CPS Announces Closures, 'Phase-Outs' Planned At Eight Chicago Schools

CPS Announces School Closures, 'Phase-Outs' And Other Adjustments

After announcing Tuesday that ten Chicago Public Schools will be subjected to a controversial "turnaround" treatment next year, CPS named four schools for closure Wednesday, and initiated a "phase out" process at two more that will close in the next three years. In all, 20 schools are facing adjustments, colocations, turnarounds or closures in the coming year.

The sweeping changes facing so many Chicago schools were directed by the School Actions Guidelines, issued Tuesday by the Chicago Board of Education, which flag schools with composite Illinois State Achievement Test scores below their geographic average, with low graduation rates or located in close proximity to a higher-achieving school for consideration. (See the full terms of the School Action Guidelines here.)

Simon Guggenheim and Florence B. Price Elementary Schools will be closed after several years on academic probation and average ISAT scores about 20 percent below neighboring schools, CPS reports. Two schools already in the phase out process--Julia C. Lathrop and Walter Reed Elementary Schools--will close after graduating their last class this year. (Best Practice High School, which was fully phased out by 2009, will be formally closed this year). Phase outs will begin at Walter H. Dyett and T. Crane Technical Preparatory High Schools, which have spent seven and 10 years on academic probation, respectively.

"Co-locations" merging charter schools with traditional, under-enrolled CPS schools will embed alternative or enrichment programs into Henry H. Nash Elementary School, James R. Doolittle Jr. Elementary School and Richard T Crane Technical Preparatory High School, according to the CPS release.

The new batch of adjustments is poised to impact 2,769 students, on top of the 5,800 at schools being turned around. CPS reports that more than 123,000 Chicago students attend underperforming schools in the district, nearly one-third of all young people enrolled.

"Every child in every community in Chicago deserves a high quality education, which is why we are making the tough choices today to put our students on the path toward college and career success," CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard said in a statement. "Our students have one chance at a quality education and they cannot wait another year for the level of instruction and support they deserve to become successful."

Some education advocates have praised the CPS overhauls as a necessary change, citing record low state test scores across Illinois this year, pushback from teachers over proposed changes in the way their performances are evaluated and the release of test scores proving that charter schools, once thought to be a solution to Chicago's educational woes, face the same problems as their public counterparts. A Chicago Sun-Times editorial Wednesday praised the actions for "moving CPS in the right direction."

But the Chicago Teachers Union has already issued criticism of the CPS announcement, calling out the district for targeting predominantly African-American schools on the South and West Sides and arguing that shutdowns can destabilize communities.

"School closings, consolidations, turnarounds and other similar experiments do not work and do little to improve student achievement," CTU President Karen Lewis said in a statement. "Today's 'school actions' are the same old, ineffective, policies couched in new and exciting public relations boosting language; however, the outcomes will remain the same. Until this administration addresses the structural inequity in our schools and deals with poverty and other social impediments to learning, we'll be right back at this place again next year."

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