This Week in Ed 10.20.17: Parents call on Mayor to fire Claypool, fund special ed

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Parents deliver letter to Mayor to fund special ed and fire Claypool

RYH launched a letter to Mayor Emanuel following the release of the report by Sarah Karp of WBEZ which showed that CPS has paid consultants $14M over two years to create a secret manual to cut special education services. You can read part 1 of Sarah’s report here.

In just two days, over 700 parents and concerned citizens signed the letter to Mayor Emanuel. Parents from RYH who have been advocating for sped changes delivered the letter on Wednesday to the Mayor’s Office.

The letter is still open and you can sign here if you think students with special needs deserve better.

We’re also calling on aldermen to hold hearings on this special education debacle. Call your aldmerman’s office and make sure they’ve seen the WBEZ stories. Ask him or her to encourage Alderman Brookins, head of the education committee, to hold hearings.

Thank you to the City Council Progressive Reform Caucus who is demanding that Claypool testify before the City Council Education Committee!

RYH will also be having our next special ed town hall on 11/14. Save the date. Email us if you want to get involved with our sped committee: info@ilraiseyourhand.org.

WBEZ special education investigation stories by Sarah Karp:

Part 1 WBEZ Investigation: CPS Secretly Overhauled Special Education At Students’ Expense

Part 2 At CPS, More Special Education Dollars Go To White, Wealthier Students

Part 3 CPS Defends Special Education Overhaul

Morning Shift program Students Lose Out After CPS Secretly Crafts New Special Ed Manual

Ed tech forum next week

Join us for a forum on ed tech and student data privacy next Thursday, Oct 26th, at Haas Park!

We’re excited to host our first forum on the use of ed tech in our schools. What is high-quality ed tech versus skill-drill usage of tech products? What student data is being collected and who is it shared with? What can we do to protect our kid’s privacy? What does tech usage look like in high-quality education?

Join us for an informative discussion on ed tech and its various uses. We’ll have pizza at 6:30 and a great panel at 7pm. Please register here. If you will make use of childcare, please email info@ilraiseyourhand.org.

Have you taken our ed tech survey yet? You can help us make this forum as relevant and useful as possible by letting us know what you know and what you want to know about ed tech!

More upcoming events

⟹ Screening: 63’ Boycott
Sat Oct 21, 1pm and Sun Oct 22, 3:30pm
World premiere of Kartemquin Films’ documentary short about the 1963 boycott of Chicago Public Schools. Saturday’s showing at Rainbow/PUSH is free but register here; Sunday’s at AMC River East requires tickets.

⟹ October meeting: Chicago Unelected Board of Ed
Registration to speak or observe Mon Oct 23, 10:30am
Meeting Wed Oct 25, 10:30am

⟹ Assessing young children
Parents and Teachers Driving Testing Policy community discussion series
Mon Nov 13, 6pm
CTU Center, 1901 W. Carroll
Raise Your Hand is collaborating with FairTest and the Chicago Teachers Union on a series of public forums on assessment policy. This session will focus on assessment in early childhood education. RSVP via email to martinritter@ctulocal1.com.