“Turning the Tide: Building Anti-Racist Education” Episode Three
Baker College Prep athletic director and student-athletes speak in a video podcast about anti-racism in education, created by Noble Schools
By Noble Schools
“In this episode, we speak with Kelsey Taylor, the athletic director at Baker College Prep, and two student-athletes from Baker. Taylor talks about what it means to be an Athletic Director and how athletics plays a role in creating an anti-racist experience for our students. She also discusses how Noble’s policy changes affect how students engage with athletics and other extracurricular activities at Noble. Lastly, we heard from two Baker student-athletes, Dashia and Christian, about how they feel about the changes and how their experience of growing up through athletics and finding community in high school has changed.”

The great debate over masks continues on CPS’s first optional mask day
By Susie An, Kate Grossman for WBEZ
“Martha Rodea’s daughter wanted her kindergarten teacher to see her full face on Monday, the first time in more than a year that Chicago Public Schools students could go without a mask in class. But Rodea wants all three of her children to wear masks to school. “She told me ‘Mom… I want to smile at my teachers. I want them to see me smile,” Rodea said as she picked up her children Monday from McAuliffe Elementary School in the Hermosa neighborhood on the Northwest Side. “But even so I told her that it is the best for her health and for her grandmother. Her grandmother is high risk. If she gets sick, the last thing I want is for her to end up in the hospital for something we could have prevented.”

Chicago aims to renew its admissions policy for selective enrollment schools
By Mauricio Peña for Chalkbeat Chicago
“Chicago Public Schools plans to change its highly competitive selective enrollment school admissions to make the process more equitable for low-income students. Under a recently introduced proposal, the district could eliminate its ranking system for most wanted schools, a change it would implement by the 2023-2024 academic year. The effort is intended to provide more opportunities for low-income students from underserved communities to enroll in the district’s selective enrollment elementary and middle schools, which offer rigorous curriculum and are among the highest-ranked schools in the state and, in some cases, in the country.”

Los maestros de Illinois podrían usar los días de enfermedad para la salud mental. ¿Ayudará?
Por Samantha Smylie para Chalkbeat
“Esta serie busca amplificar los esfuerzos para apoyar mejor el bienestar de los estudiantes y el personal escolar durante este desafiante año de regreso. Maestros como la profesora de inglés Briana Morales trabajaron horas extra para apoyar a sus estudiantes durante dos años de interrupciones y trastornos emocionales durante la pandemia. Ahora, Morales se pregunta quién ayudará a esos maestros agotados. La maestra de quinto año en una escuela secundaria alternativa en el Distrito 189 de East St. Louis en el sur de Illinois ha brindado apoyo académico y de salud mental a los estudiantes que se tambalean por los problemas del coronavirus, así como por la violencia armada y la pobreza que preceden a la pandemia. En el verano de 2020, asistió a los funerales de tres de sus alumnos que murieron en tiroteos. “En el otoño de 2020, tuve que recuperarme porque mis estudiantes todavía me necesitaban en ese momento. Pero no tuve tiempo de procesar lo que necesitaba para mí”, dijo Morales. “Además, nadie me preguntó: ‘¿Qué necesitas?’.