said. “I just wish they would stop making it so hard. It’s so unfair.”

Regardless of how the process changes or stays the same in the coming years, Myisha Shields has one request for everyone involved.

“Just listen to us,” said Shields. “Our kids deserve a great education.”

The Chicago Board of Education is expected to vote on the renewal agreements for the 47 charter schools in January.

Correction: Nov. 1, 2023: This story has been updated with the correct spelling of Julia A. Gwynne’s name. It has also been updated to clarify Plato Learning Academy is a contract school, not a charter.

Applying to Chicago Public Schools? Here’s a guide to the 2024-25 application process.

2023-09-13T15:22:45+00:00

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It’s that time of year again: Chicago Public Schools opened its application Wednesday for elementary and high school seats for the 2024-25 school year with a deadline of Nov. 9 — about a month earlier than usual.

Families use the application for entry to a variety of schools, including selective test-in schools and neighborhood schools outside of their attendance boundaries. Sixth graders can also use the application for seven advanced middle school programs.

For high schools, there are several changes to this year’s admissions process:

The High School Admissions Test, or HSAT, will last an hour instead of the previous 2 ½ hours. This shorter test “allows CPS to get the information needed on student performance for the admissions process while helping reduce anxiety for students and increasing accessibility,” a district spokesperson said.
In addition to English, the HSAT this year will also be offered in Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, Urdu, and Polish.
The district has created a single admissions scoring rubric for all programs. Previously, there were multiple rubrics.
High schools will no longer have additional admissions requirements, such as interviews, essays, or letters of recommendation. Such a requirement “added to the complexity of the process and was burdensome for families,” according to a district spokesperson.

Students will find out their HSAT score in mid-November. After that, students can re-rank the programs they chose in GoCPS until 5 p.m. November 22, district officials said.

About half of elementary school students attend a school outside of their neighborhood, and roughly 70% of high schoolers do the same.

For the second year, families of preschoolers won’t have to apply until the spring. The city is working toward providing universal preschool for 4-year-olds. Last year, officials said there were enough seats for all children who wanted one.

For elementary school and the middle school programs, families can apply online or over the phone. For high school, they can also submit a paper application. Most charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately managed, can also be applied to through GoCPS and students are offered spots via lottery.

The application process for all students, which can involve ranking school choices and taking entrance exams, can be cumbersome for many families to navigate. The later application deadline “may catch people off guard,” said Grace Lee Sawin, co-founder of Chicago School GPS, an organization that helps families navigate admissions.

“I think that will throw off a lot of people who think they had the month of November” to explore their options, Sawin said.

In recent years, CPS has extended the application deadline. Results are expected to be released next spring. The district will hold weekly online informational sessions about GoCPS in English and Spanish starting Sept. 19 at 9 a.m. The sessions will continue until early November. Families should register online here.

Here’s what you need to know.

Families can apply to several types of Chicago elementary schools

Families can use the application for entry into several types of elementary schools.

They can select up to 20 magnets and neighborhood schools outside of their own attendance boundaries. Families can also choose from more competitive, selective enrollment schools, which require a test to get in. Those include the city’s gifted programs and classical schools, both of which offer more accelerated curriculum.

The tests can be scheduled once you submit your application. For these schools, families can choose up to six programs. Families can choose up to three gifted centers that are specifically for English learners.

For neighborhood schools, families don’t have to rank their choices, since they will be entered into the lottery for each program on their list and may get multiple offers.

For the test-in schools, applicants must rank their choices. They are eligible if they score high enough on the entrance exams, but the district does not publish what the cutoff scores are. Thirty percent of seats are reserved for the highest scorers. The remaining offers go to the highest scorers across four socioeconomic tiers that are based on where students live, as an effort by the district to more equitably admit children to selective schools.

Each city neighborhood is assigned to one of four tiers, with the first tier representing the lowest-income areas, along with other factors, such as less education attainment. (You can look up your tier using this map.)

Students who choose magnet programs are entered into a lottery. Schools set aside remaining seats for students from each tier. There are also preferences given to siblings and in some cases, students who live within a certain proximity to the magnet school.

CPS offers admission to 7 accelerated middle school programs

Sixth graders can use the elementary application to apply to the city’s seven Academic Centers, which offer accelerated middle school programs. They are located inside of high schools — some of which are the city’s selective programs, such as Whitney Young — allowing these middle schoolers to take high school level courses.

Students must have at least a 2.5 GPA to apply and must take an entrance exam that can be scheduled through GoCPS. They can choose up to six school options, and must rank their selections. Students are admitted based on their score, with the highest scorers offered seats first. Last year’s cutoff scores can be found here.

All 8th graders encouraged to apply for a variety of Chicago high schools

The first step for eighth graders seeking a high school seat is taking the high school admissions test, or HSAT.

Due to a change last year, the exam is now given in school to all eighth graders at the same time. This year it’s scheduled for Oct. 11. Private school students can take the test on Oct. 14, 15, or 21, according to the district’s website.

Students can enroll in their neighborhood high school or they can use the application to rank up to 20 other high school programs. Schools may have multiple programs, such as one in fine arts and another in world language.

While many of these schools admit students via lottery, they may also have various preferences, such as for kids who live within the attendance boundary or those who earned higher math scores.

Students can also choose from the city’s 11 selective enrollment programs and can rank up to six of them. These schools are more competitive and admit students based on a rubric that includes their HSAT results and their GPA. Last school year, the first 30% of seats went to students with the highest scores on the rubric. The rest of the seats are split up among the highest scoring students across the four socioeconomic tiers. Last year’s cut scores for selective enrollment schools can be found here and for other high schools, they can be found here.

Selective enrollment schools have been criticized for enrolling larger shares of affluent, white, and Asian American students versus Black and Latino students who make up more than 82% of the district. Officials promised to overhaul the system last year in order to make it more equitable, but none of the promised changes have been made.

Students can receive up to two offers — one each for selective enrollment and CHOICE. If they get just one offer, CPS will automatically add them to waitlists at schools they ranked higher than where they got in. If the student doesn’t receive any offers, they can join waitlists for schools they want to attend or they enroll in their neighborhood school.

What is the application process for children with disabilities?

Students with disabilities can apply to any program. No matter which school they end up in, the district is legally required to provide any services that a student may need, according to their Individualized Education Program, or IEP.

For admissions exams, students should be afforded any testing accommodations listed on their 504 plans or IEPs, according to the FAQ page.

However, students with disabilities may face a more complicated school assignment process. For example, if a child is physically impaired and is offered a seat at a magnet elementary program that is not accessible, the district will offer transportation to a “comparable” magnet program that has the proper accommodations, according to a district FAQ about the admissions process.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools is becoming less low-income. Here’s why that matters.

2023-09-06T22:09:52+00:00

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About six years ago, Lori Zaimi’s daughter told her mom that another longtime friend was leaving their elementary school in Edgewater on the North Side. The friend’s apartment building, she explained, had been sold to someone who was going to renovate it.

Zaimi recognized the familiar story of gentrification, when higher-income families move into a working class neighborhood and drive up property values. She’d seen property demolitions and pricey single family housing go up across Edgewater, the formerly working class neighborhood where she grew up.

She has also seen the impact in her daughter’s school, where Zaimi became principal in 2015. These days, she said, rent is “unaffordable for many of our families.”

A decade ago, nearly 73% of students at the school, Helen C. Peirce School of International Studies, came from low-income households, according to district data. Last school year, that figure was just over 34%.

Zaimi’s school is not alone. Ten years ago, 85% of Chicago Public Schools students came from low-income households. Now, that figure is 73% — a 12 percentage point drop — according to district data from the 2022-23 school year. Chicago Public Schools considers a student “economically disadvantaged” if their family’s income is within 185% of the federal poverty line. This year, that threshold is $55,500 or less for a family of four.

The drop, experts say, is driven by several factors, including gentrification, population and enrollment shifts, as well as a potential dissatisfaction with district schools.

Even though the number of students from low-income families has dropped, nearly three-quarters of the district’s student body is still considered “economically disadvantaged.” But if the downward trend continues, Chicago schools could continue to see fewer dollars than expected from the state, which funds districts in part by considering how many students from low-income families are enrolled.

For individual schools, such as Peirce, the decline has led to the loss of Title I money, federal dollars sent to schools with high shares of low-income students. But as the school has become more mixed-income, it has also become more racially diverse: Last school year, Peirce was 47% white and 32% Hispanic, compared to 17% white and 62% Hispanic 10 years ago.

As the district enrolls a smaller share of students from low-income households, Chicago’s schools continue to look different from how they did a decade ago, especially in rapidly changing neighborhoods. That shift raises questions about who schools are serving, how they should be resourced, and what the district — and the city — can do as it continues to lose students.

Low-income drops happening across Chicago, but steeper in some neighborhoods

Peirce is one of more than 200 schools that have seen their share of students from low-income families drop by more than the districtwide decline of 12 percentage points, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of the district’s public school enrollment data from the 2022-23 school year.

The analysis of the past decade also found:

While overall enrollment has also fallen, it’s still outpaced by the loss of students from low-income families. The district enrolled 31% fewer students from low-income families than in 2013, as the district’s overall enrollment dipped by 20%.
When looking at neighborhoods, schools in Lincoln Square and Irving Park, on the North Side, and West Elsdon, on the Southwest Side, saw a median 20 percentage point drop or more in students from low-income households since 2013. That’s more than any other community area.
Nine of the top 10 schools that lost the largest shares of students from low-income households were located on the North Side, across gentrifying neighborhoods.
Half of them enrolled more children last school year than they did 10 years ago, bucking citywide trends.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, 73 schools saw increases in their share of students from low-income families. One-third are on the South and West sides — regions that have also lost the most residents between 1999 and 2020, according to a 2022 report from UIC.

CPS officials use two methods to find out which students are from low-income households. They automatically count students who receive certain government aid meant for low-income families, such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits. And they collect forms handed out at the start of the school year that ask families to report their income, which in the past helped the district determine students who qualified for free or reduced price lunch.

In 2014, CPS became eligible for the federal universal free meals program for districts that serve at least 40% students from low-income families. With less pressure on schools to collect the forms, which are not mandatory, some have suggested that the district may be collecting fewer of them, potentially skewing the data about low-income families.

A CPS spokesperson said it could be “one of several reasons” behind the drop in the district’s share of low-income students. However, district officials declined to share the rate at which forms have been returned over the past decade, instead asking Chalkbeat to file an open records request for that information.

There’s some evidence that those forms do not get filled out, particularly among new students, said Elaine Allensworth, who studies education policy and is Lewis-Sebring Director of the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research.

In the 2014-15 school year, 86% of preschoolers and 81% of kindergartners were listed as coming from low-income families, on par with children in other grades, district data show. The next school year, after the district became federally eligible for universal free lunch, around 62% of preschool and kindergarten students came from low-income families, while figures in older grades shifted just a couple percentage points from the previous year.

“That says to me new families that are coming into CPS are not signing up for free lunch,” Allensworth said, who added that population shifts are also a likely contributing factor.

The current data for early grades could also signal that CPS is likely to see its low-income population decline further. Last school year, nearly one-quarter of preschoolers and close to half of kindergarteners were from low-income families, compared to more than three-quarters of students in nearly all of the older grades.

Multiple principals told Chalkbeat they don’t believe missing paperwork is a big contributor — or that it is a factor at all — since their funding heavily relies on collecting those forms.

Another factor in the drop of low-income students could be a slight uptick in families seeking out private schools. Of Chicago’s low-income families, 10% were enrolled in private school in 2021 — an increase of 3 percentage points from 2019, according to an analysis of Census data by Jose Pacas, chief of data science and research at Kids First Chicago. That’s after little change since 2012, the last time there was a similar increase.

That coincides with the COVID pandemic when CPS switched to virtual learning, as well as the launch of Illinois’ tax credit scholarship program, which began in the 2018-19 school year. The program grants tax credits to people who fund scholarships for low-income students who want to attend private schools. That program is expected to sunset this year.

Some low-income parents, like Blaire Flowers, say they’re frustrated with the lack of good school options available in the neighborhoods they can afford to live in. Her daughter takes two buses to a charter high school miles away from their home in Austin on the West Side because Flowers wasn’t able to find a school she liked in their own neighborhood.

West Side parent Blaire Flowers, pictured in the center, is surrounded by four of her five children.

The mother of five also fears that CPS won’t provide her 4-year-old son who has autism with an adequate education. She’s already struggled to secure bus transportation for him this year, and she’s heard frustrations from parents of older students with disabilities who have had trouble securing services they’re entitled to.

If Flowers left Chicago, she’d follow in the footsteps of many friends and family members, some who found the city too expensive, she said.

“Everyone I know, that I was close to, has left the city,” Flowers said.

As neighborhoods gentrify, schools face stark choices

The demographic changes in Chicago Public Schools are largely a reflection of a changing city, experts said.

From 2010 to 2020, Chicago’s population grew by 2%. The median household income also grew by more than $20,000, according to U.S. Census estimates. But during that time, the school district saw enrollment decline by 60,000 students. In recent years, the city’s population has dipped by 3%, driven in part by an exodus of working class families.

“The share of working class families in Chicago is decreasing with time, as its industry and economy shifts toward white collar jobs that skew upper class, college educated,” said William Scarborough, the lead author of the UIC report, who is now an associate professor of sociology at the University of North Texas.

School closings, including the mass closures under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, may have also pushed some working-class families to leave the city if they lost a beloved neighborhood school, Scarborough added. More people left the majority Black census tracts that experienced those 2013 school closures versus similar areas that did not, according to a WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times investigation.

As schools lost students, some principals doubled down on enrolling the kids who lived in their neighborhood.

That’s what happened at Alexander Hamilton Elementary School in Lake View on the North Side, which saw one of the biggest drops in the share of students from low-income families. In 2013, Hamilton enrolled nearly 40% of children from low-income households, according to district data. That dropped to roughly 9% last school year.

James Gray, who was the principal from 2009-17, inherited an enrollment crisis when he took over Hamilton, which had narrowly escaped closure. The school enrolled 243 students when he arrived – roughly half of the almost 500 it served in 1999. He set out on what he called a “guerrilla effort” to sign up more neighborhood children, offering tours of the school, hosting weekend events and open houses, and even venturing to the park to chat up parents of toddlers — or potential future students.

Gray was successful. By the time he left, enrollment had jumped back up to about 480 students. He noticed that his students were increasingly coming from wealthier families. They were also more white. But that’s who lived in the neighborhood.

In 2013, the school was 47% white, 12% Black, 30% Hispanic and 4% Asian. Last school year, 73% of students were white — on par with the racial makeup of Lake View — while just 3% were Black, just under 13% were Hispanic, and nearly 4% were Asian American. (Hamilton’s current principal did not respond to a request for an interview.)

Though the shifts at individual schools can be stark, the racial breakdown districtwide has only changed slightly. As of last school year, the district’s students were 4% Asian American, 11% white, 36% Black, and 46.5% Hispanic. Ten years ago, 3% were Asian American, 9% were white, 40.5% were Black, and close to 45% were Hispanic.

Research has shown that students in diverse schools, both socioeconomically and racially, perform better academically than schools that are not integrated.

At the same time, families who become the minority may not feel as included or even shut out from their schools. As more neighborhood white families enrolled at Hamilton, Gray said, he received an anonymous note that said he had “driven Black and brown families away.”

It also stung when former students would visit and notice improvements at the school — bankrolled, in part, by parent fundraising efforts — such as new hoops and backboards in the gym and a new science lab.

They would say some version of, “Oh Mr. Gray, I wish you could have done this while I was here,” he recalled.

“They realized their experience was different from the kindergarteners or first graders’ experience over time,” Gray said.

While the demographic shifts have led to more income and racial diversity at some schools, that diversity could be fleeting as gentrification continues to push longtime neighborhood families out.

John-Jairo Betancur, professor of urban planning and policy at UIC, said as property values “dramatically” increase, families — and their children — leave for other neighborhoods or the suburbs, causing enrollment in the local schools to drop. At the same time, birth rates are declining in Chicago and more households do not include children, Betancur noted.

That has happened in Logan Square, home to Lorenz Brentano Math & Science Academy elementary school.

Similar to Hamilton, Brentano was at risk of closure due to low enrollment in 2013. Principal Seth Lavin’s priority when he became principal in 2015 was to bring in more students. He, too, was successful through various efforts, giving more than 100 school tours his first year, he said.

Today, the school enrolls almost 700 children, a 62% increase from a decade ago. But the school looks different. Roughly 39% of students come from low-income households, a nearly 50 percentage point drop from 2013 when 88% did. The school has also become more diverse: Half of Brentano’s students are Hispanic, just over a third are white, and about 5% are Black. A decade ago, 85% of students were Hispanic, while 5% were white, and 4% were Black.

Lavin said he is worried that gentrification has already “pushed out a lot of families” and will continue to do so, leading to a “great sense of loss” for families who have long called Logan Square home, and believe Brentano is at the heart of their community.

“It’s heartbreaking that even as we grow, and there’s expansion and the programming and things we didn’t have before that we’re able to get because of enrollment growth, that we’re losing families that should have those things, too,” Lavin said.

‘We have to keep kids in neighborhoods’

Lavin can spot six buildings outside of Brentano that have been renovated and hiked up rent prices in the last several years. He said the city “desperately” needs affordable housing and a pathway to home ownership.

“If we want to keep kids in neighborhood schools, we have to keep kids in neighborhoods,” he said.

Mayor Brandon Johnson has said that building more affordable housing and boosting neighborhood schools are priorities for his administration. Specifically, the mayor wants to grow the district’s Sustainable Community Schools model, which provides extra money for wraparound support and programming.

Separately, Johnson’s vision for school funding would alleviate pressure on principals to enroll more children in order to have a well-resourced school, or even to avoid closure. Though in the past more students meant more funding, CPS officials have been shifting toward funding schools based on need, not just enrollment. But that comes as the district stares down financial challenges, including a fiscal cliff as COVID relief dollars are set to run out.

If the city does nothing to address issues such as affordable housing, Chicago will shift toward “a city that primarily serves elites,” said Scarborough, the author of the UIC report.

District officials have not yet researched the trend around losing students from low-income families, a spokesperson said.

But many principals have noticed these shifts for years.

Even with how her community has changed, Zaimi’s school has two counselors and more staff focused on academic intervention. Still, she wishes she had more funding to hire a parent resource coordinator who could work with families, as well as instructional coaches who could help new teachers or those using new strategies in the classroom.

After all, she emphasized, her students have a lot of needs, regardless of their income. And, last year, more than one-third — about 370 — came from low-income families. That’s larger than the enrollment of entire schools in Chicago.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Thomas Wilburn is the senior data editor for Chalkbeat. Reach Thomas at twilburn@chalkbeat.org.

Urban Prep Academies could be turned over to Chicago Public Schools after state denies appeal

2023-04-19T21:44:09+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and statewide education policy.

Urban Prep Academies may soon no longer operate public charter high schools in Chicago after state education officials denied the nonprofit’s appeal of a decision by the Chicago Board of Education.

The Illinois State Board of Education’s ruling could mean the end of Urban Prep’s 17-year run as a nationally-recognized charter school network known for serving Black boys.

But Urban Prep officials said late Wednesday that they filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Cook County “asserting that the Chicago Public Schools has violated state law that there be a moratorium on school closings until 2025.”

However, the district is not planning to close the schools. In October, when the Chicago Board of Education voted to revoke Urban Prep’s charter agreement to operate campuses in Englewood and Bronzeville, district officials – in a nod to the network’s unique mission and model – promised to continue operating the schools under district management.

At the time, the Chicago school board cited the charter network’s mismanaged finances and its response to a sexual misconduct investigation involving Urban Prep’s founder, which were uncovered by a report by Chicago Public Schools’ Inspector General.

That report alleged that the charter network’s founder, Tim King, groomed an underage student who later worked at the nonprofit and continued to receive paychecks and benefits after he stopped working there. King denies the allegations.

Board chair Steven Isoye said after Wednesday’s vote that “critical steps are already in motion” to communicate with current students and families about the transition. He said Chicago Public Schools will operate a new school with two campuses and an advisory group is already working on transition plans. A district spokesperson confirmed that plan and said the campuses would remain at their current locations.

Two state board members — Donna Leak and James Anderson — abstained from voting on Urban Prep’s appeal.

“As an African American woman and the mother of an African American son myself, I know there’s a need for a safe space that provides them with the chance to know your value and not how you are portrayed in the media on so many occasions,” Leak said. “We have to do better for African American young men.”

Over the last several months, parents and school leadership have fought to keep all three campuses open and under the operation of Urban Prep Academies. The school’s website also appears to still be accepting applications for new students.

“We trust that the courts will rule in favor of justice and Urban Prep students and families,” the statement from Urban Prep read.

The state board had also voted in November to revoke a charter it held with Urban Prep for a third campus — which the state took over in 2019 after the charter network appealed a decision by Chicago’s school board to close that campus. That campus is slated to close at the end of this school year.

Dennis Lacewell, Urban Prep’s chief academic officer, told state board members their decision will impact 400 current students and “hundreds of elementary and middle school black boys” who will “lose the Urban Prep option.” He called the Chicago school board’s October decision “erroneous” and accused the district of “moving the goalposts” as the network tried to address concerns about financial mismanagement.

“A decision to close our schools would eliminate this black institution which almost 20 years ago took on a challenge to successfully educate the most neglected demographic of students: Black boys,” Lacewell said prior to the vote. He also said the decision could result in roughly 100 people losing their jobs, 85% of whom are Black.

Isoye said Chicago Public Schools is committed to retaining as many current Urban Prep staff as possible.

As part of the appeals process with the state, a hearing officer issued a full report for each school in February and recommended the appeals be denied. The reports outlined concerns about Urban Prep’s financial management, noting “extensive borrowing practices via credit cards and predatory lenders.”

It also highlighted a finding by Chicago Public Schools Inspector General that the charter network obtained a Paycheck Protection Program loan from the federal government that “made significant misrepresentations regarding the cost of its operations leading to the receipt of a loan larger than what it would have otherwise been qualified to receive.”

Last fall, Chicago school board members acknowledged that Urban Prep’s academic model has been successful for the Black teenage boys it serves. In the past, Urban Prep has received national recognition for graduating Black students at high rates and steering them into college.

The school’s leadership decided to appeal to the Illinois State Board of Education in November to prevent Chicago from taking over the schools.

After the vote, Isoye said the decision to deny Urban Prep’s appeal — effectively ending the once-lauded charter network — was “not an easy one to make.”

“Supporting the success of Urban Prep students through the transition and beyond is a top priority of all of us here,” Isoye said.

Mauricio Peña contributed to this report.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson’s win reflects local and national shifts on education

2023-04-12T20:35:00+00:00

The direction of public education in Chicago changed last week when voters elected a teachers union organizer and former middle school teacher to be the city’s next mayor over a former schools chief and education consultant.

Brandon Johnson, 47, clinched victory with 52% of the vote over Paul Vallas, 69, and will be sworn in as mayor on May 15.

He comes to the job with more experience in public education than most, if not all, previous mayors. Johnson will also be the first mayor in recent memory to hold the title of a public school parent. And he’ll be the last with the power to appoint the school board.

But most significantly, Johnson brings a teachers union-friendly perspective that rejects many of the education ideas that once dominated Democratic politics and defined Vallas’ career: a focus on accountability for schools, teachers, and students, market-based school choice, and top-down decision-making from the mayor. Support from Democrats for those ideas began to erode years ago, making Johnson’s rise part of a bigger national shift.

“The former bipartisan ground that the Paul Vallas-esque reformers used to occupy, where do they stand anymore?” said Sarah Reckhow, a political scientist at Michigan State University who studies education policy. “The ground has shifted beneath them.”

Brandon Johnson announced his bid for Chicago mayor on Oct. 27, 2022. His win over Paul Vallas on April 4, 2023 marked the culmination of a years-long effort by the Chicago Teachers Union to influence public policy beyond the classroom.

Johnson’s win is also a win for local progressives, who see it as the culmination of years of effort. His education agenda — which closely mirrors policy papers put out by the Chicago Teachers Union over the past several years — calls for more funding for traditional public schools, higher pay for teachers, and additional social services for students.

Emma Tai, executive director of United Working Families, which endorsed Johnson and helped turn out the vote with an army of field organizers, said Johnson’s victory comes after a “years-long journey” of “sustained, aspirational” organizing.

“Both (Donald) Trump’s secretary of education and (Barack) Obama’s secretary of education endorsed Paul Vallas and he lost,” said Tai. “A working-class majority defeated a bipartisan, wealthy donor consensus on public education. And I think that any Democrats with national aspirations or presidential aspirations need to pay pretty close attention to that.”

Johnson’s victory follows a decade of growing union strength

The start of Johnson’s political career can be traced to the summer of 2011, when he left the classroom to become an organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union.

For more than a decade prior, Chicago had been a testing ground for a vision of school improvement that relied on accountability and pushed publicly-funded, privately-run charter schools as engines of improvement.

In this worldview, held by Democrats and Republicans alike, teachers unions were seen as stubborn barriers to progress, intent on preserving an adult-centered status quo.

When Johnson became an organizer, Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s first chief of staff, had just been elected mayor and Illinois lawmakers had passed a new law reforming teacher tenure and limiting the Chicago Teachers Union’s ability to strike. It was one of dozens of laws passed across the country — in red and blue states alike — aimed at weakening the collective bargaining rights of teachers.

That did not sit well with classroom teachers.

A year earlier, a high school chemistry teacher named Karen Lewis had been elected as the new president of the Chicago Teachers Union on a platform promising to oppose charter school expansion, stop neighborhood school closures, and take on high-stakes testing and accountability.

The headquarters of Chicago Teachers Union sit on Chicago’s Near West Side.

Lewis and Emanuel became foils on the future of public education in Chicago — and nationally. They battled over seemingly everything — how long the school day and year should be; how teachers should be evaluated and compensated; and eventually, whether or not 50 public schools should be shuttered.

Though Emanuel succeeded in shuttering 50 schools, Lewis said the “fight for education justice” would “eventually move to the ballot box.”

“Clearly, we have to change the political landscape in this city,” Lewis said on the day the school board voted on the school closures in 2013.

That moment galvanized more than just the teachers union. Tai, now the head of United Working Families, said those closures prompted her to get into politics.

“I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t want them to be able to do this anymore,’” Tai said. “What’s it going to take so that I never have to be at a Board of Education meeting again, watching as Black parents are dragged out by white jacketed security guards while they’re crying? I never want to have to see that again.”

Johnson was one of the boots on the ground for the teachers union during this time, convening groups of teachers from schools on the South and West Sides and building coalitions with community organizations.

He helped elect City Council members in 2015 and supported Jesus “Chuy” Garcia’s bid for mayor when Lewis was sidelined by a brain tumor. In 2018, Johnson ran for a seat on the Cook County Board of Commissioners and won — a victory Lewis applauded in a letter to teachers when she resigned as CTU president.

But in 2019, the union’s endorsed candidate for mayor, Toni Preckwinkle, lost to outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot in a landslide. That fall, teachers went on strike for 11 days and although the union secured some significant wins, the protracted fight left some teachers and parents frustrated. Still, this spring, the union’s existing leadership won re-election.

Chicago Teachers Union members rallied outside City Hall on the 11th day of their strike in 2019.

Johnson’s ascension to mayor is now an ironic — and perhaps fitting — end to three decades of mayoral control over Chicago Public Schools, a major priority of the union’s. In an interview last week, Johnson told Chalkbeat that he still supports eventually relinquishing control to an elected school board now that he’s been elected.

“Anyone else would say, ‘Well, now that we have it, we’re good because we have our mayor. So let’s keep it. Let’s keep mayoral control,’” he said. “That would miss the moment … We still believe that democracy is the best form of governance for our public school system.”

Mayoral campaign becomes an indictment of education reform

The union had tried and failed twice in the last decade to put an ally in the mayor’s office. But Vallas was a different kind of opponent, and the union capitalized on growing skepticism among Democrats about his education record.

He rose to prominence in 1995 as the first CEO of Chicago Public Schools after the state legislature handed control of the system to then-Mayor Richard M. Daley. He became a leading advocate for and adopter of the education-reform playbook touted by both Democrats and Republicans throughout the early 2000s.

Defenders of Vallas say he fixed entrenched problems and improved outcomes for students. But others, including the CTU, say he left a “trail of destruction” in the places where he worked — which Johnson supporters highlighted during an event on the city’s South Side just weeks before the election. Vallas supporters disrupted that event and called their claims “completely untrue.”

Still, Johnson’s campaign continued to focus on Vallas’ complicated schools legacy, even releasing a two-minute ad with parents from New Orleans and Philadelphia talking about teachers being fired during Vallas’ time leading those districts.

Paul Vallas represented a different kind of opponent for the Chicago Teachers Union, which had tried twice to put an ally in the mayor’s office.

Peter Cunningham, founder and board chair of Education Post and former assistant secretary at the U. S. Department of Education, said Vallas — and his record on education running school systems in Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Chicago — were mischaracterized and unfairly maligned. Vallas advocated for more than just school choice and high-stakes accountability, he said. For example, he started a program that still exists to provide Chicago Public Schools students with free eye exams and eyeglasses and developed a school-based teen pregnancy program. He built more than 70 new school buildings — including the one where Johnson eventually taught middle school.

“I would not say the reform movement was a failure in any sense,” Cunningham said. “I would say that it had considerable successes.”

And even though Johnson’s campaign criticized Chicago’s system of school choice that Vallas helped to build, he has taken advantage of it for his three children, two of whom attend a magnet elementary school and one who attends a neighborhood high school that is not his zoned school. That’s a reflection of the way Chicago Public Schools has been reshaped by the changes of the last two decades in ways that are likely to outlast any mayor.

“We’ve seen a lot of improvement in Chicago over the last 15 years,” said Elaine Allensworth, Lewis-Sebring director of the UChicago Consortium on School Research, which has studied Chicago Public Schools since 1990.

More students are graduating high school, going to, and finishing college. Student learning accelerated between 2009 to 2014 — with students gaining six years worth of education in five — according to research out of Stanford University. Out-of-school suspensions have decreased.

“No matter what you think about the reforms of the last 30 years, that’s not the question,” Cunningham said.

“The question is: What do you want to do in the next 10?”

The work beyond the classroom walls begins

The vision laid out by the teachers union more than a decade ago will come to fruition on May 15 when Johnson is sworn in as mayor.

Now, he will have the chance to tackle the issues beyond the classroom, beyond the school building, beyond the district administration. As he moves from an outsider advocating for a certain ideology to decision maker, Johnson will face the realities of governing a city known for its provincial politics, despite being dominated by Democrats.

Johnson will be responsible for a police department grappling with reforms mandated by the federal government and a public health department still dealing with a global pandemic. He’ll oversee multiple city agencies that determine when libraries are open, whether trains run on time, how businesses are licensed, and how to manage garbage pickup and alley rats.

Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson spoke at a City Club of Chicago luncheon during his campaign for mayor.

Allensworth said educators have an “innate sense” of how those different sectors — such as transportation, public health, and safety — all impact public schools.

“I do hope that having that knowledge will help him be a good strong coordinator of all those different services in the service of young people in Chicago,” she said.

And although Chicago Public Schools has seen a lot of improvement, the pandemic stymied some of its progress. Chicago’s scores on the nation’s report card last year dropped in math and flat-lined in reading. Long-standing gaps between students of color and their white peers remain. The district’s handling of students with disabilities is being monitored by the state, after a 2018 report found it delayed and denied services to those children.

“There’s so much more work to do,” said former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who led Chicago Public Schools from 2001 to 2008 and now heads a nonprofit focused on violence prevention.

Duncan endorsed Vallas and in doing so, didn’t mention education or schools. In an interview with Chalkbeat, he said the mayoral election was as much about education as it was about public safety, noting that when students drop out of high school, they’re more likely to be shot and killed.

“The consequences here in Chicago for educational failure are pretty staggering,” Duncan said. “This is absolutely about education. It’s absolutely about breaking cycles of poverty and helping people have upward mobility and enter the middle class.”

Now, he said the city needs to rally around Johnson. And he applauded the former teachers union organizer for promising to double the number of youth summer jobs from 30,000 to 60,000 and make that employment program year round.

Johnson has also promised to fund the city’s public schools based on need, not enrollment, which has been declining for the past decade. With schools slated to get their budgets this month, it’s not clear if the formula for doling out money will change in time for next school year. He’s vowed to continue investing in support staff — such as social workers, school nurses, and librarians — which Chicago Public Schools has already started doing using federal COVID recovery money.

He’ll have to negotiate a new contract with his former employer, the Chicago Teachers Union, and decide whether to keep current district leadership, including CEO Pedro Martinez, in place.

Tai, with United Working Families, said Johnson’s win does not mean their work is finished.

“I don’t think it’s ever really over,” she said. “But it’s a game changer, a conversation changer, and once again, Chicago’s in the center of it.”

Patrick Wall contributed reporting.

This story has been updated to correct Peter Cunningham’s title.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Like the candidates themselves, donors in Chicago’s mayoral race have deep education ties

2023-03-31T23:36:51+00:00

Like the candidates themselves, the people and organizations giving big money in Chicago’s mayoral election have strong ties to public education — and the debates around it for the past two decades.

Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas’ campaign has been propelled by wealthy business executives, while county commissioner and union organizer Brandon Johnson has been fueled by labor unions.

The Chicago Teachers Union is Johnson’s biggest donor, while Vallas has received six-figure donations from wealthy individuals with ties to school choice and education reform, including some who have charter schools named after them. Vallas, a torch bearer for school choice and charter schools, has supported voucher expansion. Meanwhile, Johnson’s progressive platform aligns closely with the teachers union’s vision for the district.

While a full accounting of campaign donations and spending won’t be available until after the election, a Chalkbeat Chicago analysis of Illinois State Board of Elections records shows Vallas has received at least $15 million since October and Johnson has collected more than $10 million since October 1, 2022.

Johnson’s campaign fueled by labor unions and educators

Johnson received the backing of the Chicago Teachers Union, his largest donor, before officially launching his campaign last fall. Since then, the union’s Political Action Committee has donated almost $2.2 million to his campaign, according to state board of elections records.

The union has poured millions into aldermanic and mayoral campaigns in recent years as a way to influence broader policies that affect public schools. Some rank-and-file CTU members have filed a complaint against union leadership, alleging members’ dues were being funneled to the union’s political action committee, according to WTTW’s Paris Schutz.

A handful of other labor unions are among Johnson’s other top donors. The parent unions of the CTU — Illinois Federation of Teachers and American Federation of Teachers — each gave $940,000 and $2.1 million respectively. The country’s other largest teachers union, the National Education Association, donated $50,000, and its Illinois counterpart gave $75,000. Several political committees connected to the unions that represent special education aides, classroom assistants, school bus aides, child care workers, and nurses, have collectively donated more than $2 million, according to a Chalkbeat analysis.

United Working Families, a progressive group and CTU ally, has also donated almost $47,000 in in-kind contributions, usually in the form of staff help, to Johnson’s campaign and the national Working Families Party donated $70,000.

Aside from labor unions, Johnson’s campaign coffers have mostly been filled by smaller individual donations — many from teachers and educators. For example, he received $20,000 — one of his largest individual gifts — from Elizabeth Simons, a former bilingual education teacher, who now chairs the board of the Heising-Simons Foundation. The foundation provides grants to organizations aimed at strengthening early childhood education for low-income families.

Attorneys who have represented the Chicago Teachers Union at the bargaining table donated to Johnson. Robin Potter, mother of union Vice President Jackson Potter, gave $6,000 and Robert Bloch’s law firm donated $5,000.

Others who have advocated for more funding for public schools gave to Johnson, as well. Cassie Creswell of Illinois Families for Public Schools gave $5,000, and National Education Association President Rebecca Pringle donated $2,000. Kenneth Williams-Bennett, father of CPS graduate Chance the Rapper, also donated $8,000 to Johnson. Williams-Bennett was previously an aide to late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, and former Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Chance donated $2.2 million to Chicago Public Schools in 2017, as the school district was fighting for more state funding.

Vallas backed by wealthy donors with ties to education reform

Vallas’ campaign war chest is bigger than Johnson’s and has been throughout the campaign. The former district CEO has seen an infusion of cash from corporate business executives, many of whom have ties to charter schools and other education organizations.

One of his largest individual donors is Paul J. Finnegan, co-founder and co-CEO of Madison Dearborn Partners, a private investment equity firm in Chicago. Finnegan has donated $400,000 since October. He is a past chairman and current local advisory board member of Teach for America. Finnegan also sits on the board of CDW Corporation, a technology and services provider for businesses, governments, and school districts, including Chicago Public Schools, which has ramped up purchasing in recent years using COVID-19 recovery dollars.

According to tax filings from 2019, the Finnegan Family Foundation supports dozens of education nonprofits, including Teach for America and the Academy for Urban School Leadership, and charter schools networks, including Noble, LEARN, KIPP, and Intrinsic.

Golf resort owner Michael Keiser, who also sits on the local advisory board of Teach for America, and his wife, Rosalind, have donated $400,000 to Vallas’ campaign since October. He also made a $500,000 donation last summer, shortly after Vallas announced his bid. Finnegan and Keiser are also supporters of the University of Chicago’s Urban Education Institute.

Other six-figure donations include Craig Duchossois, executive chairman of the Duchossois Group, has donated $760,000. The Duchossois Family Foundation has given grants to After School Matters, according to the foundation’s website.

Citadel executive Gerald Beeson has donated $300,000 since October. Beeson and his wife have an ongoing scholarship for students at Big Shoulders Fund, which provides support to Catholic elementary and high schools in low-income communities.

Two of Vallas’ top donors helped open charter schools in Chicago that now bear their names. Donald Wilson, CEO of DRW Holdings, supported the opening of the Noble Network of Charter Schools 12th campus — DRW College Prep —on the West Side in 2012. He has donated a combined $350,000 to Vallas’ campaign since January.

Joseph Mansueto, a billionaire entrepreneur and owner of the Chicago Fire soccer team, donated $250,000 to Vallas’ campaign. In 2017, he donated $18 million that largely funded the construction of Noble’s 17th campus in Brighton Park, now named Mansueto High School.

Deborah Quazzo, a controversial ex-Chicago school board member, and her husband donated $7,500 and $10,000, respectively, to Vallas’ campaign, as first reported by WBEZ. Quazzo left her seat after the Sun-Times reported on her business dealings with the district. The district Office of Inspector General said Quazzo violated Chicago Public Schools’ ethics code, according to the Sun-Times.

Even though they have not given direct donations to Vallas’ campaign, two political action committees focused on school choice and education reform are backing his candidacy by running ads for his platform and against Johnson.

On March 23, the American Federation for Children, a group founded by former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, donated $65,000 to the Illinois Federation for Children PAC. On the same day, the group gave $59,385 to a political strategic media firm Go Big Media, for digital media supporting Vallas, records show.

INCS Action Independent Committee, which supports candidates who are supportive of charter schools, spent $258,000 on television ads and $359,000 on digital media opposing Johnson, as first reported by WTTW.

INCS Action has received most of its funding since October from James S. Frank, who gave the committee a collective $1.5 million. Frank is on the boards of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and Chicago Public Education Fund, in addition to Teach for America’s local advisory board. He has donated $225,000 directly to Vallas since January.

Campaigns have until April 17 to file a full accounting of their fundraising and spending activities through March 31.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago students get swimming lessons and a chance to learn life-saving skills

2023-03-27T18:32:53+00:00

About half a dozen second grade students perched on a pool ledge, feet dangling in clear water at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Boys and Girls Club on Chicago’s West Side. They giggled as they waited in swimsuits, goggles, and multi-colored swim caps for the next swimming test: flutter kicks.

With the green light from their instructor, the 7- and 8-year-olds unleashed a flurry of kicks. Squeals of joy and sloshing of water echoed inside the spacious natatorium on a mid-February morning.

Over the last year, LEARN Excel Charter in Garfield Park has partnered with the Boys and Girls Club for free, eight-week-long swim lessons for its students. The partnership helps provide enrichment opportunities and teach life-saving skills, Principal Sekou Robertson said.

“A lot of our kids can’t swim,” Robertson said. “They’re afraid of the water. It’s mostly due to access.”

For Robertson, it’s important to create opportunities that go beyond academics.

“Of course we are here for reading, math, speaking, and getting good test scores,” Robertson said. “But we also know at the end of the day life skills that our kids need and swimming is one of them.”

Drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury deaths for children under 17 in the U.S., with Black children dying of drowning at higher rates than white and Latino children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most drowning deaths among children between 1 and 13 years old occur in swimming pools, and in natural bodies of water such as rivers for young people ages 14 to 17, the CDC found.

In recent years, some legislators across the country and local communities have pushed to make swimming lessons more accessible.

A LEARN Excel Charter student jumps into a pool at Martin Luther King Jr. Boys and Girls Club, 2950 W Washington Blvd., Chicago. The Boys and Girls Club partnered with the school to offer free swim lessons for its students.

Since LEARN Excel Charter started piloting the swimming program in spring 2022, the lessons have been a big hit with students. The school and the Boys and Girls Club partnership has expanded to allow three sessions in the fall, winter, and spring.

On the February morning, second grader Supriti Collins was eager to get back in the pool. It was her third round of swim lessons since the charter school partnered with the Boys and Girls club last spring.

“They teach us paddling,” said the 7-year-old, who wore a bathing suit decorated with palm tree silhouettes and a red swim cap . “I love paddling.”

A push to teach life-saving skills in school

“We’re going to go over some pool rules,” Andrea Lopez, aquatics coordinator, said during the lessons last month. “Can you raise your hand and give me one pool rule?”

All 13 students’ hands shot up, ready to share.

“No running,” one student said.

“Don’t go in the deep end,” said another.

“No diving on the shallow end,” a third added.

LEARN Excel Charter student raise their hands to share pool safety rules at Martin Luther King Jr. Boys and Girls Club in Garfield Park.

The instructors take two students at a time to test their skills after running through the full list of pool rules.

Cynthia Bedolla, aquatics director at the Boys and Girls Club, said the organization has been focused on providing free swim lessons and other water safety and awareness programs for the community, especially with warmer weather around the corner.

The Club aims to provide customizable aquatic programs that fit the needs of the kids, Bedolla said.

Students are evaluated on the first day and put into two separate groups based on their skillset and lessons, Bedolla said.

They are assessed — two by two — on a few skills including blowing bubbles, floating on their back, and paddling.

Andrea Lopez, aquatics coordinator, tests two LEARN Excel students at a West Side Boys and Girls Club on whether they can blow bubbles.

Tia Wilson, the Excel teacher who helps coordinate the swimming program, said the school is committed to giving their students experiences.

“Our kids don’t necessarily get to do this all the time,” Wilson said. “We look for opportunities where we can allow our kids to have these types of experiences.”

Wilson said these lessons are also a motivator, something students look forward to.

“They love it,” Wilson said. “It builds their confidence. Each time they get better and better.”

In the pool in February, Tyler Nelson hesitated as he leaned back attempting to float. With the help of the instructor, the 8-year-old relaxed and stretched his arm as if lying on a bed.

He smiled.

He’s been coming since the first session last spring. His favorite things about the lessons are getting to learn how to swim and chatting with his friends.

He hopes to get better at swimming with this latest round.

His ultimate goal: Master the deep end.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s school board renews charter schools for shorter periods

2023-01-25T23:56:06+00:00

Eighteen Chicago charter schools and networks got the school board’s blessing to continue operating beyond this school year — but in many cases for relatively short stretches.

The process reflects an ongoing shift in the district’s relationship with its charters. Until this year, the overwhelming majority of these schools had reliably gotten five-year renewals, in some cases for more than two decades. But at the school board’s Wednesday meeting, most got much shorter contracts. Almost half landed only two-year extensions and only two schools got the full five years.

In recent years, the district has put opening new charter schools on hold amid steeply declining enrollment and has resorted to shorter-term charter renewals with strings attached. Some charter operators have argued that the shorter extensions create uncertainty for their school communities, some of which serve largely low-income and other vulnerable students.

At the Wednesday meeting, more than a dozen charter administrators, parents, and students pleaded for longer extensions. Christian Feaman of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools decried the short-term renewals as disruptive and said the advocacy group is pushing for 10-year terms for high-performing charters.

“We continue to be concerned about the lack of consistency and transparency in the renewal process that moves the bar,” he said, adding, “Renewal terms of less than five years jeopardize the stability of our schools.”

But district officials said the shorter-term renewals reflect a push to hold charters more accountable. The district has closely scrutinized how charters serve students with disabilities and English language learners, and how they ensure these schools’ discipline practices do not harm students.

The renewals approved at the board’s monthly meeting on Wednesday largely came with conditions — a list of student outcomes and other requirements that schools have to meet during that renewal period. Those conditions were not included in public board meeting documents but instead will be communicated to charter operators directly.

Charter leaders and supporters ask for longer renewals

One school, Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy, a small alternative high school on the city’s Southwest Side, had its charter renewed for one year only.

Many on the renewal list were approved to continue operating for another two years. Those schools are: North Lawndale Charter Prep, Alain Locke Charter School, Little Black Pearl, Plato Learning Academy, Passages, Horizon Science Academy Southwest, and Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy. Acero Schools, Chicago Collegiate Charter School, Intrinsic, Christopher House, and University of Chicago Charter School landed three-year renewals.

Two alternative campuses run by Camelot Schools — Chicago Excel Academy and Camelot’s SAFE Achieve Academy, for students who have been expelled — along with Hope Learning Academy got renewed for four years. The Excel Academy of Englewood and Chicago Tech Academy High School got five-year renewals.

It was the first time Acero, Alain Locke, and the University of Chicago Charter Schools did not get five-year renewals since they were launched in 1998.

Employees and supporters of the charters up for renewal turned out en masse at the Wednesday meeting to argue that they should receive longer extensions.

Administrators at the University of Chicago Charter School said it tackled an uptick in discipline issues amid the pandemic head on, hiring more social workers and training all staff on restorative justice practices, among other steps. They spoke of the school’s efforts to line up more internships for students and steer teens to college.

Nikita Johnson-White, the chief financial officer at Passages, read a letter from an eighth grader raving about the school and said with a new principal at the helm, the school is working to improve services for students with disabilities and more. But she said the two-year renewal the school is getting will not give enough time to make progress, urging the board to grant at least three years.

Aniya Hill, a senior at North Lawndale College Prep, credited the school with helping her transform from a timid freshman to a confident leader of the school’s Peace Warriors violence prevention student group. She said she has been accepted at 20 colleges, a reflection of the charter’s college-going culture.

Hill joined parents and school leaders in arguing for a longer renewal. Jemia Cunningham-Elder, the school’s CEO, said she has worked to address issues the district has flagged with services for students with disabilities and school discipline since she was hired in September. But she said she needs more time.

“We’ve provided 25 years of stability,” said Bruce Miller, a member of North Lawndale College Prep’s board. “If you can provide us with five years of stability, that would be fantastic.”

District officials tout thorough charter evaluations

Feaman of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools said the district needs clearer and more transparent criteria for renewal. A renewal of two or three years means too much of administrators’ energy goes into the considerable red tape involved in seeking extension instead of into making actual improvements for students, he said.

But district officials insisted that their expectations are clear and conveyed to charter operators up front.

“Our renewal process is evidence-based, aligned with national best practices and continuous,” said Zabrina Evans, director of school quality and support atf the Office of Innovation and Incubation.

A five-year renewal is the standard for schools meeting standards in three areas: academics, finance, and operations. Under operations, district officials give extra weight to how well the charter school is serving students with disabilities and English learners and whether it uses school discipline appropriately.

The district said the Office of Innovation and Incubation conducted comprehensive evaluations of the charters seeking renewal. Office staff visited all the campuses, in some cases conducted special site visits to size up services for students with disabilities and school climate more closely.

Passages, for example, did not meet standards in financial performance and in operations, because of concerns about its services for students with abilities and English learners. North Lawndale College Prep also did not meet these standards, in its case falling short in serving students with disabilities and disciplining students excessively, according to the district.

Instituto Leadership did not make the grade in all three categories and is facing closure if it doesn’t meet improvement goals over the coming year. Officials said a newly launched Options School Network to oversee the district’s alternative high schools will provide support to the school in coming months.

Officials said that extensions longer than five years are an option for charters that exceed standards in all three categories.

But board member Elizabeth Todd-Breland said even for schools that exceed standards, she would strongly oppose renewals longer than five years. She said the district embraced charter schools with the idea that they could outperform traditional district-run schools. Especially at a time of declining enrollment and the possibility of leaner budgets, she said a decade is review their performance again.

“This was a very sobering presentation today to see school after school after school that are not wildly outperforming our traditional CPS schools,” she said.

Earlier this winter, the board also took the rare step of revoking the charter for once-lauded Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men serving Black boys and taking over its two South Side campuses. The district cited financial struggles at the school and an investigation by its inspector general into sexual misconduct by the school’s founder, Tim King, whose findings he has strongly denied.

The board also approved a new accountability policy for charter and district-run alternative high schools, known in Chicago as options schools. The policy is temporary, effective only for the current school year. It is meant to tide the district over while it works to design a new accountability system for all schools, which is slated to go into effect during the 2024-25 school year.

Alternative schools in the city were subject to their own accountability ratings in recognition of the high-needs students they serve — former dropouts or students at risk for dropping out, in some cases because their studies were derailed by parenthood, homelessness, or criminal justice system involvement.

The new policy says the district will calculate an academic performance score for each school, factoring in metrics such as graduation, attendance rate improvement, growth on the district’s STAR assessments, and more. Schools that fail to attain a high enough score could face mandatory improvement plans and charter nonrenewal if they fail to implement those plans.

District officials said Wednesday in a statement to Chalkbeat that the district wanted a strong accountability policy for alternative high schools because they serve the district’s most vulnerable students.

The district, which presided over a massive expansion of alternative high schools during the 2010s, saw significant enrollment losses on those campuses during the pandemic’s disruption. It also has taken some steps to rein in transfers to alternative schools, raising the bar for traditional high schools referring students to those campuses. The new Options Schools Network will continue a recent trend of closer oversight and extending some district programs to these campuses.

“For schools that are serving some of our most vulnerable students, we are committing to provide the supports these schools need,” Todd-Breland said.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Urban Prep loses charter agreement for last Chicago campus

2022-11-17T22:56:02+00:00

After months of controversy surrounding Urban Prep Academy, the Illinois board of education ended the charter school’s agreement for its downtown campus Thursday, citing enrollment declines.

The move marks the latest blow to the nationally recognized charter network that specializes in serving Black boys on Chicago’s South and West Sides.

Last month, Chicago Public School moved to revoke its charter agreement and take over Urban Prep’s Bronzeville and Englewood campuses following a report from the district’s inspector general that substantiated misconduct allegations against the charter school’s founder.

Illinois board members voted to revoke the Urban Prep charter agreement after the charter school failed to maintain enrollment numbers at a certain level for its West/Downtown campus. Since originally opening in West Garfield Park, the campus has moved various times. Most recently, it relocated to Roosevelt University two years ago.

Board member Jaime Guzman, who voted to revoke the agreement, said the most important constituency were the 51 students who would require support from ISBE in the transition.

“This is a sad decision,” Guzman said.

Board member Donna Leaks, who abstained from casting a vote, said she could not support revocation of a charter for a school that’s provided a “unique opportunity for African American young men” in Chicago. Still, she said she understood the issues around sustainability.

“My hope is that there will be an effort to maintain this model that empowers our young African American men to feel pride, high expectations, and know their value,” Leaks said, fighting back tears.

Urban Prep’s downtown campus will be required to surrender its charter and close at the end of the 2022-23 school year. The charter school leaders will still be able to appeal the decision in court.

The state has had oversight of Urban Prep’s West campus since 2019 after the Chicago Board of Education voted to revoke the organization’s charter for the West campus citing concerns over financial mismanagement and dwindling enrollment.

As part of the charter agreement with the state, Urban Prep was required to maintain enrollment at 155 students. The charter’s West/Downtown campus, located at Roosevelt University in South Loop, currently has 51 students enrolled. The charter school has failed to meet enrollment requirements for three consecutive years and the numbers have fallen precipitously, state officials said.

During the meeting, Dennis Lacewell, chief academic officer for Urban Prep, lobbied board members to keep the school open, arguing enrollment declines are not unique to Urban Prep, but something local schools serving Black students are grappling with in Chicago.

“We do not dispute the fact that our current enrollment numbers are not ideal,” Lacewell said. “However, we will like to highlight how this is a challenge that is not unique to Urban Prep and other schools serving Black students, particularly post-pandemic.”

Concerns over enrollment numbers were first raised in a letter sent to the school last month, leaving the school with only a few weeks to increase enrollment by over 40 students, Lacewell said.

“We simply ask that Urban Prep Downtown campus is allowed to continue to grow and move forward in an upward trajectory,” Lacewell said.

At Thursday’s meeting, several students spoke fondly of their experiences at the charter school, expressing interest in wanting to finish out their high school career at Urban Prep.

Michael Woodard said he had witnessed “nothing but Black excellence” in his three years as an Urban Prep student. He described support from teachers, staff, and peers — and cited the charter school’s record of seeing all graduating students receive offers to attend college:

“I believe that I speak for all of my brothers in every graduating class when I say: ‘We want to finish what we started by graduating as Urban Prep young men.’”

Still, state board members remained unmoved and voted to revoke the agreement of the once-lauded charter school.

Jackie Matthews, executive director of communications for ISBE, said the board will work with the charter school’s families and CPS “to ensure that students have adequate supports before and during their transition into other CPS schools and programs that meets their unique needs.”

Chicago Public Schools plans to continue the Bronzeville and Englewood programs with teachers and staff for the 2023-24 school year, Matthews added in an email.

The district has assured the state board that Urban Prep students at the West/Downtown campus will be prioritized for the programs should students want to continue under the Urban Prep model absorbed by the district, Matthews said.

The state action also came early enough to allow Urban Prep students to participate in Chicago Public Schools’ high school application process for the 2023-24 school year, Matthews added.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Student ‘peace warriors’ at Chicago’s West Side schools spread message of nonviolence

2022-11-03T18:00:44+00:00

As a child, DeMarcus Thompson spent most of his time inside his house. His mom worried about the shootings that regularly erupted on his block and didn’t want to risk letting him play outside.

Now, as a Peace Warrior at North Lawndale College Prep, the 17-year-old’s mission is to stop fights at his school before they escalate and contribute to the violence beyond the school walls.

The Peace Warriors program, a central part of the West Side charter school’s efforts to confront gun violence by centering students’ needs, trains students to mediate conflicts, support grieving classmates, and bring peace and happiness to school by greeting peers at the front door and leaving celebratory birthday notes on lockers.

“Our biggest goal is to end violence — any and everywhere and to do that — we have to end violence inside of ourselves first because violence starts internally with the thought,” said DeMarcus. “In order to get to our goal, we have to work together.”

City and school leaders have long wrestled with Chicago’s pervasive gun violence. Amid a spate of shootings last fall, CEO Pedro Martinez called on city agencies, community groups, and neighbors to work together to combat violence and support students.

In recent shootings, district leaders have dispatched crisis counselors for a few days to support students and staff in mourning, but sustained mental health support and wraparound services are needed beyond the classroom

During the first month of the new school year, nearly four dozen school-age children were wounded across the city in shootings between Aug. 22 and Sept. 16, according to data obtained from Chicago Police Department through a records request.

Dozens more have been wounded and 15 have been killed since, according to the Sun-Times.

The Peace Warriors program at North Lawndale College Prep is an attempt to break that cycle by turning students into “ambassadors of peace,” said Gerald Smith, a restorative justice specialist and supervisor of the program at the school.

Many students are “committed to being a solution to a serious problem,” Smith said, because they have personally experienced gun violence.

Students spread message of peace and nonviolence

In mid-October, about three dozen students sat shoulder-to-shoulder with teachers in a circle inside a conference room at North Lawndale College Prep’s Collins campus and talked about losing brothers, cousins, friends, and neighbors.

They described dealing with the aftermath of a loved one wounded by gunfire, and the still-fresh mental and emotional scars of violence.

“I feel like I see violence a lot in my life,” one student said. ”I feel like it’s an ongoing thing, coming and coming, faster, and faster, and faster. I feel it on my back. I hate it.”

“People were coming down Christiana and people were shooting,” another student said, recalling a memory of trying to walk home from school when someone started shooting. “We had to run back into the building. We had to hide in the cafeteria.”

“We heard someone call him outside and all of a sudden we heard 30 shots,” a third student said of a neighbor. “We looked out the front window and this man is dead. He got shot in his head at least three times.”

“That was the second time I saw a dead body,” the student added.

The conversations were part of a two-day Peace Warriors training session, which included team-building exercises and small breakout sessions and group discussions where students learned about Martin Luther King Jr.’s six principles of nonviolence.

Peace Warriors and their advisor Gerald Smith sit in a circle during a training in mid-October at North Lawndale College Prep.

Founded in 2009, the Peace Warriors program was created following the charter school expansion into two campuses. A substantial increase in fights prompted school leaders to implement a program to train students in King’s teachings, Smith said.

“Violence is a tragedy for everybody, but I think it’s much more tragic for students,” Smith said. “Peace Warriors is the most valid alternative to their current life experiences.”

A great deal of the healing work comes from the Peace Warriors, school leaders said.

Students are the eyes and ears of the group, said Kyera Bradley, principal at the charter’s Christiana Campus.

They work to de-escalate problems while also supporting peers through condolences runs, when a Peace Warrior tries to bolster someone who has lost a loved one or is experiencing a challenging time by pulling them aside to chat or just for a hug. They’ve also held training at middle schools, high schools, and in communities that have experienced gun violence.

“Their work has been game-changing,” Bradley said.

During a recent training with aspiring Peace Warriors, DeMarcus helped guide a breakout group during a discussion of some of King’s principles. Part of the work is connecting with peers and helping them feel a part of a group that shares a collective goal, he said.

“We are trying to stop the violence in our schools and in our community,” DeMarcus said. “They feel the same way about that. It’s important to make that change.”

Fellow Peace Warriors interject love and kindness by greeting peers at the door in the morning, reaching out to struggling classmates, and acting as ambassadors of peace by teaching others about nonviolence, said DeMarcus, who is a senior. The goal is to get students into peace circles before conflicts spiral out of control.

But it hasn’t been without its challenges.

“Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it’s easy,” he said. “What keeps me going is how I’m making a change inside of my school even if it might not be immediate.”

Among the principles Peace Warriors learn are: ”nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people,” “the beloved community is the framework for the future,” “attack forces of evil, not persons doing evil,” and “accept suffering without retaliation for the sake of cause to achieve the goal.”

“The training and the program way to create a solution that involved the entire student body — staff, students, and our families alike,” Smith said. “It’s literally a life that they’re choosing because it is either a life and death issue for them and their friends.”

In reflecting on more than a decade of work advising the group, Smith continues to be hopeful as more students commit to changing their school and broader neighborhoods.

“Young people have been seen as the scourge, but to see them as the solution — it’s inspiring, it’s hope-building,” Smith said.

Peace Warriors and their advisor Gerald Smith pose in mid-October after training students aspiring to join the group at North Lawndale College Prep.

Charter school expanded wraparound services

The Peace Warriors program is not the only way the North Lawndale schools are working to support students grappling with the trauma of gun violence. In recent years, the charter has expanded wraparound services to include a first-year experience coordinator, housing for students experiencing homelessness, and programs such as drama therapy and student support groups.

Principal Bradley said the charter school has developed community partnerships with the mission of creating a welcoming and safe learning environment for students. Most recently, the school started working with Books over Balls, a group that supports students through sports and mentoring, she said.

Students dealing with grief from the loss of peers, family, or people from their neighborhoods are looking for stability, Bradley said.

“My goal is to ensure that everybody in this building has a sense of belonging, has a sense of connection,” Bradley said. “I want them to know we are going to do leaps and bounds and go over and beyond to ensure that they’re safe. They’re loved. They’re cared for. They’re heard.”

That means checking in with new students and connecting them with resources and programs so they don’t fall through the cracks, said Kay Griffin, manager of first-year experience at the Christiana campus.

The position, created this year, aims to help the charter’s retention efforts by building relationships with students and ensuring that “new scholars feel the same support that returning scholars feel,” Griffin said.

She meets one-on-one with new students to discuss behavior, attendance, and grade reports, connects them with resources and programs available to them, hosts monthly group meetings with new scholars, and builds relationships with parents.

“The first year at a new school is critical,” Griffin said. “We want to make sure that the relationships they are building are solid.”

Griffin, who has worked at the school for a decade, understands how vital these supports are for both students and parents. In 2016, she lost her fiance to gun violence just as her son was transitioning from eighth grade into the charter school. The loss hit Griffin and her son hard, who she described as being in a “dark place.”

She recalls the charter school’s staff being intentional with their support, “pouring into him” through a difficult time.

“We can’t afford to fail with these kids,” Griffin said. “We want them to be successful every step of the way.”

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

LEARN charter network starts the school year ahead of Chicago schools

2022-08-08T22:59:19+00:00

Donnie McGee and his daughter Serrena stood outside the Romano Butler Campus in the LEARN Charter School Network early Monday morning, eagerly waiting with other families for the doors to open on the first day of school.

Inside, Principal Sharanda Morehead addressed her staff in the lobby, giving instructions for the day and a brief pep talk in which she called the mix of veteran teachers and newer faces the “secret sauce” to the school’s success.

The North Lawndale school is one of seven in the LEARN Charter School Network, which usually starts classes in early August and a few weeks ahead of Chicago Public Schools, which this year, starts on Aug. 22. LEARN serves predominantly Black and low-income families. At Romano Butler, about 500 students in kindergarten through eighth grade make up the anticipated enrollment, according to Morehead, in addition to preschoolers.

LEARN schools get a head start on the year to help minimize summer learning loss, said CEO Greg White. This year, they are focusing on providing students with not only academic support, but the social and emotional support that has become critical since the pandemic, he said.

“It’s been a difficult time for all communities, but LEARN students in particular have been impacted by the COVID crisis, and they need a lot more additional support,” he said.

Unlike many schools across the country, LEARN schools are requiring masks this year and will test students for COVID-19 on a biweekly basis. Students will be tested in school, and if a test comes back positive, Morehead said she and her staff will inform the family and the school community, while observing the student’s privacy.

White said the LEARN network over-hired staff to avoid the shortages plaguing districts across the country, especially for positions such as social workers and special education teachers.

Last year, the LEARN network only had to close a few if any of its classrooms due to its COVID-19 policies, which included masking and weekly testing, according to Morehead. The network also continues to encourage vaccination, White said.

As Serrena and her father waited on Monday for the doors at Romano Butler to open at 8 a.m., the kindergartener beamed with excitement. Last year, she attended another school in the LEARN network, her father McGee said. Ahead of the first day, he had to scramble to find parts of her new uniform since the colors she was allowed to wear have changed.

The students – who wore uniforms composed of white shirts, charcoal gray pants or skirts, sweater vests, ties with red accents, and black sneakers – carried backpacks, lunchboxes, and bags filled with classroom supplies. The staff greeted families, handed out face masks, and helped guide students to classrooms.

To prepare for the new year, onboarding for new teachers started two weeks ago, Morehead said. Returning teachers returned a week later for intensive professional development that focused on curriculum, social-emotional support, and new initiatives, she said.

This year, there are three social workers and a behavior interventionist at her school, Morehead added.

Star Terrell, the mother of fourth grader King, said that she trusts how the school handles safety and appreciates how it communicates with parents. Still, she said she reminded him to distance from others and use hand sanitizer.

King doesn’t usually wake up early, but he was excited to get to school today, Terrell said. This morning, she made breakfast, gave her back-to-school speech, and said a prayer with her son.

WaConda Curington-Harris is the mother of MiAsia, an eighth grader who will be her third child to graduate from the LEARN network. Although summer passed quickly, MiAsia was so excited to return to campus that she had already donned her school uniform by the time her mother woke up, she said.

Curington-Harris praised Morehead for helping connect her older children and other students with opportunities such as the Daniel Murphy Scholarship.

“That’s an excellent opportunity for these students, because a lot of our students and parents don’t know about the scholarships and stuff like that,” she said.

Trisen Phillips, who is in eighth grade, said he’s excited to apply to high schools and go on class trips. He’s also excited to see his friends again after spending five weeks this summer taking a course as a part of the High Jump program, which provides support for students going into high school.

Although he hopes to attend Whitney Young High School next year, Phillips said he is happy to be back at Romano Butler for now.

“I love my school,” he said. “I’ve been here since kindergarten, so it’s good for me to come back here. I learned almost everything I know from here. The teachers and stuff that I’ve been with is amazing.”

On Friday, Romano Butler hosted a back-to-school event in partnership with local organization UCAN that more than 500 people attended, Morehead said. Activities included barbecue, face painting, roller shaking, bouncy houses, and horseback riding.

“But the most important part was the meet and greet with the teachers,” she said. At the event, parents had the chance to get to know teachers and get information about the school.

Morehead, who said she has been with the LEARN network for 19 years, was born and raised in North Lawndale. She said she hasn’t gotten much sleep while preparing for the first day, which she tries to make “perfect.”

Eileen Pomeroy is a reporting intern for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Eileen at epomeroy@chalkbeat.org.

This Chicago charter expelled more students than any other school. Can that change?

2022-02-09T12:00:00+00:00

When teachers at Legal Prep Charter Academy returned to school in August, they discovered a new central air system, freshly painted red hallways, and something else surprising — a professional development seminar called “Restorative Justice 101.”

The course, which coached them in a new approach to discipline, was part of a monumental shift away from exclusionary discipline — spurred by renewed anti-racism protests, a feeling that the old system wasn’t working, and more scrutiny of charter discipline data by Chicago Public Schools.

Founded on the concept of justice, equity, and diversity, Legal Prep previously had a dubious distinction: It suspended students at a higher rate than any other school in Chicago and issued 13 expulsions during the 2019-2020 school year, meaning almost one out of every 20 students was expelled.

But this fall, teachers were being trained in restorative practices — responses to rule-breaking that focus on compassion and reducing repeat offenses — an effort that, assessed 22 weeks into this school year, appears to be making a difference.

So far this year, three of the about 300 students on the charter’s West Garfield campus had been suspended, said Legal Prep co-founder and current principal Sam Finkelstein. And Legal Prep’s director of culture, Joseph Williams, said as of mid-January, there hadn’t been a fight on campus since Nov. 1.

“The building feels less tense and feels much more comfortable,” said Finkelstein. “And I feel like it does equal a happier student.”

Over the past decade, Chicago has been one of many public school districts that have taken a hard look at discipline practices, but the city’s 100-plus charters have largely been left to their own devices.

Even during the 2019-2020 school year, when in-person learning was abruptly truncated by the coronavirus pandemic, the district’s charters issued an average of 130 suspensions per 1,000 students. (Students can be suspended multiple times). That rate is nearly five times that of non-charter schools in Chicago, according to new analysis of disciplinary data obtained online from the Illinois State Board of Education and Chicago Public Schools.

Of the schools in Chicago issuing the highest number of expulsions in 2019-2020, eight of the top 10 schools were charter schools, according to data from the Illinois State Board of Education. In 2018-2019, all 10 were charters. Legal Prep was on both of those lists.

Analysis of the data also shows that, despite a push for more restorative practices, change has been slow for both district-run schools and charters.

The school district is taking notice. At the January school board meeting, officials argued that shorter-term charter renewals of two to five years, instead of the state-sanctioned 10, will offer more opportunity to scrutinize the number of suspensions and expulsions. Charter advocates have pushed back on the shorter renewals, arguing the district needs to find a better way to balance accountability and the conditions charters need to plan and thrive.

CPS asked Legal Prep to provide more information on its disciplinary practices with its renewal application, according to documents obtained through a public records request. The district noted the school’s high rate of suspensions and expulsions, as well as the length of the suspensions issued to students.

Legal Prep did not dispute the concerns raised by CPS. In its renewal application, the school said it would not try to “justify” the discipline data but instead work to change the school’s discipline policy.

Still, Finkelstein was among the charter leaders and parents who testified before the board in favor of longer terms, citing Legal Prep’s discipline overhaul as one reason for the standard renewal. Other community members also spoke at the meeting in favor of its renewal.

In the end, the board voted to renew Legal Prep for a shorter two-year term.

The shorter renewal term “is our only tool we have as an operator, by virtue of the way charter schools are administered in the state of Illinois and for Chicago,” Board member Elizabeth Todd-Breland said. “It is also about saying, no, you will not expel a kindergartener in the city of Chicago.”

Chicago charter schools follow own rules

Discipline, both in Chicago Public Schools and charter schools, has disproportionately affected students of color.

Excessive discipline is not just a charter school issue. Studies have consistently shown that students of color, and particularly Black boys, are disciplined more frequently than their white peers, and are often disciplined for violations that their white peers are not. In traditional public schools in Chicago, schools with larger white populations were less likely in 2019-2020 to suspend or expel students than schools with schools with more Black students, the data show.

The three district-run public high schools with the highest percentage of white students — Taft High School, Lane Technical High School, and Walter Payton College Prep — issued an average of four out-of-school suspensions per 1,000 students in the 2019-2020 school year.

By contrast, the three traditional public high schools with the highest percentage of Black students for which data was available — Hyde Park Academy High School, Simeon Career Academy High School, and Little Black Pearl Art and Design Academy — issued an average of 62.5 suspensions per 1,000 students the same year.

Disproportionate discipline in charter schools only furthers this racial imbalance, since charter schools in Chicago — which are publicly funded by privately managed — are overwhelmingly non-white.

Overall, data show fewer students are being expelled or suspended at schools citywide. That decline is the result of a prohibition in 2006 of “zero tolerance” policies that require staff to suspend or expel students as a consequence for certain offenses.

Charter schools are not required to follow every policy regulation set by Chicago Public Schools, since they are independently run. Still, discipline in charter schools in Chicago also decreased in the last five years. In 2015, the average number of out-of-school suspensions issued by Chicago charter schools per 1,000 students was 274. In 2020, it was 130.

Chicago Public Schools has made an effort to work toward restorative justice practices and away from exclusionary discipline. In 2017, the CPS Office of Social and Emotional Learning published a toolkit for restorative practices.

Starting last year, CPS gave local school councils the option of whether to keep or get rid of school resource officers, the Chicago police officers stationed in schools. Thirty-one high schools voted to eliminate one or more officers this summer, with some opting to use the freed-up budget money for restorative justice training for staff and others.

Chicago Public Schools also released a new anti-bias framework this summer that, in addition to outlining new procedures for investigating bias-based incidents, includes a section on “community accountability” — that is, more “healing” responses to harm, according to CPS, instead of punitive measures such as suspensions and expulsions.

As part of this framework, the Office of Student Protections says it is providing guidance to public schools — including charters — on reducing bias and less-punitive discipline practices, though they have not released more details publicly. The district said it is preparing to launch more initiatives related to this framework throughout the year.

Some charter schools are also rethinking discipline. Noble Network of Charter Schools scrapped its controversial demerit program, where students were punished for small infractions, and those demerits would accumulate into a higher punishment. The network also replaced its student code of conduct with “The Noble Community Pact,” according to a spokesperson for the network.

The pact uses restorative justice practices, including peer mediations and wellness spaces, in response to students’ misconduct instead of exclusionary discipline. While Noble couldn’t provide data on suspensions and expulsions from this year, the spokesperson said the network is hopeful that the new community pact will help it in its new push to become an “anti-racist” organization.

At Legal Prep, Finkelstein, Williams, and other administrators have restructured the disciplinary code. Instead of setting suspension or expulsion as a punishment for certain offenses, such as fighting, students being disciplined have to engage in a mediation process with a member of the school’s counseling team to get at the root cause of the issue.

Suspension and expulsion are not off the table, but the school now views those punishments as last resorts, Finkelstein said.

Over the summer, Legal Prep also hired several new staff members, and Finkelstein said they specifically sought out candidates who were interested in restorative justice. Indeed, moving to restorative justice requires a massive cultural shift — one for which not everyone is prepared.

Legal Prep’s “high expectations, harsh consequences” philosophy led to heavy-handed punishment for its students.

Lofty ideal leads to a culture of strict discipline

At Legal Prep, which was founded in 2012 and claims to be Chicago’s only legal-themed school, the original campus philosophy was “high expectations, harsh consequences.”

That lofty ideal led to harsh punishment: Staff suspended and expelled students frequently, with the hope that the discipline would act as a deterrent to problematic behavior. Similar to Noble Schools, Legal Prep would punish students for small infractions, such as talking out of turn, in order to try and deter students from committing larger infractions. But Finkelstein said that this method wasn’t successful.

The school, which is about 99% Black, issued 190 out-of-school suspensions during the 2019-2020 school year. Community organizers and students say the harsh discipline tactics make students less engaged with school and feel unwanted.

Legal Prep has had other troubles. The charter was named as a defendant in two federal lawsuits filed on behalf of former students, alleging that a former Legal Prep staff member repeatedly sexually assaulted two minors on campus from 2017 to 2018. Those cases, which were filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in 2019, are ongoing. Finkelstein did not comment on the suit.

In addition, the school has struggled with administrative turnover and finances, the school’s renewal application shows. In 2018, the school completed renovations to its property required by the school district. These renovations drained the school’s coffers, preventing it from taking on other expenses for the last few years.

Ken Ayers arrived at Legal Prep in 2015 after a difficult freshman year at a different charter school. Ayers, who is now a senior at Illinois State University preparing for law school, found a lot of value in the school’s law programs. And as a star student, he didn’t often get in trouble, but watched as his peers did.

Ayers said he often saw students at Legal Prep “self-medicating” with drugs or alcohol or acting out and fighting in school. West Garfield Park is one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in Chicago. But rather than just disciplining students for such behavior, he said, the school should have been more compassionate.

“I [saw] a lot of reactive behavior, but not a lot of proactive behavior,” Ayers said. “They need to do something to not only connect with the students, but actually connect to the families as well, because the student is not the only person going through the trauma.”

Ayers transferred to a private school in East Garfield Park after one year, looking for more challenges academically. This summer, he had internships at three different law firms in Chicago, and took the LSAT in August.

In response to concerns such as these, Legal Prep staff implemented what they’re calling the “breather system,” according to Finkelstein. When a student is acting up in class, the teacher will call a member of the school’s counseling or discipline team to pull the student out for a few minutes.

The student can talk to a staff member for a few minutes about what’s bothering them. They can then return to class, having vented and calmed down.

The school has also started using peace circles and mediation — mainstays of restorative justice practices — to intercede when students get into more serious trouble, such as getting in fights. Finkelstein says they often try to get the parents involved in mediation, as well as teachers and other students who may be involved.

Mediation sessions often resolve whatever issues the students have, and the students aren’t punished for their actions afterward. Students are also sometimes directed to anger management sessions with a school counselor.

Under the new restorative justice program, students are less likely to continue to misbehave after completing a restorative justice process, he says. And the number of suspensions has been slashed to single digits.

Joseph Williams, director of culture at Legal Prep, says students are happier now with the restorative justice process. He says students have developed trust in the restorative justice process and have started asking for mediations before acting out.

“The upperclassmen do seem happy with the changes,” Williams said in an email. “The 9th and 10th graders have never known another way, since we were remote all of last year, and they are definitely bought into the system.”

Williams also sat on Legal Prep’s hiring committee over the summer, and said the committee spent significant time in interviews ensuring new teachers would be a good fit with the school’s changing culture. Most returning teachers contributed to the design of the new restorative justice system.

Some teachers were anxious about switching to the new system because they were worried about an uptick in violent behavior, but those worries have been assuaged by the results they’ve seen so far, according to Williams.

New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church is also the home of the MAAFA Redemption Project, which provides resources to at-risk young men.

New approach is part of push to keep children in school

Next door to Legal Prep, Rev. Marshall Hatch, Jr. is paying close attention to the changes at the school.

Hatch is one of the pastors at New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church in West Garfield, which occupies the building next door. Out of the same building, he also runs the MAAFA Redemption Project, an initiative that provides resources and life skills to at-risk young men between 18 and 30.

Hatch completed an internship with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights while in graduate school and studied the way school-to-prison pipeline can funnel public school students, particularly Black students, into the criminal justice system. Studies have shown that excessive discipline contributes to the pipeline.

“If a student is not in a school building or the classroom, where are they?” Hatch said. “Students who are suspended at higher rates or expelled, those students are more likely to have early involvement with the criminal justice system.”

In communities with a heavy police presence, students who are out of school are more likely to come into contact with police.

Experts agree that excessive discipline is detrimental to students’ self-esteem. In addition to missing out on what they would learn in class, multiple suspensions and expulsions can make students feel unwelcome and unwanted in school.

“Expulsion is not great for children,” said Dr. Terri Sabol, a professor of child development in Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy. “It sets them up to feel disconnected from school, for thinking that they don’t belong. And it can have long term effects on their development and their connection to school.”

Under Legal Prep’s new restorative approach, students miss far less class time than they did previously. In fact, the system is designed to minimize the amount of class students miss, Williams said.

“When kids miss school, they have a hard time catching up and following along, and that only increases the likelihood of them acting out,” he said.

Students expelled from traditional public schools typically can’t attend another CPS school for at least a year. Instead, they are automatically enrolled in an alternative program, according to a statement from Chicago Public Schools.

Charter schools must notify CPS when a student is expelled; district officials then review the student’s case and decide whether or not the student can enroll in a district school or an alternative program.

This kind of disruption can deter many students from returning to school at all, even though state law requires that students stay in school until they are 17, according to Michael Hannan, an administrator with the Alternative Schools Network, a nonprofit that works with students who have left school.

Still, there are often challenges with implementing restorative justice after students are accustomed to exclusionary discipline.

Restorative methods depend on acceptance from everyone, Hannan said.

Because the students with whom he works at the Alternative Schools Network have usually already dealt with exclusionary discipline, he and the network embrace restorative justice practices. But not all families or even students buy into them.

Hannan said that some students don’t want a restorative justice process or are suspicious of a new system. To get students on board, schools must be consistent in their messaging and discipline, Hannan said.

Hannan also emphasizes that restorative justice doesn’t mean that students aren’t held accountable for their actions.

“It’s not ‘you can do whatever you want, and you get to be back in the classroom.’ That’s just bad practice,” Hannan said. “A good restorative process involves hard work, involves conversations and involves the support of your peers. But that’s because, if you have a real restorative justice practice in your school, you build that network of support.”

While Finkelstein recognized that not everyone would embrace Legal Prep’s shift to restorative justice, he said he’s hoping the change will teach students more about community.

“There’s a real opportunity for us to help kids understand the importance of this work, help kids understand that this is not just about them individually, this is about the collective,” Finkelstein said. “[It’s] about all of us in the school as a community, making this commitment to each other, to our school community, that we’re going to be a place where everybody can succeed, where people can make mistakes and still be successful.”

Chicago quietly launches overhaul of schools serving its ‘forgotten students’

2021-12-22T11:30:00+00:00

It didn’t take long for Edwin Panduro, a sophomore at Air Force Academy High School on the South Side, to completely tune out his teachers while taking courses remotely during the pandemic last year.

Home alone with two younger brothers, he kept his own laptop on mute with the camera off, often paying more attention to their schoolwork than his own. By midyear, Panduro stopped logging on. By spring, he knew his odds of graduating on time or even making it through high school were shrinking.

This fall, Panduro looked for a school where he could start fresh. He landed at the South campus of Ombudsman, a national operator of alternative high schools, tucked in a strip mall in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood.

Long seen as second-chance campuses for students often derailed by homelessness, teen parenthood, trauma, or involvement in the criminal justice system, Chicago’s network of alternative schools attracted some teens such as Panduro during the pandemic. But overall, the number of new arrivals on alternative campuses fell — in part because of a quiet district push to rein in the number of students transferring out of its traditional schools.

That push is part of a broader effort to rethink the district’s tenuous relationship with its alternative schools — a partnership with the University of Chicago’s Education Lab that has tried to strike a balance between strengthening alternative campuses and right-sizing them after years of rapid growth.

Students work on computers at Ombudsman Chicago South, an alternative school in a strip mall in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood. CPS is sending fewer students to alternative campuses.

The district piloted new academic and mental health interventions on these campuses, some of which have come under fire for offering pared-down curriculums and sparse support services. But at the same time, it took steps to keep more struggling students in neighborhood campuses, which coupled with the pandemic dealt a major blow to some alternative schools’ enrollment. Transfers to what the district calls options schools plummeted to about 1,200 students last year, less than a third of their pre-pandemic rate.

District leaders acknowledge some Chicago high schools have sent too many of their students to alternative campuses, exacting a steep “transfer penalty” that cuts teens’ odds of graduating. Alternative providers, in turn, argue principals at traditional schools are under too much pressure to hold on to students who need a more flexible setting. They say a bid to shore up enrollment and budgets at struggling South and West high schools could doom many alternative campuses, which serve some students who would not graduate otherwise.

The changes come at a precarious time, when the pandemic and an increase in violence have placed struggling students at an even greater risk of not finishing school. The overhaul is a critical test of whether the district can do right by about 6,800 students in 39 alternative programs. And, although they make up only a small fraction of CPS’ 330,000 students, they are among the city’s most vulnerable youth and are much more likely than their peers to be Black and male, and to have a disability.

It’s too soon to say whether the effort will help students or cause some to fall through the cracks. But alternative schools are getting renewed attention. This past August, district leaders and Mayor Lori Lightfoot held the customary start-of-the-school-year press conference at Panduro’s Ombudsman campus — the first time an alternative school has hosted the event.

Earlier that summer, Maurice Swinney, the interim chief education officer, stressed the importance of doing more for teens in the district’s alternative schools.

“I truly believe that supporting options students is the single biggest equity issue facing our district and our city,” he said.

‘Forgotten students’

Panduro headed to Ombudsman determined to get his high school career back on track.

The goal seemed daunting. Already struggling with the high school transition when COVID shuttered school buildings, he sat out the final stretch of his freshman year, assuming that teachers would pass him regardless.

Edwin Panduro poses for a picture outside Ombudsman Chicago South after class.

Last year was a total loss academically and, with the deep sense of isolation it brought, a strain emotionally as well. When Panduro, 17, tried to start over at his neighborhood Gage Park High School, he was told he was just too short on credits.

Staff there suggested he try Ombudsman’s South campus, which had lost a quarter of its student body during the pandemic.

“Ombudsman took me with open arms,” he said.

Janice Jackson, the district’s former CEO, said in an interview with Chalkbeat after her tenure ended this summer that she came to see bringing alternative school students such as Panduro more into the district fold as a key imperative. For example, even as the district pushed to instill more of a college-going culture in traditional schools, alternative students interested in continuing their education past high school did not get the same support.

“We can’t just have them in these programs to get a high school degree and improve our graduation rates, which we did without a next step,” Jackson said.

The district did not make a current leader available to discuss the changes, providing a written statement instead; Pedro Martinez, who replaced Jackson as CEO this fall, has not addressed the issue publicly.

“Every school district has a group of forgotten students, and in Chicago Public Schools, options students are it.”

In the year before the pandemic hit, the district teamed up with Education Lab on a new Chicago Student Success Initiative, underwritten with about $5 million from an AbbVie Foundation grant. The goals: better understand the district’s alternative school students and their experiences, and look for innovative ways to boost outcomes.

Those campuses were last in the spotlight roughly a decade ago, when the district kicked off a major expansion. The number of programs swelled from nine to 48 at their peak, including some run by for-profit providers such as Ombudsman, which has four schools in the city. At one time, as many as 13% of the district’s high school students attended an alternative classroom at some point in the year, compared with roughly 3% on average nationally.

The expansion helped fuel the rise in the city’s graduation rate, by opening up more seats for dropouts to take another crack at finishing school. It also drew criticism from community leaders who worried students were shunted into a second-tier system that would not prepare them for life after high school. Going by the district’s own alternative school ratings, some programs have delivered much better academic outcomes for students than others.

But in large part, the district left the alternative providers to their own devices. The relationship was marked by lack of coordination and distrust, said Dar’tavous Dorsey, associate director of strategic engagement at Education Lab.

“Every school district has a group of forgotten students, and in Chicago Public Schools, options students are it,” Dorsey said.

This spring, Education Lab released a report by senior research director Monica Bhatt showing students who enroll in alternative schools are much more likely than their peers to be low-income, to have been arrested or victimized, or to have experienced homelessness.

The report does not weigh in on the quality of Chicago’s alternative programs, noting it can be hard to tease out from their students’ high academic and mental health needs. But it says that while 90% of students on traditional campuses graduate, only 40% of teens in alternative schools do. And the overwhelming majority of students who attend will never return to a traditional high school, making alternative schools an essential “last line of defense” before they drop out.

The key takeaway was that because alternative school students face such a wide array of hurdles to graduation, their campuses must do more to offer personalized interventions.

During the pandemic, the district piloted a menu of interventions in six alternative schools and three neighborhood high schools: high-dosage math tutoring; a literacy program called Wilson for students with dyslexia and other struggling readers; new “postsecondary champions” to help students make a plan for after graduation; and cognitive behavioral therapy.

But the district also set about quietly overhauling the process of referring students to alternative programs.

A push to limit transfers

During the 2018-2019 school year, about a dozen district high schools — largely shrinking campuses on the South and Southwest sides — saw a fifth of their student populations or more transfer to alternative schools, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat. At Tilden, Austin, and Marshall high schools — campuses that serve almost entirely low-income student bodies — almost 30% of students made their way to alternative campuses that year. At Manley, more than 40% did.

But those numbers have since plummeted. Districtwide, the number of alternative transfers went from 3,820 in 2018 to about 1,200 last year. At Tilden, the transfers dropped to just more than 4% of the student body. At Bowen High School, they went from almost a quarter of all students to about 3%.

Even so, the major decrease in transfers did not stabilize enrollment at these feeder schools, which at some dropped sharply during the pandemic.

School Name	2018 Enrollment	2020 Enrollment	2018 % of Student Body Transferred	2020 % of Student Body Transferred	% Change in Transfers, 2018 to 2020
HIRSCH HS	103	90	57.3%	32.2%	-50.8%
MANLEY HS	83	87	42.2%	28.7%	-28.6%
MARSHALL HS	258	228	29.5%	17.5%	-47.4%
AUSTIN CCA HS	211	235	29.4%	9.8%	-62.9%
TILDEN HS	217	203	27.2%	4.4%	-84.7%
DOUGLASS HS	62	50	25.8%	0.0%	-100.0%
HARPER HS	87	21	25.3%	9.5%	-90.9%
BOWEN HS	255	218	23.9%	3.7%	-86.9%
FENGER HS	203	286	23.6%	4.2%	-75.0%
GAGE PARK HS	349	323	23.2%	8.4%	-66.7%
HARLAN HS	327	297	19.3%	5.1%	-76.2%
DUNBAR HS	320	413	19.1%	3.9%	-73.8%
UPLIFT HS	162	106	17.3%	3.8%	-85.7%
CORLISS HS	277	284	17.0%	3.2%	-80.9%
HYDE PARK HS	798	770	15.7%	4.2%	-74.4%
JULIAN HS	456	390	15.6%	1.8%	-90.1%
RICHARDS HS	224	233	14.3%	2.1%	-84.4%
BRONZEVILLE HS	218	87	13.8%	8.0%	-76.7%
CHICAGO VOCATIONAL HS	894	741	13.6%	4.9%	-70.5%
RABY HS	346	246	13.6%	4.5%	-76.6%
FOREMAN HS	759	604	12.0%	3.5%	-76.9%
WILLIAMS HS	177	107	11.9%	2.8%	-85.7%
FARRAGUT HS	668	540	11.8%	6.3%	-57.0%
BOGAN HS	838	736	11.8%	1.8%	-86.9%
WELLS HS	365	316	11.8%	6.3%	-53.5%
SPRY HS	126	97	11.1%	1.0%	-92.9%
CRANE MEDICAL HS	433	446	10.9%	2.5%	-76.6%
CLEMENTE HS	703	684	10.2%	3.7%	-65.3%
AIR FORCE HS	198	196	10.1%	1.5%	-85.0%
KELLY HS	1,918	1,780	10.1%	2.9%	-73.6%
KELVYN PARK HS	408	395	9.3%	4.1%	-57.9%
SCHURZ HS	1,615	1,518	8.7%	1.1%	-87.9%
MATHER HS	1,490	1,617	8.7%	2.4%	-70.8%
NORTH-GRAND HS	993	1,039	8.4%	2.6%	-67.5%
SOCIAL JUSTICE HS	302	335	8.3%	1.8%	-76.0%
ROOSEVELT HS	962	1,021	8.1%	2.5%	-66.7%
MORGAN PARK HS	1,237	1,079	7.9%	2.5%	-72.4%
SIMEON HS	1,345	1,420	7.9%	2.0%	-72.6%
CURIE HS	2,913	2,993	7.6%	3.2%	-56.6%
STEINMETZ HS	1,233	1,167	7.4%	2.1%	-73.6%
HUBBARD HS	1,706	1,721	6.5%	1.2%	-82.0%
DYETT ARTS HS	484	583	6.0%	2.6%	-48.3%
SULLIVAN HS	660	597	5.3%	0.8%	-85.7%
WASHINGTON HS	1,445	1,505	4.8%	1.0%	-78.6%
KENNEDY HS	1,610	1,474	4.8%	1.3%	-75.3%
SENN HS	1,420	1,547	4.7%	2.8%	-34.3%
MULTICULTURAL HS	218	225	4.6%	1.3%	-70.0%
GOODE HS	919	936	3.6%	1.1%	-69.7%
JUAREZ HS	1,708	1,705	3.5%	3.0%	-13.3%
KING HS	516	463	3.5%	0.4%	-88.9%
LAKE VIEW HS	1,385	1,353	3.5%	1.6%	-54.2%
SOUTH SHORE INTL HS	657	561	3.3%	2.1%	-45.5%
ALCOTT HS	318	333	3.1%	0.9%	-70.0%
PROSSER HS	1,329	1,214	3.1%	1.9%	-43.9%
TAFT HS	3,432	3,960	2.9%	0.5%	-82.2%
LINCOLN PARK HS	2,105	2,117	2.8%	1.2%	-56.9%
CHICAGO MILITARY HS	299	280	2.7%	0.7%	-75.0%
CARVER MILITARY HS	483	442	2.1%	0.9%	-60.0%
WORLD LANGUAGE HS	355	345	2.0%	0.9%	-57.1%
OGDEN HS	597	632	1.8%	0.6%	-63.6%
DISNEY II HS	717	785	1.8%	1.1%	-30.8%
VON STEUBEN HS	1,773	1,674	1.7%	1.1%	-36.7%
MARINE LEADERSHIP AT AMES HS	849	829	1.5%	0.6%	-61.5%
WESTINGHOUSE HS	1,202	1,255	1.4%	0.6%	-58.8%
DEVRY HS	173	158	1.2%	1.9%	50.0%
KENWOOD HS	1,863	2,125	1.1%	0.8%	-23.8%
HANCOCK HS	1,013	1,019	1.1%	1.1%	0.0%
LINDBLOM HS	1,362	1,397	0.9%	0.0%	-100.0%
LANE TECH HS	4,520	4,428	0.8%	0.3%	-59.5%
VAUGHN HS	225	234	0.4%	0.0%	-100.0%
NORTHSIDE PREP HS	1,091	1,059	0.1%	0.0%	-100.0%
PAYTON HS	1,153	1,216	0.1%	0.0%	-100.0%
NORTHSIDE LEARNING HS	219	239	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
GRAHAM HS	114	184	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%

Declining transfers to alternative schools from district campuses

Source: Chicago Public Schools

Based on interviews with school leaders and experts, the pandemic and the shift to remote learning contributed to the transfer declines. During virtual school, students had fewer conflicts with peers or staff when compared to in-person schooling and were more likely to stay put rather than seek out a new campus, for instance.

But district-run schools were also expected to rein in departures for alternative campuses. This fall, the district codified this expectation in a presentation for school leaders marked “confidential” and obtained by Chalkbeat. In it, a district student support official argues CPS would stand a better chance of reengaging students who disconnected from learning during the pandemic if they stay at traditional schools rather than switching schools.

The presentation outlines a more labor-intensive transfer request process. Now, one of five newly hired transition specialists reviews each request and could kick some back to schools, directing them to come up with a “support and intervention plan” to keep the student.

Jackson says these changes are overdue.

“There were simple fixes,” she said, “like putting extra steps in the system, proving that this is a choice that the student and the family are making, and not the school is making for the kid, and the kid feels like they don’t have any power.”

High school principals privately said the policy is well-intentioned and can stem some inappropriate referrals, such as for students with disabilities who did not receive adequate services on traditional campuses. But they said their campuses need more support to keep struggling students in house.

One principal said the ability to offer more flexible class schedules — including the half-day schedules that draw students who juggle school with jobs or parenting to some alternative campuses — would make a major difference. Federal COVID relief funds to target interventions to students who fell behind last year are helping, but school leaders worry that once the dollars run out, only the added layer of bureaucracy will remain.

“I now have to justify the transfer to someone who does not know the students or their background,” one South Side principal said.

Some alternative school leaders also voice measured support for the shift.

“We see the trauma students experience when their schools push them out.”

At Instituto Justice & Leadership Academy, a Pilsen charter alternative school, principal Jennifer Ventimiglia said she appreciates efforts to keep more students in traditional settings. Her school bucked the pandemic-era trend, growing its enrollment through neighborhood word-of-mouth and, occasionally, parole officer referrals.

Ventimiglia wonders if some traditional schools held on to more students in part because the district put rating its campuses on hold, taking away an incentive to push out students who might drag down a school’s attendance, and graduation rates. In any case, it was the right thing to do.

“We see the trauma students experience when their schools push them out,” she said.

But some in the alternative school world are more skeptical. Jack Wuest of the nonprofit advocacy group Alternative Schools Network, says he worries the move will sink smaller nonprofit campuses while for-profit providers stay afloat. He said the pandemic is a precarious time to shift gears on transfers after years of unchecked growth.

Sheila Venson, executive director at Youth Connection Charter School, a network of charter alternative schools, notes that the average age of students in the network is 18, leaving little room for error to complete graduation requirements before they age out.

Alternative school leaders stress that the pandemic also hit options students hard: Many took on full-time jobs that can be hard to balance with school. Some have gotten arrested, became displaced from their homes, or had babies.

But Venson says the district also is trying to buttress South and West Side feeder schools desperate to hold on to students after years of enrollment losses.

“CPS has already failed these kids,” Venson said. “I am extremely skeptical of this move at a time when the city has lost enrollment.”

She added: “I don’t know if our schools will survive.”

Panduro works on a project about Arctic tundras at Ombudsman Chicago South.

‘Nothing has changed’

On a recent morning, Panduro Googled images of hardy plants for a PowerPoint presentation on the arctic tundra in a sprawling computer lab at Ombudsman, decorated with tinsel and paper snowflakes.

On Thursdays, he and other students spend the bulk of their 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. school day working independently at computers, with several instructors pacing the room and offering suggestions. On the walls, colorful posters tracked the number of credits students had made up and displayed student work, under the heading, “You too shall pass.”

In the lab, Panduro had met Duane Terry, a junior.

Unlike Panduro, Terry had experienced academic upheaval even before the pandemic, leaving his neighborhood high school in Englewood for a charter school. Remote learning derailed his studies completely.

“I wasn’t patient enough to sit all day and do the work,” Terry said.

Both Panduro and Terry have made fast headway.

“If you fall behind at a traditional school, they are not stopping for you,” Panduro said. “Here, they stop for you.”

A couple of months into the semester, the school invited Panduro to try out for one of 20 spots in a new internship program that would place students in jobs working in City Council offices, banks and other resume-boosting settings. Staff at Ombudsman ran mock interviews with him to prepare for his interview at his alderperson’s office.

The internship was one of the new programs launched through Education Lab’s Student Success Initiative.

At YCCS-West, one of the two campuses in that network that served as pilot sites, principal Early King credits a postsecondary coach with boosting its graduation rate. Meanwhile, teens who participated in intensive math tutoring improved their grades.

Alternative school students were included in a new programs, including a summer jobs program and a transition program for recent graduates, according to CPS.

But when it comes to the relationship with the district, Ombudsman regional administrator Audry Peden-Blinstrup says, “Nothing has changed — absolutely nothing. We’re not working together.”

The district says alternative school students were also included in a new summer jobs program, a summer transition program for recent graduates and the district’s Moving Forward Together plan to address the pandemic’s academic and mental health fallout.

At Ombudsman, Terry says his goal is to get caught up by the end of this semester and transfer back to a traditional high school. He misses having “a real high school experience,” from playing on the basketball team to attending school assemblies.

Panduro says he has no plans to leave. He never landed an internship but recently made Ombudsman’s honor roll, his achievement noted on a “Star Wars”-themed board in the computer lab. The school threw a party for the students who made the roll, with fried chicken and speeches by a few classmates.

“We’re making it,” he thought as he listened. “We are getting back on our feet.”

Chicago’s charters enroll more students with disabilities than traditional schools, but funding unclear

2021-07-27T20:12:04+00:00

Chicago’s charter schools enroll a higher percentage of students with disabilities than traditional public schools, but there is no way to track how much funding goes to those students’ education, according to a new report.

Of 18 cities studied by a University of Arkansas research team, Chicago was the only one where charter schools enrolled a larger percentage of students with disabilities than traditional public schools, 15% compared to 14.1%. On average, the study reported that the 18 cities charter schools enrolled 9.5% of students with disabilities, while traditional public schools enrolled 13.1%.

The report, published last week, used data from 2018 to analyze per-pupil spending on students with disabilities at public charter schools.

During the 2017-2018 school year, 372,432 students were enrolled in Chicago Public Schools while almost 60,000 students attended charter schools in the city.

Researchers found that charter schools authorized by Chicago Public Schools receive $1,086.77 per pupil in special education funding, but without more detailed centralized accounting for how charters spend that money, researchers were not able to assess whether there is a funding gap between district-run schools and charters.

Chicago Public Schools says that the district allocates funding up front on a per-pupil basis to charter schools based on the number of students requiring special education services at each school as part of regular tuition payment.

According to the district, charters are audited each year and provide an accounting of how their funding was spent but those documents are not readily accessible to the public. Chicago has an appeals process for allocating additional funding to schools if their needs change or if the per-pupil amount is not enough.

While financial documents were available in Atlanta, Chicago, New Orleans and Oakland, CA, school finance experts at the University of Arkansas found that they lacked specificity around special education funding. Patrick Wolf, an education policy professor and co-author of the report, suggested that policymakers in those cities step up and develop clear documentation of all charters revenues and spending.

Corrected: This article has been updated to reflect that there were financial documents in Atlanta, Chicago, New Orleans and Oakland but they lacked specificity in funding for special education.

Chicago charter strike ends with a tentative agreement and unanswered questions

2021-06-09T21:08:53+00:00

A teachers’ strike during final exam week at an all-male, predominantly Black charter network in Chicago ended early Wednesday.

Teachers at three campuses of Urban Prep Academies agreed to a tentative contract with the charter division of the Chicago Teachers Union that would extend through June 2022. The agreement includes retroactive raises for the past three years that would put educators closer to a district-run salary schedule. During walkouts, union officials described an $11,000 pay gap between starting salaries at the Chicago charter and district-run schools.

An official from the charter network, believed to be the nation’s first all-male charter when it was founded in 2005, said the strike capped a year of “tremendous challenges” due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and the fatal shooting of an Urban Prep student.

“We have been especially appreciative of our teachers during this past year,” said Troy Boyd, the chief operating officer in a statement. Despite the challenges, 100% of seniors were accepted into colleges for the 12th straight year and one of the campuses — Urban Prep Bronzeville — maintained the district’s second highest school rating of a “1,” he said.

Boyd said that campuses continued to operate during the strike under the watch of administrators and non-unionized staff. Students will be able to finish the school year on time, he added.

Urban Prep was founded with the goal of sending all of its students to college. State data from the 2018-2019 school year shows that 69% of students enrolled in college, slightly higher than the district average.

The strike — a rare event at the end of the school year — made public some grievances about the charter’s financial management and whether the network allocates sufficient money and services to students with disabilities, who make up about a quarter of enrollment. It’s not yet clear how those complaints could factor into Chicago Public Schools’ decision to renew the charter for one of the campuses, in Englewood, next year or whether the strike prompted additional scrutiny by the city or state.

Earlier this year, Urban Prep Englewood was flagged by district officials for not meeting certain financial and academic standards set by Chicago Public Schools.

After the Englewood campus had been on an academic warning list for two years and could have been eligible for revocation, the school district in January recommended a one-year contract extension — but that recommendation came with a sharp rebuke from the district’s chief portfolio officer, Bing Howell. Howell said the school demonstrated “consistently troubling performance” in three categories — academic, financial, and in operations — and that the district would terminate the Englewood campus charter in 2022 if it didn’t “cure its unacceptable performance.”

Chicago already moved to revoke the charter for the third campus, Urban Prep West, but the charter network appealed to the state through a now-defunct charter commission. That campus is now under state purview.

In a Tuesday letter to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and school district CEO Janice Jackson, the union alleged that the charter network took out a series of short-term, high-interest loans that siphoned dollars meant for students away from schools.

“Every dollar of that loss means less funding for Urban Prep’s classrooms and student needs,” reads the letter, signed by Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey. “Our teachers at Urban Prep’s three campuses remain deeply committed to our schools’ mission to nurture and support our Black male high school students ... Management’s financial practices are a direct threat to this mission, particularly in terms of these practices’ undermining of funding for special needs.”

A spokesman for Chicago Public Schools said the district was previously made aware of the allegations in the letter; an investigation by the Office of the Inspector General is ongoing.

Asked about the letter, Boyd, of Urban Prep, said Wednesday in an e-mail that charter schools face financial obligations that traditional public schools don’t — such as paying for buildings, technology, and security. “On occasion this requires us to utilize all funding options available to us. Which is why Urban Prep has previously entered into agreements with various loan companies,” he wrote, adding that the network had been open with the school district and the union about its finances.

“(We) are currently working with CPS to ensure Urban Prep is on the most solid financial footing possible,” he wrote.

The union said Wednesday that the agreement included changes to the teacher evaluation system, additional paid leave for teachers, and smaller class size provisions. According to the union, the agreement also includes a “commitment” from management to follow special education law.

Chicago day cares and private schools reported 495 COVID-19 cases, but numbers don’t tell the whole story

2020-11-10T15:05:27+00:00

New Chicago data on coronavirus cases and outbreaks in day cares and schools appears to back up public health officials’ assurances that these settings have not been the site of major transmission — but the numbers don’t factor in a recent sharp increase in infections citywide.

The Chicago Department of Public Health data, provided to Chalkbeat through a Freedom of Information request, are only through Oct. 17, the cusp of what officials have described as a second wave of infections. From April 1 through mid-October, the city has tracked 267 cases in child care centers, 207 in private and charter schools that offer some in-person instruction, and 21 at in-person park district camps. Most of those cases, though, involved adults — 90 cases in day cares, 145 cases in schools, and five at camps involved students.

Most of the cases were isolated, officials said. During that period, there were 20 cases at day cares when two or more infections occurred within 14 days of each other, 12 at schools, and one at a camp. In late October, the city and state changed the definition of “outbreak” to five or more related cases, but they continue to track two or more related infections as “clusters.”

Health officials have said in recent days that the citywide rise in COVID-19 cases has not had a marked impact on settings serving children. But more recent data is not available yet, and there’s still no one-stop source for state, city, and Chicago Public Schools numbers, which are tracked separately.

The city’s health department does not have precise numbers on how many children have attended day cares since they reopened last summer or private and some charter schools that have reopened this fall, or how many adults have been employed at them. About 19,000 students alone attend Catholic schools in the city, with about 2,700 teachers and staff.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the city’s top health official, Dr. Allison Arwady, have frequently referenced school-based data in their comments around reopening schools. But that data has been hard to find, a point of concern among parents and educators. The city’s COVID dashboard breaks down cases by age group but does not signal which cases are connected to schools versus community spread.

The numbers through mid-October seem to echo national data that suggests that with masking, social distancing, and other measures, schools and other settings that serve children can minimize COVID-19 transmission between students, said Dr. Larry Kociolek, a physician at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University.

“However, with rising rates in the community, we need to remain vigilant to ensure this safety record continues,” he said.

Parents and experts have called for more publicly available, real-time data about school- and child care-based cases and outbreaks. They have argued such information would help inform crucial decisions about when and how to reopen school buildings — and help families decide whether they are comfortable sending their children back.

Chicago case data is also missing from a new state dashboard launched Friday that tracks outbreaks and contact tracing data across Illinois.

According to that dashboard, there have been 10 school-based COVID-19 outbreaks statewide in the past 30 days, which includes those associated with before- and after-school programs, such as sports. There have been 647 schools with potential coronavirus exposure statewide, including about 230 in Chicago, meaning somebody with confirmed or probable COVID-19 visited those campuses.

A challenge in interpreting data on school-based cases is that it is often unclear whether students and adults contracted the virus in those settings — or in the broader community.

Chicago Public Schools is tentatively planning to bring back pre-kindergarteners and some special education students at some point during the school year’s second quarter, which started Monday. Parents in those programs had to respond to a survey about whether they planned to send their children back to school buildings late last month.

The district recently started reporting its own data on COVID-cases and is not included in the statewide dashboard. By its own count, the district has seen 318 cases among employees or other adults and eight cases among students since March, with a marked uptick in cases since the start of this school year, when it began requiring more employees to report to work. Chicago school buildings have been closed since March, but a handful of campuses have been serving as child care sites.

Two Chicago charters to keep virtual learning until the new year; CPS hasn’t announced plans

2020-10-10T01:18:28+00:00

Two of Chicago’s largest charter school networks announced this week they are sticking with virtual learning for the second quarter based on family input, while Chicago Public Schools also remains in remote learning but has not announced its plans nor broadly consulted parents as a possible reopening deadline draws near.

Chicago International Charter Schools and Acero, which each oversee more than a dozen campuses, said they surveyed parents and found a majority preferred to continue learning remotely.

Meanwhile, Chicago Public Schools says a decision is coming soon but has not said when.

A month from the start of the second quarter on Nov. 9, district leaders have disclosed little about the ins and outs of their decision-making, the timing, or how they are engaging with the city’s powerful teachers union. Mayor Lori Lightfoot and schools chief Janice Jackson have said they are prioritizing the needs of children, not adults, and that they still want to see school buildings reopen given the academic and other benefits of in-person learning to students.

In the absence of any districtwide survey on second quarter reopening, parents say it’s time for the district to solicit their feedback and lay out what metrics will determine the final call. Families say they lack information on school plans, as many struggle through remote learning, balancing work and child care, or making sure their children’s special education needs are met.

“Every kid is different, even with special needs,” said Jeannie Liu, the parent of a high school student with Down syndrome. In deciding whether to go back to campus, “some are not able to because the families are concerned of their immune systems but others are able to. The choice should be given and not made for them.”

The teachers union, another big stakeholder in any reopening of Chicago schools, also is pressing for more consultation. “We don’t even have a hypothetical sketch of a plan,” Stacy Davis Gates, the union vice president, said. “It’s difficult for us to react to something that doesn’t exist.”

A reality that changes daily

Chicago’s metrics give mixed messages and change daily. Its COVID-19 test positivity rates now hover around 4.2%, which could permit a cautious reopening. But the COVID death recently of a district first-grade teacher has rattled the school community. Case counts remain high in some Black and Latino ZIP codes where many students and essential workers live.

Meanwhile, progress toward reopening school buildings in the Chicago suburbs and in urban districts such as Miami-Dade and Denver is putting pressure on district leaders.

Tracy Occomy Crowder, of the group Community Organizing and Family Issues, which advocates for parents of color, said parents are eager to weigh in.

“Parents want to be consulted about how this is working out,” she said. “They definitely want to be surveyed before any decisions are made about going back in the buildings.”

District officials, in an email about the upcoming Indigenous People’s Day holiday, said this: “We will provide an update on the second quarter in the near future. Parent input will remain an important consideration, and we will be engaging you as soon as possible.”

In Chicago’s mayoral-controlled district, Lightfoot likely will make the final call, though her office said the announcement will come from Chicago Public Schools officials.

Last summer, the district convened a task force of employees and representatives of the private and charter sectors to advise it on reopening. It has not assembled a similar group recently.

The district hasn’t shared data on parent preferences this fall, but last summer a survey showed more than one-third did not feel comfortable sending their children to school. Black and Latino families were even more reluctant.

This week Lightfoot said the city was working toward providing some in-person learning. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that children learn best, particularly our youngest children, with in-person instruction,” she said Wednesday.

She also said she was following the experience of the Archdiocese of Chicago, which has reopened 150-plus campuses. The city also is examining data from child care centers it is running. “We’re tracking everything,” Deputy Mayor of Education Sybil Madison said Thursday. “So far we haven’t seen anything terribly concerning.”

Neighboring decision-makers

Parent feedback determined the course for both Acero and CICS, the charter operators said this week.

In an email Friday to CICS families, interim network chief Christine Leung said CICS’s 14 schools would remain remote until at least early January.

“An overwhelming majority of parents and guardians indicated they were not yet comfortable with their children returning to school buildings, and this information was a critical factor in our decision-making process,” wrote Leung, who promised the network would revisit the decision in December.

Acero, which runs 16 schools, told families that a recent survey showed nearly 60% of respondents favored remote learning. “Scholars are deeply engaged in learning as demonstrated by an average 93% daily student attendance rate across our network,” a statement on the networks’ website said.

Any return to hybrid learning, Acero officials said, would include a new parent survey, input from Chicago Public Schools, and a transition agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union, which represents the network’s teachers.

In contrast, the Archdiocese of Chicago says it will stick with in-person learning.

In a Friday interview, Justin Lombardo, the archdiocese’s chief human resources officer and the point person on reopening schools, said the schools only once has had two coronavirus diagnoses indicating possible transmission within a “cohort” — groups of 15 to 23 students who spend the school day together.

He declined to provide the number of COVID-19 cases among students and employees or the number of school quarantines imposed.

He noted that Catholic schools tend to be smaller than district schools and often can take advantage of parish space to place students apart — an ability that may not translate to other settings.

Lombardo said an archdiocese team responds to COVID cases with rapid contact tracing and 14-day quarantines of student cohorts.

“We are really comprehensive about this,” he said. “That’s led to very, very good outcomes for us.”

As political winds shift, no new charter schools apply to open in Chicago

2019-12-10T01:07:14+00:00

No new charter schools are applying this year to expand or open in Chicago, a sign of the shifting environment for the independently run, publicly funded schools in Chicago and at the state level.

Last summer Illinois abolished the state agency hearing appeals of charter school denials. Chicago schools, both district- and charter-run, are experiencing an ongoing drop in enrollment, leaving schools competing for fewer students.

A charter school operator named Destiny STREAM Academy for Girls Charter School initially applied to open a new charter, focused on math and technology education for girls, but then withdrew its application.

Chicago has more than 120 charter schools; the school district runs more than 500 schools. The number of charter school applications has diminished by half over the past three years, according to a Chalkbeat analysis.

After more than two decades of expansion in Chicago, charter school growth has tapered off.

Last year, the district denied three new charter proposals.

In 2017, nine schools sent in proposals. One was approved, one denied, and seven schools withdrew their applications. In 2016, there were 10 submissions, one of which was incomplete, and the rest were withdrawn.

That’s a wildly different landscape to just a few years before, when more than 16 schools threw their hat in the ring for a new charter or expansion in 2014-2015 school year (the majority later withdrew their proposals).

The district is also recommending that two charter schools be closed: Chicago Virtual Charter School, which offers primarily online classes for elementary and high school grades, and Frazier Preparatory Academy Charter School, a K-8 school in North Lawndale that shares a building with a district-run school.

The virtual school is under investigation by the district’s Office of Inspector General and has “the lowest School Quality Rating Policy score, used to rate how schools are performing, of any charter high school, the lowest Freshman OnTrack rate, and one of the lowest graduation rates in the district,” according to the district. Last year, it received a rating of 2, the second-lowest possible.

Chicago Virtual Charter School has held a charter with the district since 2006. The district renewed its charter in 2015 for five years.

The district is recommending that the board revoke the Frazier Preparatory Academy charter because it hasn’t been able to get off the academic warning list, which is for schools who received a low school rating three years in a row. During the 2017-18 school year the board proposed the school’s charter be renewed for three years, with conditions. The board approved a co-location with Theodore Herzl Elementary School in 2014.

As with district school closings, students will get transition support that includes staff to help them find new schools.

The proposals will be discussed, and likely voted on, at Wednesday’s board of education meeting, to be held at Curie High School at 5 p.m.

The National Association of Charter School Authorizers found that while charter school closures had decreased since 2011-12, they were holding steady at a rate of 7% from 2014-16.

The city teachers union, which opposes both charter schools and school closures, issued a critical response to the district’s announcement.

“The Chicago Teachers Union believes that school closings are racist and irresponsible, especially when schools targeted for closure were once promoted as the future of Chicago Public Schools,” the union’s statement read. “This is what happens when ‘choice’ is forced upon our communities as an alternative to traditional neighborhood public schools.”