Chico did good job, but it's just a start May 28, 2001 The city was still smarting from U.S. Education Secretary William J. Bennett's dismissal of Chicago's public schools as the "worst in the nation" when Gery Chico assumed the job of Board of Education president in 1995. One would have a hard time arguing that the public schools haven't improved since. Working with CEO Paul Vallas, Chico helped end social promotion, raise reading and math scores, and improve relationships with the business community. A multibillion-dollar capital improvement project repaired classrooms and built new schools, the first such new structures in decades. Chico has announced he is leaving the job, citing the tremendous demands of the post, a job that carries no salary. There is speculation he is jumping before being pushed, but he leaves with much to be proud of. Yet while Chicago schools are better, they are not by any definition good. Mayor Daley was right during his State of the City speech to demand improvement in student scores. Given the schools' dismal starting point, improvement in public education in Chicago has earned kudos from educators and urbanologists nationwide. But parents still are left with the reality that only 38 percent of third- through eighth-graders read at or above national norms, and elementary math achievement is at only 44 percent. Chico, a lawyer and Daley's former chief of staff, helped add some much-needed business sense to the school system. This month, Chicago schools' test scores provided mixed results, with some grades falling for the first time in recent years. With Vallas also reassessing his own future, perhaps Daley should be looking to people with some background in education to continue this complicated mission of schooling urban students. Chico's successor also will be faced with a new teachers union head. Chicago Teachers Union President Tom Reece negotiated healthy contracts for teachers and kept them off the picket line. For this, Reece was characterized as being "co-opted" by the administration. The victor, Marquette Elementary teacher Deborah Lynch-Walsh, insists she does not intend to be confrontational, and we wait to hear her ideas. But among those claiming "we won" was George N. Schmidt, editor of the dissident teacher newspaper Substance. Under Chico, the board fired Schmidt for publishing portions of a standardized test for high school students in 1999, rendering the $1 million exam worthless. If teachers are to be part of the solution, they'll need to be part of the effort--not against it. -- This is the CPS Science Teacher List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
