Inside the ‘Renaissance’

It just keeps getting worse inside Chicago’s Renaissance 2010. Every day it’s another scandal as Daley’s cronies use every trick in the book to loot the system. This time it’s Sunny Chico’s turn. She’s the wife of former school board prez, Gery Chico. She’s been hired by Edison, a company that’s been given millions to run some charter schools. (h/t Fred Klonsky).

Duck...Philly schools chief Ackerman is copying Chicago’s Renaissance of school closings. Everybody duck.

Closing William Penn High and shifting some of its students to nearby Benjamin Franklin High could result in bloody turf warfare, city residents warned the School Reform Commission yesterday during a meeting to discuss the closure plan. (Philly.com)

'Mulligans'

This NPR story focuses on the high teacher turnover rate in charter schools. At one Chicago charter, they debase teachers by handing out demerits (“mulligans”) for being “30 seconds late to a meeting.” Then they dock teachers’ pay. Sounds like a great factory school to work at—until a real teaching job opens up.

More on charter data

The Chicago Defender reports on the new study comparing charter schools to traditional neighborhood schools in Chi-town. Amazing! Results are just like those from Philly.

Training...

Since new Chicago schools chief Ron Huberman is bringing over bureaucrats from the CTA to help him run the school system, maybe they could complete the switcheroo and send a bunch of CPS bureaucrats over to make the trains run on time.