Issue 1 Winter 2007 - Chicago International Charter School

FocalPoint
A Chicago International Charter School Publication
Respected.
Refined.
Realized.
VOL. 01 NUM. 1
WINTER 2007
Boy
Wonder
Northtown Student Earns
Near-Perfect ACT Score
Chicago International
Charter School Celebrates
10-Year Anniversary
PRSRT STD
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
GURNEE, IL
PERMIT NO. 51
Teacher Liz Beck
Earns Rave Reviews
CICS Avalon Benefits from
Active Parent of Three
OpeningThoughts
w
Welcome to the inaugural edition of FocalPoint, a magazine published by
the Chicago International Charter School. Our hope is that the information
featured here will stimulate conversation and debate on the subject of
urban education.
Beth Purvis
Executive Director
Chicago International Charter School
In our opinion, public education has failed in its mission to prepare
children from the nation’s urban centers to succeed beyond high school.
In a 2006 study supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
Christopher Swanson reported that 14 of the 50 largest cities in the United
States had four-year graduation rates lower than 50 percent, with Detroit
graduating an appalling 21.7 percent of its students. Only six of those 50
urban centers had graduation rates higher than 80 percent, and no city
graduated more than 82.5 percent of its students. Even more disturbing
are the graduation rates of young men who are Black, Hispanic, or receive
special education services. Despite these sobering facts, the vast majority
of urban public schools educate students traditionally. Attempts to
improve school systems through changes such as lengthening the school
day, extending the school year, or evaluating the effectiveness of teachers
by measuring student growth over time are met with fierce opposition.
While the adults argue, student performance continues to suffer and
thousands of young adults enter the work force functionally illiterate and
unable to perform even the simplest computation.
We launch FocalPoint as a place where
educators and administrators who are
working to confront the status quo will
describe the successes and challenges
of educating students in urban America.
Many of the stories will be about the students, teachers, and parents of
Chicago International. It is our hope, however, that this publication will
encourage our readers to think more about the theory of change behind
each story than of the system in which the triumphs and disappointments
occurred. We encourage you to write to us with your reactions to individual
articles or to the publication as a whole. Only through your response to our
thoughts can a true dialogue take place.
This first edition of FocalPoint will also serve as the Chicago International
2006-2007 Annual Report. We believe that the juxtaposition of the FocalPoint
stories and data about our performance last year only reinforces how important
it is for us to work towards our mission of providing, through innovation and
choice, high-quality, college preparatory education for today’s students.
Dr. Elizabeth D. Purvis
Executive Director
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FocalPoint
FocalPoint
contents
VOL. 01 NUM. 1 | WINTER 2007
Photos and Cover Photo by Caroline Voagen Nelson
22
13
34
06
features
18
06 35/36
CICS Northtown student, Nathaniel Berele, earned a near-perfect
score on the ACT. But he’d rather talk about obscure math
theories, his plans for the future, and why he thinks the Chicago
White Sox can take the Cubs any day.
13 Ten Years of Urban Education
Chicago International Charter School celebrates its 10-year
anniversary and looks forward to ten more years of high-quality,
college preparatory education for the children of Chicago.
18 A Parent’s Commitment
Ensuring a good education for your child begins with parental
involvement. Stephanie Houston’s three children have attended
Chicago International Avalon since its opening in 2005; many days,
so has Stephanie.
22 A Stand-Out Performance
A funny thing happened to teacher Liz Beck on the way to
the theater: Instead of standing in the lights of Broadway, Miss
Beck found herself standing in front of a room full of students.
And loving it.
26 CICS 2007 Annual Report
FocalPoint Magazine | A Chicago International Charter School Publication | 228 South Wabash Avenue, Suite 500, Chicago, IL 60604
departments
02
OpeningThoughts
04
ViewPoint
05
PolicyReport
10
CampusProfile
12
Noteworthy
32
Chalkboard
33
Exploration
34
Extensions
FocalPoint
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03
ViewPoint
Q:
What is most important
to you in your child’s
education?
“Making sure my children
are obtaining a quality
education, delivered
by competent and
dedicated teachers.”
Stephanie Houston
CICS Avalon Parent
“That he achieves a quality education in a safe
environment. That he gets a foundation for
college while enjoying his high school years.”
James Love
CICS Ralph Ellison Parent
“I am most
concerned with
my children being
well-rounded,
successful learners
who are prepared
to attend and
finish college.”
Barbara Brown
CICS Wrightwood Parent
“Teachers that have higher
learning. Caring teachers that
will challenge my child to work
at his best. That my child is
in an environment that makes
him feel confident, appreciated,
respected, and secure, thus
creating an atmosphere that is
conducive for learning.”
“Working together for
a better education.”
Ana Rodriquez
CICS Northtown Parent
Page Minto
CICS Basil Parent
“More attention
to the students.
Safer school
environment.”
Ana Rodriquez
CICS Northtown Academy Parent
“Dedicated and caring
educators and staff.
[As parents] we no
longer pay tuition, and
parents are encouraged
to and informed on how
to be partners in their
children’s education.”
Stephanie Houston
CICS Avalon Parent
“Dedicated teachers, small class
size, updated facilities, administrators
that listen, staff open to new ideas,
teachers are accessible.”
Barbara Brown
CICS Wrightwood Parent
“The opportunity
to participate in
the Daniel Murphy
Scholarship
Foundation and the
fact that my child
is a member of
the National Junior
Honor Society. For
me, the opportunity
of knowing some
wonderful teachers
that makes me
feel like they are
an extension of my
family working with
me to make sure that
my child works at his
fullest potential.”
“A smaller school setting.”
James Love
CICS Ralph Ellison Parent
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FocalPoint
Page Minto
CICS Basil Parent
Q:
What is the
greatest benefit
to you and/or
your child of
attending a
Chicago
International
campus?
PolicyReport
Aa
Bb
accountability
beginnings
Hh
Gg
growth
dialogue
choice
innovation
journey
Ff
extensions
Kk
Jj
Ii
honor
Ee
Dd
Cc
knowledge
freedom
Ll
leadership
What is a Charter School?
Illinois Charter School Law
by Dr. Elizabeth D. Purvis and the Illinois Network of Charter Schools
The operation of Charter Schools is guided by the principles set
forth in each state’s charter legislation. In 1996, the Illinois General
Assembly passed a law allowing the creation of charter schools. Key
aspects of the charter law include the following provisions:
A charter school is a privately run public school. Through unique
agreements with the local authorizing agency, charter schools offer
choice to families and are free from many of the mandates given to
traditional public schools. In exchange for choice and freedom, they
are held accountable through measures of student performance.
Choice
• Charter schools enable families to choose the school and
educational program that best fit the needs of their children.
• Educators are able to focus on specific curricula and instructional
strategies that meet their students’ needs.
• Authorizers support schools that are most likely to meet the needs
of a specific district or community.
Accountability
Charter schools’ success is measured according to student performance, financial management, and statutory compliance benchmarks
established by the authorizer. If a charter school does not meet its
contractual obligations, it can be closed by the authorizing agency.
Freedom
While charter schools must adhere to federal laws such as the
Individual with Disabilities Education Act and state learning standards,
their administrators and teachers are free from much of the bureaucracy that often interferes with improved student outcomes.
The mission and vision of each charter school are unique. Some
schools, such as Chicago International, use innovative teaching
techniques to deliver a classic curriculum; others focus their work as
centers of excellence in technology, cultural arts, foreign language,
or specialized topics. The goal for many communities is to create
curricular choices within the public domain similar to those routinely
offered to families by private schools.
General Provisions
The number of charter schools that can be created in the state
is limited to 30 in Chicago, 15 in the Chicago suburbs, and 15
throughout the remainder of the state.
An Illinois charter may be granted for a period not less than five
and not more than 10 school years; a charter may be renewed in
incremental periods not to exceed five school years.
Charter school applications denied by the local school board can be
appealed to the Illinois State Board of Education; if the State Board
reverses the local school board’s decision and grants the charter, the
State Board will oversee the charter directly.
Illinois Charter School Teachers
Charter school teachers must be Illinois State certified or meet the
following criteria: (a) hold a bachelor’s degree; (b) have five or more
years of employment in a field related to the subject to be taught; (c)
pass a state basic skills test; and (d) demonstrate continued evidence
of “professional growth.”
In Chicago charter schools opened prior to 2003, 75 percent of the
classroom teachers must hold an Illinois State Teaching Certificate.
For Chicago charter schools that opened after April 2003, 50 percent
of the teachers must hold an Illinois State Teaching Certificate.
Funding
According to Illinois state law, charter schools should receive funding
that is between 75 and 125 percent of the local school district’s per
capita student tuition. The exact amount of funding is to be negotiated
between the charter school and the local authorizing agency.
For a detailed profile of the charter school law in Illinois, visit the Illinois
State Board of Education Web site at www.isbe.net.
FocalPoint
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05
Northtown Academy junior Nathaniel
Berele scored an impressive 35 out of
36 on the ACT.
00
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FocalPoint
THIS MATH AND SCIENCE PHENOM
KNOWS A THING OR TWO ABOUT
ABSTRACT THEORIES, ACADEMIC
SUCCESS, AND IF THE WHITE SOX ARE
REALLY BETTER THAN THE CUBS.
(35/36)
by Hilary Masell Oswald
Nathaniel Berele is what you’d call a whiz kid. The 17-yearold senior at Chicago International Northtown Academy did
what most other college-bound teenagers only dream of:
He earned a 35 (out of a possible 36) on the ACT, the nation’s
most widely accepted college entrance exam. His score
puts him in the top one percent of more than 1.3 million
test-takers this year.
“We took a lot of practice tests at school, and I scored pretty
well on them,” Nathaniel says evenly. “I didn’t expect the
ACT to be much harder than the practice tests, and when I
finished, I felt like I had done just fine.”
The ACT is a curriculum-based exam, not an aptitude
test, which means its questions relate to what students
have learned in four topical areas: English, reading—and
Photo by Caroline Voagen Nelson
Nathaniel’s favorites—math and science. The test also
includes a free-response writing section.
As you might suspect, Nathaniel’s whiz kid status does
not begin or end with the ACT. He is one of those precious
few students with an uncanny penchant for math and
science. “I’m able to take one concept and predict the next
10 concepts you’re going to teach me,” he says, a hint of
wonder in his voice. “I don’t know how, I just can.”
The son of Miriam, a physician who retired to spend time with
her family, and Allan, a math professor at Chicago’s DePaul
University, Nathaniel grew up loving math and science. He
enrolled at Northtown in ninth grade. He wishes the school
offered calculus to freshmen, and he admits that he’d rather
read a dry article about scientific theory than a novel.
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(35/36)
Last year, Nathaniel took the Advanced
Placement Calculus BC exam, which tests
students’ knowledge of two semesters’ worth
of college-level single-variable calculus. “I
wasn’t as prepared as I should have been,”
Nathaniel says, “so I was surprised when
I got a five [the highest possible score] on
the exam.”
The AP curriculum marked what is usually
the most rigorous math curriculum available
to high school students, so this year,
Nathaniel made a deal with his math teacher:
“I would take his final exam at the beginning
of the quarter, and when I passed, he’d agree
to let me work on any math I want in the
back of the classroom.” Thanks to his dad’s
stash of college math textbooks, Nathaniel
is now busy studying applications of modern
mathematics. “You know, graph theory,
“The best way to
learn something
is not to memorize
a black-and-white
fact. Argue for it;
argue against it.
Then you’re trying
to understand it.”
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mathematics in nature, where different patterns
appear in nature—that sort of thing,” he
explains casually, as if esoteric math theories
are as commonplace as Chicago pizzerias.
But don’t peg Nathaniel as a guy with only
one interest. When asked what he enjoys
outside of school, Nathaniel doesn’t hesitate:
“I love sports. Baseball is the best sport
ever.” An outfielder on the Northtown baseball team and a member of the high school’s
new flag football team, Nathaniel says he
likes learning about the sports’ fundamental
elements and dissecting highlights from
college and professional games. “I’m very
competitive,” he says sheepishly. “I like to do
anything that involves winning.”
Nathaniel’s baseball coach, Mark
Stasiorowski, says Nathaniel’s passion for
(35/36)
baseball is impressive. “He really wants to
improve,” Mr. Stasiorowski says. “He’ll come
up to me often and say, ‘Hey, Coach, I noticed
that the other team’s catcher always drops
the curve ball,’ or some other observation. He
approaches the game with a very analytical
mind and a lot of enthusiasm.”
Whether he’s taking batting practice or
delving into an obscure physics lesson,
Nathaniel says one other quality defines his
approach to learning: a love of debate. “The
best way to learn something is not to memorize
a black-and-white fact,” he explains. “Argue
for it; argue against it. Then you’re trying to
understand it.” (This theory applies to baseball
as much as it applies to academic work. He’s
a White Sox fan, and he’s ready to take on any
Cubs fan in Chicago’s interminable debate
over which team is really better).
Equipped with passion, intelligence and his
excellent ACT score, Nathaniel has a shot
at enrolling at nation’s top colleges and
universities. He’s planning to apply to Hofstra
University in New York, Stevens Institute of
Technology in New Jersey, Franklin & Marshall
College in Pennsylvania, DePaul University
and the Illinois Institute of Technology in
Chicago. Nathaniel is also considering taking
a year off and traveling to Israel, where he
would study Hebrew and learn more about
his faith.
Nathaniel’s college counselor, Mario Ortiz,
says Nathaniel has a lot of good opportunities
ahead of him. “He has a tenacious mind, what
you’d call a steel-trap mind,” Mr. Ortiz says.
“He’s very sharp, very observant. He loves
to debate ideas, which will serve him well
in college.”
And what does the whiz kid have planned
for his future? “I’ll take a good amount of
courses in engineering and exercise science
[in college],” he predicts. “Someday, I’d like
to build a workout room where the energy
created by people working out is converted
to power that lights the room, runs the air
conditioner and heater, that sort of thing.”
Then, Nathaniel becomes introspective. He
has a broader view of his future than simple
plans about college and career imply.
“In the next 20 years, I want to keep living life,”
Nathaniel says. “I want to be happy with who
I am. I want to be able to say, ‘Hey, you know
what? I have done a good job.’”
No doubt this whiz kid is off to a great start.
Photo by Caroline Voagen Nelson
FocalPoint
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09
CampusProfile
A Few Good Men
Male Mentorship Program
at Chicago International
Longwood
a
by R.J. McMahon
At the end of a school day in September
2005, Robert Lang, Director of Schools at
Chicago International Longwood on Chicago’s
South Side, looked out of his office window
and noticed several young men—many
of whom were high school students at his
school—standing across the street on the
corner. In addition to being classmates, the
young men had something else in common:
They were not involved in activities after
school, so they spent their afternoons on 95th
Street, hanging out with other young men
from the neighborhood.
The situation troubled Mr. Lang for several
reasons. First, he was very concerned about
the company his students were keeping.
Second, he did not understand how these
young men could not find extracurricular
activities that interested them, given that
the school offers 15 different activities over
the course of the academic year. And finally,
he felt compelled to address the dearth of
role models and structure in these students’
lives. “We are a small school with less than
500 high school students, so it is very
difficult to fall through the cracks at Chicago
International,” Mr. Lang says. “Unfortunately,
we were getting too close to letting these
young men slip through the cracks.”
Something had to change. Mr. Lang
assembled the male members of his leadership team to address the need for a program
that would target the male students who
were most at-risk: young men who were not
participating in after-school activities on campus
and who were struggling academically,
socially, or emotionally. From this meeting,
the Male Mentorship Program was born.
Not only would this program provide an
after-school destination for more than 30
high school boys, but it would also provide
activities every Monday through Thursday
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Back Row: Robert Lang, Miles Griffin, Romond Payne, Ariel Mayberry, Donnell Jones
Front Row: Dominic Robinson, Anthony Jones, Jarrett Ball
from 3:30 to 5:30 and create a structure in
which these students could build relationships
with positive male role models.
Launched in the fall of 2005, the program
is built on daily two-hour sessions when
four male African-American administrators
at Longwood meet with small teams of
young men. During these sessions, mentors
and students work on enriching the boys’
academic work and building personal skills,
such as how to behave appropriately in class
and how to introduce themselves to new
people. The mentors lead discussions about
topics that are sometimes uncomfortable,
such as hygiene and grooming, relationships
with parents, and the importance of completing work assignments. Two days each week,
members of the faculty tutor students who
need help in any subject, and twice a week
volunteers from the corporate community
give presentations about important life skills,
such as how students can open and manage
checking accounts, start businesses, or
improve their time management skills.
On top of these regular activities, mentors
arrange college trips for the young men to
see and experience where their hard work
might lead. The message is central to the
program’s mission: College is the logical
next step in your educational journeys. As a
result of volunteers’ time and the program’s
structure, the students have become more
accountable—to themselves, their mentors,
their peers, and the entire program.
Within three months, teachers and
CampusProfile
The program instills
not only a strong work
ethic, but also—and
just as importantly—a
sense of self-worth in
each young man.
Photos by Caroline Voagen Nelson
Top: Longwood campus
Bottom: Romond Payne
hard at work
Right: Dominic Robinson proudly
displays Longwood logo
Far Right: Trevi Wilson helps a
student with his homework
administrators saw positive changes in the
young men. Suspensions dwindled. Students’
grades, attitudes, and self-esteem improved.
And as a result, the students spent more
time in the school building, a better option
than hanging out on neighborhood streets.
The students were either plugged into other
after-school activities, or they gravitated to the
activities that piqued their interest. Today, the
participating students spend at least 10 hours
a day on campus, from 7:30 in the morning
to 5:30 or 7:00 in the evening, depending on
their activities.
Through their participation the first year, many
students earned summer jobs on campus,
working with summer school students,
cleaning the school, or laundering uniforms
for the sports teams. Now they have the skills
they need to supervise other students in their
work around campus. The program instills not
only a strong work ethic, but also—and just
as importantly—a sense of self-worth in each
young man.
The biggest misconception about mentoring
programs is that the mentoring must be
one-on-one. The Male Mentoring Program
established at Chicago International
Longwood uses a team approach. Each adult
mentor has about 10 students assigned to
him, and he serves as a go-to person for the
young men in his group. But the mentors
share responsibility for the students, creating
a network of support for the young men.
Now in its third year, the Male Mentoring
Program continues to change and grow.
As suspensions decreased and attitudes
improved at the high school, problematic
incidents at the Junior Academy increased,
so the program’s focus shifted to young men
in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades, with a few high
school students added to the mix. Once the
high school students complete one year of the
program—the time needed to get connected
to the high school community—they become
peer mentors for the younger students. Today,
between 40 and 50 junior high students
participate with a corps of peer mentors from
the high school—a circumstance that has
strengthened the culture of the school.
The students grow together, the young men
learn to be leaders, and the adult mentors
serve as torchbearers who light the way.
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11
Noteworthy
Pursuit of Excellence
Chicago International seniors achieve college dreams
with help from Posse Foundation
l
by R.J. McMahon
Northtown Posse Scholars: Jasmine McGhee, Yesenia
Saavedra, Ashley Dinzey, Beatriz Cañas and Lisa Ayala
Where Chicago
International Posse
Scholars Enrolled
Carleton College (Minnesota):
Lisa Ayala
Ashley Dinzey
Denison University (Ohio):
Jasmine McGhee
DePauw University (Indiana):
Michael Pace
Oberlin College (Ohio):
Terrance Richardson
University of Illinois
– Urbana-Champaign
Yudine LeJeune
University of Wisconsin
– Madison
Beatriz Cañas
Conei Coleman
Yesenia Saavedra
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Last spring, across the Chicago International
high school campuses, seniors were making
their final choices about which colleges and
universities they would attend come the fall.
We all know that this process can be difficult
for an 18-year-old (and his or her parents),
so students generally put off their decisions
‘til the bitter end—right before the deposit
deadline. But nine Chicago International
seniors—five from Chicago International
Northtown Academy and four from Chicago
International Longwood—knew which top-tier
universities they would attend for months.
They had been preparing for this college decision since the beginning of their senior year,
when they were nominated for the prestigious
Posse Foundation Scholarship.
The Posse Foundation, founded in 1989,
identifies public high school students with
extraordinary academic and leadership
potential who may be overlooked by traditional
college selection processes. The foundation
extends to these students the opportunity
to pursue personal and academic excellence
by placing them in supportive, multicultural
teams (“Posses”) of 10 students. The
Foundation’s partner universities award Posse
Scholars four-year, full-tuition leadership
scholarships.
Yesenia, who attends University of Wisconsin
– Madison, is majoring in communication and
science. Going through the selection process
flipped on the light bulb in her head. “It’s when
you realize that hard work pays off.”
In Chicago, the Posse Foundation awarded
70 scholarships from approximately 1,300
students nominated for the scholarship. More
than 15,000 seniors attend approximately
100 public high schools in Chicago (selective
enrollment, charter and neighborhood
schools), and 204—or about 1.4 percent—
of those students graduated from Chicago
International. But Chicago International
students earned 13 percent of the scholarships awarded (9 of 70). (See sidebar for
list of students and which universities they
attend). Chastity Lord, the Posse Chicago
director put this accomplishment in
perspective: “This reminds our community
that great things are happening in Chicago
Public Schools, and specifically at Chicago
International Charter School.”
To earn the scholarship, each student passed
a rigorous, three-stage selection process
comprised of interviews and group activities.
In the final round, admission officials from
each university partner conducted group and
one-on-one interviews.
Jasmine, a Posse Scholar who attends
Denison University in Ohio and will pursue
business studies, said the usual selection
process challenged her. “Being put on the
spot taught me many things. I learned to
value other people’s opinions,” she said.
“Sometimes you can’t lead; you also have
to follow.”
Beatriz, who will study communications
at the University of Wisconsin – Madison,
said the intense Posse interviews and focus
on self-expression made her aware of her
abilities. “This makes me feel more secure
and confident,” she said.
Lord added, “These young people will be
competing at the highest level. They will
persist, graduate and return to their
communities to make a difference.”
Photo by Mario Ortiz
10 Urban Education
Years Of
More than 6,700 reasons to celebrate
by Hilary Masell Oswald
Craig Henderson, Chicago International board president, was serving on the board
of the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Foundation (DMSF) when he first considered the
power of the charter school movement. Founded 18 years ago, DMSF provides
four-year scholarships and educational support to 420 high school students who
attend private schools that will prepare them for college.
“We were minding our own business, giving about 50 scholarships a year,
when the Civic Committee [of the Commercial Club of Chicago] came knocking,”
Henderson says. Made up of senior executives from Chicago’s top institutions, the
committee had lobbied hard for charter schools. The city had given the committee
the responsibility of figuring out who would run Chicago’s first 15 charter schools,
but Henderson says Daniel Murphy’s board just wasn’t interested in running
public schools.
“But then [the committee members] asked, ‘How
many kids are you helping now?’” Henderson says.
“We told them 50. And they said, ‘If you open a
charter school, you can help 600 kids.’ That was the
hook that got us to consider it.”
DMSF board members Henderson, David Chizewer, Kate Gottfred and Jim
Murphy—who had founded DMSF—agreed to try. Their mission: extend the
opportunities afforded to Daniel Murphy Scholars to a larger group of children by
providing both high-quality elementary school choices and increasing the number
of public, open enrollment, college-preparatory high schools in Chicago.
To this end, they enlisted board members with different areas of expertise:
education, law, finance, facilities, and governance. “We wanted an organization
that was replicable and scalable,” Henderson says. “We had to operate on the
paltry amount of money we received from the government.”
One of the board’s first decisions was to build an operating model that was
different from most charter school structures. “We decided the board would be
an oversight board, and we’d farm out school operations to school management
organizations [or SMOs],” Henderson explains.
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10
Years of
Urban Education
The benefits of the model are threefold,
he says. “First, it allows us to be
objective about how the SMOs are
doing. If somebody is not doing a good
job, we can terminate the contract and
hire someone else.” Second, the board
creates competition among management
companies because they’re vying for
more schools. Competition yields higher
performance.
And third, “we were able to build
scalability, and with scalability come
economies of scale,” Henderson says. “If
you run one school, you need a director
of education, of course. If you run 11
schools, you still just need one director of
education. Therefore, more dollars go to
the classroom, where they should be.”
When the board applied for and received
one of the first public school charters in
Illinois, Chicago International was born.
In August of 1997, two campuses—
Longwood and Bucktown—opened their
doors to 1,510 children in kindergarten
through ninth grade.
The school flourished. More campuses
opened, and more families added
their names to the waiting lists. (Today,
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Chicago International has more than
2,400 students on its waiting lists).
Henderson says the growth prompted
the board to reconsider how best to
manage the campuses. Instead of relying
on one school management organization,
they hired three SMOs—one national
provider (Edison Schools), one local
provider (American Quality Schools),
and one wholly owned subsidiary with
expertise in high school curriculum
development (Civitas Schools)—to meet
students’ diverse needs. “The SMOs
have different strengths, and we match
them with the different needs on our
campuses,” Henderson says. “Plus,
the SMOs share best practices, which
makes the whole organization better.”
By August of 2003, Chicago International
had changed dramatically: 3,200
students in kindergarten through 12th
grade were attending six campuses. With
its three SMOs, the board further clarified
its operating model. Guided by the board,
the central office would oversee student
performance evaluation, regulatory
compliance, fiscal management,
capital facilities projects, fundraising,
school-wide policies, and relationships
with external partners. The SMO partners were responsible for all things
related to the education of students: training and managing personnel,
implementing curriculum, and managing the school culture and climate in
accordance with the mission and vision of Chicago International.
In the 2004-05 school year, Chicago International got a $40,000 grant
from the Walton Family Foundation to develop a 10-year business plan.
Students had been outperforming their Chicago Public School counterparts for years, but standardized test scores and the caliber of colleges
that graduates were choosing suggested that Chicago International had
not yet achieved its mission. “The grant was the catalyst that got us to
refocus on what was important: education results,” Henderson says.
“The business plan allowed us to focus on accountability and curriculum,
to really look at what is important.”
Henderson says that student outcomes show that the board’s efforts are
working. (See “A decade of progress”). “I think the model is key. I think
the other crucial thing we do is give control of the classroom to teachers,
and we believe time on task in the classroom is very important,” he says.
“What really makes this organization work is the commitment of our
teachers and administrators. The fact that they work two more hours
per day and 19 more days per year than their counterparts in the Chicago
Public School system and for comparable wages—that’s what makes
our campuses so successful.”
In addition to dedicated teachers, Chicago International’s board is proud
of the revitalization the schools have brought to far South and West Side
neighborhoods. The organization purchases its buildings or leases them
long-term from the Archdiocese of Chicago; the renovation of these
buildings—many of them in areas of high crime and low employment—
has brought pride to these communities.
Henderson says the next 10 years will bring continued educational
success for students. “If we have the results, we’ll continue to grow,”
he says. “But the results have to come first.”
He’s looking forward to the opening of Chicago International Ralph
Ellison High School, a new 600-student high school at 80th and Honore
streets—a $15 million project on Chicago’s Southwest Side that includes
the renovation of an historical structure and the creation of a new gymnasium, named to honor the community. But most of all, he’s hoping to see
the growth of a legacy that started 10 years ago with a few Chicagoans
who shared a vision.
“It’s my belief that every child in the city of Chicago, regardless of
economic status, should have a high-quality, college preparatory
education,” he says. “That’s our mission for the next 10, 15, 25 years.”
Money Well Spent
Chicago International’s board believes that the
campuses should operate without substantial
philanthropic support. In order to be long-term
community schools, the educational programs
could not be affected by economic conditions
that often impede fundraising; however,
generous contributions from our donors have
allowed us to expand our offerings to our
students, develop new curricula and build
schools. Here is a look at the organizations that
have supported Chicago International.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: More
than $4 million to develop a new high school
curriculum, which is showing significant early
signs of success, and to open four high schools
Charter Growth Fund: $1.4 million to develop
an accountability program
Walton Family Foundation: $230,000 per
campus for start-up expenses for new campuses
Renaissance Schools Fund (RSF) and
funding partners (Kraft Foods, Judd
Enterprises, Circle of Service Foundation
and the Woodley Road Neighbors):
Commit $500,000 per new campus over the
first three years of existence
KaBOOM! and partners (The Home
Depot & AMC Mortgage Services):
Construction of new playgrounds on six CICS
campuses—approximate in-kind value of
$45,000 per playground
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A Decade Of Progress
At the end of the 2006-07 school year:
• The four-year high school graduation rate was 90 percent.
• CPS graduation rate for the same class was about 54 percent.
• 85 percent of Chicago International graduates were accepted into college.
• Average ACT of 11th grade students was 19.2, the highest of any Illinois charter school.
• 19.2 represents an increase in average score of 2.1 points over the prior year.
• The average ACT score for the Chicago Public Schools was 16.3.
• CICS Northtown Academy is the first nonselective high school in Chicago to have an
average ACT above 20.
• 22 percent of our 8th grade graduates were accepted into selective enrollment high
schools (compared to CPS average of 11%).
• Chicago International campuses offer more than 150 after-school and community-based
programs to children and families.
Washington Park Campus
opens, Kindergarten through
Grade 4.
On January 30,
Chicago International
Charter School (CICS)
incorporates as an
independent 501(c)(3)
non-profit corporation.
Edison Schools begins
managing Longwood.
Longwood Campus expands
to include Grade 12.
The CICS Bucktown
and Longwood
campuses open.
2000
1997
1998
1998
Prairie Campus
opens, Kindergarten
through Grade 5.
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Longwood Campus
expands to include
Grade 11.
1999
2000
2001
Washington Park
Campus expands
to second building
and doubles in size.
1999
American Quality Schools
(AQS), an educational
management organization
launches.
2001
1997
Prairie Campus expands to
include Grade 6.
Prairie Campus
expands to include
Grade 7.
Irving Park (Kindergarten
through Grade 4) opens.
CCSF issues $48m in bonds
and uses funds to purchase
Northtown Campus.
2007
CICS charter renews for
another five-year term.
CCSF partners with fourth
educational management
organization, Victory Schools.
2005
2007
Wrightwood Campus (Kindergarten
through Grade 5) and Avalon/South
Shore Campus (Kindergarten through
Grade 4) open through the Renaissance
2010 program, bringing total number of
campuses to nine and total number of
students served to more than 5,600.
2006
2006
The 2nd Gates’ high school, Ralph
Ellison Campus (Grade 9) opens.
2005
Basil Campus (Kindergarten
through Grade 2) and West
Belden Campus (Kindergarten
through Grade 5) open.
Chicago Charter School
Foundation (CCSF) starts
Civitas Schools, its own
educational management
organization.
CCSF purchases a closed high
school on the south side of Chicago
and undertakes a $15m renovation,
which includes expanding the
building and adding a gym.
CCSF is awarded 2,400 additional
seats through the invited process of
Renaissance 2010.
CICS purchases the Basil
building through a $16m
bond.
The Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation awards a multimillion dollar grant to CICS
to open four new high school
campuses over a period of
several years.
2004
2002
2004
CCSF is awarded a strategic
planning grant through Walton
Family Foundation and puts together
a strategic business plan for next
five years.
CICS is the largest charter school
in Illinois, with seven campuses
serving more than 4,600 students
from Pre-K through Grade 12.
2002
2003
Chicago Public School names CICS
a School of Excellence.
The CICS Basil Campus expands to
include Grade 7.
2003
Northtown Campus opens Grades 9-12 and
is the first free-standing CICS campus and
first of the Gates’ high schools.
Illinois State Board of Education
(ISBE) names CICS a Supplemental
Education Services (SES) provider
for after-school programs.
Basil Campus $5m renovation is completed;
Basil opens Pre-Kindergarten through Grade
6. It is the only free, all-day Pre-Kindergarten
school in the Englewood area.
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A Parent’s
Commitment
This mother of three has big dreams for Avalon’s kids.
00
Photo
Voagen Nelson
| by Caroline
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There was a time in Stephanie
Houston’s life when she stopped
watching the news. It’s not
because she was too busy—
though she’s hardly the type to
have time on her hands. And it’s
not because she didn’t care. It’s
because she was pregnant.
“Every evening there was something about a kid on the
news who got caught up in a gang, or about someone
abusing a child—I couldn’t watch,” she says. At that point,
her responsibility sunk in: “I needed to be an involved
parent; I needed to be there, to protect them, to make
sure they got a good education.”
For 11 years, Stephanie and her husband, Theodis Jr.,
have been doing exactly that for Korbin, 11, Theodis III,
9, and Sheridan, 8. The children have attended Chicago
International Avalon since its opening in 2005; many days,
so has Stephanie.
In addition to serving as Avalon’s parent representative to
the Chicago International parent advisory board (where
Korbin is the student representative), she’s worked with
the Illinois Network of Charter Schools to lobby for more
support in Springfield, as a Girl Scout leader, and in the
classroom helping with various projects and field trips.
by Leah Fabel
It’s a quality her youngest child can’t quite fully appreciate.
At a recent all-school roller skating party, Stephanie took
on organizing the crowds of kids filing into the building,
eager to trade sneakers for wheels and break for the rink.
After Stephanie performed some verbal crowd control,
Sheridan approached her mother: “Why do you always
have to talk to my friends?” she demanded. Stephanie
laughs as she tells the story. “‘This is not really about
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AParent’sCommitment
“I teach them that their community, their neighborhood, is only
as good as they are, and that they have to be involved,” she
says. “Avalon reinforces that by concentrating on building
capacity as a community, helping each other learn.”
talking to your friends, but helping the entire school. Don’t worry
about it,’ I said. And then Sheridan looked at me and said, ‘Yeah,
but you always help.’”
Much more appreciative is Anthony Chalmers, Avalon’s school
director, who praises Stephanie as one of his most involved parents.
“She’s very open with her resources and very willing to share ideas
that may better the school and the quality of school culture,” he
says. He recounts a time he came down to the wire finding one more
after-school program; Stephanie checked her resources and found a
contact at the U.S. Tennis Association. Now, Avalon offers an afterschool tennis program—a rare opportunity for a city school.
Stephanie’s dedication to education began long before she had
children of her own. As a young girl growing up on Chicago’s North
Side, she read daily. “My mom worked nights—she had to be at work
every single night at 10 o’clock,” Stephanie says. “But I remember
every night she pounded phonics and word recognition. ‘You’ve gotta
read every day,’ she’d say. ‘If I send you to the store, you’ve gotta be
able to read the street signs and the grocery list—you’ve gotta read
every day.’ I think it was ingrained in me that way.”
In high school, Stephanie relied on the confidence learned at home
to move past the subtle racism she encountered at her alma mater,
Lincoln Park High School. “I found that minority students were not
always encouraged to the extent that other students were. Those of
us who had parents to encourage us didn’t necessarily see it, but I
see it when I look back.” She recalls a counselor who called her to
his office at the end of her sophomore year, worried about her course
load: a lot of math, science and foreign language, but no typing class
so she could find a job once she graduated. “I said, ‘Well, I’m going to
college. And after that, I won’t need typing—the people who work for
me will.’”
True to her word, Stephanie went on to Eastern Illinois University,
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in Charleston, and majored in community health sciences. Soon
afterward, she took a job with the Chicago Department of Public
Health, where she began as a health educator teaching schools and
communities about the dangers of lead poisoning. In her 16-year
career, she’s received five promotions.
Today, she heads the city’s HIV primary-care program: a $1.5 million
budget and a staff of 10 to cover one of the largest jurisdictions in
the country. Her department serves Chicago’s most needy patients,
offering costly medical, nutritional, and psychological care to those
without the funds to afford it.
Throughout her successes, Stephanie has championed higher education. Now, she intends to encourage it for each student at Avalon by
developing partnerships with colleges and universities. “We have to
get our kids focused on college in grade school,” she says.
She credits Avalon’s teachers and administrators with supporting her
ambitions through their attention to each individual student. “They’re
so dedicated, so skilled and knowledgeable,” Stephanie says. “They
take time to address the issues of each child and to find out how each
child learns.”
And they strengthen the values Stephanie and her husband teach at
home: “I teach them that their community, their neighborhood, is only
as good as they are, and that they have to be involved,” she says.
“Avalon reinforces that by concentrating on building capacity as a
community, helping each other learn.”
As they continue to succeed, Stephanie may be able to switch on the
news one night and find her world a more pleasant place to live. In the
meantime, she’ll continue to work at it.
“I’ve found, after having three toddlers at once, you don’t have to think
about what needs to be done in terms of magnitude,” she says. “You
just do it ‘cause it needs to be done.”
Photo by Caroline Voagen Nelson
Stephanie and her three
children, Theodis III, 9;
Korbin, 11; and Sheridan, 8.
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a
Teacher Liz Beck
uses her talents to
inspire students at
Washington Park
stand
out
performance
by Hilary Masell Oswald
A funny thing happened to Liz Beck on the way to the
theater: Instead of standing in the lights of Broadway,
Miss Beck found herself standing in front of a room
full of students. And loving it.
A graduate of Barnard College of Columbia University
in New York, Miss Beck intended to take her music
degree and launch a career as a Broadway actress.
She figured she’d need a job while she was auditioning for roles, so she applied for a teaching position in
New York City’s public school system.
“New York was desperate for teachers, and I thought
that teaching was an easy job with plenty of time off,”
she remembers. “Boy, was I wrong.”
Miss Beck landed a job as a music teacher for
7th and 8th grade students at a public school in
Manhattan, where, she says, “The gangs ran the
school.” But she loved the work, and after three
Photo by Caroline Voagen Nelson
years in New York, she moved to Chicago, where
she accepted a position at Chicago International
Washington Park. Now in her fourth year teaching 5th
grade math, science, and social studies there, she
laughs a little about how she accidentally found a job
she loves.
“I believe that with children, you get back what you
put in,” she says, as a way of explaining what has
kept her in the classroom. “Kids are brilliant at finding
the real you, and they know instantly if you care
about them. It’s amazing.”
Miss Beck’s classroom is a lively, colorful, demanding
place, where on any day you will find her students
absorbed in her teaching. “I have out-there ideas
about education,” she says. “I teach to my brightest
kids. I differentiate my instruction to see how it
suits my students, but I will not be the teacher who
neglects the brightest kids. That’s terrible.”
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AStandOutPerformance
And she relies on her students to figure out
the value of their learning. “I ask them, ‘Why
do you need to know this?’” she explains.
“They come up with great ideas. I think
people underestimate kids a lot. If you ask
them for good answers and expect good
answers, you’ll get them.”
Cheerleading, “The Wildcat Times”—the
newspaper club, which publishes a paper
created entirely by students each month—
and Mad Science for aspiring scientists. In all,
Washington Park offers 23 clubs for students
and one for parents (“Coffee Club,” where
parents come to discuss different issues).
Pamela Creed, director of Washington Park,
uses a string of superlatives to describe
Miss Beck. “She’s extremely dedicated and
motivated, and she cares about her students
and holds them to high standards,” Mrs.
Creed says. “There is no challenge too big for
Liz, which I love.”
As if that’s not enough, this summer Miss
Beck designed and led an enrichment
program she called “A Picture Perfect
Summer.” For four weeks, she led 15 rising
5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders through
photography-related lessons. The students
built a darkroom and learned how to take and
develop their own photographs. They learned
about the science of photography by studying
shutter speeds, basic optics, and periscopes.
They hosted visitors such as a book author,
who talked about how she chose photos for
her book, and a graphic designer from the
Chicago Cubs organization, who showed the
In addition to teaching all day and serving as
a mentor for new teachers, Miss Beck runs
Washington Park’s Community Schools,
an after-school enrichment program that
provides opportunities for students to stay on
campus and explore their interests. Teachers
lead “clubs,” such as Public Speaking,
Photo by Caroline Voagen Nelson
students how he makes posters.
And, best of all, says Mykaila Potts, 11, they
went on field trips. “We went on a food tour.
We went downtown. We went to a bunch of
museums,” she says with awe. “It was really
fun.” The program’s trips included an architectural boat tour (where students practiced
taking well-composed photographs), a visit
to the Museum of Science and Industry, a
stop in the Signature Room restaurant on the
95th floor of the John Hancock Building, and
a morning at the WGN studios, where they
watched a live taping.
“I wanted the program to be about learning,
but not like they’re used to in the classroom,”
Miss Beck says. “I just wanted something that
would stretch their minds.”
This innovative approach to teaching is
possible in charter schools in ways it’s
sometimes not in traditional public schools,
Miss Beck says. Though her summer
program was extracurricular, she uses the
same creative streak to reach her students
in the classroom. “I think charters are a nice
alternative, and when they’re run right, they
can be successful,” she says. “I enjoy having
a hand in the planning. I like that we can do
what we think will make a successful school,
and it’s working.”
Mrs. Creed agrees. “We have more freedom
in terms of curriculum,” she says. “We have
children from all different levels of academic
achievement, and our teachers can reach
them. Teachers like Liz could go to a traditional public school and make more money,
but the teachers here love what they do, they
love to innovate, and they have a passion for
educating the children in their classes.”
That passion fuels Liz Beck for about 12
hours each day—that’s how long she spends
at Washington Park’s campus. She begins
each of these long days with a mantra
that hangs in her classroom: “Love them
unconditionally. Teach them uncompromisingly. Encourage them unceasingly.”
“I ask myself, ‘Am I doing this today?’” she
says. “It took me a while to realize that it’s
more than just test scores and me doing my
thing in the front of the class. It’s about a life.
You might be the only one who is a positive
force in this kid’s life.”
Deidra Jackson, 12, was one of those
lives who spent a year in Miss Beck’s 5th
grade classroom. Now a 7th-grader, Deidra
still adores her former teacher. “She’s a
heartwarming person,” Deidra says. “She’ll
never forget you. It makes me feel like”­­—
she pauses for just the right way to explain
Miss Beck—“like she’s another part of
my family.”
“I believe that with
children, you get back
what you put in... Kids
are brilliant at finding
the real you, and they
know instantly if you
care about them.
It’s amazing.”
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2007 Annual Report
I. Board of Directors Update
The initial Board of Directors of Chicago International Charter School came together
with a shared vision and passion for educating the traditionally underserved members
of society; inner-city, urban youth, from kindergarten through twelfth grade. These
individuals formed an organization dedicated to bringing change to the traditionally
staid education community. They built a unique organization that has relied on a
business model focusing on core competencies (see sidebar) and economies of scale
with the confidence to allow talented education partners to employ their strengths to
achieve the organizational goal: college preparation for all students, from kindergarten
to twelfth grade. The education partners assume the day-to-day operations of the
“business,” educating more than 6,700 students across 11 neighborhood campuses.
In addition to the distinctive business model, much of the Board’s functioning is
patterned after the corporate world, specifically the governing board approach. The
Chicago International Board is not a traditional non-profit “working”
board. This Board is focused on the end, with the education
partners concerned with the means. This model gives the Board
Annual Report Contents
members opportunities to evaluate the organization’s goals and,
I. Board of Directors
when those goals are met, to focus on the next initiative—all with a
Update
focus on results in the classroom.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
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Fiscal Year 2008
Financial Projections
Funder Prof ile
About the Bonds
Fiscal Year 2007
Funding Partners
Student Performance
Update
FocalPoint
In order to live this focus, board members must know the outcomes
and how (and whether) the organization is achieving its goals.
The Chicago International Board adopted a rigorous assessment
system over the last two years, which not only informs the Board of
Student Achievement (and campus achievement in aggregate), but
also informs teachers of students’ strengths
and weaknesses, leading to the goal of
differentiated instruction for the students of
Chicago International.
The Board has realized that as we grow as
an organization, the Board becomes further
and further removed from the front lines. In
order to keep members aware and in tune
with the individual campuses, the Board
launched the CICS Teacher, Parent and
Student Advisory Boards during the 2006
– 2007 school year. The purposes of these
boards are to provide advice and feedback to
the Board regarding the experiences of CICS
children, teachers and families. Through the
insights of students, teachers, and parents, we
hope to improve the school program delivered
at Chicago International so that the educational program best meets the needs of each
campus community. Each CICS Campus
has one member on each advisory board.
The campus director chooses the teacher
representatives. The Parent Organization
II. Fiscal Year 2008 Financial Projections
The financial philosophy of Chicago International Charter School (CICS) is to
operate schools using the per pupil and entitlement funds provided through
Chicago Public Schools, the Illinois State Board of Education, and the U.S.
Department of Education. The fiscal policy of Chicago International is to operate
a balanced budget. CICS generates small cash surpluses each year to create
a cash reserve fund to be used for emergencies. In addition to the revenues
from the public school system, Chicago International solicits donations for
special projects and to finance organizational growth. Our philosophy presents
a unique challenge because charter schools in Chicago receive less funding
than traditional public schools.
of each campus chooses the parent reps,
and the students generally come from the
leadership of the student government.
Of the nine members of the Board, four
remain from the original board: David
Chizewer, Kate Gottfred, Craig Henderson
and Gerald Jenkins. The remaining five
have joined the board over the last four
years (see sidebar list of Board Members
and their professions). This collection of
talented, committed people continues to
keep student achievement at the forefront
of Chicago International.
Executive Committee:
Craig W. Henderson (Board President) is the
founder and president of C. W. Henderson &
Associates, Inc., an investment counseling firm that
specializes in tax-exempt municipal securities and
manages assets totaling approximately $1.8 billion.
David J. Chizewer (Vice President) is a partner
in Goldberg, Kohn, Bell, Black, Rosenbloom, and
Mortiz’s Litigation Group and is the chair of the
firm’s Education Industry Practice.
Laura Thonn (Treasurer) is a manager at
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in their business
assurance practice. She is a licensed certified
public accountant and also has a master’s degree
in Social Service Administration.
John Lock is the CEO and president of Charter
School Growth Fund, a firm specializing in valueadded grants and loans for the development and
expansion of high-quality charter management and
support organizations.
Thomas J. Nieman (Secretary) is the owner and
president of Nieman Inc., a privately held company
that specializes in developing curriculum materials
for educational publishers.
The hierarchy of core competencies of
Chicago International:
Board Members at large:
John Gates is chairman and CEO of PortaeCo
LLC, a private investment firm. Prior to forming
PortaeCo, he co-founded CenterPoint Properties
Trust.
Dr. Catherine Gottfred is president of Gottfred
Speech Associates, Ltd., a firm that provides
language therapy to children and adults across
Chicago.
Thomas Hayden is the chief marketing officer for
the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern
University and also serves on the faculty of Medill.
Board of Directors:
Oversight, governance, vision, and focus
Leadership Team:
Finance, compliance reporting, relationship
building, fund raising, facility acquisition, and
management, and student performance evaluation
Education Management Partners:
Training and managing personnel, implementing
curriculum, involving parents and community, and
managing school culture and climate
Teachers:
Teaching, differentiating instruction, and caring
Gerald L. Jenkins is a principal at Goldberg,
Kohn, Bell, Black, Rosenbloom, and Mortiz, where
he specializes in tax planning and corporate
creation.
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Photo by Katheryn Hayes
III. Funder Profile: Interview with Phyllis Lockett, CEO, The Renaissance Schools Fund
To support Mayor Daley’s effort to create
100 new schools by 2010, Chicago’s civic
and business communities launched the
Renaissance Schools Fund (RSF), which
raises funds for the new schools and provides
strategic guidance and accountability for
the process. Phyllis Lockett is CEO of the
Renaissance Schools Fund, which has in the
last two-and-a-half years raised $41 million
to launch 38 new public schools through
Renaissance 2010. RSF has contributed more
than $1.3 million to support four Chicago
International campuses, namely: Chicago
International Avalon, Chicago International
Wrightwood, Chicago International Ralph
Ellison, and Chicago International Irving Park.
What is your vision for the Renaissance
2010 initiative?
For children in the city’s most underserved
communities to compete effectively in the
global economy, we must do a better job
of providing access to high-quality school
options.
The city’s business and civic communities
invested in Renaissance 2010 because they
saw it as an opportunity to create innovative
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Chicago public schools on a significant
enough scale that would give parents real
options and that would infuse competition
into the system. With competition, our
belief is the system will inspire innovation
and improvement.
The opportunity for choice has already
unleashed strong parent demand for highquality schools. At the same time, the pipeline
of high-quality schools is growing as some
of the early school leaders, such as Chicago
International, are developing into highperforming networks and new educational
entrepreneurs are emerging.
How does RSF assess the new schools
it funds?
Our work is driven by the need to create
greater equity in our public education system
and to offer families high-quality public school
options. To do this, RSF seeks to replicate
high-performing school models.
We look for high-performing models wherever
they are found—they may be from the private
sector, among charter schools, or among
the best of the traditional public system. The
common denominator among these models is
that students are learning.
In evaluating schools, we look for schools
that offer:
1) Choice: We support schools that are
open to students from across the city. We
believe schools should compete and parents
should have the opportunity to “vote with their
feet,” creating a demand for high-performing
schools.
2) Innovation: We support schools that offer
innovative practices, such as providing more
professional development to teachers, a
longer school day, or longer school year.
3) Capacity: We support schools with
entrepreneurial school leaders, sound
financial and operational strategies, and
consistent governance structure.
How have Chicago’s business and civic communities embraced the school choice model?
Chicago’s civic and business communities have
been long-term partners in the city’s school
reform efforts, paving the way for the reform
movement of the 1980s and in just the last
two years, they have contributed more than
$41 million to create new high-performing
rty:
Halloween Pa
d
o
o
tw
h
g
ri
CICS W
oks,
Deasire B ro
,
rs
e
iv
R
a
e
Panjan
on,
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,
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schools through Renaissance 2010. Our donors
believe in the need to offer Chicago families
high-quality public school options.
How would you assess your impact to date?
As of October 2007, 55 new schools have
been created, and these schools offer innovative
practices and outperform, on average, neighborhood schools. (See “RSF Facts.”) They have
an oversubscription rate of 140 percent, which
demonstrates that there is real demand for
high-quality schools.
We are working to create a pipeline for high
performing school models, and based on the
results so far—both the supply of high-quality
schools and the demand for them—we are on
the right track.
RSF Facts
More time with innovative instruction…
*
RSF-funded elementary schools spend an
average of 32 percent more time than CPS
elementary schools on core subjects (317
minutes each day versus 240 minutes each day).
* RSF-funded high schools spend an average
of 22 percent more time on core subjects than
CPS high schools (342 minutes each day versus
280 minutes each day).
…leads to stronger student outcomes.
*
In the 2005 cohort of RSF elementary
schools, the percentage of students proficient
on the math portion of the ISAT increased 12
percent over the previous year (versus five
percent in CPS schools).
*
On average, RSF schools out-performed
neighborhood comparison schools by three
percent in reading and math, with some schools
outperforming their neighbors by as much as
23 percent.
IV. About the Bonds
2007 witnessed a refinancing of Chicago International Charter School’s (CICS)
original $16,050,000 bond issue from 2002 with a new $49,475,000 long-term
tax-exempt bond to support facility improvements and expansion. The transaction
was completed in early February and it received an investment grade rating from
Standard & Poor’s Corporation.
Among 4,100 charter schools nationally, approximately 300 have been able to qualify
for bond financing due to investors’ limited appetite for debt from this new sector of
public building bonds. While S&P has rated more bonds than the two other national
rating services, fewer than 50 charter schools have received an investment grade
rating. To meet this high credit standard, a charter school must meet criteria in many
areas, including:
1. the legal framework under which it operates
2. the relationship with the charter’s authorizer
3. financial practices and professional management practices
4. Board oversight of operations and adherence to its mission
5. educational results, and
6. community support for its school(s).
While other features of a charter school bond are examined, such as the bond
structure, budgeting and audit practices, and fund balances, Chicago International’s
bond differed from other charter schools’ bonds in that part of the security was a
mortgage on the various owned properties and revenues from leased properties
without mortgages. Most charter school bonds have been for a single school, not a
city-wide network of 11 campuses under one charter and governance structure.
Chicago International’s bonding team included D.A. Davidson as Underwriter;
William Blair as Financial Advisor; Mayer Brown as Bond Counsel; Kutak Rock as
Disclosure Counsel and Goldberg Kohn as Foundation Counsel. The bonds were
issued through the Illinois Finance Authority.
Russ Caldwell, Senior Vice President of D.A. Davidson remarked that Chicago
International’s 2007 bonds were unique in several respects: chiefly that institutional
investors recognized CICS’s multiple campuses have greater financial strength and
financial flexibility than a single charter school entity. “This, coupled with a strong
operating history, caused the BBB rated bonds to be accepted by the market place
similar to ‘A’ rated securities,” Caldwell said. “The 30-year fixed rate bonds at 4.99
percent were purchased by institutional investors, many of whom were local to
Chicago. Chicago International’s credit has enjoyed the best investor reception of
any single school or system of charter schools to date in the national market place.
Thomas Lanctot, Financial Advisor, added, “Chicago International’s bonds have
established a framework for other charters to follow.” Consistent, positive financial
performance underlying high educational results is the best path to the capital
markets for charter schools, according to Lanctot.
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VI. Student Performance Update
V. F iscal Year 2007
Funding Partners
On behalf of the 6,700 students,
their families and the 500
educators who constitute
Chicago International, the Board
of Directors wish to extend
their deepest gratitude to these
organizations and individuals for
their continued support of our
mission. These gifts of cash and
in-kind goods and services truly
make a difference in the lives of
thousands of Chicago’s youth
and adults on a daily basis.
Cash Contributions:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Charter School Growth Fund
Circle of Service Foundation
John Gates, Jr.
Judd Enterprises
Kraft Foods
Pritzker Traubert Family
Foundation
Renaissance Schools Fund
Walton Family Foundation
In-kind contributions:
AMC Mortgage Services
Bally’s Hyde Park
Goldberg, Kohn, Bell, Black,
Rosenbloom, and Moritz
KaBOOM!
The Home Depot
U.S. Tennis Association
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Chicago International Charter School (CICS)
has been continuously striving to meet the
needs of today’s student, and has acknowledged the importance of using data in making
educational decisions. By evaluating student
performance data, we identify students’ needs
and address their needs using instructional
best practices in the classroom. As we move
forward as a data-driven school, we are able
to see the growth our students are making.
CICS Elementary School Performance:
ISAT and NWEA (Figure 1)
In our elementary schools, 75 percent of
our students are meeting and/or exceeding state standards on the 2007 Illinois
Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) in math
and 59 percent in reading. Consequently all
campuses are meeting and/or exceeding state
math standards, compared to 63 percent of
Chicago area charter schools and 59 percent
of Chicago public schools. Three of eight
Chicago International campuses are exceeding
both the average Chicago area charter school
and Chicago public school percentages
in reading. Our students achieve growth
year-to-year as well: 50 percent of Chicago
International students made expected gains
in reading on the ISAT and 55 percent made
gains in math.* (Figure 1)
Although Chicago International is moving
our students towards the standard goal of
proficiency by state standards, the school has
also raised the bar for internal standards. Using
a tool called Measures of Academic Progress
(MAPs) from the Northwest Evaluation
Assessment’s (NWEA), Chicago International
tracks not only students’ proficiency, but also
their growth from year-to-year and within each
school year. Administered three times a year,
the NWEA tracks student progress throughout
the school year. It allows administrators
and teachers to access test results for their
students within days of testing completion and
make instructional changes in the classroom
that best meet students’ needs.
Chicago International has been successful
in moving students from the “below” to the
“meets” category on the ISAT. Using NWEAinspired growth and proficiency targets, which
are aligned with the Illinois state standards,
Chicago International has increased the overall
percentage of students meeting the projected
growth targets on the NWEA reading and math
scale. Fall 2007 data suggests 54 percent have
made adequate NWEA projected growth in
reading and 64 percent of students will meet
projected proficiency in reading. Fall 2007
NWEA math scores suggest 50 percent of
students have made their projected growth
targets and 75 percent will meet their projected
proficiency targets in math. Compared to
the previous year, school-wide Chicago
International is increasing the percentage of
students who are meeting projected growth
targets. (Figures 2 and 3)
CICS High School Performance: ACT
Chicago International students have an
average of 19 on the ACT compared the to
average Chicago public school ACT score of
17. Longwood ACT composite scores ranged
from 11–24, with an average of 17. Northtown
ACT composite scores ranged from 11–35,
with an average score of 20.
Moving Forward
As Chicago International Charter School
continues to progress, focus will remain
on the growth of our students. We expect
to see growth for students at all academic
levels, and these data ensure that we are
meeting all students’ academic needs
across our K-12 system.
*Based on CPS calculations.
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
Figure 3.
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Chalkboard
by Dr. Andrea Brown Thirston
As the student population shifts from mostly White, middle-class
students to mostly culturally diverse students from various economic
backgrounds, teachers and administrators, as well as colleges of
education at universities, must respond. We find an example of this
shift in Chicago Public Schools (CPS): Approximately 90 percent of
CPS students are non-White, while almost 50 percent of their teachers
are. Furthermore, 85.6 percent of CPS students are low-income, while
their teachers are mostly middle-class. What implications do these
disparities have for the classroom?
The issue of cultural mismatch is certainly not a new one, particularly
since the mandatory desegregation of schools in the 1950s and ’60s.
However, just recently have universities and school districts begun to
address the need for more teacher preparation in this area. One trend
that has grown over the last decade is preparing teachers, regardless
of their cultural backgrounds, to utilize culturally relevant pedagogy in
the classroom.
Culturally relevant pedagogy refers to instruction that is modified to
include specific knowledge about the culturally influenced and varied
ways of thinking, believing, learning and communicating, and how
they impact the educational process (King, 1994)1. The term was
first coined by Gloria Ladson-Billings in her 1994 book, The Dream
Keepers and referred specifically to strategies for effectively teaching
African-American students. As America’s public schools become
increasingly diverse, however, teachers of all students will find that
culturally relevant pedagogy is an effective way to engage their diverse
students in the classroom.
Culturally relevant pedagogy is particularly valuable to classroom
teachers because it provides a theoretical framework as well as
practical applications. Some of the tenets of culturally relevant practice
include the following beliefs:
• Teachers are an integral part of the learning community.
Once a teacher commits to this theoretical framework, he or she must
also make a commitment to applying it in the classroom. Examples
would include reading literature that explores themes relevant to
the students in the classroom. In one middle school classroom in a
predominantly Latino community, students read a book, Tomas and
the Library Lady 2 , which focused on the son of migrant workers and
his love for reading books. Not only did the book explore cultural
themes that were familiar to the mostly first-generation immigrant
students, it also included text in Spanish and English, which added to
the authenticity of the literature. A high school biology course might
include a unit on genealogy and the use of DNA in determining the
ancestry of African-Americans. The film series, African American
Lives3, hosted by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., could be used as a
supplement to this unit and perhaps inspire African-American youth to
explore their own cultural backgrounds and family histories.
The possibilities are endless in terms of developing lesson plans and
instructional strategies that are culturally relevant. The most important
element for its implementation is essentially the teacher’s commitment
and passion for providing educational equity and empowerment for
culturally diverse students.
1
ing, J.E. (1994). The purpose of schooling for African American children: Including
K
cultural knowledge. In E. Hollins, J. King, and W. Hayman (eds). Teaching diverse
populations: Formulating a knowledge base (pp25-26). Albany: State University of New
York Press.
2
Mora, P. (2000). Tomas and the library lady. Albuquerque, NM: Dragonfly Books.
3
From the PBS Web site, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/index.html.
2006-2007 Chicago Public
School Teachers were...
35.8% African-American
47.3% Caucasian
13.2% Latino
3.1%
Asian/Pacific Islander
0.6%
Native American
• Teaching is an art and teachers themselves are artists.
• Teaching is “digging knowledge out” of students (rather than
pouring it in).
• Students should make connections between their communities,
and national and global identities.
• A teacher should have a connectedness with each student in
the classroom.
• Teachers should view knowledge as something that is continuously
shared, recreated, and recycled.
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2004-2005 Chicago Public
School Students were...
48.6% African-American
37.6% Latino
8.1%
Caucasian
3.2%
Asian/Pacific Islander
2.4%
Multi-Racial
0.1%
Native American
*All data taken from the Chicago Public Schools Web site, http://www.cps.k12.il.us/AtAGlance.html.
Culturally Relevant
Pedagogy: Implications
for Urban Classrooms
Exploration
individual charter schools often do not have
adequate information about their disaggregated performance in individual sectors (e.g.
grade levels and subject matter). Similarly,
charter schools do not have suitable internal
tools for evaluating value-added over time.
The following are excerpts reprinted from a report of the National Research & Development Center on School Choice.
This study was supported by the National Research and Development Center on School Choice, Competition, and
Achievement, which is funded by the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (R305A040043).
To access the full report, please visit the center Web site at: http://www.nrdcsc.org.
Assessing Charter School Performance
in Illinois: An Error-Band Analysis
Excerpts from a paper by Francis X. Shen, Harvard University and Kenneth K. Wong, Brown University
Adopting the “error band” approach intro­
duced by Standard and Poor’s, this paper
evaluates charter school performance in
Illinois over the last five years. This paper, the
result of research by the National Research
and Development Center on School Choice,
Competition, and Achievement (“the Center”),
is instructive not only on the substantive
questions of charter school performance,
but also on the benefits of strong partnership
between researchers and charter practitioners.
By bridging the research-practice divide, this
paper provides guidance to policymakers in
the schoolhouse and the statehouse. Our
primary findings related to charter school
performance in Illinois are:
•
Charter elementary performance improves
over time, with longer running charters
beating statistical expectations for their
value-added to student achievement.
•
Charter high school performance is
distributed roughly the same as traditional
public schools, with most charters neither
above nor below statistical expectations.
•
Charter school performance varies
significantly by school, subject matter, and
grade level. Charters generally perform
better in reading, than in math.
• Charter school science achievement in both
elementary and secondary grades remains
low, relative to other subject matters.
Illustration by Gordon Studer
As the national charter school movement
nears its fifteenth anniversary, there appears
to be a growing consensus amongst charter
school researchers that evaluation of the
charter movement is best carried out by
analyzing the performance of individual
charter schools. Buddin & Zimmer (2005)
are echoing many when they conclude that,
“it may be very difficult to develop universal
conclusions about charter schools nationally
as charter school performance varies from
state-to-state, charter type to charter type,
and even charter school to charter school.”1
Rather than asking, “Are charter schools
working?” the better question is: Which
charter schools are effective, which charter
schools are not, and what explains the
differences between the two?
At the same time as charter school researchers are focusing their attention on school-level
success and failure, charter school operators
continue to search for better ways to effect­­­­­ively use the mountains of data provided by
their state and district accountability offices.
For many years, policy experts have suggested
strategies that provide roadmaps for charter
schools to use statewide accountability data
in their operations.2 With limited resources,
however, charter schools often do not have
the resources to carry out the types of data
analysis that are required to sort through the
many layers of performance data. To use an
analogy, in the charter school “marketplace”
Recognizing charter operator’s need for
better school-level performance evaluation,
as well as the research trend toward schoollevel analysis, we believe the time is right for
increased partnership between researchers
and charter practitioners. As this paper
will illustrate, such partnerships can be of
great benefit to both parties. Charter school
operators can gain a better understanding of
how the various segments of their operations
are performing, and how this performance
has changed over time. Researchers can look
to the expanded analysis on overall charter
school performance to see how charters as
a whole are performing.
Chicago International Charter
School Performance
When we focus on the performance of the
Chicago International Charter School (CICS)
we find that in each year the CICS has
consistently been in the error band region
(aligned with statistical expectations). In
2005, the CICS showed signs of increase
outperformance as it outperformed in overall
PSAE composite, grade 8 reading, grade
11 reading, and grade 11 science (CICS
Error Band Summary). When looking at valueadded over time, the CICS has consistently
outperformed, especially in the four-year gain
scores (2001 to 2005, Error Band Summary).
As we discuss in the final section of the
paper, identifying these positive outcomes
leads naturally to the question: what is it that
successful charter schools are doing that less
successful counterparts are not?
1
uddin, Richard and Ron Zimmer. 2005. “A Closer Look
B
at Charter School Student Achievement,” Journal of
Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 24, No. 2, Spring
2005, p. 369.
2
arly examples include: Hassell, Bryan and Paul
E
Herdman. 2000. Charter School Accountability: A Guide
to Issues and Options for Charter Authorizers, Annie
E. Casey Foundation; and, Nahas, Jennifer & Roblyn
Bringham. 2000. Charter School Accountability Action
Guide, Massachusetts Charter School Resource Center.
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Extensions
Left: 5th graders, Korbin
Houston and Jocquis
Johnson cutting a rug
Photos by May I Have This Dance
Bottom: CICS dance
class in action
Dance Dance
Revolution
by Meghan Schmidt
May I Have This Dance transforms boys and girls
into ladies and gentlemen.
i
In recent years, dance has made an exciting and profound impact in urban schools with
programs that use dance as a medium to build students’ teamwork and communication
skills, personal character, and self-esteem.
May I Have This Dance, Inc. is Chicago’s leading provider of school-based dance
programs, serving more than 50 schools each year, including six Chicago International
Charter School campuses. The company’s Executive Director, Nino DiGiulio, holds a
master’s degree in education and, together with Director of Youth Programs Margot
McGraw Toppen, has designed an engaging dance curriculum geared toward the
learning styles of children and young adults.
The company’s large and diverse staff of professional instructors has been trained
to use the Dancing with Class™ core curriculum to deliver high-quality programming.
The teaching methodology focuses on making dance accessible and relevant to
all participants.
Each Dancing with Class™ program is customized to the specific school site, with flexible
scheduling options and dance styles ranging from ballroom to hip-hop and everything in
between. Programs help teachers achieve state-established goals in the areas of social
science, physical development and health, fine arts, and foreign language. May I Have
This Dance also offers two touring shows for school assemblies, as well as Fortnightly/
Cotillion programs, Parent-Child dance workshops, and teacher training programs.
Kids who take part in Dancing with Class™ programs are often reluctant at first, but
by the time the program ends, they become enthusiastic, eager dancers. (See
“Overcoming Shyness.”) After gaining exposure to a wide variety of dance styles,
children discover their own favorite styles—and they’re often surprises by just how
much fun dance can be.
For more information about May I Have This Dance youth programs, visit
www.dancingwithclass.com or call 773-635-3000.
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Overcoming Shyness:
On the Dance Floor
and Off
Last December at CICS West Belden,
young Roberto was in tears the day
before the May I Have This Dance afterschool club’s debut performance at
a school assembly. While he had been
doing fine in the dance classes, he was
just too shy to get up in front of the whole
school and perform. He sat out that
morning and watched while the rest of
the school cheered for his club-mates as
they performed their swing, tango, and
merengue routines.
Four months later, the dance club was
preparing for a Dancing with Class™
competition against neighboring CICS
Bucktown. Dance Instructor Miss Margot
took Roberto aside and asked him if he
would like to perform. Without hesitation,
Roberto said yes. On the day of the event,
Roberto showed up dressed to the nines
and ready to go. On the dance floor, he
smiled at his partner and nailed the swing
dance routine with confidence. He and his
partner made it into the final round and
walked out that afternoon with awards
in hand and grins on their faces. They
hadn’t finished in first place, but they most
certainly had won.
CICS Prairie student
and dancing queen,
Gabryelle Walker
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