Chicago Public Schools: What Next?
Jitu Brown, Lauren FitzPatrick, Sarah Karp, and Wendy Katten
Thursday, Jun 18, 2015
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Speakers
Jitu Brown
Jitu Brown, married and father of one child, is the national director for the Journey for Justice Alliance, a network of 30 grassroots community based organizations in 23 cities organizing for community driven school improvement; and he was formerly the education organizer for the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO). Born and raised in the Rosemoor neighborhood on the far south side of Chicago, Jitu attended Wendell Smith Elementary School and Kenwood Academy High School. Jitu studied at Eastern Arizona College and Northeastern Illinois University, majoring in communications with a minor in Spanish. Jitu started volunteering with the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) in 1991, became a board member in 1993 and for a number of years served as the organization’s board president. He joined the staff as education organizer in 2006. He has organized in the Kenwood Oakland neighborhood for over 17 years bringing community voices to the table on school issues. He helped develop the Mid-South Education Association, a grassroots advocacy group made up of administrators, parents, teachers, young people and local school council (LSC) members to meet the needs of schools in the area. They were the first group to certify parents as LSC facilitators, which has become a model being replicated across the city of Chicago. In addition, they successfully organized to stop several school closings in the area and secured resources for neglected neighborhood schools. The KOCO has served as a resource for organizations nationwide, dealing with school closings and the elimination of community voice from the decision-making process.
Lauren FitzPatrick
Lauren FitzPatrick has been the Chicago Sun-Times’ education reporter since 2012, when she was called up from suburban courts and crime. Her previous experience has served her well, as covering Chicago education has been akin to trauma reporting. FitzPatrick assumed her position just in time to cover the historic Chicago Teachers Union strike and Chicago’s momentous decisions to permanently close 50 Chicago Public Schools and switch to student-based budgeting. Since joining the Sun-Times, FitzPatrick has tried to keep CPS honest. Last December she broke a story about a wealthy appointed school board member who holds investments in companies that saw their business with CPS grow markedly following her appointment. Lately, FitzPatrick has reported on the federal investigation surrounding the CEO of CPS, and she has recently documented the controversy surrounding PARCC testing and opting out. While at the Sun-Times Fitzpatrick also reported on the potential mayoral run of CTU President Karen Lewis. FitzPatrick previously wrote for the Daily Southtown newspaper in its first iteration and then for the SouthtownStar. During her tenure she covered crime, veterans’ issues, and the Burr Oak Cemetery scandal, along with whatever else needed reporting that day in the south suburbs. A native of Philadelphia, FitzPatrick earned her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University. She moved to Chicago about a dozen years ago to attend the Medill School of Journalism, and has been a citizen of northeast Illinois ever since.
Sarah Karp
Sarah Karp recently became a senior reporter for the Better Government Association’s investigative team. She will be covering education as well as other issues at the BGA. Karp joined BGA after spending a decade covering Chicago Public Schools for Catalyst-Chicago. For her work at Catalyst, she won five Education Writers Association awards. Prior to Catalyst, she worked for the Chicago Reporter, where she covered children and family issues. Karp was project director at Youth Communication, which publishes New Expression, a newspaper written by and for teenagers. She also has reported for the Daily Southtown and the Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune. She received a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Her beats are high schools, special education, elementary school core instruction, desegregation, health and social services, and children of the incarcerated.
Wendy Katten
Wendy Katten is the mom of a 6th grader in CPS and the Executive Director of Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education, a parent-led advocacy group that informs parents and citizens about policies that impact our schools and trains them to become advocates for improved systemic change. She helped found the group in 2010 with other parents in CPS as a response to chronic underfunding and budget cuts. The group has worked on campaigns to rally and protect state and local education funding, restore recess, enrich the school day with a broader curriculum for all students, protect class size, end the overuse and misuse of standardized testing, and much more. RYH has testified at numerous CPS board meetings and budget hearings and has advocated for increased transparency and evidenced-based reforms in public education. Wendy holds a BA in English Literature from Indiana University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Washington University. You can find Raise Your Hand at www.ilraiseyourhand.org, or on twitter at @ilraiseyourhand.
