Designs for Change

MAJOR STATE LEGISLATION TO DETERMINE PRIORITIES FOR SCHOOL REPAIRS, SCHOOL CLOSINGS, AND SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION IN CHICAGO PASSES ILLINOIS STATE LEGISLATURE
CHICAGO, MAY 28, 2009 — State Representative Cynthia Soto responded to the concerns of parents, Local School Councils, and teachers in her district and the rest of Chicago, by leading a successful legislative campaign to pass the Chicago School Facilities Act—by unanimous votes in both the State House and Senate. House Bill 363 gained final approval today, when the House agreed to minor changes made to the bill by the Senate. “The Act will lead to a framework of fair standards and procedures for building, repairing, and closing Chicago schools,” said Soto. “To this point, Chicago’s lack of clear standards has created two different worlds in which our children are educated, which are grossly unequal.” Soto cited the example of Gallistel Language Academy, a severely overcrowded neighborhood school in Southeast Chicago that serves 1,400 students, 97% of whom are low-income. Gallistel is housed in three inadequate dysfunctional buildings (two of which are over 100 years old). The heat is often uncontrollable, and the temperature sometimes rises to over 100 degrees in one kindergarten classroom. Classroom ceilings leak, and power outages occur intermittently throughout the year. Gallistel has no gym, auditorium, or space for science or computer labs. Although Gallistel has mobilized over 500 parents, teachers, and students for each of the last three years to attend the school system’s Facilities Hearings to request one adequate school building, Gallistel was not included on the Mayor’s latest announced list of schools to be built or substantially upgraded,” said Soto. “Another problem we are determined to correct are the school system’s flawed criteria for closing and phasing out schools,” said Soto. In her own legislative district, Carpenter Elementary School is a highly-successful school serving 324 students, 97% of whom are low-income. Carpenter was slated this spring to be phased out. At Carpenter, two and sometimes three generations have attended the school from many families. School district officials determined that Carpenter is only 24% “utilized,” leaving the impressing that 76% of Carpenter’s classrooms are empty. Yet a floor plan drawn by the principal shows that every classroom space is in use. The school system counts as empty, for example, classrooms that are used as science labs, computer labs, and a dance studio. Sixty-one percent of Carpenter students exceed state averages, compared with the two “turn-around schools” that the school system considers as models (Sherman and Harvard), where only 40% of students meet state standards. Carpenter is being turned over to Ogden Elementary School on the Gold Coast. “Like many other big cities, we need to give all the city’s children decent places to learn, with the guarantee that good neighborhood schools, like Carpenter, will not be destroyed. We need the kind of systematic facilities policy that guides the planning of schools in many big cities. House Bill 363 requires that:
	A Chicago Education Facilities Task Force of the Illinois State Legislature will consult with facilities experts and hold extensive public hearings to create a fair high quality school facilities policy for Chicago. The Task Force will be composed of 4 House members, 4 Senate members, representatives of 4 school community groups with a history of involvement in school facilities issues, and representatives of the Chicago Teachers Union, Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, and Chicago Public Schools.
The Facilities Policy could require, for example, that Chicago must:
•	Give high priority to building new schools that relieve over-crowding.
•	Repair and add to the schools with the most severe needs first, based on criteria spelled out in the policy.
•	Create criteria for a school’s level of “utilization,” based on school floor plans and on-site visits that take into account, for example, the school’s needs for science labs, art rooms, music rooms, libraries, tutoring rooms, parent rooms, and more space for classes for disabled children and English language learners (who must by law have smaller classes). None of these considerations are taken into account on a school-by-school basis in the school system’s current “utilization rates,” which have been used to close many schools.
•	Follow research and the school system’s own official policy, which documents that small schools are of special benefit for low-income students and that major steps should be taken to avoid closing them.
•	Plan ahead. Don’t invest millions of dollars in improving a school and then close it.
•	Involve parents and community in decisions to build or close schools, taking into account multiple uses of the school for adult education, social service programs, and community recreation.
•	Require independent cost analyses, when the Chicago school system asserts that a proposed option (such as repairing a school rather than closing it) is "too expensive."
House Bill 363 requires that the resulting facilities plan can lead to new state legislation and to policy recommendations to the Chicago Public Schools and the Illinois State Board of Education. The facilities plan can be translated into a second proposed state law, to be presented to the Illinois state legislature for approval. If passed, this law will provide a binding legal framework for Chicago’s future decisions about school facilities. In passing the school facilities bill, Representative Soto and Chief Senate Sponsor Senator William Delgado were supported by an unprecedented coalition that included the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, the Chicago Teachers Union, and numerous school reform and community organizations, including Designs for Change, Grand Boulevard Federation, South Side United Local School Council Federation, and the Small Schools Workshop. The bill was passed unanimously, despite vigorous opposition from the Chicago Public Schools and City Hall. “We believe Governor Pat Quinn, who has been a strong proponent of good government, will sign a bill passed unanimously by the House and Senate,” said Representative Soto.
full text of HB363

Local School Council Leadership Courses
Mandatory & Elective LSC Training Lessons
Presented By Designs for Change

To be Announced.

* Lesson 7, 8, or 9 – The New CPS Probation Policy
What is the role of the LSC when your school is on probation? What is the role of the AIO, Principal and others? In this workshop LSC members will learn what are the roles of each stakeholder from student to CPS administrators. Also they will learn why they need to remain focused on getting off probation and what it takes to get off probation.

** Lesson 7, 8, or 9 – From School Repairs to New School Construction –
the ABCs for LSCs
Why hasn’t the door to the bathroom stall been fixed? How do we get the parent room outlets and wiring done? Why don’t we have a new school? How does our school get an annex? In this workshop LSC members will learn what processes do and don’t exist for getting everything from minor school repairs done to new school construction.

Please RSVP!

Download a registration form: English | Español

Email rsvp@designsforchange.org,
call Semay Johnston at 312-236-7252, ext. 245,
or fax your registration to 312-236-7927.

For more information contact the Course Facilitators:
Valencia Rias, 312-236-7252 ext. 241 (English)
or Elena Rios, 312-236-7252 ext. 234 (Spanish)

Chicago Central Bureaucracy Grossly Inflates
Performance Ratings for Principals Who Are Failing

High Schools at Which the Central Board Appointed Principals Have Shown Virtually No Academic Progress

Only 2% of the 485 Chicago principals for which Chicago released performance rating data for the 2005-2006 school year received an unsatisfactory rating from their Area Instructional Officers. The Area Instructional Officers (or AIOs) are supposed to be the principals’ key evaluators and mentors in an expensive bureaucracy created by the Chicago Central Board in 2002. However, 12 of the 23 Area Instructional Officers gave every single principal in their Area a satisfactory rating. Yet 50% of Chicago’s public schools are failing to make “adequate yearly progress,” based on federal standards.

A related Designs for Change analysis indicates that 20 high schools in which the Central Board has directly chosen the principal and taken control of the school improvement plan and budget have shown virtually no academic improvement and remain at very low achievement levels.

view full report

"School Reform Chicago Style" a Classic Study of the Drafting and Passage of Chicago School Reform Act of 1988 Now Available Online.

School Reform Chicago Style, written by Mary O'Connell and originally published by Center for Neighborhood Technology, is a readable in-depth analysis of how the state law that created Local School Councils was drafted and passed in the State Legislature by an impressive citizens' movement.

Unavailable for many years, it is now available online.

Complete Publication

The Big Picture
School-Initiated Reforms, Centrally Initiated Reforms, and Elementary School Achievement in Chicago (1990-2005)

Report Shows 144 Inner City Chicago Elementary Schools Have Shown 15 Years of Substantial Sustained Achievement Gains

Press Release • Summary • Full Report

The full report includes color graphs and pictures. They will remain clear if printed in black and white.

Policy Reform Program
The Chicago Policy Reform Program studies and advocates changes in school system structure and policy that foster school-level improvement. In doing so, DFC collaborates closely with Local School Council members active on policy issues and other parent, community, and business groups. DFC provides workshops and training for Local School Council members.

Literacy and School Improvement
DFC supports Literacy and School Improvement activities. We advise and assist school communities in Chicago (including Local School Councils, teachers, principals, and parents) in planning and carrying out basic educational changes to improve student achievement, especially student literacy. These efforts include resource guides and advice for schools across the city, and citywide leadership for Links-to-Literacy, a program to encourage independent student reading in 255 schools.

Learning Path Institute
Associate of Arts Program
The Learning Path Institute/Chicago is becoming a credit-granting degree-granting program to provide college-level educational experiences for active parent leaders and community leaders working to improve urban education. Learning Path Institute extends the focus of DFC’s reform efforts beyond elementary and secondary education, to include the “learning paths” that children and youth follow from birth to a career with a future.