Then Orji discovered Grow Your Own Illinois, a program that could help her make that dream a reality. She quickly signed on. The initiative, modeled after a program that started six years ago in Logan Square, provides teacher training for parents, community leaders and paraprofessionals who are already active in schools.

"I love the program because it will prepare me to go in and teach in a classroom that is all mine. That's my ultimate goal," says Orji, who is enrolled in an online college to obtain her bachelor's degree in organizational psychology and will begin taking education courses this fall.

"I will have the experience and training to make sure students end up at the level they need to be," she adds. "Who can better talk to a child from the neighborhood than an adult from that same neighborhood?" Orji plans to begin teaching within the next two years and hopes to become a school counselor as well.

Grow Your Own aims to solve the perennial problem of high teacher turnover in low-income schools. A study by the nonprofit organizing group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) found that over three years, approximately 40 percent of first-year teachers did not return for a second year at 64 neighborhood schools in Englewood, Lawndale and Little Village.

After supporters of the program successfully lobbied state officials, Grow Your Own received $1.5 million in the governor's 2006 education budget. The money will cover expenses for five neighborhood-based programs in Chicago, along with five more in other districts across the state.

"We want to help regular people in the community become powerful teachers," says Anne Hallett, director of Grow Your Own Illinois. "It's a community-based solution to a broader educational problem. Normally, you have teachers come, see the situation and run the other way. The people we're working with understand the communities they're working in, so you don't have that problem."

'Nueva Generación'

Grow Your Own was inspired by Project Nueva Generación, developed by the Logan Square Neighborhood Association. The project got its start with mothers who were working as parent mentors in schools.

"[They] were doing a great job in the classroom and brought a lot of understanding of the issues of bilingualism," says Joanna Brown, director of education organizing for the Logan Square group.

"[They were saying] 'I don't want to go back to the factory or cleaning floors. I want to stay in the schools.'"

The association partnered with Chicago State University's bilingual education department in 2000 and won a grant to start Nueva Generación, which helps parents and paraprofessionals obtain a bachelor's degree and a bilingual education certificate. The project also provided tutoring for parents who needed extra help with math and learning English. Some classes were held in the neighborhood, and for those that were not, participants carpooled to campus.

Mutual support was key to keeping the participants—many of whom were working and caring for families—from quitting, says Brown. "If anyone thought of dropping the program or a class, they would get calls telling them, "Don't do it, we'll help you," she says.

Several years later, the idea for Grow Your Own was hatched when the Logan Square group and other organizations were discussing ways to improve teaching. Project Nueva Generación "was a really great model and had a great retention rate, so we dove in headfirst," Brown recalls. Local state Sen. Iris Martinez agreed to be chief sponsor of the bill establishing Grow Your Own.

In January, Grow Your Own came to Auburn Gresham on the South Side. Approximately 30 candidates are working together to become teachers in their local schools. Three other groups—ACORN, the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization and the Southwest Organizing Project—are working to develop programs throughout the city. Citywide, Grow Your Own hopes to add 1,000 new teachers to low-income schools by 2016.

Grow Your Own works by targeting low-income neighborhoods with a high need for teachers, then helping community organizations that have experience in education advocacy create partnerships with at least one school that is identified as "hard-to-staff" and one higher education institution.

"The program is like a bridge," says Angelique Orr, executive board member for the Target Area Development Corporation, which participates in Grow Your Own.

Like candidates in Project Nueva Generación, students in Grow Your Own take some classes close to home, taught by a faculty member from a partner college or university, in space provided by community groups. Higher-level education classes are taken on campus. Tuition is paid through grants and loans that are forgivable if graduates teach in their communities for five years

"Some people cannot afford to attend school and the cost can prevent them from going," says Mary Ann Peterson, an outreach worker for Target Area Development. "This helps them to not have to worry about that. They can just focus on getting their education."

Attracting more teachers of color is another goal of Grow Your Own.

"It's great for the schools because kids are gaining teachers who know how to deal with them, have high expectations and like the neighborhood and don't have plans to leave," says Madeline Talbott, head organizer of ACORN.

Evelia Mucino, a Logan Square parent who is participating in Project Nueva Generación, says it's important to be a role model for other adults as well as children. "I have a big responsibility and they look up to me," says Mucino. "For other parents within the community, when they see I'm in school to become a teacher, they are inspired."

Emily Horbar is a Catalyst intern. E-mail her at editor@catalyst-chicago.org.

The candidate count is higher than the last election in 2004, when nearly 6,900 parents, community representatives and teachers filed to run. This year, 62 schools will have fully contested elections.

Meanwhile, the longtime head of the district office that oversees elections announced he is leaving his post.

James Deanes, who oversaw the Office of School and Community Relations, announced at a March 3 recruitment training that Carole Wood, another CPS administrator, will take over his duties.

Wood will work with another administrator, Greg Minniefield, on an audit to "look at how the office is managed and evaluate for efficiency," says Deanes, who will continue to oversee the upcoming election while assuming new duties as a special assistant to board President Michael Scott.

Diana Nelson, executive director of the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform, says she is not concerned that the change will unduly affect the upcoming elections on April 19-20. Nelson is a leader in Community Partners for LSCs, a coalition of 30 community groups that worked to recruit candidates.

Still, she notes, "here it is right before the election and they have moved out the guy who's supposed to be in charge. It's a dreadful time to have someone new step in. ...The timing is very peculiar."

CPS is preparing for its first LSC elections since the launch of Renaissance 2010, which some activists view as a thinly-veiled attempt to further undercut local control by creating schools that, for the most part, are not required to have LSCs. In addition, more existing schools are now on probation, which strips LSCs of principal hiring power and budget authority.

LSC advocates hope the district will keep its pledge to double the amount of money provided to community groups, to $56,000; the district announced the pledge in a March 1 press release.

Some advocates are skeptical that the board will provide enough cash to do sufficient recruiting. "I am really excited, but it didn't sound like a guarantee," says Andrea Lee, education organizer at the Grand Boulevard Federation. "Right now, we're basically providing technical assistance, and with a little extra money we can really do a lot more."

PURE (Parents United for Responsible Education) suggested the board reallocate some of its $1.49 million election budget—specifically, money allocated to consultants, postage, election judges and translations of materials—so that community groups could receive $500,000.

"I'm looking at our budget so I can see how we can give community agencies more money," says Bill Rice of the Office of School and Community Relations. "Since I'm having trouble finding $30,000, I doubt that [$500,000] is feasible."

Death by a thousand cuts

With a $10,000 grant from the Woods Fund of Chicago, Community Partners held a press conference in February to highlight the need for candidates and provide information about the election.

Member organizations have been knocking on doors to recruit, handing out fliers at schools and placing informational pamphlets in aldermen's offices to publicize the election.

"We're going door-to-door and spreading information because nobody knows anything. It's astonishing," says Madeline Talbott, director of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). "It's not the only thing you need to do, but it's critical. An LSC is a wonderful structure and without [them] we would just be moving backwards."

CPS officials, however, said they worked diligently to pu