Quote:
Originally Posted by Vlajos
I'll give you a hint, demographics. 86% of the CPS student body is low income. Suburbs just price people out and whoop, all's great. How about some affordable housing in Naperville or Libertyville? The middle class abandoned CPS in 60-80s and that's why it's the way it is. Look at the CPS neighborhood schools that are doing well. A group of local parents decided to send their kids and now these schools are improving and in some cases better than top suburban schools. The CPS school that my kids go to had a student body of about 300 10 years ago and was about 90% low income. Today, the school has about 600 kids and is 45% low income. It's a viable alternative for middle and upper income families, most of which would not have considered it 10 years ago. All because a group of local parents decided to send their kids to the school and slowly but surely it turned around. Now of course, housing prices are skyrocketing in the neighborhood, partially because of this. Houses literally right outside the attendance area sell for half of those inside. Not sure what can be done about that.
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I'm in my neighborhood school once a week or so. For every low income parent (and the school is >90% low income) that screams in my (and other neighborhood parents) face that us uppity white folks just want to ruin their school, I have 6 that want to work with us to make things better. The principal just stands there and says that's something that the parents have to work out on their own. Not his problem. When a teacher asked us for something that was needed in her classroom, we found a local business that had what she needed and donated it. He screamed at us about how wrong it was to do something that benefits a single classroom and will only allow donations that are for the benefit of the entire school (or that he gets to dole out as he sees fit). This has the effect of preventing parents from working to make their child's classroom better, little by little. He knows this and doesn't deny it. To prevent teachers from talking to us, he has gone as far as locking them out of our meetings.
Furthermore, the CPS Options Lottery is completely screwed up. A very large number of students at the school come from the lottery and not from the neighborhood. These parents are rarely involved - some only because it is not really possible. The lottery process is mismanaged. A parent can accept and enroll in as many schools as they want through this program. There is no tracking. A parent told me that they had their kid enrolled in 4 different CPS schools and decided after the school year started which school he wanted. After a week of no-shows, CPS offers that slot to someone on the waiting list. After school has been in session for a week. Secondly, there is no requirement that any student in the options program must meet any academic or behavioral standards. Have a child that does nothing but disrupts his classroom, gets suspended constantly and has generally worn out his welcome? Put him in the options lottery for next year where he can do it all over again at a new school! Screw the good kids in the bad neighborhoods that would really prosper in a better school!
I don't know how long your child has been in your local school and how long you've been involved, but I assure you that the school wasn't just wasting away until one day a few parents decided to care. It took a large enough bloc of parents a long enough time that CPS could no longer prevent the parents from forcing change.