Saying that the schools need to prepare more graduates for college success, Mayor Richard Daley announced plans Tuesday to add 11 high schools to an existing $21 million school reform.
This newest initiative, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with local tax money, is an attempt to make education more equal and challenging in a city where almost half of its high school students drop out.
“It’s wonderful to see the changes,” Daley said at a news conference at Carver Military Academy in Altgeld Gardens on the Far South Side, one of the 14 schools that pioneered the reform this school year for its freshmen.
Ald. Anthony Beale, whose 9th Ward includes Carver, was a bit blunter in his praise of the changes in Carver’s culture as he surveyed the young men and women in uniform.
“Look at these cadets. You don’t see their pants hanging off them. They are here to learn,” Beale said.
Though the Chicago school system has been able to demonstrate dramatic improvements in elementary school achievement since the mayor took over the district in 1995, it has had less success in turning around its 110 varied high schools. Although the city can claim some of the best high schools in the state, academic success is mostly concentrated in its selective schools that screen students for admission.
Citywide, only about 54 percent of the city’s freshmen eventually receive a high school diploma, according to the most reliable research. And of those who graduate, only 48 percent attend college.
The so-called “high school transformation project” is trying to change those numbers by providing consistent curriculum, course materials and coaching for teachers through a choice of educational partners.
For example, in science a school could choose between a joint effort by the Illinois Institute of Technology, the Field Museum of Natural History and Glencoe Publishing or a separate program with Loyola University Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Because the effort is only a year old and has targeted only freshmen core classes, there is insufficient data to prove whether the program is effective. Still, some teachers and students are offering anecdotal support for the program.
Elaine Cox, a teacher at Dyett High School on the South Side, which was among the inaugural 14 reform schools, said fewer students are cutting her first-period English class compared with last year.
“The class is about two times the size of last year because they are coming,” Cox said, adding that this year’s students also are ahead of last year’s students academically. Dyett has been working with America’s Choice, a subsidiary of the non-profit National Center on Education and the Economy in Washington. She said the effort gives her more time to teach because she is spending less time preparing learning materials.
One of Cox’s students, Dyett freshman Lynette Patterson, 15, said she especially liked a learning technique in which the high schoolers visited Chicago elementary pupils to teach them English.
“I taught them contractions. You have to really know something to teach it. It helps us learn,” said Patterson. She said she also enjoyed working with young children because she plans on becoming a pediatrician.
Carver freshman Timothy Riley, 15, said he enjoyed the opportunity in his English class to write a magazine article on a topic he chose, teen driving, rather than an assigned subject.
“In 8th grade, we had to write essays on topics that we just weren’t interested in,” Riley said. “Once I had to write about a kitchen and a tea set and that was really boring. This is better.”
His English teacher, Vanessa Johnson, said the emphasis on group learning and research, rather than a textbook, makes the students more responsible for their own learning. Her students have done research and written on everything from skateboards to global warming. On Tuesday morning her students read historical novels as they prepared to write their historical stories based on research.
The school reform comes with a price tag. In addition to the $21 million provided by the Gates Foundation over three years, Chicago Public Schools contributed $7 million this year and the participating schools contributed $1 million from their discretionary money. Next year the school system plans to spend $14 million with a planned contribution of $3 million from the schools.
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Reforms continuing
Eleven more high schools will join the $21 million effort in the 2007-08 school year:
1. Collins Academy
2. Austin Polytechnical Academy
3. Chicago Academy
4. Farragut Career Academy
5. Hirsch Metro High School of Communications
6. Manley Career Academy
7. Marine Academy
8. Marshall Metro High School
9. New Millennium School of Health at Bowen Campus
10. Phoenix Military Academy
11. Tilden Career Community Academy High School
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lolszewski@tribune.com
