CPS PARENTS: CITY WRONG
A coalition of 16 parent groups Monday demanded a meeting with Mayor Rahm Emanuel to go over the real research on a 7 ½ -hour school day, and not the “misinformation” they charged district officials with spreading.
“They are either misinformed or deliberately misleading the public,’’ said Jonathan Goldman of the new Chicago Parents for Quality Education coalition. He said he and other parents analyzed longer-day studies listed on the Chicago Public School website as supporting Emanuel’s call for a 7 ½ -hour school day, and they are, at best, “mixed.’’
When the Chicago Sun-times called the author of one analysis of 15 studies cited by CPS as proof longer days work, Erika Patall of the University of Texas said the evidence the studies cited was “weak’’ and their conclusions “very tentative” because “a good deal of the research does not rule out something other than time causing the improvement.’’
Parents also questioned CPS contentions that the system needed a 7 ½ -hour day to get “on par with other districts.’’ CPS officials have said their numbers were based on weekly instructional minutes in a National Center for Education Statistics chart, multiplied out annually.
However, an author of the NCES report told the Sun-times that the chart was based on weekly teacher minutes, not student minutes, of instruction. Plus, the NCES researcher said, every district counts school days differently, so NCES would never extrapolate student instructional minutes in a year from one week’s worth of teacher instructional minutes.
“In putting it all together, somebody is making a lot of assump- tions,’’ the NCES researcher said of the CPS calculations. “We do not do that at the National Center for Education Statistics.’’
Members of the Chicago Parents for Quality Education said they want a longer day than the current 5¾ hours in most CPS elementary schools, but they don’t want the longest day in the nation.
CPS officials referred the SunTimes to research summarized by the National Center for Time and Learning that CPS said supports a longer school day. Included was the research Patall described as “weak.’’
“This is about more than adding time to the school day — we’re strategically investing in initiatives that will ensure that additional time is quality time, and the result is to boost student achievement,’’ CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll said in an email.
On Monday, parents delivered a white paper, “The Best Education, or Just the Longest?” to Emanuel’s office and demanded a meeting.
More streetlights — without amber glow
Parts of Chicago will no longer have that trademark amber glow after dark, thanks to 1,200 new energy-efficient streetlights being installed on more than 200 blocks of residential streets.
The new ceramic metal-halide fixtures are 18 feet high, compared to 22 feet for the old high-pressure sodium vapor streetlights. And instead of an amber-colored light, the new fixture will emit more of a white glow and use 33 percent less energy.
“It’s not necessarily brighter. But these bulbs emit a white light that’s more visible. It’s easier to distinguish colors. And because of the increased visibility, you don’t need to use as much energy to produce the same amount of light,” said Peter Scales, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Transportation.
Chicago has 93,000 streetlights on arterial streets and 120,000 on residential streets. Already, 8,000 of the new white-light fixtures have been installed, evenly divided between residential streets and main streets.
Cleanup continues after Gary train crash
Dozens of UPS trucks worked overnight to haul freight away from the site of the Sunday morning crash of a Chicago South Shore and South Bend railroad coal train and a CSX freight train in the Miller section of Gary.
The empty coal train was backing up at a switching yard east of Lake Street just north of U.S. 12 shortly before 7 a.m. when the lead car derailed, sources said.
An eastbound CSX train hit the derailed car, sending its intermodal loads tumbling. Many shipping containers landed in a nearby American Legion parking lot.
Two CSX railroad employees suffered minor injuries and were treated at a hospital and released.
Flags all around Elgin were at half-staff Monday in memory of Cpl. Alex Martinez, a 2009 Larkin High School graduate who was killed Thursday in combat operations during his second deployment to Afghanistan.
Family and friends remember him as a good guy with a cleardesire to serve his country as a U.S. Marine.
He married his high school sweetheart, Julianna, and joined the Marines shortly after turning 18 in December 2008, said his stepfather, Jim Bethke.
A memorial will be Tuesday at Wait Ross Allanson Funeral & Cremation Service, 51 Center St., Elgin. He also will be honored at an Elgin City Council meeting Wednesday.
Emily Mcfarlan and Mike Danahey