Link between the deadly Chicago youth violence and the school closings overseen by Arne Duncan?

[Karmadillo]

The AP story referred to below follows the excerpt.

http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2009/10/08/is-there-link-between-the-deadly-chicago-youth-violence-and-the-school-closings-overseen-by-arne-duncan/?cxntfid=blogs_get_schooled_blog

Education researcher and Huffington Post contributor Gerald Bracey is an Obama supporter who’s becoming disillusioned with the president and his education secretary Arne Duncan. I’ve interviewed Bracey and get his take-no-prisoners e-mails on education issues.

His latest comments deal with whether Chicago’s much touted school reforms have led to a rise in deadly youth violence. I’ve also provided a link to the excellent AP story Bracey cites. This will all take time to read, but it’s fascinating stuff.

From Bracey: The mainstream media are giving Obama/Duncan the same lap-dog treatment on education they gave Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Powell-Rice in the run up to and early days of the Iraq debacle.

I have a number of earlier articles from Chicago publications linking the “turnarounds” to spikes in violence long before the tragic death of Derrion Albert. (He was the honor student stomped to death by a mob last month.)

I have a paper coming out soon which will document this. It will show that Chicago’s rising test scores on state tests are due to lowered standards (something even Duncan has admitted) and that Chicago’s scores on NAEP are about as low as you can get (especially for black and Hispanic kids, who mostly make up Chicago Public Schools) and did not rise at all during Duncan’s tenure as CEO.

Duncan lied when he said his turnaround schools got rid of all the adults and kept the kids (which he has said often). A lot of kids got kicked out, too. I have data showing increases in mobility in some of his “model schools” along with decreases in low income kids (mirabile dictu, test scores are up) and decreases in parent involvement. Kids in turnaround schools often had to cross gang boundaries to get to their new schools. The parents feel shut out. They are.

If I can find these data with little effort, why can’t the media? The Associated Pres seems to be the lone exception. In addition to Karen Hawkins’ AP piece , Libby Quaid and Justin Pope have also published some skeptical articles. The New York Times eventually (too late) apologized for not being sufficiently critical of the administration prior to the Charge of the Light Brigade into Baghdad. Any bets on when, or if, any of the above institutions will make similar mea culpas on the looming (continuation of the NCLB) education catastrophe?

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091006/ap_on_re_us/us_chicago_beating_death

School closings may be root of Chicago teen deaths
By KAREN HAWKINS,
Tue Oct 6, 6:40 pm ET

CHICAGO – Even in the cold rain, Danielle Jones would rather stand on the street and wait for her father to pick her up from her high school on Chicago's South Side than walk or take the bus, fearing the fights that start in school will be settled later on the streets.

That violence has increasingly turned deadly — including the vicious fatal beating of her classmate, 16-year-old Derrion Albert, whose after school death was captured on a cell phone video.

"It's fights everywhere — in front of the lunchroom, outside of school," said Jones, 15. "It's terrible, and nobody's doing nothing about it."

Activists say the escalating violence among Chicago's teens may have roots in an unlikely place — an ambitious plan to improve education that's also thrown rival gangs together in an often-volatile daily mix.

After images of Albert's death were widely broadcast last week, President Barack Obama is sending his education secretary back to Chicago where, as head of the city's schools, he implemented that plan. Attorney General Eric Holder will join Arne Duncan on Wednesday when they meet with school officials and students.

Since 2005, dozens of Chicago's public schools have been closed and thousands of students reassigned to campuses outside their neighborhoods — and often across gang lines — as part of Renaissance 2010, a program launched by Mayor Richard Daley when Duncan was Chicago Public Schools chief.

While the plan has resulted in replacing failing and low-enrollment schools with charter schools and smaller campuses, it has also led to a surge in violence that has increasingly turned deadly, many activists, parents and students say.

more...

[vadawg]

1. no matter where you try to place the blame, it finally lies with the gang members who are killing

i find it kinda funny to see excuses made as to why the gang bangers are killing people, as if they dont have a choice.....

[Karmadillo]

4. I don't think the articles are making excuses. I think they are pointing out the policies in

question may be increasing the likelihood of violence.

[vadawg]

5. yup maybe but the fault still lies with the gangbangers who are killing people

and we cant lose sight of that.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. It is very sad to see this happening in our schools today...

I believe that charter schools are going to result in the total undermining of our public school system.
This violence may just be one of the many death groans we will experience.

[vadawg]

3. the violence is endemic in the public schools already, i dont think it matters what happens to the

public schools in this regard, the problem is the gang violence and the seeming acceptance of it...

[Karmadillo]

6. Kick

nt