A friend from the business world responds to my recent post on teacher evaluations in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to describe her company’s personnel assessments:
We rate employees on a 5 point scale with 1 being the best. So, say out of 100 employees, maybe 10 would be a 1. There would be a lot of [...]
All Posts Tagged: 'Chicago Public Schools'
Superlatives and Scales
The Other Lake Wobegon
There are a lot of cute references to No Child Left Behind as some sort of Lake Wobegon law, because of its provision that all children must be “proficient” by 2014. The reference is to Garrison Keillor’s famous book by the same name, where all the children from the town of Lake Wobegon are above [...]
Edubroderism
Like many people, I think President-elect Obama has made a good choice in selecting Chicago Public Schools superintendent Arne Duncan to be the next Secretary of Education. I’ve seen him speak in public twice and was impressed both times; he comes across as knowledgeable, down-to-earth, and committed to creating better schools for children who desperately [...]
Duncan’s Data
On Monday Alexander Russo asked for more information on how Chicago Public Schools have fared under Superintendent Arne Duncan, a likely Secretary of Education candidate. Eduwonkette gave a harsh review of the data, but the truth is a little more mixed.
Since Duncan took over in 2001, Chicago has made statistically significant progress in fourth and [...]
Dispatch from the Front Lines
Policy types debate whether school systems should try to fix failing public schools or close them and replace them with charters or other types of new schools. Answer: it’s a lot easier to create a constructive school culture with a new team than having to change the hearts and minds of existing staff. But sometimes [...]
New test-prep data
A new report from the University of Chicago supports Danny’s conclusions. Its title, “From High School to the Future: ACT Preparation–Too Little, Too Late,” says everything needed.
It documents that teachers and students in Chicago Public Schools believe test scores are mostly determined by test-taking skills, that almost all classes containing juniors focus on test-taking [...]
Breaking Down School Choice Silos
Over at This Week in Education, Alexander Russo criticizes the charter school movement for being too insular and for being absent from conversations about improving traditional public schools—where the vast majority of students are, and likely will continue, to be educated for the foreseeable future. I agree that too often conversations about charter schools and [...]
50% X 33% X 35% = Total Systemic Failure
The Consortium on Chicago School Research issued a comprehensive and important report last week studying how Chicago Public School students succeed or fail in finishing high school, going to college, and earning a bachelor’s degree.
On a basic level, the results could not be worse. Literally. Only about half of all students who enter CPS graduate [...]
Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed 
College and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success
03/19/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on college graduation rates and the NCAA Tournament in the Detroit Free Press.
03/19/10 | Linda Perlstein links to Education Sector's "College- and Career-Ready" event.
03/17/10 | Ben Miller's column on graduation rates and NCAA Tournament eligibility is mentioned on The Wall Street Journal's The Daily Fix.
03/17/10 | Kevin Carey's critique of Diane Ravitch's latest book is quoted in Doublethink's Conventional Folly blog.
03/15/10 | Ben Miller pens an op-ed for US News & World Report on using graduation rates to determine NCAA Tournament eligibility.