Elected Representative School Board Bill PASSES in IL House!
March 3, 2016
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Showing posts with label elected representative school board. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elected representative school board. Show all posts
TSJ ERSB March 1 Field Trip to Springfield - and Emergency Rally against CTU Layoffs
February 7, 2016
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Keep contacting your IL legislators to let them know you want an elected representative school board in Chicago-now!!
Find your IL State Representatives at http://www.elections.il.gov/districtlocator/addressfinder.aspx
Find contact info for your IL State House Rep at http://www.ilga.gov/house/
You can learn more about this fight and TSJ's role in it on our ERSB Resource Page.
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TSJ Fight for an Elected Representative School Board
December 13, 2015
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A summer of change... Check out these upcoming ways to get involved in #EdJustice
May 29, 2015
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Thurs, June 4, 6pm - Be at the Table
Make your voice heard and get updates about the CTU/CPS contract negotiations.
Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church
2976 S. Wabash, Chicago
http://action.aft.org/c/468/p/salsa/event/common/public/search.sjs?distributed_event_KEY=61&radius=5
Tues June 9, 5pm Rally for a Fair Contract and a Just Chicago
Thompson Center Downtown Chicago
Join the TSJ Book Club
Saturday, June 13 2:30pm
"Alfie Kohn's Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community"
Uptown Library 929 W. Buena Ave.
Support the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett HS -
We need your voice at the official CPS Public Forum on Dyett
June 17th at 6PM - King High School, 4445 S. Drexel Blvd. (NOTE NEW LOCATION)
- Candlelight Vigil to follow at 8PM
Fundraising Campaign for the Elected School Board Lawsuit
Please share the link to spread the word and donate to this crowd-funded education justice initiative
Criminalization of Black Teachers
April 22, 2015
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A New Review of the Evidence for an Elected Representative School Board
February 19, 2015
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Chicago has NEVER had an elected representative school board. This coming Tuesday, Feb. 24 Chicago voters will have yet another chance to express their desire to bring democracy to our public school system. The Collaborative for Equity and Justice in Education at the University of IL at Chicago has just published a new report which sets out the evidence and makes the case for an elected and representative school board for the Chicago Public School district.
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| Should Chicago Have an Elected Representative School Board? |
Please share the report widely in your social and organizational networks using the hashtag #ElectedBoardNow and @UIC_CollegeofEd and @TeachForJustice twitter handles
From the executive summary of the report:
Chicago has never had an elected school board, unlike 98% of school districts across the US, and all other districts in Illinois. Over the years it had a series of arrangements, including City Council appointments and nominating commissions. In 1995, the state legislature gave the mayor full authority over Chicago Public Schools (CPS), including the appointment of the Board of Education. After 20 years of mayoral control, the appointed Board’s policies have become increasingly contentious, and parents, community and education organizations, academics, civil society leaders, politicians, and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) have called for an elected representative school board. In 2012, 87% of 80,000 Chicago residents voted in 13% of the city’s precincts for an elected school board in a non-binding referendum. A similar referendum is on the February 24, 2015 ballot in 37 of Chicago’s 50 wards. These referenda and the 2013 closing of 50 schools have brought to a head the question of an elected Board of Education for Chicago.
Summary of Findings
1. There is no conclusive evidence that mayor-appointed boards are more effective at governing schools or raising student achievement. The record of Chicago’s appointed Board of Education underscores this finding.
2. Under mayoral control, opportunities to learn have become more unequal as CPS consolidated a two-tier school system. The Board prioritized selective programs and schools while neighborhood schools serving low-income students of color lost resources and bore the major impact of misuse of tests to enforce punitive accountability and narrowed curriculum, and to close schools.
3. Under the mayor-appointed Board, racial disparities in educational outcomes persisted and in some cases widened.
4. The Board’s policy of closing neighborhood schools has not improved education for the majority of affected students and has had harmful consequences, particularly for African American communities, students, and teachers who were disproportionately impacted.
5. The Board’s privatization agenda has not generally improved education. Charter and contract schools are on the whole doing no better and are more punitive than neighborhood public schools. Privately operated schools are also further removed from public accountability. However, the Board turned over one-quarter of the district’s schools to private operators.
6. Chicago’s Board engaged in questionable and risky financial arrangements and was a poor steward of public resources.
7. Mayoral control and Board structures and processes limit public input and democratic accountability. The Board has been markedly unresponsive to outpourings of public opposition to its policies and essentially indifferent to advice and proposals of parents, teachers, and others with expert knowledge and who have a primary stake in students’ education.
Recommendations
1. Chicago should move to an elected and representative school board.
2. The Board’s operations should be transparent and publicly accountable.
3. The Board should establish structures and practices that strengthen democratic public participation in district initiatives and decisions.
4. The Board should draw on sound educational research and educator, student, and community knowledge to develop, propose, and evaluate policy.
5. The Board should prioritize equitable educational opportunities and outcomes in all actions, policies, and decisions.
TSJ Fall Meeting - Help plan the 13th annual Teaching for Social Justice Curriculum Fair - Sat Sept 27th at 11:00am
September 13, 2014
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Read the Full Story
Lawsuit for Elected, Representative School Board
March 14, 2014
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First People's Board Meeting Held In Chicago!
September 30, 2013
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First People's Board Meeting Held Wednesday, Sept 25, 2013 at Mount Carmel Missionary Church on Chicago's South Side
Notes from a participant:
Wednesday night was a terrific People's Board Meeting. It was excellent. I counted, and we had about 100 people, but it wasn't about the numbers. People lined up and spoke, and though some folks probably could have been shorter, everyone who went up there spoke, and they said all kinds of insightful, powerful, moving, and hopeful things. The Board listened and responded, and Adourthus McDowell from KOCO chaired it (as the Board chair) and ran it like the hundreds of LSC meetings he's run over 20 years—fairly, decently, with dignity and seriousness, noting important things for us to do and be.
It was a great example of us trying to live what we want to be. We don't often get to practice that kind of people's democracy, and although we do not have democracy (people's or otherwise!), it is important to envision it and practice it when we can. We have to become the people we want to be, in the process of changing the world. As one speaker said, we are authentic and transparent, and are engaging in a bottom-up process to change our children's education. You could feel it Wednesday night. Everyone there seem to take it very seriously. People spoke from the heart and others listened, and it felt powerful.
And Jessica Suárez spoke on behalf of TSJ, and spoke from the heart (as always) as a mother and to-be-teacher about how you have to know the students' community and have passion for their struggles.
(Photos by Rousemary Vega)
Read the Full Story
People's Board Meeting:Wed, 9/25, 5:30 PM
September 19, 2013
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Popular Education Pieces are Available for Download - Spread the word!
September 1, 2013
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TSJ has created Popular Education Pieces that set forth a vision of what public schools should look like while connecting the dots of between many of the corporate style "reforms" that are in opposition to that vision. These 10 page booklets can be downloaded and printed for use at meetings, in classrooms and other gatherings where people are fighting for social justice in education. They can be used as full booklets, or as individual issue fact-sheets. Please distribute widely.
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Download the Spanish version here.
(Note: The Spanish version is missing some of the cartoon images while we try to locate Spanish language versions.) Read the Full Story
Education as a Human Right Day-Boycott CPS August 28!
August 25, 2013
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Urgent Action: ERSB Advisory Referendum on Ballots
October 27, 2012
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The advisory referendum for an Elected Representative School Board is on the ballot in 327 precincts around the city. Vote Yes!
- Go to this list to see if your precinct is one of them or view a sample ballot for your precinct based on street address here. You may have to go to the end of the ballot to find the referendum. Vote Yes!
- Tell your friends and neighbors! Download and post this flyer/palm card.
- Let voters know. Review the attached list and contact one of the TSJ community partners to distribute flyers and take a shift at a polling place on election day (Nov 6th) so voters know to VOTE YES! for an Elected Representative School Board.
