CPS Principal Pay-for-Performance Plan Opens the Door for Community Schools

Merit pay is a notoriously tricky business. Reward short-term returns and you hang the future out to dry. Or, as we've seen in a growing number of school districts across the country, you run the risk of teachers and administrators taking shortcuts (ie, cheating) to grab the brass ring. Mayor Emmanu...
August 22, 2011
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What We Read, August 12-19

Criminal Justice Court Reform: Even conservative states are adopting lighter sentencing policies in response to unsustainable prison costs, reports the New York Times. Matthew Iglesias questions the social, political, and economic rationale behind increasingly curtailing formerly incarcerated indivi...
August 19, 2011
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More incarceration does not equal less crime.

The ACLU posted a fascinating infographic this week. The above graphic compares the change incarceration rates and the change in crime rates from 1999 to 2009. Illinois' prison population has skyrocketed since 1970, but has not grown considerably in the past decade, as illustrated by this chart prod...
August 18, 2011
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From Our Blog: Diversion Works

That's the undisputed message in the most comprehensive study of diversionary drug courts ever completed. The Urban Institute, the Center for Court Innovation, and RTI International, conducted the study, "The Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation." Researchers evaluated 23 drug courts and 6 traditi...
July 29, 2011
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Chicago Council of Lawyers Voted ‘Best Bar Association’ by Chicago Reader

Chicago Council of Lawyers (CCL) - a public interest bar association dedicated to improving the quality of the legal system in Chicago - voted the 'Best Bar Association' in Chicago Reader's 'Best of Chicago 2011.' Chicago Appleseed and CCL often work together to further their mutual goals of reform,...
June 27, 2011
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Tough Birthday for War on Drugs – Chicago Muckrakers

"The War on Drugs is now in its ripe middle age, turning 40 this month. But its birthday hasn't been an especially pleasant one." Micah Maidenberg, Chicago Reporter, reports a "few of the top-line findings from two recently published reviews of the drug war around the world and here in Illinois." In...
June 24, 2011
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