Education Week - June 9, 2021 - 3

Chicago Gets a Step Closer
To an Elected School Board
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is not happy with her fellow Democrats.
Over
her objections, the Illinois Senate, overwhelmingly made up
of members of Lightfoot's party, voted last week to transition Chicago's
mayor-appointed school board to a fully elected, 21-member
body by 2027.
If the Democratic-controlled House and Gov. J.B. Pritzker, also a
Democrat, go along with the Senate, approval of the long-discussed,
politically volatile issue will mark a first. Chicago has never had an
elected school board, with the seven-member panel for the last few
decades entirely appointed by the mayor.
" Suffice it to say, the problems that have been created by the mayoral-controlled
board in the city of Chicago are numerous and profound, "
said Sen. Robert Martwick, a Democrat and the bill's sponsor.
" This is about creating elected accountability. "
Advocates for an elected school board have argued residents have
been shut out of the process over how the city's schools are administered,
pointing to rounds of school closures and the district's financial
woes as reasons for change.
When Lightfoot ran for office, she supported an elected board but
has since changed her view and said the mayor should remain in
control of the public schools, though she has wiggled a little on just
how much control. On June 1, the day of the Senate vote, her administration
said it was committed to the concept of an elected board
but called the timeline too fast and the 21 seats unwieldy. She urged
a hybrid board for which the mayor would appoint the majority.
The bill also establishes a moratorium on school closings until a
hybrid board takes effect in 2025.
The legislation does not address the fact that City Hall subsidizes
the district with payments of some $500 million per year, much of it
going toward pensions.
Vol. 40 * Issue 35 * June 9, 2021
4 How Decisions Are Made in a Crazy,
VUCA World
6 New Data on the Ways Full-Time
Remote Learners Lost Out
8 'They Already Feel Like Bad Students.'
A Special Educator Reflects on
Virtual Teaching
10 A Lauded Superintendent Retires After Years
Of Crises: 'I Don't Want to Become Bitter'
12 What's the Best Way to Address Unfinished
Learning? It's Not Remediation, Study Says
13 The Pandemic Brought Universal
Free School Meals. Will They Be Here to Stay?
14 How the Pandemic Is Already Changing
Principal-Prep Programs
16 Some Schools to Ditch or Restrict
Remote Learning
OPINION
18 Where Did the Term 'Asian American'
Come From?
19 Compassion Fatigue Is Overwhelming
Educators
24 How Can We Rethink Report Cards?
DEPARTMENTS
2
Briefly Stated
7 What the Research Says
23 EdWeek Top School Jobs
Student Seclusion, Restraint
Are Widespread in Illinois
Illinois school workers physically restrained or secluded nearly
2,400 students more than 15,000 times this school year, a period
when many schools were closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic,
new state data show.
The data, obtained by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica, show
that even with new rules put in place early last year, schools continued
to use physical restraints and isolated timeout thousands of
times. The data include public schools, private schools, and regional
cooperatives that exclusively serve students with disabilities.
After the media reported the data on May 27, state lawmakers
wasted no time to finalize legislation they had been debating for 18
months. The Illinois House voted unanimously May 30 to bar school
workers from locking children alone in seclusion spaces and limit
the use of any type of isolated timeout or physical restraint to when
there's " imminent danger of physical harm. "
The Senate previously voted to pass the bill, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker
plans to sign it.
Opposition stemmed mainly from a few suburban private schools
that have argued prone restraint should be allowed for students in
crisis.
Illinois schools' overuse and abuse of seclusion and restraint was
exposed in a ProPublica-Tribune investigation published in late 2019.
Following that investigation, the Illinois state board began requiring
schools to report incidents of seclusion and restraint to the state
within 48 hours. The latest data are based on those reports.
More than 90 percent of the students subjected to the interventions
since July 2020 had disabilities. More than 8 in 10 were boys,
and a quarter were Black. Less than 17 percent of students in the
state's schools are Black.
The data also indicates that schools continued to use prone restraint
even after state officials called it dangerous and state rules
began to restrict its use. Schools reported using prone restraints on
students more than 100 times during the past 10 months.
COLLECTION
How the Murder of George Floyd Changed K-12 Schooling
In the year since the murder of George Floyd sparked mass protests across the country, school districts
in some communities have been pushed to change their policing and discipline practices, rewrite their
curriculum, and diversify their teaching force. This collection details school leaders' fitful efforts to
respond to Black Lives Matter protestors' demands.
edw.link/GeorgeFloyd
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Education Week - June 9, 2021

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