This week, we took a close look at Crane High School’s achievement academy, a program that takes kids in need of extra help from around the city.

It’s a good concept. Taking kids who need extra help and putting them in an environment where they can get extra help is a recipe for success.

But we think it’s a bit dishonest for Chicago Public Schools brass not to own up to the fact that the school they want to shut down for its poor performance has a disproportionate number of kids who need extra help.

The achievement academy has gotten barely a mention in CPS’ plans to shut down Crane. Why not? It’s clearly dragging the school’s results down on some level.

When presenting the argument for closing the school, officials need to be up front about this. If the school is hurting even when achievement academy students are excluded from the stats, then fine.

But don’t ignore it. That’s wrong.

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By Dieaty from Near South
Posted: 02/26/2012 11:33 AM

Rosita, is it the CPD's role to be the parents of children? How about the mothers and fathers responsible for making these kids. They want the four minutes of fornicating, but not the 20+ years of responsibility that comes with it. CPD spends more $$ per kids than most schools and gets worse results. shut it down. Just shift those funds, and money that goes to free stuff, Link Cards, and other failed entitlement programs and create Boarding Schools for these kids 2 be raised.

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By Rosita Chatonda from South Shore
Posted: 02/17/2012 5:53 AM

This article points out the real agenda that CPS has. That is to purge the city of students who are undesirable and are not able to meet standards imposed upon them CPS officials. Instead of providing the additional resources to accommodate children whose have historically been ignored and underfunded, CPS continues to engage in the tactic of \"Turn-A rounds which destabilize students who need consistency in their lives.