School & District Management

Chicago Grants to Help Break Up Large Schools

By Mark Stricherz — September 12, 2001 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

With $12 million from Bill Gates’ foundation, some Chicago high schools will now make little plans.

Hoping to make the city’s high schools less anonymous and more personal, Mayor Richard M. Daley has announced that four to six of them will be divided into 15 to 20 schools-within-schools.

The five-year plan will be financed by the grant from the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and $6.2 million from a number of Chicago groups.

Officials of the 432,000-student district, the nation’s third largest, said the grants will be targeted to low-performing schools.

“We have a number of high schools that are struggling academically, but also socially and emotionally,” said B.J. Walker, a top city official who helped the Chicago schools secure the grant. “We think this will give teachers an opportunity for more collegial settings, and there will just be less bureaucracy and bigness than we have now, so they can plan curriculum.

“Similarly, for the kids,” she said, “It’s an opportunity to be known and have a close relationship with teachers.”

For the Gates Foundation, the grants represent the latest effort to reduce the number of students in a given high school, particularly in cities, to fewer than 450. The foundation has underwritten small-school plans in Oakland, Calif.; New York City; St. Paul, Minn.; and Washington state, including Tacoma.

Underlying the grants is research, shown most recently in a study by the Bank Street College of Education in New York, supporting the idea that smaller schools help raise achievement and attendance, said Carol Rava, a spokeswoman for the foundation.

Missing Ingredients?

But some school observers and educators in Chicago questioned the value and practicality of the initiative.

G. Alfred Hess, a professor of education at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., was the lead author of a report, commissioned by the district and released in March, that found its high schools often hamstrung by poor teaching.

While commending much of the city’s 1997 efforts to improve its high schools, the study found that many teachers lacked academic-content knowledge, teaching skills, or faith that all their students could learn.

“They have not necessarily addressed the issue of teacher instruction, and I think the advocates of small schools would acknowledge that,” Mr. Hess said. “Attacking this is a major issue, and it’s a different sort of premise that small high schools may or may not help address.”

Deborah Lynch, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, said she was “very supportive” of the concept of smaller schools, but also sounded a note of caution.

Recalling that as a teacher she had worked in a school that was converted into smaller schools, she said that schools’ staffs must welcome such a change.

“There was no buy-in, no staff development. It happened in name only,” she said of her experience. Ms. Lynch also voiced disapproval that no school officials had called the union about the grants.

High schools may adopt the new setups as early as next fall, but most are expected to convert to smaller units by the fall of 2003 and 2004.

Low-performing schools will be the focus of the grants. To qualify, a school will need to show strong plans for student achievement.

“If you have a school where 12 percent of the student body reads below comprehension,” Ms. Walker said, “you need to show ways of improving reading.”

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Professional Development Webinar
Inside PLCs: Proven Strategies from K-12 Leaders
Join an expert panel to explore strategies for building collaborative PLCs, overcoming common challenges, and using data effectively.
Content provided by Otus
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Science Webinar
Making Science Stick: The Engaging Power of Hands-On Learning
How can you make science class the highlight of your students’ day while
achieving learning outcomes? Find out in this session.
Content provided by LEGO Education
Teaching Profession Key Insights to Elevate and Inspire Today’s Teachers
Join this free half day virtual event to energize your teaching and cultivate a positive learning experience for students.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School & District Management Q&A This City Can Claim a NAEP Distinction No Other City Can. Here's What Happened
While American students saw another decline in 4th grade reading scores on the Nation's Report Card, this city was an exception.
6 min read
Diverse elementary students reading in the classroom
iStock/Getty Images
School & District Management What Latino Superintendents Say It Will Take to Grow Their Ranks
Three Latino superintendents talked about the direct and indirect paths to building a pipeline of future district leaders of color.
4 min read
Vector image of many professionals, diversity, highlighting hispanic.
Liz Yap/Education Week and iStock/Getty
School & District Management Opinion Your School Needs a Teacher-Mentorship Program
We all know how critical the first few years of teaching are. Here's how to set teachers up for success.
Pamela Slifer
4 min read
Mentorship development of young teachers. School leaders make the teaching profession more sustainable by developing a robust mentoring program in their school.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva
School & District Management School Leaders Rush to Manage Deportation Fears
School and district leaders describe a chaotic time amid changes to federal immigration policies.
9 min read
A line of school children with obscured faces board a school bus on their way to school.
E+/Getty