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Adolescent Literacy

A raft of past programs have failed to substantially improve the reading skills of middle grade and high school students. CPS is trying once again, as part of a federal project that aims to help teens learn how to analyze complex non-fiction.

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What Matters Most

Lessons from Kentucky September 16, 2005 By: Lisa Lewis The Kentucky Department of Education has been training and sending out its own kind of "probation manager" since 1994. Called Distinguished Educators, or DEs, they are experienced teachers and administrators who leave their jobs for two years to work as consultants at struggling schools, modeling ways to boost student performance.In Kentucky, every school is given an improvement target every two years; schools that fall short are assigned DEs and get a share of a special $5 million state grant, which must be used for academic improvements. Read More \| (0) Comments	Lessons from San Francisco September 16, 2005 By: Elizabeth Duffrin San Francisco's school district blazed a trail in 1984 when it transferred staff from four failing schools. Fifteen years and 17 reconstituted schools later, San Francisco has learned a few hard lessons. Reconstitution, they say, is no magic bullet. Process counts. Results take time. As part of a court-ordered desegregation plan, San Francisco had to reconstitute four schools and open two more in a minority, low-income corner of the city. Read More \| (0) Comments
Chicago accountability timeline September 16, 2005 By: Elizabeth Duffrin July 1988 / The Illinois Legislature passes a sweeping school reform act for Chicago, transferring significant powers from the Board of Education to newly created local school councils (LSCs). The law gives the system's subdistrict superintendents, but not the general superintendent, authority to intervene at schools that are not following their school improvement plans. Ultimately, principals can be replaced, and new LSC elections held. February 1994 / Supt. Read More \| (0) Comments	Constructing an assessment system: The options September 16, 2005 By: Elizabeth Duffrin People want tests to do it all: To measure student performance against a standard and against other students. To measure a few skills in depth as well as the entire curriculum. To pass judgment on schools and to help them improve teaching. Tests can do all these things, say the experts, but no one or two tests can do them all. To avoid non-stop testing, school districts need to set priorities and accept trade-offs. Here are some of the considerations. Multiple choice or performance assessment? Read More \| (0) Comments
Mayoral Accountability September 16, 2005 Migdalia Rivera Latino Institute "The image of our schools has improved tremendously under Mayor Daley's administrators and board, and that has helped us garner the good will of Springfield and has increased funding. ... Concentrating power in the hands of a few—a smaller board of directors, a smaller administration—helps facilitate a better relationship with the mass media. If you get the media on your side, you're halfway there. ... Besides that, concrete improvements have occurred. There is a very significant capital develop-ment project going forward. Read More \| (0) Comments	Spurring progress September 16, 2005 By: Elizabeth Duffrin In Chicago, the status of every public elementary school is determined during a 40-minute period in early May. That's when children in 3rd through 8th grade take a multiple-choice test of reading comprehension. Depending on their grade level, they read up to seven passages ranging from a few sentences to a full page and answer 36 to 49 questions. Read More \| (0) Comments
New York small schools face threat September 15, 2005 By: Veronica Anderson In New York City, small schools have been riding a roller coaster for more than 25 years. At the moment, they're bracing for a fall.The movement began in 1974, when then-teacher Deborah Meier and a group of progressive educators founded Central Park East Elementary School in East Harlem. Size was the cornerstone behind Meier's idea to bring the rigors of private school education to students in impoverished communities. Read More \| (0) Comments	Getting out on their own: Foundations and Nia September 15, 2005 By: Veronica Anderson Alice Brent is eager to share something new with her 1st-grade class at Foundations School. Over the weekend, she boned up on the topic of continental drift for a presentation on a homework program on cable television. "I wasn't going to do all that research without telling you all about it," she begins.Holding up a colorful map of the world, she settles the unruly bunch and then begins the afternoon lesson. "Plate tectonics. That's a word we're going to learn. What's a plate ... that you know of?" "An eating plate," shouts one boy, who for the moment has stopped fidgeting. Read More \| (0) Comments
Following the leader September 15, 2005 By: Veronica Anderson At 6 o'clock on a blustery Wednesday evening in March, four members of the local school council at Piccolo Specialty School wait patiently for a few stragglers. At 6:15, they get started despite the lack of a quorum. The chair calls the meeting to order and proceeds immediately to new business. The first item is a plan to start Helping Hands, a school-within-a-school that would serve up to 50 special education students.Copies of the proposal—each one brightly decorated with a student's crayon drawing—are distributed to council members and visitors. Read More \| (0) Comments

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