Tuesday, August 10, 2010

City Colleges mulling tougher admissions, chancellor says


Check out this Sun-Times article. I have mixed feelings about this. I can sympathize with the need to do away with remedial courses, but as for removing the open door policy that could be bad news. Let's agree that even for community college work students should otherwise be ready for college although I would also say if they were ready for college they would attend a university. Community college however is as great a start as any. We just need to look at what should one get with a community college education. Via CapFax!

9 comments:

  1. Yes, we do need admission standards at the City Colleges. Kennedy King is a glorified High School with the GED program being one of their largest programs. If the program consisted of older working adultsI could understand its existence but its full of CPS drop outs who refused to go to traditional High school. We are building multimillion dollar structures for this?

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  2. If you have high school graduates entering a Chicago City College lacking basic math and reading skills, I would think that the issue would need to start with the Chicago Public Schools who graduate these students.

    A whole lot of our CPS students have to take remedial, or basic 101 Math and Science in 4-year colleges and universities as well. Ask some college students, and see what they'll tell you.

    Also, some students who are ready for college cannot afford a 4-year college/university. Some are working and need the flexibility of a Community College curriculum.

    Should they just not go to school at all, if they're willing but don't have the funds for a 4-year college/university?

    Students drop out of high school for many reasons, not just because they're lazy, gangbangers, lazy or "refuse" to go to traditional high school. It's not that simple.

    Some students are actually raising themselves, trying to do better and be better, but because they have to support themselves and/or their siblings-- they drop out.

    Some students are scared to come to school. So they don't go. Some students may get off to a bad start in school but get so far off track, they can't make it up, and see no hope so they drop out. But some realize the error of their ways, and want to do better and be better, and enroll in a City College to obtain their GED.

    A GED program is very relevant and necessary. Would you rather that a high school drop out not get or finish his high school education and become more of a burden to society and taxpayers-- or that they get a GED and possibly go on to further their education to become an active, employed,tax-paying, law-abiding member of society?

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  3. Anonymous 1:24 PM,

    thanks for your comment. Everything you have said at least about community college is true. I know that you're largely addressing both Worlee and my own statements on this story. Just curious about your position on any attempt by the Daley administration to tighten admission standards to the city colleges.

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  4. I agree that there are amyriad of reasons why students are dropping out of high school and they deserve a second chance. As you stated its a CPS problem and not a CCC problem. If you visit Kennedy King the main building looks like its 10 years old versus 3 years old because that is where they hold GED classes.

    I'm specifically speaking of a program where CPS encourages dropouts to go to KKC for a GED. Many of these students were problem students and CPS is glad to get rid of them.

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  5. My position is that the Mayor, Gery Chico (former Board of Ed President), and Chancellor Hyman are being very hypocritical.

    Chancellor Hyman, whose parents were on drugs, dropped out of Orr High School at 17,and was homeless. Per her own comments when she became Chancellor of the City colleges-- "What I bring to the kids more than anything else is hope and confidence. . . . I want them to know that you, too, can have these same problems and end up one day running one of the very institutions you graduated from," said Hyman, who attended Olive-Harvey College, got a bachelor's degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology and earned master's degrees from North Park University and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

    At 17, Hyman dropped out of Orr and left home to avoid following her parents down the dark tunnel of drug addiction. It was an excruciating decision made easier by the neighbors who took her in temporarily and the grandmother who provided a permanent home after a nomadic year of shuffling between homes.

    "I had . . . a lot of anger. At the same time, those were my parents and I love them. But something in me knew that, if I stayed there, I would become a product of that, too. I didn't care how I was going to take care of myself. All I knew is that I could do better. . . . I was not going to allow my circumstances to dictate my destiny. And that's what I want these kids to understand," she said.

    "I get asked all the time, 'What made you not do it?' I don't know. . . . But a lot of our kids don't have that inner strength. Success needs to look like them. Success needs to feel like them. They need to see me. They need to hear this. They need to see my parents," who have been clean for many years.

    But now, because Chicago is virtually bankrupt, and the Mayor needs to save money-- and because Ms. Hyman has now "made it"-- I guess she forgot where she came from, and the pledge she made to help others similarily situated.

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  6. What I forgot to add is why I think the mayor and Gery Chico are being hypocritical.

    The Mayor has control over the Chicago Public Schools, and with the hiring of people like Ron Huberman, has basically decimated the Chicago Public Schools in terms of teacher layoffs, program cuts, Charter Schools and yes, GED courses. CPS used to host GED courses, but didn't want to spend anymore money on it, so it had to go.

    Gery Chico while Board President seemed to be more intent on building Northside College Prep so his daughter could attend.

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  7. Anonymous makes some very good and valid points.

    CPS used to collaborate with City Colleges regarding the GED Program, but the collaboration ended about 8 years ago.

    Regarding Alternative schools, there aren't nearly enough for the students who need them, and they have been cut back as well along with staff, as it seems like everything else has at CPS.

    CPS students who drop out for whatever reasons and who need a GED are being referred to City Colleges, simply because CPS doesn't have a GED program anymore. Not because they're necessarily in a hurry to get rid of these students.

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  8. And one more thing...

    If a CPS student has dropped out of school for a certain period of time, or if they are at least 17, they can sign an affadavit to drop out. If they are under 17, their parent/guardian has to sign it with them.

    In any case, a "dropout" student is no longer in school, so CPS doesn't have to "get rid of them". They're already gone...

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  9. Wow I'm glad to hear from some of our experts in education. I stand corrected and thank you for correcting me.

    I only have one issue and the bereaucratic game of symantics in the last comment. This the same copeout CHA tells us although someone lived in one of their developments for 20 years legally or illegally they are not considere a CHA resident unless they were "lease compliant"

    Well based on the comments here you definitely are not going to like my next post on teachers salaries, lol.

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