Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Kate Grossman

Can you pass an eighth grade Constitution test?

2023-11-29T14:48:29.918-06:00

4 CPS high schools dramatically inflated student attendance: IG

2016-10-06T08:22:00-05:00

Nicholas J. Schuler, inspector general for the Chicago Public Schools. | Sun-Times file photo

Administrators at four Chicago public high schools inflated annual student attendance rates over the last four years by systematically falsifying daily attendance records, making it appear as if dramatically more students attended class than actually did, according to a CPS inspector general report obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

“The schools engineered the appearance of significantly improved attendance rates,” the inspector general said in the report to be released Thursday.

The schools, on the South and West sides, boosted annual attendance rates by about 10 to 20 percentage points, allegedly through fraud. While the report discovered the fraud for different time periods at the schools, the earliest it found problems was the 2012-2013 school year, the latest 2015-2016.

The report comes as CPS touts record-high 2016 attendance rates, casting doubt on the accuracy of CPS’ data. Attendance growth in recent years has been driven largely by improvements at high schools, particularly at low-performing schools.

Citing the systemic fraud, Inspector General Nicholas Schuler recommends firing two principals: Tyese Sims, former principal at Orr High School and now at Bradwell Elementary, and Trista Harper, Manley High School principal. Neither returned calls for comment.

The report didn’t name schools or staff, but the Sun-Times identified them and confirmed the names with a source close to the investigation. The two other schools are Team Englewood and Marshall. The principals allegedly involved in the fraud at those schools are no longer CPS employees.

Schuler delivered his report on June 30, but CPS has yet to take disciplinary action for current employees. A spokesman said CPS would proceed with discipline, including potential termination, if the allegations are substantiated.

“We are deeply concerned by any reported manipulation of information used to evaluate school performance,” spokesman Michael Passman said.

“Given the number of times we’ve reported on problems with attendance data and transfer data, the office does have broad concerns about the accuracy of the information reported systemwide,” Schuler told the Sun-Times. CPS said it will look closely at the IG’s report to determine if adjustments to district-level data are warranted.

Principals reached by the Sun-Times defended their attendance practices as not only in line with CPS policies but also right for students, saying their strategies helped troubled students make up cut classes so they had a chance to graduate.

Tiffany Brown, a former school official at Marshall and now the principal at Frazier Prep, said in an email that her work has “only been to support the academic success of all CPS students.” She said Marshall followed policies set by network supervisors.

All four schools in the report are struggling and facing pressure to improve. Attendance rates factor into how schools are ranked and principals are evaluated; more kids in school also means greater funding.

Staff at Orr and Manley in interviews with the inspector general’s office specifically cited pressure from network administrators, who oversee groups of schools, to help explain their attendance practices. Manley’s former principal told the IG he launched his attendance program at the direction of his network chief, who is now schools superintendent in Waukegan. She didn’t return calls for comment. Orr is run by the Academy for Urban School Leadership, which referred questions to CPS.

Schuler’s office recommends penalties for all 20 staffers involved in the alleged fraud.

He wants to ban six administrators no longer working at district schools, including the former Marshall principal and two other former Marshall administrators now at charter schools, CICS-Longwood and Frazier Prep.

Four of them had been dubbed “superstar” principals, each credited with turning around troubled high schools, including Manley and Marshall. In an email, CICS’ CEO said her charter network would “conduct an internal inquiry.” The IG also wants to discipline 11 attendance clerks, some of who complained that so many record changes were required daily that they couldn’t keep up.

The IG describes two alleged schemes at the schools where clerks were constantly overriding teachers who had marked students absent. In one, students who turned up at any point in the day were marked present for the full day. The IG said Orr added four attendance clerks for this work. Attendance jumped from 58 percent to nearly 73 percent in one year.

In another scheme, students who cut one or more classes were allowed to “recover” the time at a single after-school study session, which often was little more than detention, if that. Manley’s “attendance recovery detention” program was first uncovered in a 2015 story by this reporter in The Atlantic magazine, helping prompt the IG’s investigation. The IG found both schemes to be fraudulent.

Former Team Englewood principal Rodney Bly created his attendance recovery program under supervision of his network because 30 percent of students regularly arrived late to first period class. Rather than have them disrupt the class, they waited out the period with supervision. Those students were to make up the missed time in an after-school session. He described this as an imperfect solution to a tough situation in a difficult school — but one that doesn’t warrant his ban from CPS, as the IG recommends.

“Our network went over our attendance practices and at no point did anyone raise a red flag,” Bly told the Sun-Times, noting that attendance during his tenure was roughly equal to what it had been before he arrived. Attendance after he left dropped by 12 percentage points.

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Pigs in Illinois stuck in the Dark Ages

2016-06-24T11:37:00-05:00

By Paul Shapiro

Illinois farmers have a rich history, with farming traditions running back to Lincoln’s time and beyond. But as we move further into the 21st century, some are wondering: Are Illinois’ pork producers stuck in a bygone era, lagging behind those in other states?

In Illinois’ pork industry, pregnant breeding pigs are often confined day and night for four long months in gestation crates: tiny cages roughly the same size as the animals’ bodies, designed to prevent them from even turning around. The pigs are subsequently transferred into another crate to give birth, are then re-impregnated and put back into a gestation crate. This inhumane cycle repeats, pregnancy after pregnancy, for their entire lives; it adds up to years of immobilization.

The animals — social, intelligent creatures —suffer immensely. They develop pressure sores from remaining in the same positions for so long. Their muscles atrophy. Many even go insane from the boredom, repeatedly biting the bars of their cell and exhibiting clinical depression and learned helplessness.

This shockingly inhumane system was designed in the 1960s, and its use today reminds us that the Dark Ages don’t just refer to the past. Fortunately, many pork producers — like Smithfield and Cargill — are moving into the 21st century by abandoning this archaic practice. Sadly, some major producers in Illinois seem stuck in the mud.

The movement away from gestation crates comes with good reason: The biggest pork buyers — from McDonald’s and Burger King to Safeway and Costco — have announced their plans to eliminate these crates from their supply chains. They’re urging their pork suppliers to switch to group sow housing — an efficient, 21st century higher-welfare production system that’s already successfully used for about a fifth of the nation’s breeding sows.

And the demand for change comes not just from the biggest pork buyers, but from lawmakers, too. Nine states have banned gestation crates, including substantial pork-producing states like Colorado, Ohio and Michigan. They’ve been influenced by public opinion in favor of animal welfare as well as the overwhelming science confirming what common sense already tells us: pigs prefer to have the ability to move.

This is why experts like Temple Grandin, Ph.D. condemn gestation crates, arguing, “We’ve got to treat animals right, and the gestation stalls have got to go.” And the Prairie Swine Center, a prestigious pork-industry research facility, concluded in a 2013 report that “better welfare can be achieved when sows are not confined throughout gestation.”

Recognizing that science, public opinion, public policy and the marketplace are all aligned against gestation crates, one agribusiness trade publication editorialized, “You’d have to have rocks in your head to build a new sow barn with gestating sow stalls.”

Yet rocks in the head is perhaps the most appropriate diagnosis for producers still committed to using these outdated iron maidens. And the handful that remain seem stuck in a rut, languishing behind competitors on this vital issue and with no clear strategy as to how to supply the demand of a market that no longer wants its inhumane practice.

Those producers still have a chance to do better. Illinois’ pork industry has a chance to meet the market expectations and give customers what they want. But only if it joins its competitors and starts moving into the 21st century by moving away from reliance on last century’s inhumane practices.

Paul Shapiro is the vice president of farm animal protection at The Humane Society of the United States.

Twitter: @pshapiro

Cuban engagement is way of modern world

2016-06-24T11:37:00-05:00

A U.S. and Cuban flag hang from the same balcony in Old Havana, Cuba, (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

BY DERRIK GAY

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama announced a historic foreign policy shift aimed at normalizing diplomatic relations with Cuba. The parts of the deal the Obama Administration has outlined are forward-thinking, positive, and designed for the modern world rather than the world as it was during the Cold War.

The 52-year embargo on Cuba has not worked. While it was well intentioned, five decades of U.S. isolating Cuba has not brought down the communist regime and has failed to promote the emergence of democratic principles in the country. Instead of the embargo shortening the reign of the Castro brothers, the innocent civilians of Cuba have borne the brunt of many economic costs. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Cuba lost a vital inflow of money. The embargo deprived Cubans of lower-cost food and other goods that can be purchased from the United States while the Castro family enjoys a comfortable life at their expense. An embargo on Cuba gives Castro a convenient excuse as to why Cuban citizens are struggling, a position echoed by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

By normalizing relations with Cuba and potentially setting the U.S. on a path toward lifting the embargo on Cuba, a move only Congress can implement, Cuba would no longer be able to use the U.S. as a scapegoat for its own deficiencies and oppressive tactics. A modernized Cuba puts more pressure on the regime to reform, as more citizens are able to gain access to information and emerge from under the oppressive blanket of the Castro regime, and allows international organizations to identify and denounce human rights violations.

The embargo was ineffective because we were doing it alone — without international partners backing up our sanctions, there was no hope of affecting change in Havana. Despite a 2011 Cuban estimate that the U.S. embargo has cost the Cubans $1 trillion since its enactment, Fidel and Raul Castro’s rule has not been seriously threatened. This stands in stark contrast to comprehensive and truly international sanctions regimes against Iran and Russia, which are crippling the economic system of their respective targets and producing results.

The U.S. will engage with Cuba to advance U.S. national security interests on issues as diverse as immigration, counternarcotics, environmental protection, and human trafficking. By engaging with the communist country, we can help guide its people towards democracy by our example. As President Obama stated, “through a policy of engagement, we can more effectively stand up for our values, and help the Cuban people help themselves as they move into the 21st century.”

While the President alone cannot rescind the embargo, he can ease certain restrictions under his executive authority (a point that even instant opponents of rapprochement, chief among them Senator Marco Rubio, have conceded). Under the terms of the deal, Cuba has thus far agreed to relax restrictions on Internet access — which only five percent of the country currently has — and release 53 political prisoners in addition to an imprisoned U.S. intelligence asset as well as American humanitarian Alan Gross.

In exchange, the U.S. will ease travel restrictions on the country and allow U.S. and Cuban banks to cooperate. The U.S. will also strengthen diplomatic relations with Cuba by re-establishing its embassy in Havana, and Secretary of State John Kerry will review whether Cuba should be left on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list.

These moves will help pave the path toward the lifting of the embargo, a proposal that is already facing vigorous opposition by some in Congress. Senator Rubio’s claims that President Obama’s announcement is a “lifeline for the Castro regime” that will allow the regime “to become a more permanent fixture” are perplexing. While Cuba will undoubtedly benefit from the normalizing of relations with the U.S., the 55-year rule of Fidel and Raul Castro has already been a firm fixture in Cuba and the embargo has done nothing to loosen the regime’s grip on power.

Instead of bolstering the Castro regime, engagement is an opportunity to defeat it without punishing innocent Cuban civilians. By approaching Cuba with allies as diverse as the Vatican and Canada, the Obama administration underscores that engaging rogue states alongside our partners is the most constructive way to bring them into the international fold. The president’s decision to defy the status quo and reopen relations with Cuba took political courage, but it underscores the simple logic that progress is made by engaging rather than ignoring states that we have serious disagreements with.

As a veteran of the Iraq war, I have seen the costs associated with unilateral decision-making and I am inspired to see us pursuing multilateral engagement rather than stubborn aggression or isolation. President Obama set this country on the path toward a coherent policy on Cuba — a move that was long overdue.

Derrik Gay is a former intelligence officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, Iraq vet, and a JD/MBA student at Northwestern University. He is also a member of the Truman National Security Project’s Defense Council. Views expressed are his own.

What Dems and parents can learn from Chicago

2016-06-24T11:37:00-05:00

Former President Bill Clinton addresses leaders from across the hemisphere during the closing session at the Latin America summit in Coral Gables, Fla. on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2014. The event included business leaders like Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, The Nature Conservancy CEO Mark Tercek and Alfonso Quinonez, of the Organization of American States. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

BY ALANA BAUM

I’m not a fan of politicians being tough to look tough. At best, it’s ineffective, at worst, it’s dangerous — think George W. Bush’s “Bring ‘em on.” But tough as in tackling hard issues is different.

Heading into the 2012 election, I attended a luncheon downtown featuring Bill Clinton. After he spoke of the urgency to help all Americans, I nervously raised my hand: “Why are so few Democrats willing to stick their necks out to fight for policies they believe in? Why is our party so wimpy?” As people nodded, President Clinton agreed: Too many politicians avoid confronting what’s difficult. Success requires“heading into the storms, not avoiding them.”

I thought of that this summer as Democrats delayed crucial immigration reform and ran from an Affordable Healthcare Act and economy that’s actually working for so many Americans; as Republicans crushed Democrats in mid-term elections despite overwhelming support for democratic initiatives, and as our own city faces tough challenges.

That afternoon, I met Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Learning I had children in a public school, he eagerly asked about our longer day and principal. He has that in-your-face fervor that’s mistaken for aggressiveness but, as a native New Yorker, I appreciate his passion. Still, it took meeting him again to fully appreciate his commitment to Chicago and its students.

This next time though, I started off angry. I believe in public education. My mother was a schoolteacher and my sister left law to teach high school. As a local school council member, I know dedicated, inspiring teachers and have watched my own children flourish. I attacked Mayor Emanuel for presumably betraying them. Unsurprisingly, he came back at me hard, echoing President Clinton’s response. As I educated myself more the following months, he won me over.

I’m tired of promises that feel good now, but devastating later. I don’t lie to my kids about the necessity of responsibility and sacrifice to attain success. Why would I tolerate politicians’ lies? That evening, Mayor Emanuel outlined needed pension reform and his plans for Chicago. Detailing alternative funding sources, he discussed infrastructure investments, bringing in tourism, jobs, and the revenue these would generate. What the media attacks as favoring the 1 percent, Emanuel is actually using to pay for our schools. The pension compromises he’s sought engender criticism from unions, but are essential to our future. Past politicians made false promises, found loopholes to delay or underfund pension payments and left a mess.

Mayor Emanuel committed to addressing a troubled school system with one of the shortest days, and a pension crisis that jeopardizes education and retirements. Today, there’s a longer school day and choices in our schools — not just charters, but International Baccalaureate, STEM, Montessori. Corporations are working with high schools, city colleges are improving and graduation rates are still rising.

When you risk challenging what’s failing, you get pummeled, but things start improving.

The path forward requires tough decisions and compromise. Our mayor could do a better job communicating he that “feels” our pain, but I’ll take someone who actually addresses our problems rather than avoids them. I’m done with empty promises and wimps.

Alana Baum is a psychologist and Associate Professor at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago. She is also a Local School Council member for a Chicago public school.

Parents scoff at mayor’s latest CPS claims - Chicago

2013-12-19T03:24:02-06:00

Below is a Friday news release from the parent group Raise Your Hand. It’s in response to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s claim this week that arts education in CPS “is core to a child’s education. It’s not extra.” CPS’ Arts Education Plan calls for two hours of arts education weekly in elementary schools, which Raise Your Hand claims isn’t happening in many schools.

3 p.m. update: CPS office of communications says it’s important to note that the Arts Education Plan is being rolled out over three years. CPS is at the end of the first year of the plan. And regarding the computer science education initiative, CPS says the program (curriculum as well as teacher training and stipends) will be paid for by code.org, not by the district.

Mayor’s Claims of Arts and Other Programming at CPS Grossly Inaccurate.

Funding, Programming and Positions Lacking at Many Schools; Two Hours of Weekly Art for all is a Fallacy

CHICAGO, December 13, 2013 – Education advocacy coalition, Raise Your Hand is calling into question Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s claims following recent appearances regarding current Arts and other programming at CPS. During an appearance on Wednesday announcing a new Arts grant at Chicago’s Symphony Center, the Mayor referenced the CPS Arts Education Plan, which “ensures that every child has access to the arts in school, along with strategies to realize them.” According to the plan, this currently includes two hours of arts education a week for elementary school students. The Arts Education Plan also includes “increased funding assistance and strategies to ensure arts instruction in every school, including diversifying the types of arts offerings in schools and increasing dedicated supplies and resources.”

During his appearance, Mayor Emanuel stated, “It means arts education is core to a child’s education. It’s not extra.”

Despite the Mayor’s claims, Arts programming is lacking or non-existent at many Chicago Public Schools. In fact, after analyzing the cps budget site under “Budget by Program/Instruction/School,” Raise Your Hand found a significant number of lost positions this year including, at the elementary level:

· 68 art positions

· 47 music positions

· 19 performing arts positions

· 22 technology positions

At the High School Level, cuts include:

· 28 Music positions

· 14 Art positions

The above cuts do not take into account those schools that were already operating with limited or now Arts programming.

Stacza Lipinski, parent of a Kindergartner at Carnegie Elementary in Woodlawn notes, “My son has not had one art class yet this year. He will have 5 straight weeks of visual art in the spring, which totals 25 hours of class with a certified art teacher. That does not get anywhere close to averaging 2 hours of art per week.”

Nell Cotton, parent at Grimes Fleming Elementary is also disenchanted by CPS claims on Arts education. “My children have never had an art class at CPS. Their school does provide music once a week but that is the only course in the arts. They have been exposed to and it does not total two hours a week. We don’t have the budget at our school to provide for a rich arts curriculum.”

In addition to claims about fully funded arts programs, in recent weeks, Mayor Emanuel has also touted a “comprehensive K-12 computer science education plan” that will teach all students computer science and provide computer science classes for all high school students. The CPS Board will also soon be voting on daily Physical Education for all schools. However, these directives are coming with no additional funding for district schools, which have been cut by roughly $100 million this year.

“With CPS’ new per pupil funding amount of $4,140.00 per student, these directives for Arts, technology and PE cannot be achieved across the board for all schools,” said Wendy Katten, Director of Raise Your Hand. “Many of our schools cannot even afford the very basics to run right now. Without the funding to accompany these goals and directives, this is nothing more than a pipe dream.”

While some schools have little to no Arts programming or positions, others have been forced to raise outside funds to supplement what has been cut or never existed.

“At some schools, parents have managed to raise enough money to supplement lost or non-existent art, music, PE and other positions – but it is coming out of parent’s pockets, not CPS,” said Amy Smolensky, Raise Your Hand Board member. “Parents shouldn’t be forced to raise money for something the Mayor claims ‘is not an extra.’ And those that can raise the funds are considered the lucky ones. The majority of schools are not able to raise outside funds so their students simply have to do without.”

In addition to positions lost in the Arts and technology, this year’s budget cuts have also impacted positions including:

At the elementary level:

· 51 schools lost a librarian position

· 77 schools lost a reduced class size position

At the High School Level, cuts include:

· 90 English positions

· 37 History positions

· 28 Librarian positions

· 22 Social Studies positions

· 21 Biology positions

· 6 Chemistry positions

· 3 Physics positions

· 50 Math positions

*The above is not a comprehensive list. There are other program areas impacted by budget cuts. RYH found these cuts on the cps budget site under “Budget by Program/Instruction/School

About Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education: Raise Your Hand is a growing coalition of Chicago and Illinois public school parents, teachers and concerned citizens advocating for equitable and sustainable education funding, quality programs and instruction for all students and an increased parent voice in policy-making around education. www.ilraiseyourhand.org.

The 10 CPS charter schools that may open in fall 2014 - Chicago

2013-12-15T10:38:08-06:00

I finally got from CPS the names of the 10 public charter schools that the board previously approved to open in fall 2014. Some of these may not actually open next fall because of difficulties finding facilities.

This list of 10 schools is on top of another round of charter openings that the board is expected to consider at the January meeting. Those recommendations are due out as early as today.

Charters to open fall 2014:

LEARN – 8

Camelot Schools Excel

Camelot School Excel

Pathways in Education

Foundations College Prep

Orange Charter School

ASPIRA Business and Finance

UNO

KIPP/ACT – Elementary School Campus (KIPP is taking over the facility at ACT and is not technically a new charter grantee.)

The list includes school names only since most of their locations are not settled yet.

The growing list of CPS schools facing budget cuts - Chicago

2013-11-19T19:19:56-06:00

As CPS grapples with a major budget deficit, it has pledged to keep cuts as far from the classroom as possible. But principals, who got their budgets last week, are reporting major cuts and layoffs. The school system is using a new per-pupil budgeting system this year, which is causing much confusion, but the steady drumbeat of reports of cuts are too persuasive to ignore.

“There will be loses in positions, programs, services,” Chicago Principals & Administrators Association President Clarice Berry told the Sun-Times Editorial Board. “I don’t see how it can’t be.”

The parents group Raise Your Hand and the Chicago Teachers Union are keeping tabs on the school budget cuts that principals and local school councils are reporting to their parents. I also got some reports from parents at a Raise Your Hand meeting this week.

Here are the cuts that have been reported so far by RYH or to me directly:

Amundsen High: $780,000
Carver Millitary Academy: $300,000
Gage Park High: $1 million
Ray: $400,000
Haines: three positions
Mitchell: $780,000
Alcott: $700,000
Pritzker: $186,000
Goethe: $275,000
Beasley: $550,000
Jamieson: about $290,000 (plus the loss of two bilingual positions on top of that)
Bell: $750,000
Darwin: $723,000
Grimes/Fleming: $468,000
Burr: $365,853

The Chicago Teachers Union is reporting cuts in the 10-25 percent range for schools. Here are the specifics from CTU:

TEAM Englewood Community Academy HS: $400,000
Steinmetz HS: $700,000 or 10-12 teachers or paraprofessionals
Taft High: $3 million
Roosevelt High: $3 million (RYH says $1.1 million)
Eberhart: $1.5 million
Foreman HS: $1.7 million
Kenwood Academy High: $1.76 million
Lincoln Park High: $900,000-$1 million
Social Justice High: $800,0000

None of the cuts have been independently verified

If you know of more cuts, send them to kgrossman@suntimes.com or via Twitter to @KateGrossman1.

Trying to hurt Illinois is a bad idea, no matter your motives - Chicago

2013-11-19T19:19:53-06:00

There’s almost no way to justify intentionally trying to make things worse for the state of Illinois — even if the motive is to help the state long-term.

Which is why, we suspect, Civic Committee President Ty Fahner is now essentially retracting comments made in March in which Fahner admitted that he and other committee members had urged the top three rating agencies to be tough on Illinois — in other words to consider downgrading Illinois’ credit rating.

Why in the world would Fahner do that? The Civic Committee, a powerful Chicago business group, has been pushing hard for many years to cut public employee pension costs, to no avail. Downgrades, which raise the state’s borrowing costs, could create pressure to finally take action, the logic goes.

Fahner made these comments, and they are captured on video, before the Union League Club of Chicago in response to a question from an audience member. Capitol Fax publisher Rich Miller first made them public and wrote about them in his Sun-Times column on July 26.

In a response earlier this week, Fahner told Miller that he “misspoke.”

“Regarding my comments at the Union League Club in March, I misspoke,” Fahner wrote to Miller. “First, while I may have said so, I didn’t call the ratings agencies, nor did any of our Civic Committee staff. My response to the questions was very confusing and inarticulate.”

I reached out to Fahner on Thursday but didn’t hear back.

Perhaps Fahner was exaggerating before the Union League Club. Perhaps he did make the calls and now he realizes how that looks in the light of day.

Here’s what really matters: Fahner clearly thought this was a good idea — and on that we strongly disagree.

We get the impulse. We’re as frustrated as anyone with state lawmaker’s inaction on pension reform and are always looking for a way to light a spark.

But deliberately putting your own state at risk — even if it’s a means to a more positive end — borders on traitorous.

If the Civic Committee did reach out to credit agencies, it was behind closed doors, with no public say or input. Even more importantly, the public pays for those downgrades with its tax dollars.

In his Union League comments, Fahner made clear he was trying to be responsible. Fahner said he and his colleagues backed off their push with the rating agencies because they didn’t want “to be the straw that breaks the back….We’d done all we could on that that is responsible…it would be irresponsible for the biggest employers in the state – which is who the civic committee is … – to go and basically inflict that on the people that work for them. So we’re trying to work the political process.”

We’re glad to hear they struggled with this — whatever it is they did or didn’t do.

But the bottom line remains the same: these means do not justify the ends.

CEO Brizard's statement on his departure - Chicago

2013-11-19T19:18:24-06:00

The following is a statement released by Chicago Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard early Friday morning after news of his resignation broke:

In my 26 year career in education, I have had many different roles with one commitment – the success of students.

As an educator, I knew for students to be successful here in Chicago we needed to refocus the District to work on the fundamentals of teaching and learning, developing a new framework for teaching. Some have called it a masterpiece. The credit belongs to my hard-working team including many teachers and principals who contributed to the work.

As the district leader, I am proud of the results we achieved in such a short time: graduation rates are up, test scores are improving, a higher percentage of freshman are on track for graduation, we achieved the lowest one-year drop-out rate in the city’s history and we have seen tremendous growth on the ACT – an important college readiness benchmark.

As I move on to the next chapter of my career, my commitment to the success of students and the elimination of inequities within our educational system remains the same.

I have three young children. It is time to focus on their development. We all know the best gift that you can give to a child is time.

I leave this role with great sadness, but with the knowledge that the seeds for true innovation and transformation have been planted. They only need to be cultivated.