Do you think it's satisfactory that 50% of students who enter Sullivan High School won't graduate?
Our schools are failing our children at every level. Fewer than half the students at Gale, Field, New Field, Jordan and Rogers meet state reading and math proficiency standards.
As Illinois State Board of Education Chairman Jesse Ruiz noted at a recent Chris Adams event, both families and the community are key in prioritizing education for children.
Who is affected by education in Rogers Park?
The quality of schools has a significant impact on everyone in the community, not just those with school-age children. Frequently the quality of schools in a neighborhood speaks to the quality of a neighborhood.
Chris would form an Aldermanic Education Committee that includes representatives from every 49th Ward school and takes identified issues directly to Arne Duncan and the Chicago Public Schools. He would build an After School program that engages Rogers Park professionals and create Report Card Day festivals that more deeply engage parents and the community.
Chris Adams is focused on education.
On Feb 27, prioritize education. Vote for Chris Adams for Alderman - #54 Democrat.
6 comments:
I don't think an Alderman will make a bit of difference on the performance of our neighborhood schools. A well publicized report card pickup day, while nice, doesn't do much for ISAT test scores.
Afterschool programs already exist at Rogers Park schools...
What does make a difference? Poverty levels. Reduce the percentage of kids getting a free or reduced lunch and test scores go up.
No decent parent would make sacrificial animals out of his children just to make a political point. By sending his kids to our schools as they are, Adams would only be acquiscing to things as they are, not making an important statement.
It is perfectly legitimate to make improving our miserable school system your goal while continuing to send your kids elsewhere. That is perhaps why Adams cares so much- perhaps he and his wife resent paying for schools that no one who could do otherwise would send his kids to.
Gemma, Where did they go? Northside College Prep? More power to him...
Make real, visible improvements in the schools and middle income people will start sending their kids there. Parents would be very happy to be relieved of the $10K-$15K (at least) that a private school costs.
And the charter schools are still worse than the public schools. Their teachers are paid still worse and are less qualified.
One woman who lives near me sends her extremely bright and attractive young daughter to Sullivan. This girl is outstanding in mathmatics and the hard sciences, and wants to pursue a career in physics. She says that the instruction per se is fine but what makes the place difficult is that discipline is completey nonexistant. She is routinely harrassed and threatened in the corridors, and classes are continualy disrupted by fights and other disturbances. She is a very determined, strong kid, so she can weather the constant abuse and disruption, but many kids would rather just drop out than deal with being bullied and threatened in the halls and sitting through noisy, choatic classes where the school bullies and cutups feel free to disrupt the lessons at any time for any reason.
It's not that kids have changed since my adolescence. They haven't. It's just that in that era, the people who ran the schools were empowerd to discipline and/or expel violent, disruptive pupils and now they are not. That is why poor children in the 50s and 60s did better on basic skills than middle income kids do now.
All kids in undisciplined, choatic public schools are being cheated of their due, but the poorest kids are getting the worst of it. The first thing we must do to improve the schools is restore order and enforce civil behavior, which might have spared us a few suburban school shooting rampages, as well as creating a haven for kids from extremely disorderly homes. All other improvements will be that much easier to implement once that's done.
In the meantime, most parents will make whatever sacrifices are possible to get their kids into a safe, orderly environment where they can concentrate on their schoolwork and feel safe from bullying and violence.
As a teacher at Sullivan, I completely agree with "the north coast"'s comments. Most of the teachers are more than capable in terms of knowledge of their subject areas, and our abilities to display such information; the biggest problem is that we are handcuffed when it comes to discipline. Sullivan has a worse reputation that it deserves, but it is by no means an easy place to teach and learn. One of the biggest troublemakers in the school was arrested for armed robbery just before the end of the year; he is now back in the school. Do we want him back? Obviously not. He has no use for school. But because he has the label of "special education student" placed upon him, there is little we can do. We are required by law to keep students in our school until the age of 21
(at least) if they are given that label.
There are many bright, hard working students at Sullivan. Unfortunately, they, as a whole, are not supported by their parents. I have been contacted by a grand total of 2 parents so far this year - and by the number of students that are currently failing my classes (I teach math), I should be hearing from many, many more. Is it the job of the school to help instill discipline? Of course it is. But why did I not run into problems with discipline when I was going through high school? Because of my parents, who taught me that education was important, and that listening to and respecting your teachers was important as well. We need our students' parents to be more active, interested, and supportive.
And, one final thing - I guarantee you that if all the students that are in Sullivan's attendance area actually went to Sullivan, we would have one of the best schools in the city. It's the vicious cycle - Sullivan has to improve before more good students choose to go there, but the school won't improve until it gets better students. If we can provide a solution to that, then we'll all be a lot happier with this situation.
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