I will be presenting 2 workshops for parents of a local Chicago Public School in upcoming weeks as follows.

Workshop 1
Conducting a Community Needs Assessment for
Community-Based Supplemental Educational Resources

We will

•  Define community needs assessment and explain why they are important for parents, and how they may be used as parents work with principals, teachers and community stakeholders to secure additional resources for their schools and improve student outcomes.
• Provide an overview of common needs assessment tools, including surveys and questionnaires, interviews, literature reviews, asset mapping, focus group discussions
• Review the definition and application of the theory of change
• Show participants how to formulate goals and objectives

Workshop 2
Developing Community-Based Collaborations

We will

• Review the goals and objectives of the Community Advisory Council and identify ways the CAC, parents and community stakeholders may align community resources to improve student outcomes
• Share case studies of successful community-school collaborations
• Provide an overview of a framework for successful collaboration
• Show participants how to formulate goals and objectives and program logic model

The Chicago Educational Facilities Task Force held a community hearing to hear community concerns with massive school closings in Chicago. A number of parents, teachers and community members testified regarding discrepancies between the utilization data provided by Chicago Public Schools and the realities they observed on the ground. Audience members were encouraged to do a walk through of their own buildings and compare their own findings with the utilization reports prepared by CPS. Clarice Berry, a member of the Task Force, and President of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, encouraged the audience to send copies of their findings to their regional networks, the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association and the Chicago Teachers Union.

I testified, asking the CEFTF to support the Lawdale Alliance’s efforts to get the Legislature to create an Illinois Education Facilities Planning Board to regulate school development, in light of the utilization crisis. Here is a copy of my testimony.

Public Comments to CEFTF 1-12-12 by valeriefleonard

Contact the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association:
http://www.mycpaa.com/#/contact

Contact the Chicago Teachers Union
http://www.ctunet.com/contact

Follow the latest developments of the CEFTF, including recommendations and meeting notices, agendas and minutes.
http://www.isbe.net/CEF/

Commission Interim Report

The School Utilization Commission has released its recommendations regarding school closures.  They recommend that all high schools remain open, and that high performing schools remain open, regardless of utilization.  After doing a cursory review of the report, it seems that expanding charter schools and AUSL turnaround schools could be effectively excluded this round.  There are also a couple schools that have been on academic warning a number of years that could be spared because they have made progress in recent years.

The Chicago Sun-Times applied the recommended criteria to the list of schools and found that 137 elementary schools fit.

Suntimes Potential School Closing List by valeriefleonard

I thank Julie Woestehoff of PURE, for providing the following information.

Chicago testing forum with FairTest’s Monty Neill – sound alternatives to standardized testing.Everyone knows there is too much testing – but how else can we know if our children are learning? Come and find out how some schools and districts are successfully evaluating students without excessive and harmful high stakes standardized tests. In addition to Dr. Neill, we will hear from CPS parent Linda Hudson, CPS teacher Monique Redeaux, a CPS student, and Josie Yanguas, Exec Board member of the Illinois Association of Multilingual Multicultural Education. Find more resources on standardized testing at www.fairtest.org andwww.pureparents.org. Sponsored by FairTest, Parents United for Responsible Education, Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education (CReATE), Parents 4 Teachers, Chicago Teachers Union, the Illinois Association for Multilingual Multicultural Education and others. Download a flyer for the event here: http://pureparents.org/?p=20192 There is ample parking at the venue

Please note message below from Mel Wojo, a retired founding science teacher at Whitney Young.

Valerie:

With your vast network of contacts I hope that you can help round up some judges for the Chicago Public Schools Student Science Fair Regional Science Fairs, the Symposium and the City Science Fair. While I have been retired for almost 11 years now, I am once again at the leadership of the CPS Science Fair as the Executive Director, a job which I resigned in 2005. It is pathetic that Brizard did not attend once science fair event last year, neither did Emanuel. We have not yet been able to get an audience with her majesty Byrd-Bennett even though the Science Fair works for CPS kids and has been around for 63 years.

For Regional Fairs, the judges may be college students, (should at least have graduated from high school if they are judging elementary school projects — grade 6, 7 or 8). They should not judge a project from a school where they have an association with the school. For instance, they should not judge projects from the school that they graduated from, or from where their kids attend, etc. See attachment. Contact the Regional Chairperson Directly.

The Symposium Reading is the Screening Process where we select the papers that will be presented at the City Symposium and that takes place at Curie High School on January 26. See Attachment. Contact Nina Hike-Teague.

Judging at the City Fair required that the judge have at least a B.S. in Science, Math, Computer Science, etc.The judge may not be employed by the Chicago Public Schools. See Attachment. Send form to Yolanda Del Rio.

Mel

Sign on to Stop School Closings

Flyer-CEFT Hearing

Jan12-CEFTF_CommunityHearing by valeriefleonard

Agenda-CEFT Hearing

CEFTF MTG Notice Agenda 01.12.13. NewMtPilgrimChurch by valeriefleonard

Blocks Together Utilization Fact Sheet and Assessment

BT Fact Sheet on Utilization [WorkingDraft 12.2012] by valeriefleonard

Spanish Translation of Blocks Together Utilization Fact Sheet and Assessment.

Spanish Translation Util-Fact-Sheet Survey by valeriefleonard

Elected School Board Town Hall Meeting Presentation by valeriefleonard

Here is a copy of my comments to the Chicago City Council Committee on Education and Child Development.

Public Comments to the City Council Committee on Education and Child Development November 20, 2012 by valeriefleonard