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Collaborative for Equity and Justice in Education  

Publications & Resources

Publications

Data & Democracy Project: Investing in Neighborhoods
A collaboration of the Collaborative for Equity and Justice in Education and the Nathalie P. Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement.

February 2009
Paper #2: Examining CPS' plan to close, phase out, consolidate, turn-around 22 schools
Available for dowload in PDF*

This report provides data that can be used to examine Chicago Public Schools plan to close, consolidate, phase out or turn-around 22 schools announced January 16, 2009. This report builds on the framework and analyses of the Data and Democracy research paper released February 2008.

For more information about this report, please contact Pauline Lipman at plipman@uic.edu.

February 2008
Paper #1: Examining CPS' plan to close, consolidate 11 schools and turn-around 8 schools
 Available for dowload in PDF*

The report provides data that can be used to examine the Chicago Public School district's plan to close, consolidate and turn-around several schools. Announced January 24, 2008, the plan - if approved - is to be implemented following a decision made by the CPS board at its February meeting. CPS announced it would use the turn-around model to address chronic under-performance in 8 elementary and high schools and relocations, phase-outs, consolidations, and closings to address underenrollment in 11 elementary schools. Data in this report show these schools are primarily in communities of color experiencing gentrification or rapidly changing demographics.

For more information about this report, please contact Pauline Lipman at plipman@uic.edu.

February 2009
The Charter Difference: A Comparison of Chicago Charter and Neighborhood High Schools
Available for dowload in PDF*

With the proliferation of charter schools in Chicago, an independent study of charters' performance and management practices is long overdue. How do charter schools differ from CPS schools? Do they perform better? The scope of this study is restricted to high schools, but takes the first step towards such an independent study.

For more information about this report, please contact Eric Gutstein at gutstein@uic.edu.

*To read PDF, download Adobe Reader.

 

Resources

Teacher Resources

  • Internet Archive offers permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format.
  • Learner.org provides on-demand Annenberg Media video programs and teacher resources for K-12 teachers.
  • NYCoRE is the New York Collective of Radical Educators. Curriculum guides are available for download about various social justice issues.
  • Northland Poster Collective provides an on-line catalogue of social justice art and other tools for grassroots organizing.
  • Radical Math is a resource for educators interested in integrating issues of social and economic justice into math curriculum and classes.
  • Rethinking Schools is an independent publisher of educational materials at the elementary and secondary education level, with a strong emphasis on issues of equity and social justice.
  • Teachable Moment provides educators with timely teaching ideas to encourage critical thinking on issues of the day and foster a positive classroom environment.
  • Teaching for Change provides teachers and parents with the tools to transform schools into centers of justice where students learn to read, write and change the world.

Chicago Area Education Advocacy/Organizing/Activist Groups

  • Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform is a national network of school reformers who support efforts to create high-quality schools that ensure educational success for all urban young people.
  • Designs for Change is a 30-year-old, multi-racial, educational research and reform organization whose basic mission is to serve as a catalyst for major improvements in the public schools serving the 50 largest cities in the country, with a particular emphasis on Chicago.
  • Parents United for Responsible Education works towards enhancing the quality of public education in the city of Chicago by informing parents about educational issues, bringing the views of parents into the decision-making process, and acting as an advocate for parents in their relationships with the school administration.
  • Teachers for Social Justice is an organization of teachers, administrators, pre-service teachers, and other educators working in public, independent, alternative, and charter schools and universities in the Chicago area, committed to education for social justice.

Journals and Research Organizations

Media Resources

  • Catalyst Chicago is an editorially independent newsmagazine created in 1990 to document, analyze and support school-improvement efforts in the Chicago Public Schools.
  • Chicago Defender, founded in 1905, has been the voice of the African-American Community in Chicago and across the United States.
  • Chicago Indymedia, a part of a grassroots organization Independent Media Center, is committed to using media production and distribution as a tool for promoting social and economic justice.
  • Colorlines is a national newsmagazine on race and politics published by the Applied Research Center.
  • Community Media Workshop is a Chicago-based center that trains community activists and organizations how to tell their stories to the media and provides links to local and national media sources.
  • Democracy Now is a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program that provides access to people and perspectives rarely heard in the U.S.corporate-sponsored media
  • Dollars and Sense is a non-profit publisher that produces the bi-monthly magazine Dollars & Sense and the Real World college course readers and other texts.
  • Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) the national media watch group, has been offering well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship since 1986.
  • In These Times is dedicated to informing and analyzing popular movements for social, environmental and economic justice.
  • IndyKids is a free newspaper and teaching tool that aims to inform children on current news and world events from a progressive perspective and to inspire a passion for social justice and learning. It is geared toward kids in grades 4 to 8 and high school English Language Learners.
  • Pacifica Radio is a listener supported community radio network of commercial free stations that server their local communities and beyond.
  • THIS IS HELL is a radio show broadcast every Saturday morning in Chicago that gives listeners access to information and perspectives that are muted or overlooked by mainstream media in the States.
  • Z Communications provides a variety of resources such as (monthly magazine, video productions, a huge website with translations, archives, links to other progressive sites, a daily commentary program) for critical thinking on political, cultural, social, and economic life in the U.S and world.

Foundations and Funding Organizations

  • Chicago Foundation for Education provides grant programs to assist teachers and students in the classroom and improve instructional quality.
  • Chicago Community Trust provides critical charitable resources in the region of Chicago to the field of Arts and Culture, Basic Human Needs, Community Development, Education and Health
  • Crossroads Fund supports community organizations working on issues of social and economic justice in the Chicago area.
  • The Field Foundation of Illinois provides support to individual schools, school clusters, and collaborations between schools and other education stakeholders to improve education and help educationally and economically disadvantaged children.
  • Funding Exchange is network of social justice foundations throughout the United States that support progressive social change through fundraising for local, national, and international grantmaking programs.
  • Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funds efforts to improve the high school graduate rate and college preparation.
  • The Joyce Foundation funds efforts to improve education in the areas of teacher quality, early childhood, and closing the achievement gap.
  • Peace Development Fund makes grants to organizations and projects working to achieve peaceful, just and interdependent relationships among people and nations.
  • Resist funds activist organizing and education work within movements for social change and has been funding American progressive organizations for more than 30 years which are actively part of a movement for social change.
  • Rochelle Lee Fund focuses on supporting teachers and students in the Chicago public schools to become a successful reader.
  • Woods Fund of Chicago is a grantmaking foundation whose goal is to increase opportunities for less advantaged people and communities in metropolitan settings.