catalyst-chicago.org

The frenetic legislative season now finished or wrapping up in many states has brought big changes to education policy, some forged through bipartisan compromise, others only after hyperpartisan battles.

Republican leaders who swept into office last fall—when the GOP won a majority of governorships and took control of both legislative chambers in 25 states—wasted no time pushing through ambitious and often controversial education agendas.

Maria Elena Orozco’s 6-year-old son Abraham, a native Spanish speaker, spent two years in preschool programs Orozco says were mostly in English.

This fall, he started kindergarten at Edwards Elementary. He was identified as a non-native English speaker, and put into a native-language class that is taught almost entirely in Spanish.

The test scores aren’t in yet, but by almost every other measure that matters—school climate, instructional strategies, staff satisfaction—the former Shawnee High School isn’t the same place it was just a year ago.

More than half the teachers are new to the persistently low-performing school. Those who remain say they no longer feel that their own classes are the only ones that push students. The school has stepped up its focus on using data to pinpoint students’ weak points and to adjust instruction. It even has a new name: the Academy @ Shawnee.