Tag Archives: South Side Chicago

CPS is Harming Kids With the Most Need

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Chicago Public Schools has provided further proof that they could care less about what is best for students; regardless of the rhetoric they proliferate. The most recent proof of this is their plans to cut the Pre-K Special Education program at Bret Harte Elementary on the South Side.

CPS is intentionally and knowingly harming the kids who need the most, by cutting a Special Education Pre-K program for 3 and 4 year olds with various types of physical and mental disabilities.

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I should not be shocked that CPS would attempt a move like this.  This is not new for Chicago Public Schools. In my 9 years of teaching in here I have witnessed CPS hold community meetings in which students and parents begged and pleaded for CPS to keep their schools open, only to have CPS ignore the community and close the most schools in the history of our country. CPS claimed the cuts were to save money and that the schools were under-enrolled, yet at the same time they were increasing funding for charters and opening new charter schools.

But I guess I still am actually shocked by their desire to cut a Special Ed. Pre-K program. Apparently CPS has now shifted their destruction from schools on the South and West sides to programs that serve the South Side and West Sides.

There are other Special Ed. Pre-K programs on the South Side, but they are either filled to capacity, much too far away, or staffed without certified Special Ed. teachers. As a high school teacher I know from experience that many special needs students depend on a school routine that is consistent and safe. Forcing these very young students to switch schools can be especially traumatic.

One of the parents of a child in the Special Ed. Pre-K program created a Change.org petition to be delivered to CPS demanding that this program be saved. In the petition she writes, “My daughter has made remarkable progress through the efforts of the amazing and dedicated teacher in the special education preschool program. The class at Harte is an effective, loving learning environment for my daughter and her classmates, for whom stability and consistency are crucial. In addition, the special education preschool class is an important part of the school. It is often integrated with other classes for recess, field trips, special events, and sometimes just stories and centers. “

You had better believe that as a parent I will do what is best for my kids, because the school district that I choose to work for and send my children too, does not care about our children.

Here’s how you can get involved and help save Harte’s Pre K Special Education Program:

  • Sign the petition
  • Contact the Alderman of Bret Harte School Leslie Hairston
  • Call CPS and leave a message for Forrest Claypool and Janice Jackson 773-553-1000
  • Come to the “Play in” at Harte!

Finally, the parents of Bret Harte are organizing a “Play-In to Save Pre-K Special Education at Harte” on Tuesday the 21st from 3:30-4:30pm (1556 E. 56th St.) on the playground. Please bring your child and/or come out and support us as we fight to keep open an amazing program that serves amazing kids.

 

Sample Script for Leslie Hairston, Forest Claypool and Janice Jackson:

“My name is ____________ I am calling to ask you to save the Special Ed. Pre-K program at Bret Harte Elementary School. This a very successful and positive program at the school. Cutting a program that helps special needs children is wrong. I am asking you to keep this program open. Thank you”

 

Lessons Learned in Englewood: 8 years of reflections from a CPS teacher

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A little over 8 years ago when I took my first job in CPS at a high school in Englewood, people of all races would look at me like I was crazy when I told them where I would be working. During my time teaching in Englewood I had people make assumptions about me, such as, that I must not be a very good teacher if I teach in Englewood , because surely, if I was a good teacher I would be working somewhere else.

Obviously if people were making assumptions about me working in Englewood, they were surely making assumptions about my students who lived in the community. I have written previously about when a random stranger on the bus called my kids animals and how I responded.

Through all of assumptions and stereotypes I realized that the students I taught were all that mattered. But I also very recently came to a point in my professional career that I needed a change of schools. Leaving the students was and is still hard. I didn’t officially make the decision until August so I told my students through email and text messages. That was the hardest thing by far about leaving. But the beauty of the students was they wanted me to be happy. Yes, they were upset and hurt, but every single student (I even messaged kids who graduated awhile ago to let them know) really just wanted me to be happy. So I write this dedicated to every single student I taught in Englewood which is close to 1,000 students.

 So here is some of what I learned from my time in Englewood:

1. Teachers know that kids can detect a good teacher in the first few minutes of meeting us. Well my Englewood students could detect a good teacher in seconds

When we hired teachers at our school we would always have students sit on the interview and ask questions. Once the interview ended, if our students had doubts then that person wasn’t hired.

2. The kids knew the stereotypes about them, but more importantly with guidance knew also how to beat those stereotypes.

3. That most of the kids I taught could make better politicians than many of the people who are in power in this city.

4. That Englewood produces genius. Yup, you read that right. Still doubting? Then watch this.

5. I learned that having open and honest conversations about race wasn’t always easy, but was always very necessary.

Lisa Delpit an acclaimed scholar on race once came to our school and observed me teach and talked to students that I taught. Because of my openness to talk about race and the stories my students shared with her, she was inspired enough to write about me in her 2nd book.

6. That 4 Englewood high school students can stand up and poetically dissect every terrible policy Rahm Emanuel has put in place.

7. That when I experienced the worst loss of my life it was the students that I taught who knew how best to support me.

8. That when the first student that attended our school was murdered students and staff came together.

It was in my fourth year of teaching that I got a phone call at 6am on a cold January Saturday morning from our assistant principal who told me Travell had been killed. Travell was a very likable kid and a kid who had turned his life around from early in his high school career to just get accepted into college. His loss rocked our school. Everyone dreaded going to school that Monday after his death. But it was everyone at the school, students and staff that kept us all together so we could grieve and overcome this tragedy.

9. That when one of our staff members passed away the students and staff came together.

One of the most happy and upbeat people at our school, passed away last year. He was loved by students and staff alike. No matter what, he was always smiling and was one of those people that truly made school a better place. It was at his funeral that students stood up and spoke and shared stories of love for Stokes that helped us all overcome this loss.

10. That there are some amazing organizations, people, and teachers working in the Englewood neighborhood. If you never heard of RAGE then you need to.

11. That a public high school in Englewood had over 90% college acceptance rate, but the Mayor never came to congratulate us.

12. I learned that being white and bald would automatically lead me to be nicknamed Caillou.

13. That every student deserves so much more than this city’s government and poorly run school system is giving them.

14. That everywhere parents and students want to succeed.

While I was growing up and going to school, I have some teachers who still stick in my mind. The teachers who really helped guide, coach, teach, and inspire me. Well the thing that most people who aren’t teachers don’t know is teachers have kids who stick in their minds the same way. While there are way too many students to name individually who stick and will continue to stick with me, I know that I have become a better person, because of the “dangerous” Englewood students that I taught.

**I am still a CPS public high school south side teacher, just at a different school now**

Published in HuffingtonPost Chicago
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-stieber/lessons-learned-in-englew_b_5876554.html?utm_hp_ref=chicago&ir=Chicago

Published on Gapers Block

http://gapersblock.com/mechanics/2014/09/30/lessons-learned-in-englewood-8-years-of-reflections-from-a-cps-teacher/

Mike McConnell Radio Show

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After the story in The Guardian about my experiences working in Englewood, I was contacted by the Mike McConnell radio show on WGN radio. After doing some background I was a little hesistant to go on, because Mike McConnell is on the more conservative side and has a history of attempting to bully his interviewees. Other than him trying to get me to talk bad about my student’s parents, calling my kids gang bangers, and implying that because I worked in Englewood I must not be a good teacher, because I couldn’t get a job somewhere else, the interview went pretty well.

The Intentional Impoverishment of Neighborhood Schools in CPS by CPS

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Over the past 6 years I have seen the public high school I work at on the South Side, TEAM Englewood, lose funding little by little, that is until this year. Our school was part of Arne Duncan’s Renaissance 2010 plan which was based on the faulty premise that one could simply make education better by closing schools, firing everyone that worked in the building and opening a new school. Being new to Chicago and not knowing anything about this plan, school closings and turnarounds I decided to work at TEAM Englewood (which replaced Englewood Tech Prep). I chose to work in the Englewood community, not because I didn’t have job options of where to work, but because I wanted to work in the Englewood neighborhood.

Our school’s motto is simply “Opportunity”. We want to give our students in Englewood the same opportunities that students all across the city get. I am one of the original teachers who started at this school when it first opened.

During the past six years I have seen our school do amazing things. Maybe the most impressive is that we average about a 93% graduation rate for our senior classes. However, the opportunities that we are able to give our kids are slowly dwindling and being taken away by CPS and this city in the name of “mandatory” budget cuts.

These cuts started small. 4 years ago we had two counselors, we had to cut one. In that same year, we had to cut our librarian (we are “lucky” to be a school that actually has a library). 3 years ago we cut our Assistant Principal position. Last year we did get an Assistant Principal back, but we cut our College Readiness Coordinator. Also that year we had to cut our attendance clerk, school accountant, and tech coordinator.

The implied message from CPS was to do more with less.

Obviously little by little our computers stopped working, school staff had to take on more and more roles. Our Curriculum Coordinator now became in charge of fixing technology, organizing all the CPS mandated standardized testing we are forced to give, helping teachers, observing classrooms, acting as an administrator, among other roles.

All these cuts though very large and detrimental at the time now pale in comparison to the cuts CPS is forcing our school (and all CPS public schools to make) this year. Our school of 500 students had our budget reduced by about 15%, which translated into a $400,000 budget deficit. So now our school, due to the CPS budget, is being forced to eliminate 3 teaching positions and 3 non-teaching positions (for example: clerks, deans, assistant principal, curriculum coordinators).

Now that we have less staff, larger class sizes, and less resources our school will be demanded to improve or have the threat of being “turned around”.
Every neighborhood school in the city is facing similar or even worse cuts.

Our city claims it doesn’t have money to fund schools or teachers’ pensions. Yet our city has money to build new stadiums, river walks, give $85 million to charter schools, and a host of other “necessities”.

I agree with the late John Henrik Clarke who said, “Powerful people cannot afford to educate the people that they oppress, because once you are truly educated, you will not ask for power. You will take it.”

The people who run this city truly do not want a fully educated public. They want great magnet schools that are fully funded with experienced teachers for a select few and neighborhood schools that are poorly funded with an inexperienced teaching staff for the majority.

This is not some conspiracy there is historical precedent for the actions of limiting educational opportunities in lower income communities of color around the world. What this city is attempting to do is a human rights violation. If what was going on here in Chicago was happening in a different country we would easily classify the actions of this city as a human rights travesty.

As Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon in which you can use to change the world.” Our city clearly agrees as it is restricting the education of the majority to keep in power a powerful largely white minority.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-stieber/the-intentional-impoverishment_b_3671623.html

http://gapersblock.com/mechanics/2013/07/31/the-intentional-impoverishment-of-neighborhood-schools-by-cps/

True Educational Improvement

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When I was in high school, in a white middle class area, three consecutive junior classes had lost someone in a car crash.   During my sophomore year the topic would sometimes turn to “who do you think will die when we are juniors?” Morbid? No doubt, but these accidental deaths caused students to worry about their own mortality.

Fifteen years later, as a high school teacher in Englewood, I see the same worry in my students – but it’s not about car accidents.   Growing up black, on the South Side, my students are guaranteed to experience a tragic event to someone that they know and care about. Let me repeat this, my students are guaranteed to experience a tragedy. Many of them have already experienced the loss of multiple tragic and violent deaths of their classmates and loved ones.

My students are the smartest people I know. They know what route to take to and from school to reduce their chances of witnessing or being caught in a tragic event. There is no clear “safe” path, but there are better routes than others. My students, because they are from Englewood do not have the privilege of safe passage.

How is it possible to truly have the same opportunities as students in other parts of the city, state, and country when you have to think about your own mortality EVERY day as you walk to and from school?  The policy leaders of Chicago actively choose who is of value and who is not.  Mayor Rahm Emmanuel and his appointed officials decide whose life is important and whose life is expendable. Harsh?  No, just reality..

Emmanuel found the money to create plans for a $100 million river walk downtown. He found the money to create a $55 million park downtown for Maggie Daley. These improvements would be good if there weren’t more pressing needs, if there weren’t people dying in certain parts of the city where brown and black people live.  Some say, “you can’t just throw money at a problem”.  That’s true, but if our elected officials cared they’d develop a plan and use the money effectively.  With a $100 million you could bring together experts from around the world to create solutions so that my students in Englewood would have the freedom of safe passage to and from school.  With $55 million the policy leaders could create real change with programs and services in the communities where they are underserved or nonexistent.

As a teacher I know many students who, in spite of their neighborhood, family, or personal situation, were able to make it, go to college, and be successful. But as a human I want people to have the privilege to not have to hear “in spite of” when they tell their story about where they are from and where they are now. Because for every “in spite of” story we hear, there are hundreds of people who did not “make it”. Blaming the victim will not fix the tragic problem. Placing budgetary, political, and moral priority on this problem can.

As a teacher, parent, and citizen I want nothing more than to improve education in Chicago. As a teacher, parent, and citizen I also realize that before we can truly improve education we have to place priority on giving students all over of the city, regardless of zip code, the “privilege” of knowing no matter what route they take to school they will be safe.  It just comes down to the question “Does Rahm Emmanuel want to truly improve education?” If he really does then he needs to improve the lives and communities of the students and families that he is obligated as mayor to represent.  Rahm Emmanuel needs to give my students and every student the privilege of not having guaranteed tragedies to overcome.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-stieber/true-educational-improvem_b_1968327.html

http://gapersblock.com/mechanics/2012/11/21/the-path-to-true-educational-improvement/