Odds and ends with some a bit odder than others:
OPRF’s all in: Oak Park and River Forest High School is taking its bold Freshman Curriculum Restructuring (or you can call it “de-tracking”) plan out to the public starting tonight. The first of four public meetings will be at the high school, starting at 7 p.m. The next three meetings will be at the three public middle schools in Oak Park and River Forest. That’s appropriate since it is current seventh- and sixth-graders who will be the first two classes impacted by a plan scheduled to launch in the 2021-22 school year.
This is OPRF’s most direct and wide-ranging effort yet to go straight at racial equity issues. By grouping all freshmen into a single stepped-up curriculum (math is the exception) the goal is to give each student the chance to prove themselves capable of doing more rigorous coursework in their sophomore through senior years.
After decades of nibbling around the edges of equity and the gap — academic, discipline, access, you call it — OPRF is putting it on the line with this plan.
“Connects” is back: Our monthly special project diving deep into issues impacting youth in the village is back for its second season. Today’s special section focuses on another bold effort in education that is taking hold in all three local public school districts. It is the conscious effort to lessen the segregation of special education students in self-contained classes. Each district now works to include most all special ed students in general ed classrooms. The benefits, every educator we interviewed made clear, accrue to every kid in the classroom and shouldn’t be viewed as some sort of gift to students with differing needs.
Another tactic being expanded is co-teaching where two teachers, one general ed, one special ed, share a classroom, blend their talents and meet the needs of a more diverse group of students.
“Connects” is funded by the Good Heart, Work Smart Foundation. And we offer our thanks.
The Steer: This week’s edition of our Oak Park Eats newsletter (you really ought to sign up) features a Melissa Elsmo piece on the 50th anniversary of the Golden Steer restaurant on Roosevelt Road in Forest Park. I tagged along to the party last week with Melissa because I’m a big fan of this place.
We go there when we need a break from city life because the Steer transports us to a North Woods supper club. It’s the décor, the meat and potatoes menu, the wait staff that feels like a family — and some of them are.
Speaking of Melissa: Our food guru turned up in the travel section of the Washington Post a week or two back. It was a piece on taking a Wisconsin and Illinois road trip to see the Wright sites. Melissa, who volunteers as a tour guide/docent/interpreter, is quoted saying, “You are truly in the motherland of Frank Lloyd Wright.” And also, this sage advice: “Don’t hit your head on the piano.”
Comings and goings: Two departures, two arrivals to note this week at the Journal. Tim Inklebarger, our Oak Park reporter, and Marty Farmer, our sports editor, are gone. Tim is wrapping up six years on what is his second tour with the company. Marty also served six years as sports editor and was a freelancer before that. The best to both of them.
Now on duty are Stacey Sheridan who will cover Oak Park government, business, police and likely other things and James Kay, an OPRF graduate, looking to bring some new ideas to our sports coverage both digitally and in print. Welcome.
