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Once on a fast track to become yet another blighted urban community—the aftermath of white flight and disinvestment—South Shore has changed course. Its lakefront location, vintage housing stock and residents' own efforts to preserve two key institutions have helped the community hold on to middle-class African Americans.

Over his high school career, Ricardo Gilchrist has transformed himself from a "kinda rugged" freshman with a history of bad grades to Junior ROTC battalion commander and salutatorian contender.

A student at the School of Leadership—one of four small schools created at South Shore High after years of other school improvement efforts failed—Gilchrist wound up there by default because he was late applying to Hyde Park High.

In early February, Chicago Public School officials called on the state to provide $175 million in state aid to the district for the coming fiscal year.

Instead, CPS' top budget official says the district stands to get only $35 million from the budget proposed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, which he first shared with legislators just a week after CPS made its pitch.

The governor's budget would give schools across Illinois only $140 million, an amount that many education experts say is only about half of what is needed to keep the state's commitment steady from this year.

Chicago Public Schools cut a dozen major capital projects from its budget when state lawmakers failed to approve money for school construction. Despite the lack of funds, CPS still needs to do a better job of capital planning, says Jacqueline Leavy, executive director of the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group, which made the case for a comprehensive facilities plan in a January report. Leavy talked with Consulting Editor Lorraine Forte about how CPS' capital planning falls short and strategies to fix it.

Is CPS behind the curve on this issue?

A las 8:40 a.m. en una mañana a mediados de enero, Rasheema Fox, de diez años de edad, corre hacia la escalera frente a la Primaria Cameron en Humboldt Park. Con cinco minutos antes de que suene el timbre, ella no necesita correr. Pero la atlética niña de quinto grado tiene una energía que apenas puede contener. Por las siguientes seis horas y media, tiene que contenerla.

Solo toma una persona comprometida para comenzar un plan de salud estudiantil, dicen aquellos que lo han hecho. Para ayudar a los individuos que quieren intentarlo, Catalyst le pidió consejo al personal de Comunidades de Chicago en las Escuelas, una organización sin fines de lucro que conecta las escuelas con servicios gratis, y de personas que trabajan en Escuelas de la Comunidad, una iniciativa del distrito que empareja las escuelas con organizaciones sin fines de lucro que proveen ayuda académica y social a los niños y sus familias.

"Several studies suggest that providing more time for physical activity (by reducing class time) can lead to increased test scores, particularly in the area of mathematics. For example, in one of these studies, students placed in an experimental group engaged in 24 minutes of additional physical activity per week—and had a corresponding decrease in class time for academics. Mathematics test scores in this group were consistently higher than for students in a control group, who saw no change in time allocation."

1. Stress the importance of vision exams and eyeglass care at open houses, in newsletters, during parent-teacher conferences and when parents visit to discuss behavior problems.

2. At the start of the school year, let teachers know which students need glasses. Each September, the counselor at Dore Elementary in Clearing distributes student health folders that include vision exam results.

3. Make sure the disciplinarian has a list of students who failed the most recent vision screening. Students with poor vision sometimes are the ones who act out.

A November 2004 report by the Illinois Facilities Fund highlighted South Shore as a community in need of higher-achieving schools. Researchers examined neighborhood demographics, population trends, public schools enrollment and achievement, and private school options. Their recommendations for strategies to improve area public schools—a potential starting point for the community planning process recently launched by the Coalition for Improved Education in South Shore—suggest:

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Feb. 23: Closing 'option'

The School Board votes to close three low-performing schools this fall but says

* The California Department of Education found that students who scored higher on the 2001 state-wide FitnessGram in 5th, 7th and 9th grade also scored substantially higher on state-wide standardized tests in math and reading, even when it controlled for poverty. That doesn't prove that fitness caused higher test scores, but it does suggest a correlation, says Diane Wilson-Graham, a physical education consultant with department. The study was based on records of 954,000 students.