Chicago and Chicago's Mayor

[Will E Worm]

Chicago Mayor's ****' School Remains Open

The school attended by Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel's ******** remains open, even though public school teachers are striking in Chicago resulting in school closures across the city.

"Mayor Rahm Emanuel has decided to send his three ******** to the University of Chicago Lab Schools rather than put them in the financially strapped Chicago Public Schools he’s trying desperately to reform," the Chicago Sun-Times reported last year.

A phone call to the Lab Schools confirmed that it remains open. It is, after all, a private institution--and strikes are taking place in public schools.

The director's office, however, was not yet able immediately to confirm whether Emanuel's three ******** were in attendance today. (UPDATE: The school called back to say it wouldn't comment.) Emanuel's office did not respond to a request for comment.

The Lab Schools are an expensive and elite Chicago institution. The website of the school high details the annual cost:

Nursery (half day) yearly tuition: $16, 584 Quarterly tuition $5,528
Nursery - Grade 5 (full day) yearly tuition: $23,526 quarterly tuition: $7,842
Grades 6 - 8 yearly tuition: $25, 326 quarterly tuition: $8,442
Grades 9-12 yearly tuition: $26,520 quarterly tuition: $8,840

According to the school's website, it has a "rich academic and extracurricular offerings, [a] distinct approach to education, [a] diverse student body, and [a] unique relationship to the University of Chicago."

Premium Link Upgrade


The former White House Chief of Staff to Obama that magically became mayor of Chicago...

Then the public schools aren't good enough?

79% of Chicago 8th Graders Not Proficient in Reading

Seventy-nine percent of the 8th graders in the Chicago Public Schools are not grade-level proficient in reading, according to the U.S. Department of Education, and 80 percent are not grade-level proficient in math.

Chicago public school teachers went on strike on Monday and one of the major issues behind the strike is a new system Chicago plans to use for evaluating public school teachers in which student improvement on standardized tests will count for 40 percent of a teacher's evaluation. Until now, the evaluations of Chicago public school teachers have been based on what a Chicago Sun Times editorial called a "meaningless checklist."

In 2011, the U.S. Department of Education administered National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests in reading and math to students around the country, including in the Chicago Public Schools. The tests were scored on a scale of 0 to 500, with 500 being the best possible score. Based on their scores, the U.S. Department of Education rated students' skills in reading and math as either "below basic," "basic," "proficient" or "advanced."

Nationally, public school 8th graders scored an average of 264 on the NAEP reading test. Statewide in Illinois, the 8th graders did a little better, scoring an average of 266. But in the Chicago Public Schools, 8th graders scored an average of only 253 in reading. That was lower even than the nationwide average of 255 among 8th graders in "large city" public schools.

Premium Link Upgrade

The ******** can't read and the teachers think they are not being treated fairly?

The teachers fight being evaluated? They should be. If they can't cut it then fire them.