Quick Hits
The varsity girls volleyball team takes on Palatine at 6 o’clock tonight for the Illinois High School Association Class 4A Palatine Regional championship. The winner of tonight’s match advances to the Warren Sectional, which starts Monday. Stevenson (22-14) is the No. 3 seed in the sectional, while Palatine (23-12) is No. 6. The two teams met Oct. 21, with the Pirates coming away with a 25-21, 14-25, 25-12 victory on their home court. … Miami University’s student newspaper published a laudatory profile of Jack Sorenson (Class of 2016), a wide receiver on the school’s football team and member of Stevenson’s 2014 state championship squad. The piece discusses Sorenson’s off-field pursuits, which include his membership in a business fraternity and his involvement with a church in Oxford, Ohio. “My dad always harped it into me: football ends,” Sorenson told The Miami Student. “Whether you make it to the Hall of Fame or not, football ends.”
COLLEGE
2019 graduate Morish Shah was one of three area high school students to receive Rebecca’s Dream scholarships last spring. The annual scholarships honor students who share in Rebecca’s Dream’s mission to reduce the stigma of mental illness, particularly surrounding depression and bipolar disorder. Three $1,500 scholarships will be awarded in 2020. The deadline to apply is Dec. 1. For more information, visit the Rebecca’s Dream website.
ATHLETICS
The boys swimming and diving team will have informational meetings at 7:45 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in the pool balcony. If you cannot make one of the meetings, contact Coach Lillydahl in Room 2514 for more information.
ILLINOIS EDUCATION NEWS
After the Chicago Teachers Union voted to approve a tentative deal with Chicago Public Schools, officials on both sides are now engaged in a war of words over whether dates will be added to the end of the school year to make up for time lost during the strike. After the union voted to tentatively approve the deal, it announced that it would not authorize employees to return to work unless Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot agreed to make up the 11 days of instruction that will have been lost during the teachers strike. Read the tentative contract.
A tenured Oak Park and River Forest High School teacher has been fired from his job by the school board after allegedly engaging in an “inappropriate” relationship and contact with students. The school board voted unanimously to dismiss the faculty member at its Oct. 24 meeting, a vote which included no comment from board members.
The internal probe that has rocked Lake Park High School for the past week is focused on a volunteer coach’s involvement in the Roselle school’s football program, officials said Wednesday in a carefully worded news release. Officials did not name the volunteer coach or specify what they are investigating. However, the release implied that the volunteer’s name was not submitted to the human resources and athletic departments for a required background check.
Legislation that would allow college athletes in Illinois to make money from endorsements is advancing in the state’s legislature. The Illinois House on Wednesday voted 86-25 to send the bill to the Senate. The bill would allow college athletes to be compensated for their names and likenesses. If passed, the bill would take effect in 2023.
NATIONAL EDUCATION NEWS
America’s eighth-graders are falling behind in math and reading, while fourth-graders are doing slightly better in reading, according to the latest results from the Nation’s Report Card. But there were some exceptions to the findings, which also showed declines among fourth-graders in math. Nationwide, a little more than a third of eighth-graders are proficient in reading and math. About a third of fourth-graders are proficient in reading, while more than 40% of fourth-graders are proficient in math.
The NCAA took a major step Tuesday toward allowing college athletes to cash in on their fame, voting to permit them to “benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness.” The nation’s largest governing body for college sports and its member schools now must figure out how to allow athletes to profit — something they have fought against doing for years — while still maintaining rules regarding amateurism.
The state of Rhode Island is taking over Providence’s public schools for five years, beginning Friday. The state’s education commissioner will oversee the district’s budget, personnel and programming. Nationally, there have been more than 100 state takeovers since New Jersey first took over Jersey City schools in 1989.
Civil rights groups and a California school district are threatening to sue the University of California System if it does not stop using the SAT and ACT as an admissions requirement, saying the tests discriminate against students based on income, race and disability. Lawyers representing three students, five nonprofits and the Compton Unified School District, a historically impoverished jurisdiction, wrote to the system’s board of regents Tuesday, demanding it drop the tests.
A private K-12 school near Milwaukee has an unusual tradition: Assigned lunch seating. Students are assigned randomly to eight-person circular tables, which rotate depending on that day’s schedule. Each has a mix of kids from different grades, with one teacher whose job is to get the table talking. A public elementary school near Green Bay adopted the model, minus the teacher participation requirement, and saw a major decrease in bullying.
