Diane Rado – Page 5 –

Parents and teachers protest the PARCC standardized state test at a news conference Feb. 26, 2015, at the Thompson Center in Chicago.

Illinois high school PARCC testing violated federal law, Education Department says

May 22, 2019 at 10:11 p.m.

Illinois' move to get rid of a hodgepodge of high school PARCC exams and give a college entrance exam to 11th-graders was praised by educators who had pushed for change...

Illinois ends much-debated PARCC test for high school students

May 22, 2019 at 10:09 p.m.

Illinois is ditching the controversial state PARCC exam for high school students, instead giving 11th-graders a state-paid SAT college entrance exam next spring. The announcement from the Illinois State Board...

Fourth-graders at Agassiz Elementary School in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood play hockey in physical education class on June 7, 2016. Chicago Public Schools has gotten at least four PE waivers over the years.

Many schools skipping some PE classes, despite the law

June 10, 2018 at 1:02 p.m.

From the White House to local school districts, public officials and educators have extolled the benefits of physical activity, and Illinois has been at the forefront in requiring physical education...

Kylie Spahn and her daughter Jessica discuss her report card May 19, 2016, at their home in Downers Grove. Grade School District 58 began eliminating typical letter grades on report cards this school year, starting with math in kindergarten through sixth grade, and science in seventh and eighth grades.

Parents push back against school report cards with no letter grades

May 22, 2019 at 9:56 p.m.

New student "progress guides" were strewn across the table on a recent afternoon at the Spahn household in Downers Grove, intended to show how seventh-grader Jessica was doing at Herrick...

Palatine Community Consolidated School District 15

10-year teacher contract in Palatine short on details, called ‘insane’

June 12, 2018 at 1:27 a.m.

An unusual proposal came up early in talks over a teacher contract for the sprawling Palatine-area Community Consolidated School District 15: a 10-year contract that would extend to 2026, longer...

Look up your school district’s debt level

June 11, 2018 at 2:02 a.m.

School districts by percentage of debt limit used School districts in Illinois keep borrowing cash, using exemptions in the law to exceed normal debt limits. A Tribune review of state...

Lincoln-Way Community High School District 210's office is in Lincoln-Way Central High School in New Lenox.

With help of lawmakers, Illinois public schools now $20 billion in debt

May 22, 2019 at 9:41 p.m.

Illinois' public school districts are roughly $20 billion in debt, a staggering figure fueled in part by decades of special deals in Springfield that have given districts exemptions so they...

Chicago Public Schools teachers Tammie Vinson, left, and Katie Sciarine, both of Oscar DePriest School, load signs in their vehicles March 30, 2016, in preparation for Friday's one-day walkout.

Chicago Teachers Union pushes broad message for fiscal reform with walkout

June 11, 2018 at 4:39 a.m.

The financial crisis at the root of the Chicago Teachers Union's planned one-day walkout Friday is different from past troubles for the school district in an especially alarming way: No...

Chicago Public Schools fell into the worst category, called Financial Watch, for the second year in a row in a new report from the Illinois State Board of Education.

State: About 60 percent of school districts deficit spend; CPS stays on ‘watch’ list

June 11, 2018 at 5:31 a.m.

Finances remain shaky to tumultuous across Illinois school districts, new state data show, with most districts spending more than they're taking in and dipping into reserves or borrowing to stay...

A laptop screen shows a portion of an online language arts practice PARCC test for fourth graders at Shabonee School in Northbrook, Elementary School District 27 on Feb. 24, 2015.

Spring state testing season brings changes, unknowns and pushback

June 11, 2018 at 5:47 a.m.

The spring state testing season launches this week in Illinois, amid unknowns, dramatic changes for students and continued pushback by parents who don't want their kids tested. The lengthy PARCC...

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