Sistema Ravinia Auditorium And Kehrein Center For The Arts Grand Opening In Austin

By the BWW News Desk

“Fulfilling a 25-year dream of becoming the cultural cornerstone and social forum for the entire west-side community of Austin, Catalyst Circle Rock Charter School will unveil both its new Kehrein Center for the Arts and Sistema Ravinia Auditorium, at 5618 W. Washington Blvd., on Wednesday, May 22. Planning on the $4.5 million projects began in 2013, and ground was broken in April 2018. “This unique music and fine arts space presents a critical area to engage our children in the field of the arts as well as continue to emphasize values of reverence and respect,” said Illinois Senator Kimberly A. Lightford, Assistant Majority Leader and member of the Education Committee.”

Southland College Prep seniors are ‘all in’ college

By Mike Nolan for the Chicago Tribune

“For the sixth straight year, seniors at Southland College Prep Charter High School are “all in.” All 116 seniors who will be graduating from the Richton Park public school have been accepted to colleges, with 28 of them being offered merit-based scholarships totaling at least $1 million each, according to the school. During a school assembly Tuesday, seniors had their names called and the name of the college or university they will be attending announced, then affixed a sticker to a map to show where they will be going to school. Students stood in front of a banner, later hoisted up to the balcony in the school lobby, that included all of their photos and words “The Class of 2019 is All In.”

Rahm Emanuel’s schools legacy: Record grad rates, but he also closed 50 schools

By Lauren FitzPatrick for the Sun-Times

“Mayor Rahm Emanuel boasts of record high school graduation and college acceptance rates and improved test scores on his watch. But the record Chicagoans most likely will remember from his tenure is that he closed 50 schools — more than ever had been closed at one time in the United States, most of them in African American neighborhoods. And the closings were carried out by a Chicago Public Schools chief he picked, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, who later went to prison in a corruption scandal that was his administration’s biggest in eight years in office. Emanuel’s greatest pride as mayor has been CPS’ improvement. During a recent speech at the City Club of Chicago, the mayor said education is “where I’ve tried the hardest and probably pushed the hardest.” The improvements at CPS came “all because of the steps it took to get there” that Emanuel made sure were taken, City Hall spokeswoman Shannon Breymaier says.”

Preschool has enduring benefits for disadvantaged children — and their children, new research finds

By Ann Schimke for Chalkbeat

“It’s not just at-risk children who reap long-term educational and earnings benefits from high-quality preschool programs. It’s also their siblings and their eventual offspring. The potential for preschool to lift multiple generations out of poverty is one of the key findings from a pair of new studies from University of Chicago professor James Heckman, known for his groundbreaking research on the economics of early childhood education. The research, released today by Heckman and co-author Ganesh Karapakula, takes previous studies showing preschool benefits a step further by demonstrating positive effects on siblings and subsequent generations. In addition to better educational and employment outcomes, siblings and children of preschool participants were less likely to be involved in crime than siblings and children of control group members. The new studies are an extension of earlier research examining the outcomes of children — now adults in the their mid-50s — who were part of the famous Perry Preschool Project experiment in Ypsilanti, Michigan, in the 1960s. Researchers assigned one group of 3- and 4-year-olds to a daily preschool program that included weekly home visits by staff. The control group didn’t receive those services.”

Faster, cheaper road to a diploma: More Chicago high schoolers earn community college credits

By Yana Kunichoff for Chalkbeat

“Alan Quintana’s last year of high school at Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy looked a lot more like the second year of college, as he finished an associate degree in web development at Daley College. “It was really rough at times,” he said, as he juggled both high school requirements and the tech classes at Daley. It taught him to manage time, said Quintana, who was among scores of high school students who participated Tuesday in  a ceremony at Malcolm X College honoring college enrollees and attended by outgoing Mayor Rahm Emanuel and city colleges Chancellor Juan Salgado.   “Now I have my associates. It feels really good,” Quintana said. About 400 students from 53 Chicago high schools this spring will have earned more than a semester’s worth of college credits. They’ve benefited from a dual-credit program that Chicago officials hope will cut the cost of higher education and also help more students complete college. Quintana was one of 13 students who will have earned an associate degree by the time they graduate high school. Chicago’s program offers the opportunity to earn free college credits at any of the city’s seven community colleges, along with subsidized home-to-school transportation.”