Standardized Testing for All
CPS and the CTU were on the same side of a battle on Monday against a common enemy: standardized testing. CPS announced that it would have no choice but to give the state-mandated, Common-Core-tied Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test to all third through eighth-grade students. Otherwise, it risks losing over $1.4 billion in state and federal funding for the district, since the Illinois State Board of Education, in an attempt to comply with the federal mandate that ninety-five percent of students in a district be tested, rejected its repeated requests to find an alternative to fully administering the test this year. In less than a week, schools will have to begin giving the test, where previously CPS had planned to defy the mandate by delaying full testing for a year and implementing a pilot program to test only ten percent of schools. CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett had said she was concerned that not all students would have the experience with technology needed for the test, which will be computer-based for all but third- through fifth-graders. CPS did ask all schools to prepare to administer the exam just in case. While CPS may have been forced to surrender and is now asking students to comply with the test in a letter to families, the CTU and anti-standardized-testing parents and activists continue to fight and are urging families to have their students opt-out of the PARCC exam.
Please Make a Decision, Toni
Toni Preckwinkle worried more than a few Chicagoans on Monday when she told the Sun-Times she was “staying out of” the mayoral runoff and did not have an endorsement. She made things only a little better when she called the paper back to clarify that she hadn’t said that “she would never take a position in the mayoral race, but only that [her] position was unchanged.” This political calculus—faced by Bobby Rush, Michael Pfleger, and others—is familiar by now: if Emanuel wins she will have to work with him. If she endorses Garcia, her floor leader, and he loses, her own initiatives as Cook County President may start running into more obstacles from Emanuel. Still, Preckwinkle should publicly take a side.
Get Well Soon, Derrick
Last week, hometown hero Derrick Rose, who was recently featured in a Powerade commercial as a boy riding a bike from Englewood to the United Center, suffered his third major knee injury in four years. It was the second surgery on his right meniscus, the same injury that ended his season back in late 2013. This time he had the torn meniscus removed, which will mean he recovers faster, but could face long-term issues down the road. For now, the ten-minute operation appears to have been a success; “sources” close to Rose—one wonders how close, exactly— reported that it felt like getting a pebble out of your shoe, and the star point guard is currently expected to return in four to six weeks, in time for the playoffs. Bulls fans will surely be hoping that some of the burden can be alleviated by this season’s breakout phenom, Jimmy Butler—just kidding, he’s also injured (elbow sprain, three to six weeks).