Feds To Honor Locke Charter Tomorrow [img=/assets/blog/200712/image002.gif F:R ]On Tuesday, USDE officials are going to honor Locke Charter as one of just seven schools in the nation who have made the most progress closing achievement gaps. You got a problem with that? Read the details below.[#jump#] Federal education official to honor Chicago’s Alain Locke Academy Charter is 1 of only 7 in U.S. highlighted for closing achievement gap The U.S. Department of Education’s Virginia Gentles will visit Alain Locke Charter Academy in Chicago Tuesday (Dec. 11) to see first-hand the best practices that generated its selection as one of only seven charter schools from throughout the U.S to highlight for its progress in closing the achievement gap. Alain Locke Charter Academy is featured in K-8 Charter Schools Guide: Closing the Achievement Gap; a recently released federal publication that highlights successful charter school practices. Opened in 1999 as one of Chicago’s first charter schools, more than 80 percent of Locke’s students met or exceeded state standards for math and reading in the 2007 state assessments -- a stunning boost of more than 66 percent since 2002. Means that have helped the public charter school to achieve those spectacular results include character education practices that are culturally relevant to its student population, which is 99 percent are African-American and more than 80 percent low-income. Locke also features an extended school day and a year-round schedule. At 8:30 a.m., Gentles will congratulate teachers, administrators and students for their achievements with a brief presentation during the school’s weekly “Harambee” gathering, named with the Swahili word for unity and pulling together. She will visit classrooms throughout the school from 9 – 10 a.m. Gentles is one of the top officials for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement. WHO: Virginia Gentles, U.S. Department of Education; Jaime Guzman, Chicago Public School’s New Schools Office; Lennie Jones, Principal of Alain Locke Academy and other administrators, teachers and students. WHAT: Brief presentation during “Harambee” gathering and classroom visits WHERE: Alain Locke Academy, 3141 W. Jackson Blvd. Chicago, IL WHEN: Tuesday, Dec. 11, 8:30 – 10 a.m.
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Thu Dec 13, 2007 at 11:21 AM
Looking at Locke and Calhoun North
The article about Locke Charter Academy written by Carlos Sadovi, a Tribune reporter who I am not familiar with and of whom I know nothing relating to his background in education reporting. But, overall the article appears to have been written off of a Press Release and a one shot visit to the school. This having been said it does not mean that Locke Charter School has not greatly improved the number of its students testing at or above state standards as reported in the article.
But one does have to question whether or not Locke Charter Academy actually should be referred to as an East Garfield Park school. The article states that the school’s students come “primarily from the East Garfield Park neighborhood, but that the school also draws from the rest of the city.” I assume that it is safe to say the word “primarily” equates to a majority. A case in point relating to the school's ability to take in students beyond East Garfield Park is one of the children the article notes, Justin Riggian age 12, the article informs it readers that Justin transferred to Locke at age 9 from another school in the Austin community “where he was at the top of his class.” I found it very interesting that the Locke staff directed the reporter to one of their most successful students who happened not to be from East Garfield Park. One has to wonder based on this example how many other high performers at Locke came to the school already as outstanding students in the last few years.
The closest CPS elementary school to Locke is Calhoun North. It had an average enrollment in the 2006-2005 school year of about 500 students. Locke has about 485 students. They are comparatively the same size. Locke’s aggregate achievement data is far better than that of Calhoun North which has about 55% of all of its students reading at or above state standards whereas Locke has about 78% of all students reading at or above standards.
Here is what is interesting about comparing the two schools, while both are virtually all Black, Locke has fewer low income children. Calhoun North is 96.7% low income; Locke is 87.4% low income. A 9.3% difference is considered to be statistically significant. Locke had in 2007 a 7.2% mobility rate, whereas Calhoun North had a 39.7% mobility rate.
Locke in June 2007 according to a CPS report to the US District Court had 8.2% students with disabilities (40 in total), whereas Calhoun North on the same date had 17% students with disabilities (85 in total). This is a rather dramatic difference.
Both Locke and Calhoun North met AYP standards for its students in reading and math in 2007. But Calhoun North did not make AYP for its students with disabilities in reading, it did in math however. Locke avoided being measured for AYP for its students with disabilities because the school had fewer than 45 students with disabilities.
We know some things about the special education composition of Locke and Calhoun North from the CPS report to the District Court in the spring of 2007. Both schools had very few students identified as emotionally behavior disordered. Both schools had a majority of their students with disabilities identified with learning disabilities. But Calhoun had both in absolute terms and as percentage of its population of students with disabilities had far more students with cognitive disabilities. Calhoun North also had far more of its students with disabilities receiving more intensive services than did Locke. About 17.7% of the disabled student population at Calhoun was receiving direct special education services out of normal classrooms for close to the full school day, whereas at Lock only 5% of their disabled student populations were receiving such intense services.
The article it self discusses the dramatic improvement in the test scores of students at Locke from 2002 to 2005 stating “the overall percentage of ISAT scores meeting or exceeding standards rose 58 points , earning Alain Locke the title of the most-improved Chicago Public School.”
I do not have access to a composite ISAT score for Calhoun North going back to 2002, because there was no composite score related to AYP determinations back in 2002 appearing in the state school report cards. But I do have grade level ISAT data for Calhoun North going back to 2002 and up to 2007. At grade 8 in 2002 52.4% of Calhoun students were reading at or above state standards and by 2007 that percentage had increased to 56.4%. In 2002 only 19% of students in grade 8 made or exceeded state standards in math and by 2007 that percentage had increased to 68.4%. Similarly for Calhoun North at grade 3 we see that in 2002 only 10.3% of students were reading at or above state standards and by 2007 53% were meeting or exceeding those standards. In math at grade 3 in 2002 25.3% were meeting or exceeding state standards and by 2007 69.5% were meeting or exceeding state standards.
When I look at Calhoun North and compare it to Locke and take into consideration the higher special education composition, somewhat higher poverty level, the ability of Locke to take in students beyond East Garfield Park, and the far higher mobility rate for Calhoun I really feel that Calhoun North is the more improved school. The question that I think CPS should be looking at very seriously is to what degree did the competition Calhoun North faced from Locke make it a better school and to what degree did they lose some of their better students to Locke causing Calhoun’s ISAT progress to be more limited than it would have been other wise from 2002 to 2007. If the Office of New Schools is all about bring competition into the CPS and using that competitive model to improve outcomes then these are exactly the questions they should be looking at. I would like to think that the media would also be interested in these type of questions rather than writing stories off of press releases.
Rod Estvan
But one does have to question whether or not Locke Charter Academy actually should be referred to as an East Garfield Park school. The article states that the school’s students come “primarily from the East Garfield Park neighborhood, but that the school also draws from the rest of the city.” I assume that it is safe to say the word “primarily” equates to a majority. A case in point relating to the school's ability to take in students beyond East Garfield Park is one of the children the article notes, Justin Riggian age 12, the article informs it readers that Justin transferred to Locke at age 9 from another school in the Austin community “where he was at the top of his class.” I found it very interesting that the Locke staff directed the reporter to one of their most successful students who happened not to be from East Garfield Park. One has to wonder based on this example how many other high performers at Locke came to the school already as outstanding students in the last few years.
The closest CPS elementary school to Locke is Calhoun North. It had an average enrollment in the 2006-2005 school year of about 500 students. Locke has about 485 students. They are comparatively the same size. Locke’s aggregate achievement data is far better than that of Calhoun North which has about 55% of all of its students reading at or above state standards whereas Locke has about 78% of all students reading at or above standards.
Here is what is interesting about comparing the two schools, while both are virtually all Black, Locke has fewer low income children. Calhoun North is 96.7% low income; Locke is 87.4% low income. A 9.3% difference is considered to be statistically significant. Locke had in 2007 a 7.2% mobility rate, whereas Calhoun North had a 39.7% mobility rate.
Locke in June 2007 according to a CPS report to the US District Court had 8.2% students with disabilities (40 in total), whereas Calhoun North on the same date had 17% students with disabilities (85 in total). This is a rather dramatic difference.
Both Locke and Calhoun North met AYP standards for its students in reading and math in 2007. But Calhoun North did not make AYP for its students with disabilities in reading, it did in math however. Locke avoided being measured for AYP for its students with disabilities because the school had fewer than 45 students with disabilities.
We know some things about the special education composition of Locke and Calhoun North from the CPS report to the District Court in the spring of 2007. Both schools had very few students identified as emotionally behavior disordered. Both schools had a majority of their students with disabilities identified with learning disabilities. But Calhoun had both in absolute terms and as percentage of its population of students with disabilities had far more students with cognitive disabilities. Calhoun North also had far more of its students with disabilities receiving more intensive services than did Locke. About 17.7% of the disabled student population at Calhoun was receiving direct special education services out of normal classrooms for close to the full school day, whereas at Lock only 5% of their disabled student populations were receiving such intense services.
The article it self discusses the dramatic improvement in the test scores of students at Locke from 2002 to 2005 stating “the overall percentage of ISAT scores meeting or exceeding standards rose 58 points , earning Alain Locke the title of the most-improved Chicago Public School.”
I do not have access to a composite ISAT score for Calhoun North going back to 2002, because there was no composite score related to AYP determinations back in 2002 appearing in the state school report cards. But I do have grade level ISAT data for Calhoun North going back to 2002 and up to 2007. At grade 8 in 2002 52.4% of Calhoun students were reading at or above state standards and by 2007 that percentage had increased to 56.4%. In 2002 only 19% of students in grade 8 made or exceeded state standards in math and by 2007 that percentage had increased to 68.4%. Similarly for Calhoun North at grade 3 we see that in 2002 only 10.3% of students were reading at or above state standards and by 2007 53% were meeting or exceeding those standards. In math at grade 3 in 2002 25.3% were meeting or exceeding state standards and by 2007 69.5% were meeting or exceeding state standards.
When I look at Calhoun North and compare it to Locke and take into consideration the higher special education composition, somewhat higher poverty level, the ability of Locke to take in students beyond East Garfield Park, and the far higher mobility rate for Calhoun I really feel that Calhoun North is the more improved school. The question that I think CPS should be looking at very seriously is to what degree did the competition Calhoun North faced from Locke make it a better school and to what degree did they lose some of their better students to Locke causing Calhoun’s ISAT progress to be more limited than it would have been other wise from 2002 to 2007. If the Office of New Schools is all about bring competition into the CPS and using that competitive model to improve outcomes then these are exactly the questions they should be looking at. I would like to think that the media would also be interested in these type of questions rather than writing stories off of press releases.
Rod Estvan
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