Education & Families News
The McKinley Park Civic Association feted outstanding local educators and leaders at its 47th annual banquet, held on Sunday, March 4, at Polonia Banquets.
Nine local teachers received honors as Outstanding Educators of the Year, and Illinois 2nd District State Rep. Theresa Mah accepted her 2018 William H.G. Toms Community Service Award.
Read more: Civic Association Celebrates Top Teachers, Leaders at Banquet
The State of Illinois has released its report cards for neighborhood schools, including for Horizon Science Academy at 2245 W. Pershing Road. The school, which educates kindergarteners through high schoolers, showed a mix of performance results, with one bright spot being mathematics performance for elementary students.
As previously reported, state report cards showed other neighborhood schools facing significant challenges while realizing some gains. The situation is similar at Horizon, which has a student body mostly made up of low-income students, about a quarter of whom have limited English proficiency.
Read more: Horizon Science Academy Rated in Illinois State Report Card
The State of Illinois has released its report cards on school performance, demographics and funding, including reports for McKinley Park neighborhood elementary and middle schools.
Edward Everett Elementary School, Nathanael Greene Elementary School, Namaste Charter School and Evergreen Academy Middle School all received a breakdown of their student performance on the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test, in addition to a host of other school data.
Although the Illinois report cards show some bright spots, all neighborhood schools continue to be challenged with consistently meeting or exceeding district and state percentages for English language and math performance.
Read more: Challenges, Gains Shown in Neighborhood Schools' Report Cards
Student robotics teams from Horizon Science Academy McKinley Park landed several awards last Saturday, February 10, at the FIRST Illinois Robotics Challenge competition.
All three teams from Horizon competed in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) category, and all three secured a spot in the finals on Saturday. Horizon's high school-age team earned multiple awards, including a first place for robotics design and a place in the upcoming state finals competition.
Read more: Horizon Robotics Teams Net Contest Wins, Advance to State
The Aquinas Literacy Center hosted another training session this past weekend, bringing 20 new tutors online to assist its mission of providing literacy training to local adult immigrants. The Friday night and Saturday sessions are part of a total of 13 hours of training each tutor undergoes, resulting in their certification to teach English as a Second Language learners.
Although the center continues to grow, a backlog of 35 new pupils are waiting in the wings for their chance at instruction. To meet the demand, Aquinas will continue its tutor training sessions, setting the next one for the weekend of Friday, March 9.
