Student Retention

April 1, 2000

Student Retention

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Ohio school adds 1st-grade focus to get kids past 4th-grade test Kaye Spector In spring 1999, the 4th-graders at Union Elementary School in Cleveland did something remarkable. About 56 percent who had been enrolled since Oct. 1 passed the reading portion of the Ohio Proficiency Test. The year before, only 13 percent passed. The increase of 43 percentage points was the largest at the 4th-grade level among the 82 elementary schools in the Cleveland Municipal School District. Beginning in 2001-2002, 4th-graders throughout Ohio who fail to pass the reading section of the state-mandated test after three tries will be held back. At Union, teachers attribute... > Read More
New numbers confirm good, bad of promotion policy Elizabeth Duffrin In December, the Consortium on Chicago School Research released the first independent study of Chicago's nationally watched policy to end social promotion. It contained a mix of good and bad news, with the bad echoing decades of previous research: Holding kids back doesn't help them academically. At the time, CPS maintained that the negative finding was premature because it encompassed only students retained in 1997. Additional help provided to students retained in 1998 likely improved the outcomes, the district argued. However, updated results supplied last month to Catalyst... > Read More
Promotion timeline Catalyst Staff Since approving a student retention policy in 1996, the School Board has continually scrambled to get more students over the test score hurdles. 1995-96 March 1996 The School Board approves a new policy sending students at certain grades to summer school if they fail to make a minimum score on a standardized math and reading test. The policy will go into effect immediately for 8th-graders, and the following summer for students in grades 3 and 6. The previous board policy discouraged retention, saying that it should be used only after an... > Read More
Internal motivation better for the long run Elizabeth Duffrin Does the threat of retention motivate kids to work harder? Is the promotion policy indeed spurring students to higher academic achievement? Supporters of the board's promotion policy say yes. To get a psychologist's view, Catalyst contacted an expert in student motivation, Wendy Grolnick of Clark University in Worchester, Mass., which has a highly-regarded psychology department. Grolnick stresses that she is not taking a stand for or against retaining students, since that is not her area of expertise. Psychologists talk about two kinds of motivation, she explains. The... > Read More
Study finds more waivers than reported Elizabeth Duffrin Far more low-scoring students have received "waivers" from promotion requirements over the past three years than the School Board has reported, according to new data from the Consortium on Chicago School Research. But school officials stand by their numbers. Last year, for example, the board reported waiving 808 students at the end of 3rd and 6th grades. The Consortium puts the total at 3,528. The number of 8th-graders waived was not readily available from either source. The board's numbers are based on waiver paperwork, according to Schools and Regions Chief Blondean... > Read More
Carnegie a high-poverty school that retains few students Elizabeth Duffrin Not surprisingly, a disproportionate number of students who are retained attend schools in the city's poorest neighborhoods. Even though the School Board has poured tens of millions of dollars into expanding pre-school, full-day kindergarten, summer school and after-school programs, some high-poverty elementary schools retain upwards of 40 percent of their 3rd-graders who are tested. That's more than twice the city average. Yet even within the poorest neighborhoods, some schools retain very few students, the Consortium on Chicago School Research has found. Carnegie Elementary in... > Read More
More remedies Elizabeth Duffrin The schools below have above-average poverty rates for city schools but below-average retention rates for 3rd grade. Catalyst contacted their principals to ask why. Dewey in New City reduced retention by focusing resources in the 3rd grade; the 32 students with the lowest scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills at the end of 2nd grade are placed into two classes of 16 each for 3rd grade, says Principal Howard Jackson. Graham in New City spreads its resources more evenly with a reduced class size of 20 to 23 at each grade level. Formal reading instruction begins in... > Read More
Primary teachers sought for summer school Barbara Williams For the first time this June, summer school will be mandatory for 1st and 2nd graders whose academic performance is below grade level. "In the summer of 1996—the first year of 3rd-grade summer school—[we] discovered that some of the children were non-readers," says Blondean Davis, who oversees summer school programs for CPS. "That's horrendous." In previous years, the voluntary, five-week program—dubbed Early Intervention—enrolled 12,000 1st- and 2nd-graders who were behind their peers in math and reading. As a requirement, the program is expected to draw twice as many... > Read More
Early learning standards Source: CPS Handbook of Assessment Tools Language Arts 1st-graders are rated on their ability to retell a passage of text they read or had read to them; alphabetize items by the first letter; use context clues to derive word meaning; interpret figurative language; distinguish fact from opinion; distinguish fact from fantasy; define the major characteristics of significant forms of literature; identify the character, setting, plot and theme in text; compare and contrast the treatment of different cultures. Second-graders are rated on their ability to alphabetize to the second letter; draw conclusions;... > Read More

Updates

The picture outside Chicago

By: Linda Lenz

Outside Chicago, only three to four seats are filled in each school board election, and, typically, there are contested races for only one or two of those seats, according to Gerald Glaub, deputy executive director of the Illinois Association of School Boards.

"It's not unusual to see no challenges," he says. "In a very limited number of circumstances, there are not enough candidates one or two each election."

Contests develop most often when an incumbent steps down, says Glaub.

Outside Chicago, only three to four seats are filled in each school board election, and, typically, there are contested races for only one or two of those seats, according to Gerald Glaub, deputy...

Updates

South Loop controversy sparks big contest

By: Ericka Moore-Freeman

Some schools struggle to get a bare minimum of parents and community residents to sign up to run for local school council seats. Other schools draw more candidates than they need and play host to contested council elections.

"Usually, when that's the case, [school] issues are hot and heavy, and the parents are more inclined to come out and get involved," says Estelle Jarrett, CPS assistant director of school and community relations.

Some schools struggle to get a bare minimum of parents and community residents to sign up to run for local school council seats. Other schools draw more candidates than they need and play host to...

Updates

No parents running for Julian LSC

By: Mario G. Ortiz

Julian High School in Washington Heights is the only Chicago public school where no parents signed up to run for the local school council.

But then Julian hasn't had any parents on its council for about the last year. They resigned for a variety of reasons. Meanwhile, the troubled school saw the School Board remove Principal Karen Wilson last spring and install Reginald Brown, a once-retired administrator, as interim principal.

Brown did not recruit candidates for this month's election. "It's not my job," he shrugs.

Julian High School in Washington Heights is the only Chicago public school where no parents signed up to run for the local school council. But then Julian hasn't had any parents on its council for...

Updates

Principal loses appeal of LSC's decision not to renew contract

By: Dan Weissmann

On March 13, less than two hours before a midnight deadline, an arbitrator from the American Arbitration Association sent out, by e-mail, a decision on Elizabeth Elizondo's appeal of the decision by the Finkl Local School Council not to renew her contract as principal.

Letters From Readers

Article in error, no deal made on state Chapter 1

By: Bernard Lacour policy reform director De

To the Editor:

Contrary to a Catalyst report in the March issue, Designs for Change and other reform activists have made no agreement to stop pushing for a legislative increase in State Chapter 1 funds controlled by local Chicago schools, and I never made such a statement to your reporter.

To the Editor: Contrary to a Catalyst report in the March issue, Designs for Change and other reform activists have made no agreement to stop pushing for a legislative increase in State...

Guest Column

Principal leadership, external partner make a winning combination

By: Ken Rolling, Pat Ford and Lisa Moultrie

The Chicago Annenberg Challenge began funding school improvement efforts in 1995. More than half of Chicago's public schools will have participated at one time or another in an Annenberg-supported improvement effort by the end of our initiative in 2001, by which time more than $40 million will have been granted by the Challenge in support of school improvement efforts.

As we reflect on our field work, research and the data we've collected thus far, and as we enter our final year of grant making, we want to share some of our findings and observations to date.

The Chicago Annenberg Challenge began funding school improvement efforts in 1995. More than half of Chicago's public schools will have participated at one time or another in an Annenberg-supported...

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