Headline March 14, 2016/ ''' STUDENTS- *SCHOOLS & SUNSHINE* '''

''' STUDENTS- 

*SCHOOLS & SUNSHINE* '''

ALL FILM RIGHTS, ALL BOOK RIGHTS, ALL ADVERTISING REVENUE, from the World Students Society- lovingly called !WOW!  -the world over :  

*Is the exclusive ownership of the students of the world*. One share-Piece-Peace for every single student in the world.

IN PAKISTAN,  -at the historic  ''First Conceptual Host'' of !WOW!,  I pause to thank the Chief Minister of Punjab Mian Shabaz Sharif and the Great O''Captain Imran Khan, for their stirring work in their respective provinces.

Hard Work has many rewards and  pays many times over. If the Leaders of Pakistan work through the next decade with a strategic mind, while tackling their immediate concerns, Pakistan will see the shores as a Great Nation.

In Chicago, Charter Schools have worked well.

The Noble Network, which already runs  16 charter high schools with 10,000 pupils and plans to have  20,000  by 2010, has an attendance rate of 94%-  [compared with 73% for Chicago public schools] and a drop out rate of only 0.4% [compared with 4.7%].

It also gets better results on the on the ACT, a college readiness test. It has an even higher percentage of minority students  [98% compared with 92% at Chicago public schools]. and slightly less public funding.     

JUST LAST YEAR   -President Barack Obama announced plans to exempt qualified   *students*   from tuition fees at community colleges........

When the White House announced ,...... it had in fact taken a leaf out of Chicago's book, said the Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Who, the same year, October, introduced the Chicago  STAR Scholarship:

Which pays, the community-college tuition fees of the best graduates from Chicago's   public-school-system:

''NO FAMILY  should go the poor house because they are giving their kid a crack at the American dream,'' said Rahm Emanuel.

Chicago's mayor was presenting his plans for education at Kenwood Academy, a high school on the city's south side.

Mr Emanuel wants more students to enroll in a college and take courses and, if they pass, get credit while still in their last year of high school, which helps to reduce their tuition costs later.

With the help of a donation of  $500,000  over three years from General Electric, the progamme will grow from almost 2,500  students to more than 6,000 for 2016. 

Kenwood Academy has more students in the programme than any other high school in Chicago.

Some of the toughest decisions Mr Emanuel had to make in his first term concerned schools.

He demanded merit pay for teachers and a longer school day [Chicago's was only 5 hours 45 minutes and earmarked for closure 50 half empty schools in poor districts.

Teachers went on strike for the first time in 25 years, but Mr. Emanuel got the longer day and the closures went ahead in 2013. The teachers kept their seniority based pay system.

Mr. Emanuel ploughed some of the money saved by closures into charter schools, which made him even more unpopular with the teachers unions. But charter schools have worked well in Chicago..............  

Rosa Alanis, the principal of  Golder College Prep,  one of the  Noble Network Schools, says all her pupils have a teacher as a designated adviser, whom they see twice every school day.

Attendance and performance are the advisers responsibility, so they go to great lengths to ensure their charges show up, dress properly in their uniform of grey trousers and blue sweaters, and work very hard.

Ms Alanis herself looked after a group of  13  ''challenging'' boys. In one case she even drove to a pupil's house to get him to come to school. 

*He was still in his pyjamas, but he obeyed*.

Mr Emanuel is keen on charter schools, but he didn't mention them when he presented his second term plans for education.

Instead he promised to put  Wi-Fi  in all classrooms, and to ensure that every family would be within three miles of a high school offering some special focus, such as  Science  or the  International Baccalaureate.

Presumably he did not want to annoy those who think that charter schools leave public schools in the dumps. In fact, competition has prodded public schools to shape up a bit.

The drop out rate gone down and  ACT  scores have slightly improved, albeit from a very low level.

Yes, Chicago's example is an example worth considering and learning from. 

With respectful dedication to the Leaders of the free world, Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW!   -the World Students Society:

''' A New Word And A New World '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless