Research shows that Latinos who remain in bilingual programs long term risk falling behind in the middle grades and failing once they reach high school. CPS is taking long-awaited steps to launch dual-language programs, a strategy that is gaining steam nationally to help students become proficient in their native language and in English.
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Issues prior to September 1995 are available in PDF format only. Click here to browse our early archives.
Back Issues
 Winter 2012
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 Fall 2011
Marshall High and other turnaround high schools, in Chicago and nationally, face a thorny dilemma. Higher-performing students are being siphoned off through competition, driving down enrollment and raising tough policy questions about the future of these schools. |
 Summer 2011
CPS has no policy requiring full-day kindergarten, no cohesive literacy curriculum and no comprehensive plan to transition children from preschool to kindergarten. Some children have a rich experience, while others get a bare-bones start. This issue on kindergarten, the critical year in which students make the transition to formal schooling, was made possible by a grant from the McCormick Foundation. For more about the foundation, go to www.mccormickfoundation.org. |
 Spring 2011
Mayor Richard M. Daley got tough on students with a strict promotion policy, making them pass a standardized test before moving to the next grade. Today, the test is less of an obstacle and few students fail, prompting some to ask whether social promotion has returned. |
 Winter 2011
A Catalyst Chicago analysis found that the demographics of the CPS teaching force has shifted in the last 10 years: 62 percent of teachers with five years of experience or less are white, compared to 48 percent in 2000. Schools of education are seeking to do more to help teacher candidates understand their minority students. |
 Fall 2010
After 15 years under Mayor Daley’s control, a regime change is in the works for Chicago Public Schools. Here’s what the next mayor and schools chief need to know about where schools stand and what direction they need to take. |
 Summer 2010
The Renaissance 2010 strategy—close low-performing schools, open new, better ones—has taken the center stage nationally under Race to the Top. But results here in Chicago are decidedly mixed. Almost half of the neighborhoods most in need of better schools have gotten none. |
 Spring 2010
Today’s wave of new, young principals is not expected to stay on the job long-term, creating a dilemma for CPS: how to create a pipeline of top-quality leaders and provide them with support to improve the lowest-performing schools. |
 Winter 2010
Research supports the benefits of more classroom time for low-income children, especially when the time is used wisely. But Chicago has one of the shortest school days and years in the country. Now, leaders are looking to Washington to help extend the school day. |
 Fall 2009
Chicago’s alternative schools for dropouts face myriad challenges and are barely making a dent in the problem. Advocates are eyeing federal stimulus funds to give schools more resources, and alternative charters are in the works. But CPS has yet to develop a strategy. |
 May/June 2009
In Chicago, elementary schools and high schools are suspending and expelling students at alarming rates and African American male students are bearing the brunt of these punishments. |
 March/April 2009
State-funded preschool providers are being asked this year to craft strategies for finding and enrolling hard-to-reach youngsters—children whose family or life circumstances put them at the highest risk of academic failure. Serving the hard-to-reach is front and center on the state’s preschool agenda. |
