Noble Hosts #DoUProm at Soldier Field

By The Noble Network of Charter Schools

“Last weekend we welcomed thousands of Noble seniors to Soldier Field for Prom 2021: Under the Chicago Sky. This event allowed us to honor this very special occasion while providing students an exciting opportunity to get up close to an iconic Chicago landmark. With each campus having its own dedicated hour, students safely walked on the field, toured the locker room, and, maybe most important of all, got to see their teachers and friends in person, many for the first time in a very long time. We were pleased to see several news outlets pick up this story and share the success of the event with the city. (Watch the coverage on Fox News Chicago, NBC News Chicago, ABC News Chicago, CBS News Chicago, WGN News Chicago, and in the Chicago Tribune.)”

 

Mental Health Matters: Community Townhall Video Recap

By The Noble Network of Charter Schools

“In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, Noble aims to destigmatize mental health and provide resources to students, staff, alumni, parents and community members. This Wednesday evening we hosted a virtual town hall centered on addressing the mental, emotional and physical wellness and health for the collective Noble community. The event served as a culmination point following two weeks of virtual healing circles, yoga, and meditation sessions offered to students, staff, alumni, parents and community members as a part of the  “Mental Health Matters: A Hope & Healing Series at Noble,” a virtual space for the Noble community to grieve, heal and move forward collectively amid COVID-19 and racism.”

 

Noble’s Antiracist Journey, A Conversation with Josh Sosa, Pritzker ‘12

By the Noble Network of Charter Schools

“At the outset of the 2020 school year, Noble set a bold and ambitious goal of becoming a more antiracist organization. Since then, Noble announced our anti-racism commitment (ARC), we engaged thousands of families in surveys and feedback to guide a reexamination of policies and practice. Since February, grounded in that feedback from parents, students, staff, and alumni, ARC design teams have been meeting to guide the way forward on Noble policy and practice as it relates to our student code of conduct, uniform, promotion and graduation requirements, curriculum design and more. Those design teams then shared draft proposals with groups of Noble stakeholders for intensive feedback – hundreds of Noble family members, staff, students, and alumni engaged in these refine team spaces. This post is part of a series of updates on that work in progress. Josh Sosa is an AP U.S. History and AP Government & Politics teacher at Pritzker College Prep where he also coaches cross country and track teams and works on the Noble-wide Innovation Collaborative. Josh graduated from Noble’s Pritzker College Prep campus in 2012. Josh has served on the DEI Steering committee and in that role participated in a number of refine team spaces to provide input and feedback to improve policies and practices. We sat down with Josh to discuss his role in the ARC design and refine work this year.”

 

Noble’s Antiracist Journey, A Conversation with Lyndsay Cowles

By the Noble Network of Charter Schools

“At the outset of the 2020 school year, Noble set a bold and ambitious goal of becoming a more antiracist organization. Since then, Noble announced our antiracism commitment (ARC), we engaged thousands of families in surveys and feedback to guide a reexamination of policies and practice. Since February, grounded in that feedback from parents, students, and alumni, ARC design teams have been meeting to guide the way forward on Noble policy and practice as it relates to our student code of conduct, uniform, promotion and graduation requirements, curriculum design and more. Those design teams then shared draft proposals with groups of Noble stakeholders for intensive feedback – hundreds of Noble family members, staff, students, and alumni engaged in these refine team spaces. This post is part of a series of updates on that work in progress. Lyndsay Cowles is the Senior Manager of Instructional Development at Noble, in her day job she supports Noble’s teachers and instructional coaches in implementing the Noble Classroom framework. In the past few months, Lyndsay also served on the design teams for the Instructional Core (looking at curriculum and instruction at Noble) and the Noble Code design team which focused on the student code of conduct, Behavioral Model, Training Plans). Lyndsay is also a member of the DEI Steering committee and in that capacity provided feedback to refine proposals from the other design teams.”

 

Noble’s Antiracist Journey, A Conversation with Tierionna Pinkston and Kyle Cole

By the Noble Network of Charter Schools

“At the outset of the 2020 school year, Noble set a bold and ambitious goal of becoming a more antiracist organization. Since then, Noble announced our anti-racism commitment (ARC), we engaged thousands of families in surveys and feedback to guide a reexamination of policies and practice. Since February, grounded in that feedback from parents, students, and alumni,  ARC design teams have been meeting to guide the way forward on Noble policy and practice as it relates to our student code of conduct, uniform, promotion and graduation requirements, curriculum design and more. Those design teams then shared draft proposals with groups of Noble stakeholders for intensive feedback – hundreds of Noble family members, staff, students, and alumni engaged in these refine team spaces. This post is part of a series of updates on that work in progress. Tierionna Pinkston and Kyle Cole lead the Instructional Core design team which is focused on answering “What does the relationship between teacher, student, and content at Noble look like with an antiracist lens?”  Tierionna Pinkston is the Instructional Leadership Coach on the Noble Support Team. She supports the instructional leaders at eight of Noble’s campuses to pursue academic excellence for students and instructional development for teachers. Kyle Cole is the Chief Education Officer at Noble, where he oversees and supports the development of policy, practice, and resources for Noble’s day-to-day academic programming, support services, and enrichment. We sat down with both Tierionna and Kyle to discuss this ARC design and refine work.”

 

In haste, Illinois Senate passes compromise bill for an elected school board in Chicago

By Samantha Smylie for Chalkbeat Chicago

“During an overtime legislative session full of surprises, the Illinois Senate on Tuesday night passed a last-minute compromise plan that would establish elections for Chicago’s Board of Education by 2024. The bill passed 36 to 15 with two members abstaining, but its broader fate is unclear. The Illinois House must take up the measure, and it has adjourned for now. The compromise amendment surfaced publicly midday Tuesday in the Illinois Senate after the House had already concluded its spring session. It expands the size of the board from the current seven members to 21 members. Unlike the bill’s previous versions, there would be a transition phase, during which 10 members would be elected. The remaining 11 seats, including the president, would be elected in 2026 and serve four-year terms. Within two hours of the compromise amendment being made public, some high-profile policymakers raised questions about the new language and called on lawmakers to pause before proceeding. Chicago’s deputy mayor of education, Sybil Madison, warned that provisions on who could run for the seats did not bar union leadership. Others asked about campaign-spending limits and why they didn’t appear in the measure.”

 

Illinois Lawmakers Boost School Spending, Guarantee Recess And Mandate Sex Ed

By Susie An for WBEZ

“More money, new topics to teach, updated policies. The Illinois General Assembly wrapped up its legislative session with a number of education bills headed to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk. Topping the list: Public schools in Illinois were spared a second year of flat funding. The state is supposed to increase school spending by $350 million each year over several years to adequately fund public schools, according to the state’s education funding formula. Last year’s spending was flat because of the economic downturn caused by the pandemic. But the governor in May reversed plans for level funding again, saying he supported a $350 million increase to K-12 education, and that plan is headed to his desk. Advance Illinois, an education advocacy group, said appropriating these state dollars allows schools to properly leverage federal relief dollars coming to Illinois to safely open schools for in-person learning and support social, emotional and academic recovery.”

 

Illinois legislators vote to dramatically limit use of seclusion and facedown restraints in schools

By Jennifer Smith Richards & Jodi S. Cohen for The Chicago Tribune

“Illinois lawmakers took sweeping action Sunday to limit the use of seclusion and restraint in schools, following through on promises made after a 2019 Tribune-ProPublica investigation revealed that school workers had regularly misused the practices to punish students. The House voted unanimously to pass legislation barring school workers from locking children alone in seclusion spaces and limiting the use of any type of isolated timeout or physical restraint to when there’s “imminent danger of physical harm.” The legislation requires schools that receive state funding to make a plan to reduce — and eventually eliminate — the practices over the next three years. Schools that develop plans more quickly can receive priority for new grant funding for staff training. A main feature of the legislation — and the element that proved most contentious among lawmakers over the past 18 months — is an immediate ban on schools’ use of prone, or facedown, restraint for most students. Restraining a student that way would be permitted only for children whose special-education plans specifically allow it as an emergency measure and only until the end of the 2021-22 school year, granting schools more time to phase out the practice than some legislators and advocates sought.”

 

CPS fall plans: Full-time in-person classes, virtual academy for medically fragile kids — and as many students vaccinated as possible

By Hannah Leone for Chicago Tribune

“While preparing for fully in-person classes this fall, Chicago Public Schools officials on Wednesday said they are also working on a centralized virtual academy for students with qualifying medical conditions. “Although we have a lot of work to do in order to close out this school year successfully, we have turned our attention to planning for the fall,” CEO Janice Jackson said during Wednesday’s Chicago Board of Education meeting. A key component to ensuring schools are safe is getting as many people vaccinated against COVID-19 as possible, especially now that students as young as 12 are eligible, Jackson said. Though COVID-19 is not on the current list of required immunizations for students, the district has been encouraging it, hosting vaccine events at schools that are open to students and their families, in partnership with the Chicago Teachers Union. Despite the recent collaboration, CTU President Jesse Sharkey said CPS needs to have a stronger school-based vaccine plan for students, families and employees, and set a concrete goal.”