Top Education Stories You Don’t Want to Miss – Week of June 24th, 2019
CPS offers free lunch for kids throughout summer
By ABC 7
CHICAGO (WLS) — School is out for Chicago Public School students, but kids can still get free lunches this summer. Starting Monday, June 24, nearly 100 outdoor locations will open up for the CPS LunchStop Program for children ages 1 through 18. The program provides free, healthy meals in a familiar environment to make food more accessible to kids throughout the summer months.
New Chicago Board Of Education Members Voice Dissent
By Sarah Karp for WBEZ
In a move that’s nearly unheard of, the Chicago Board of Education on Wednesday almost rejected a policy change recommended by the school district leadership. This came during the first meeting of a new board appointed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot. The board first had a heated discussion about proposed changes to the district’s school rating policy. Then when it came time to vote, just as the measure was about to fail, newly-appointed Board President Miguel del Valle asked what would happen should it go down.
In the second year of statewide assessment, three out of four Illinois children still aren’t kindergarten ready
By Catherine Henderson for Chalkbeat Chicago
More than three-quarters of Illinois children are still falling short on kindergarten readiness, according to data released Tuesday and collected statewide last fall. This is the second year Illinois has implemented the Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS) — an observational assessment by teachers who log developmental behaviors to gauge kindergarten readiness. Most of the data points saw slight increases of 1 to 5 percentage points from the previous year.
Chicago school board weighs changes to controversial school rating policy
By Adeshina Emmanuel for Chalkbeat Chicago
Chicago Public Schools has proposed tweaking its school rating policy to reflect how well elementary schools prepare students for high school and how well high schools help students plan life after graduation — and the district also will finally grade dozens of specialty high schools that had lacked rating systems.