'Learning Walks' to expand centralized insanity, with the goal of closing schools for 'underperformance' by year's end while escalating harassment of classroom teachers and union leaders at the local school level from the beginning of the 2014 - 2015 school year onward
Principals across Chicago are being briefed that they must institute so-called "Learning Walks" throughout the system almost as soon as school begins, even though the idea has never been tested anywhere and the 'Learning Walk' requires drafting teachers who will not be paid for their services. Central administrators and those from the so-called "Networks," (the current Chicago jargon for sub-districts) are ordering principals to push hard against teachers and the schools from the beginning of the year on. Even though Barbara Byrd Bennett has been talking among confidants of leaving Chicago in February or March, she is still pushing for all of the untested and unproven ploys that have come to characterize the city's real public schools since Rahm Emanuel's inauguration in May 2011.
Although Chicago Public Schools "Chief Executive Officer" Barbara Byrd Bennett has ordered principals to conduct so-called "Learning Walks" throughout the nation's third largest school system in order to escalate the attacks on the classroom teachers and union leaders in the city's real public schools, she arranged for a convertible so that she didn't have to do much of a learning walk during the Bud Billiken Parade on August 9, 2014. The message (in some cases, actually said during principals' meetings) is that the pressure is to be escalated all year against rank and file teachers, especially union leaders and those who helped lead the parental opt out movement last school year.
CPS officials are also talking about the secret NWEA testings as if they had been verified anywhere. The rapid fire talk about the claim that NWEA is Common Core aligned has not been proven to be true, any more than the Common Core has been proven to work. One experimental program is being piled atop another for Chicago's real public schools. Meanwhile, the Board of Education and Chief Executive Officer Barbara Byrd Bennett continue to expand even the most corrupt and controversial charter schools, while insulating virtually all of the city's charters from any of the kinds of so-called "accountability" that is being forced on principals and teachers in the city's real public schools.
A PRESS RELEASE FROM THE MAYOR'S OFFICE ESCALATED CLAIMS ON BEHALF OF NWEA
Mayor Emanuel, CEO Byrd-Bennett Announce Improved CPS Elementary Student Reading and Math Scores Scores Exceed National Growth Averages Scores Improve in Every Grade, While District 8th Graders Pass National Averages
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett today announced that students in every grade from 2 through 8 showed gains in both math and reading and continue to make progress against their peers nationally, according to results from the recent Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) assessments. CPS 8th graders showed strong growth in math and reading for a second consecutive year, an indication that they�ll be ready for the rigors of a challenging high school curriculum.
�These impressive results are yet another indication the hard work by our teachers, principals and families is making a meaningful, measurable difference in the lives of our students.� Mayor Emanuel said. �Every child in every neighborhood deserves a quality education, and improvements in every grade demonstrate that we are building a strong foundation upon which Chicago students can grow and succeed.�
NWEA is a national benchmark in math and reading and was administered to all CPS students in grades 2-8 beginning in the 2012-13 school year. Students take NWEA multiple times during the school year to show growth in core academic subjects. Results from the test help drive instruction, and are a component of teacher evaluations and the elementary school promotion policy. Beginning in School Year 2014-15, NWEA results will be a factor in the District�s new School Quality Rating Policy (SQRP).
�When educators, families and partners work together to support our students, there is no limit to what they can achieve,� CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett said. �These scores show that our students continue to make meaningful progress in our goal for every child to be 100 percent college ready and college bound.�
CPS 8th graders out-paced the national average in both reading and math in School Year 2013-14, representing the highest gains in grades 2 through 8 across the District. CPS 7th graders made strides in reading against 7th graders nationally. NWEA results show that more than half of CPS students in grades 2 through 8 scored at or above the national attainment level in reading for their grade.
Following a year of transition for students enrolled in welcoming schools, NWEA results reveal that students boosted their overall performance in reading and even exceeded the national growth average. Welcoming schools saw a slight decline in math performance from the previous year, though 50 percent of students in Welcoming Schools met the national average for growth.
These early successes reaffirm the District the transition process to keep students engaged and focused in the classroom.
NWEA is more closely aligned to the Common Core State Standards than any other standardized test used by CPS. These encouraging results indicate that students and teachers are gaining a better understanding of the Common Core benchmarks and their implementation across the District.
Chicago Public Schools serves 400,000 students in 665 schools. It is the nation�s third-largest school district.
