CPS Instructional Teams

September 1, 2003

CPS organizes schools into 24 areas and hires instructional teams to support—and pressure—principals to raise the quality of teaching. A Catalyst survey finds school leaders are responding favorably, but some wonder how much difference it will make.

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CPS formula for change Elizabeth Duffrin Last spring, while Deloris Jackson was leading a phonics drill for her 1st-graders, the door to her classroom at Altgeld Elementary quietly opened. In slipped the principal, the assistant principal and four strangers holding clipboards. Uneasy, Jackson went back to work, pointing to the "ou" and "ow" sounds on the chalkboard while the visitors watched, whispered questions to students and inspected bulletin boards for the next 10 minutes. Then, as quickly as they came, they left. Jackson had experienced her first "walkthrough," the centerpiece of a districtwide initiative launched a... > Read More
Principals rate efforts of AIO teams Elizabeth Duffrin Improving teaching starts with the principal. That's the idea behind an ambitious initiative the School Board launched a year ago in August to help principals become better instructional leaders. To support the initiative, the board reorganized the district into "area instructional offices" that were small enough to influence schools' instructional programs. By contrast, the old region offices handled day-to-day management, such as busing, building operations or emergencies, for 100 or more schools, leaving little or no time for schools' academic issues. The new areas are... > Read More
Take a walk on a walkthrough Jody Temkin "I thought I was a good principal," says Jeannie Gallo, Area 2 AIO who last year supervised principals at 38 North Side elementary schools. "But I would have been better if I'd known about the walkthrough process." Gallo, who oversees more schools than most AIOs and will add another this fall, visited each of them informally early last year to meet-and-greet with principals and staff, tour the buildings and introduce the concept of using a process called walkthroughs—the signature of a districtwide initiative to improve the quality of teaching. On her next round of school... > Read More
New York's District 2 paved the way Jody Temkin Lily Woo, the principal at P.S. 130 in New York City, tries to visit every classroom in her school for a few minutes each day. "If I miss a day or two," says Woo, "a teacher will say, 'You haven't stopped by. I want the children to show you something.' I'm invited in." That wasn't always the case. When Woo was hired as a principal 14 years ago by Anthony Alvarado, then-superintendent for New York's Community School District 2, most principals were infrequent classroom observers. Alvarado changed that. Reforms he introduced in the 1980s included walkthroughs—brief classroom... > Read More

En Español

Pocas opciónes de traslado bajo ley federal

By: Alexander Russo

El año pasado, la moral de la facultad disminuyó bruscamente en la Academia Comunitaria Hans Christian Andersen, localizada al oeste de la ciudad, al enterarse de que estaba entre las 50 escuelas que tenía que ofrecer a sus estudiantes la opción de traslados a otras escuelas bajo la ley federal No Child Left Behind (Ningún Niño Dejado Atrás o NCLB por sus siglas en inglés).

A los niños de Andersen se les dió dos opciones: La escuela élite Sabin o la Academia Bilingüe Lozano. Algunos de los estudiantes más hábiles académicamente fueron entre los primeros en solicitar traslados.

En Español

Un Paso Adelante: Ventaja para estudiantes de primer año de secundaria

By: Thaddeus P. Hartmann

El mayo pasado, el alcalde Richard M. Daley y el CEO de las escuelas Arne Duncan revelaron los detalles de un nuevo programa escolar voluntario diseñado para ayudar a algunos estudiantes a punto de comenzar el primer año de la secundaria a que continuen hasta el final.

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Rollie Jones

Rollie Jones

Area 8 Instructional Officer

26 West Side elementary schools

Previous positions: executive assistant to the chief accountability officer, principal of Kellman Elementary.

Things schools need to do:

Improve teacher recruitment and retention. Teacher shortages are particularly acute in the high poverty area where her schools are based, she notes.

Create a culture of high expectations for students. "We cannot use excuses about the socio-economic surroundings."

Rollie Jones Area 8 Instructional Officer 26 West Side elementary schools Previous positions: executive assistant to the chief accountability officer, principal of Kellman Elementary....

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