Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Emanuel’s Point Man on School Closings

Emanuel’s Point Man on School Closings
Jose More
CPS Chief Portfolio Officer Oliver Sicat is leading the district's school closing and turnaround efforts. The list of schools targeted for closure next year will be announced by Dec. 1.

Closing down underperforming public schools in Chicago has historically been a traumatic process, with battle lines drawn between affected communities and district leaders.

School closures take on an even greater significance this year, because they are designed to be the first step in the strategic plan of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his handpicked school administration to overhaul the struggling system.

The Chicago Public School district, which has closed about 50 schools in the last decade, this year is expected to increase the number of schools being turned around and to expand the number of charter schools. Officials must release the list of schools they plan to shutter by Dec. 1.

The leader of the process is Oliver Sicat, 32, the district’s new chief portfolio officer, a newly-created position focused on providing, in the words of Chief Executive Jean-Claude Brizard, a “high-quality seat” in a good school for every child. Sicat is a former teacher and principal—positions Emanuel said would be on the resumes of his new district leaders.

The son of Filipino immigrants, Sicat grew up in Santa Ana, Calif., where he said his parents had to game the system to get him into a good public school.

“I learned early on that there are different inequities based on where you live,” Sicat said, noting that at one point, his parents used a different address to get him into a better school.

“Looking back now, I see exactly why my parents were doing that,” he said. “But I think there’s something really unfair about it. There’s no reason why families and parents should have to do that.”

If Sicat is successful in the task handed to him by Emanuel and Brizard, families will not have to gamble on where their children go to school. After low-performing schools are closed, Sicat and district leaders say they plan to reorganize or replace them with schools managed by both public and private operators that have proven track records of success.

When Arne Duncan, now the U.S. secretary of education, served as chief executive, he sought to increase the number of high-quality schools under the Renaissance 2010 initiative, opening 100 new schools over a five-year period—most of them charter schools. Research findings on the Renaissance 2010 initiative were mixed but mostly showed little improvement in academic achievement.

Sicat, who previously served as the principal of UIC College Prep, a Noble Street Charter School, has already met his opponents. Last week at a community hearing on the plan for school closings, audience members shouted at Sicat, questioned his decision-making power, and demanded that the district invest in existing schools rather than close them and open up new ones.

“Everyone agrees that we’re trying to improve the educational options for our students, but I think how we get there is where we disagree,” Sicat said at a recent Chicago Board of Education meeting.

A group of community organizations were scheduled on Tuesday to release their own agenda for improving schools, calling on the district to invest in neighborhood schools by providing preschool and full-day kindergarten, supporting after-school programs, and taking better advantage of community partnerships. The groups had already presented their proposal to Beth Swanson, Emanuel’s deputy chief of staff for education, and Jamiko Rose, the district’s chief officer for family and community engagement.

Joanna Brown, the lead education organizer at the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, said Swanson and Rose seemed receptive to their ideas, but added, “The question is where the priorities and the resources are.”

At the last two school board meetings, Sicat has given glimpses of the district’s strategy and priorities.

In October, he said school-closure decisions will be made primarily on academic performance. In November, the board approved a contract with an outside consulting firm to develop a “school choice matching system” that would require all prospective students to apply to the public schools. The district also sent parents a new school report card recently that labels their child’s school as a high or low performer. The city’s public charter schools were not given a report card, causing some to question why they are not being exposed to the same high-stakes evaluations as others.

Barbara Radner, director of the Center for Urban Education at DePaul University, said there is “no question” that the number of charter schools will increase under the new administration.

The Chicago Teachers Union is vehemently opposed to charter schools, and last week president Karen Lewis said the new guidelines for school closings unfairly favor “publicly-funded, but privately-managed charter schools” that are not held accountable to the same standards.

“The guidelines are more of the same failed policies and practices of previous CPS administrations: moving too quickly to close neighborhood schools and replace them with charter schools without ever demonstrating that CPS faithfully tried to adequately support struggling neighborhood schools,” Lewis said.

The CTU does not represent teachers at city charter schools.

Sicat and other district officials say the aim is to expand good schools, regardless of who runs them and whether they are charters or not.

Research on the impact of closing and opening schools on the basis of student achievement has been inconclusive.

A 2009 report from the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research showed that student achievement dipped in the year leading up to closure, but was largely unaffected once a student was placed in a different school. Researchers found that only 6 percent of students moved into high-quality schools, while 42 percent continued to attend low-achieving ones.

The plan is to close those low-achieving schools as soon as possible. But opening “high-quality” schools in their place may take time, and even so, may still not produce the results Sicat and others are hoping for. Multiple Analyses of schools opened under Renaissance 2010 showed that most of them performed only slightly better or about the same as nearby neighborhood schools.

Still, “We want to make sure we’re giving our students better options now,” Sicat said.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Real Housewives of Atlanta’ recap, season four, episode 4: ridiculous?

Good ol’ Phaedra Parks helped instigate the Peter/Apollo fight last week.

Tonight, she again initiated another verbal altercation, this one between Kandi Burruss and Kandi’s opinionated mom Joyce.

Why? As Phaedra noted last season, she loves the strippers. As an attorney, she even represents one (named Ridickulous) who is so big, well, he has talents that most men are incapable of. And he demonstrated this said talent at Kandi’s 35th birthday party on the rooftop of the Renaissance Hotel in Midtown.

Kandi was cool with it. And Phaedra was in heaven.

“You won’t be able to find that in your local retailer,” Phaedra drawled.

Noting that Phaedra is his attorney, Kandi cracked, “Given how big that is, he probably gets sued for damages.” (A cymbal should have went off after that clunker!)

Kandi’s mom Joyce walked away disgusted. “I don’t like no damn strippers!” she yelped.

NeNe, despite her own stripper past, acted all grossed out. by Ridickulous. “It’s disgusting,” she said, especially since people were wearing Gucci and Versace. (huh?)

“Me and Phaedra and Sheree were laughing,” Kandi explained later. “I wasn’t thinking about everybody else.” Especially her mom, who left early, cursing up a storm.

“It’s my 35th birthday,” said Kandi, chagrined, “And I feel like five.”

By the way, Kandi invited everyone to this party – except Kim, who is eight months pregnant. So the separation between Kim and NeNe continues. Sheree and Phaedra keep their distance from NeNe. Kandi said she hates being in the middle – but she invited them all there. (It’s a TV show. Everyone goes with it.)

“It’s like the Crips and the Bloods,” Phaedra notes. But no bloodshed happens. Just a big chill.

What happened to the other housewives?

- Cynthia Bailey brought her sister Malorie to see her husband Peter at his new bar Bar One, which was about to open. Since Malorie and Cynthia’s mom were so worried about Cynthia’s mental state last season before her wedding, they pondered hiding the marriage certificate. Peter found out later, probably when the episode aired. He was peeved. He thought he was cool with Malorie until then and was hurt. Malorie tried to explain to him that she protecting her sister. He didn’t really buy it. “It wasn’t your day!” he said. In frustration, he got up and left, saying it was okay, even though it wasn’t. Malorie started crying.

Later, Malorie and Cynthia got into an argument because Malorie disapproved of Cynthia even pondering helping Peter out financially with his bar. (His last one belly flopped.) Cynthia got defensive and called out Malorie on her marriage issues. They then tried to cool down but it’s obvious the issue will rear its ugly head again in the future.

- Kim Zolciak got very little airtime this week. She opened the episode meeting with Phaedra, who carried a peace offering gift basket for what happened at the baby shower with her husband and Peter. Kim appreciated it, noting that Cynthia didn’t call her to apologize. She also met with a baby consultant (despite the fact she’s had two kids already) since her third will be a boy. They queasily talked circumcision.

- Sheree Whitfield saw no progress on her new home and brought Phaedra to be her lawyer. They verbally roughed up the contractor in hopes that they don’t have to go to court down the road.

- NeNe revealed to Cynthia that she had sex with Gregg after she got back from Miami though they are still technically separated. “Greg likes it down,” NeNe said. “He can be a tiger!”

NOTABLE QUOTES (there were plenty this week!)

“Note to self: keep the ex cons and ***holes off the guest list next time.” - Kim Zolciak, about any future parties, after the Peter/Apollo dust up last week.

“I don’t know how old Peter is. 65? 75? He’s entirely too old to be yelling at a ***king baby shower.” - Kim, in classy verbal mode again.

I was on morphine. I was on epidural. I was crazy as a vampire in sunlight!” - Phaedra, on having her baby.

“I’m turning 35 this year. I’m feeling like I’m not married. I want to have another child. It’s kind of depressing. But it is like a milestone so it’s time to party.” - Kandi, rationalizing a party when it was probably the producers’ idea.

I think Kandi wanted a friendship and Kim wanted a hit song.” - NeNe, pondering why Kandi and Kim have grown apart since “Tardy for a Party” became a huge hit.

“When you are as low down as Sheree, hitting below the belt, trying to dig up your past, you don’t deserve the friendship of NeNe Leakes.”NeNe Leakes, placing herself in third person like Prince or Shaq.

“I don’t want him growing up with his peepee wearing a turtleneck.” - Kim, on getting her baby circumcised.

“Cynthia needs to set boundaries” between her husband and her family.” - NeNe.

“For a black man, it’s better to see you going than coming. Having a nice donkey booty is like having a carrot and dangling it in front of a horse.” - Phaedra, who teased and threatened a contractor, often at the same time.

“I never leave home without a taser. They’d be glad I left the .357 in the car!” - Phaedra, on her self-defense methods. Watch out Mr. Contractor!

Lawrence looks like Mr. T dipped in Wonder Woman. Super hero of the South!” - Phaedra, after seeing Lawrence at the 35th birthday party.

“I just enter and my presence takes over the room.” NeNe, modest as always.

TEASER FOR NEXT WEEK

Peter loses $40,000 from an investor for his new bar. Cynthia is thinking about chipping in herself but is not happy about it. We see ex-hubby Bob Whitfield for the first time as Sheree tries to wrangle child support from him. And “Housewives” wannabe Marlo Hampton makes her debut. The rumore: she was dating an NFL player Chris Grant that NeNe also had dated.

RATINGS

Last week, ratings were up to 3.2 million from 3 million the week before. The first three episodes were up 700,000 viewers over a year ago, averaging 3 million. I’ll update this Monday or Tuesday with the ratings from episode No. 4.

Deadline Passes For Occupy Philly Eviction

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A deadline set by the city for Occupy Philadelphia to leave the site where it has camped for some two months passed without scuffles or arrests Sunday as police watched and protesters sang and spoke of their dreams -- while some prepared for the possibility of arrest.
The scene outside City Hall was far different from encampments in other cities where pepper spray, tear gas and police action resulted in the removal of long-situated demonstrators since the movement against economic disparity and perceived corporate greed began with Occupy Wall Street in Manhattan two months ago.

Occupy Philadelphia has managed to avoid aggressive confrontations so far, and on Sunday night there was hope the City of Brotherly Love would continue to be largely violence-free.

"Right now, we have a peaceful demonstration," said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Joe Sullivan, nearly 45 minutes after the 5 p.m. deadline. By 11 p.m., the crowd had thinned a bit, but the calm remained.

Along the steps leading into a plaza, about 50 people sat in lines with the promise that they would not leave unless they were carried out by authorities. For a time, they linked arms. But as it seemed that a forceful ouster was not imminent, they relaxed a bit. A police presence was heavier than usual but no orders to leave had been issued.

A few dozen tents remained scattered on the plaza, along with trash, piles of dirty blankets and numerous signs reading, "You can't evict an idea."

Several hundred supporters surrounded those who were prepared to face arrest for one of the Occupy movement meetings known as a general assembly.

The meeting started out with logistics -- making sure those sitting in had quarters to make calls from jail and that someone was gathering important medical information -- but it soon turned to big ideas.

The protesters described their many hopes for a better world. Among them: reparations for slavery and Native American lands, better and more inspiring schools, recognizing gay marriage, and end to Linkhomelessness, fewer TVs and better pay for artists. Some of those who spoke with hope and joined in rendition of "Lean on Me," had goggles with them, just in case pepper spray is used.

There was a sense that the occupation in front of Philadelphia's Gothic-style City Hall would soon be over, but hope that the movement would last.

"This is just baby steps," said R.W. Dennen, who said he felt a bit guilty that he wasn't preparing to be arrested.

Elsewhere on the East Coast, eight people were arrested in Maine after protesters in the Occupy Augusta encampment in Capitol Park took down their tents and packed their camping gear after being told to get a permit or move their shelters.

Protesters pitched tents Oct. 15 as part of the national movement but said Sunday they shouldn't have to get a permit to exercise their right to assemble. Occupy leaders said a large teepee loaned by the Penobscot Indians and a big all-weather tent would stay up.

The Augusta arrests came when police say people jumped a waist-high, wooden fence on the governor's mansion lawn and some climbed a portico to the building and unfurled an Occupy banner. As many as 50 protesters, some holding signs and beating a drum, gathered near the Blaine House gates.

In Los Angeles, another deadline was getting closer, too, for hundreds of demonstrators to abandon their weeks-old Occupy Los Angeles protest.

Although city officials have told protesters they must leave and take their nearly 500 tents with them by 12:01 a.m. Monday, just a handful were seen packing up Sunday.

Instead, some passed out fliers containing the city seal and the words: "By order of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, this notice terminates your tenancy and requires you to attend the Occupy L.A. Eviction Block Party," which the fliers' said was scheduled for 12:01 a.m.

Others attended teach-ins on resistance tactics, including how to stay safe should police begin firing rubber bullets or breaking out tear gas canisters and pepper spray.

Back in Philadelphia, Steve Venus was fortifying the area around his tent with abandoned wood pallets left over from those who had already packed up. He said the $50 million construction project, including a planned ice skating rink, was not a good enough reason for Occupy Philadelphia to leave the plaza.

Venus, 22, said that by enforcing the deadline, the city was essentially telling Occupy supporters "your issues are not important. The only issue that's important is the ice skating rink."

On Friday, Mayor Michael Nutter expressed support for the movement's ideals but said protesters must make room for the long-planned project, which they were told of when they set up camp Oct. 6.

Nutter was out of town Sunday, but his spokesman reiterated that "people are under orders to move."

The mayor himself had an exchange on Twitter with hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons, who asked Nutter "to remember this is a non-violent movement -- please show restraint tonight."

Nutter's response: "I agree."

Members of the governing body of Occupy Philadelphia, the general assembly, previously approved a move to a plaza across the street after union officials stressed the hundreds of jobs being created by the Dilworth reconstruction. But that vote mistakenly assumed protesters would be able to pitch tents there.

Graffiti, lack of sanitation and fire hazards, including smoking in tents, were among the city's chief concerns at Dilworth, which had about 350 tents at the height of the movement. The encampment also attracted significant numbers of homeless, although the plaza had long been frequented by that population even before the camp was established.

The city did issue a permit to an Occupy Philadelphia faction called Reasonable Solutions that planned to continue demonstrating across the street beginning Monday. However, activities are limited to between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m., and no overnight camping is allowed.