Rahm's imposed longer school day -- "Messing up what works"

“They [CPS officials] should look at the quality of the school day, not the quantity. ... If the system is working for Northside, why do they want to mess up what works?” -- Northside College Prep parent

Northside College Prep

The elite public schools in Chicago want no part of Rahm's longer school day boondoggle. For one thing, there's no basis for it in education research.  For another, the mayor sends his own children to a private school that has a shorter school year than Chicago's and one that rejects his notion that more seat time in school translates to better learning outcomes.

At Chicago's top-scoring high school, parents are up in arms over the mayor's autocratic mandate.

The Sun-Times reports  that more than 2,000 parents and supporters of Northside College Prep have signed an online petition asking that the state’s highest-scoring public high school be exempted from a longer school day this fall. They say the change would undermine the school’s trademark shortened “colloquium’’ day of boutique electives — in the past everything from Baseball Statistics to life-guarding — for kids.

Changing the current nearly 3 1/2-hour colloquium day to a 7 1/2 hour one ­— as required by new CPS guidelines — would cut into critical free time students now use for homework, extra-curriculars and just plain decompressing, petition supporters say. Northside students “get a lot of homework. That’s the day to catch up,’’ said Northside Parent Network member Raj Patel.