A group of dedicated teachers, retirees, PSRPs and other champions of public education. We will democratize the Chicago Teacher's Union and turn it into an organization that fights on behalf of its members and the students we teach.
CORE members in Guggenheim gym after the their closing hearing
After the House of Delegates meeting last night, CORE came out to support the the Guggenheim School community as the Board slates the Englewood School for closing.
After the meeting, the community protested the proposed closing outside of their school. As the members of CORE left the candlelit vigil outside, we left with a tremendous feeling of optimism. Guggenheim’s alumni feel very loyal to their alma mater and the school community feels like a family. There were far more speakers than the Board had time for. One speaker came from Los Angeles where he works as an actor. The Guggenheim community will not let the school close quietly. They will fight this closing.
CORE member Katie Hogan is having a birthday and you’re all invited. Katie will be having a birthday fundraiser at Quenchers on Western and Fullerton this Friday. All proceeds go to help CORE win this year’s union election. Please join us to celebrate.
Quenchers This Friday, February 5th. 2401 North Western Avenue 4:30pm
CORE Co-Chair Jackson Potter is a delegate to the “Catalyst Caucus,” an ongoing online discussion between teachers, unionists, students, and other educational stakeholders. The current topic is school turnarounds.
Jackson Potter Co-chair of CORE and teacher at Little Village High School of Social Justice, CORE-Caucus of Rank and File Educators
Role: Delegate
[Potter]: Another question we need to ask is if this model is actually a new model. Many schools in Chicago have gone through a variety of similar transformations, like reconstitution and small school redesign, where staff had to reapply for their jobs. If these types of reforms from the 1980s and beyond have not resulted in the miracle schools that have been promised, perhaps there is something wrong with the model.
There is also the Chicago-based Strategic Learning Initiative at Finkl Elementary, where staff and schools are resourced at a much lower cost than turnarounds and have shown some very positive results. The use of the nuclear option on our neighborhood schools can be devastating, such as in the case of Fenger High.
Schools are living entities with an ecology of adults and community ties that are not easily reproduced. When Duncan and Company push to eliminate everyone in the building, it can wreak unforeseeable havoc. As author Malcolm Gladwell describes in the book “Outliers,” people who are considered brilliant at what they do often have spent an inordinate amount of time practicing their craft. Turnarounds are based on the assumption that bringing in primarily inexperienced teachers and replacing the old, forlorn veteran staff will bring positive results. However, the Teach for America approach to staffing urban schools does not provide for a long-term commitment to developing a professional community.
Last, there is the question of discrimination. A disproportionate number of the teachers fired in turnaround schools are veteran black teachers. According to ISBE, Chicago has lost more than 2,000 black teachers since 2002. What is the impact of having fewer black professionals mentoring black youth in low-income communities throughout the city?
CORE plans to attend every closing hearing again this year. We will post stories from the hearings on this website. CORE members and Substance muckraker Jim Vail offers this excellent report on the public hearing for Guggenheim Elementary’s closing.
“Guggenheim Fighting Hard”
By Jim Vail Substancenews.net January 30, 2010
Report Reprinted by Author’s permission. For more reports from the hearings, go to Substancenews.net .
“We are not a number!” That was the cry heard loud and clear from children, parents, and teachers in the wake of a barrage of graphs, numbers and data on display at a hearing Thursday to prove why the Guggenheim school should not be closed.
Board of Education officials presented Chicago School’s chief Ron Huberman’s data assault of ISAT scores and attendance rates to shock and awe a packed crowd of 140 people who attended the hearing in support of the public school located at 71st and Morgan.
The Board began the hearing with three big guns including the chief of administration, the chief area officer and the deputy director of security to make their case why Guggenheim should be closed. A series of power point presentations and graphs going up and down and every which way were on display.
Although Huberman claims his “performance management policy” does not only focus on test scores and attendance, those were the two primary factors presented at the Guggenheim closing hearing.
But Guggenheim did not back down – instead they fired right back – in an opening battle of a war to close 14 neighborhood schools that will continue to be waged in the next few weeks before the Board of Ed votes at the next Feb. 24 public meeting. Read More »
Jan 31 Jackson Potter will speak on Arne Duncan’s plan to use standardized tests nationwide for both teacher and school evaluations.
Potter was a teacher at Englewood High School before they closed it down. He is opposed to many – or most – of Duncan’s policies, as well as what he views as an ineffective Chicago Teachers Union. He is now a history teacher at the Social Justice High School in Chicago, and is a founding organizer and current co-chair for The Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE). Ron Chew will facilitate.
Third Unitarian Church Forums begin at 10:00 am sharp. Third Unitarian Church is located at 301 N. Mayfield in Chicago, IL (2 blks E and one block S of the Austin Ave Green Line El stop).
CORE attended another monthly Chicago Board of Education meeting to support the school communities devastated by the announcement of their schools being closed, phased-out, consolidated, or turned-around.
CORE Candidate for Financial Secretary, Kristine Mayle, spoke out against the 15 years of educational experiments made possible by mayoral control of Chicago’s schools.
Teachers worry that [school]closings disrupt the learning environment and the connections students have with teachers, harming their education.
Kristine Mayle, a former teacher at De La Cruz Academy Middle School, which closed last year, said the board should look at the research and realize that their leadership needs to change.
“Our current reforms are not working,” said Mayle, who now teaches at Eberhart Elementary School.
CORE members Norine Gutekanst (Whittier Elementary), Jesse Sharkey (Senn High School), Earl Silbar, and Xian Barret also spoke out against the failures of Renaissance 2010 and mayoral control. Barret, a teacher at Julian High School, asked Huberman why he isn’t sticking to promises he’s personally made to him.
CTU President Marilyn Stewart brought up the fact that a number of schools that will be closed were a part of the TAP program, and was disappointed that this did not stave off their closing. The TAP program is a merit-pay system that the Board and the Union had agreed could be used in “failing” schools to keep them open. The program was ushered in as a backdoor deal without a vote by Union membership or by the House of Delegates.
1) Hold CPS accountable at the January Board meeting, Wednesday 1/27;
sign up to speak – get there well before the 8:30 sign-in. 125 S. Clark
Street. Then walk over to the State of Illinois building to…
On January 18th, 2010, CORE marched alongside members of the Amalgamated Transit Union, AFSCME, and SEIU, in defense of public services. As many of the powers-that-be promise to cut public sector jobs and raid the pensions of public workers, CORE marched to the Board of Education, the Commercial Club, and the CTA headquarters alongside hundreds of our brothers and sisters.
The CPS scheduled 18 school closings hearings to take place before the Board votes on whether or not to close, consolidate, turnaround or phase out the 14 schools on their hit list.
Last year, CORE attended every single one of the hearings. Many of these hearings were documented here. This year, we will be hosting the blog on this website.
It is crucial that we, the taxpayers of the city of Chicago, attend these meetings and have our voices heard.
Schedule for hearings at 125 S. Clark St.
Click on “read more” for the schedule of the hearings.
There will be a strategy meeting to stop school closings at Operation Push this Saturday.
Connect with CORE online