ABSTRACT
Beacon Elementary School is located in the Uptown neighbourhood on Chicago's north lakefront. Some of the more experienced teachers encouraged new staff to hoard their meagre supplies and to journey to Maxwell Street–Chicago's outdoor flea market—when they needed replenishments. The snapshot of Beacon helped to fuel the fire that would radically change the governance of the Chicago Public Schools. Much of the Tribune series focused on life at Beacon. The Tribune series came at a critical time in Chicago's struggle for school reform, and it did much to galvanize public opinion against the status quo. Gentrification had begun in the mid 1980s, and affluent families had re-appeared in the neighbourhood, but their children were either too young for school, or they attended magnet or private schools. To many inside the school system, the Tribune series was regarded as the worst kind of journalism—blatant sensationalism without regard for the people whose lives it exposed.
