MOVING IN/ON Susan Woodward, previously the vice president of recruitment and assessment affairs for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, is now the director of development and communications for the Chicago Public Education Fund. The Fund has also elected Susan Crown, a principal of the Chicago firm of Henry Crown & Company, and Kimberly Querrey, corporate director of operations and environmental health and safety for IMCO Recycling Inc., to its board of directors.
AT CLARK STREET James Deanes, formerly head of the Office of School and Community Relations, has become a special assistant to School Board President Michael Scott.
SCHOOL RENAMED McCosh Elementary has been renamed Emmett Till Math and Science Academy in memory of the 14-year-old boy from Chicago whose murder in Mississippi in 1955 helped spark the civil rights movement.
CHARTER NEWS State Sen. Martin Sandoval has sponsored a bill that would allow Chicago to award more charter schools. Current state law permits 60 charters statewide: 30 in Chicago, 15 in the Chicago suburbs, and 15 Downstate. The bill would leave the total cap in place, at 60, but remove the geographic restrictions on where those charters must be located. … The National Association of Charter School Authorizers has relocated from Alexandria, Va., to Chicago. The new office is at 210 S. Clark Street, Suite 1430. John Ayers, previously head of the now-defunct Leadership for Quality Education, was named director of communications; and Shenita Johnson Garrard, previously with the CPS Office of New Schools, will direct the association’s work in New Orleans.
STUDENT TRACKING The Office of Technology Services plans to have a new $9.6 million student information system in place by September. The system, purchased from New York-based SchoolNet Inc., will allow teachers and administrators to develop curricula and lesson plans and track performance on standardized tests. A pilot program is in place in seven schools: Wells, Corliss, Curie and Roosevelt high schools and West Park, Chase and Nobel elementary schools.
CONSULTING CONTRACT Learning Point Associates, a nonprofit research and development organization, has been awarded a $160,000 contract to analyze hiring and retention of teachers from alternative certification programs.
STUDENT FILM FEATURED “Scream At Me,” a movie that explores the life of urban high school students and was written and produced by students at Chicago Vocational Career Academy, has been accepted by the Wisconsin Film Festival, which will be held March 31 through April 2 in Madison, Wis.
BALLROOM WINNERS Fifth-graders from Pershing West won first place in the final competition for “Having a Ball,” the 10-week ballroom dancing program modeled on a similar program in New York that was the subject of the documentary “Mad Hot Ballroom.” More than 70 5th-graders from Beethoven, Earhart, Hamilton, McCutcheon, Nobel and Pershing West participated in the final competition.
FUNDRAISER FOR THE HOMELESS Forty-three junior ROTC programs have raised over $10,000 for homeless students in CPS, as part of the JROTC service learning project. The top two individual fundraisers were Christina Diaz of Prosser and Micah Stavrou of Chicago Vocational Career Academy. Taft High cadets raised the most money collectively.