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Chicago School Reform Could Be a U.S. Model

Let the spin begin.

By Maria Glod

CHICAGO -- At Cameron Elementary School west of
downtown, most kids don't know the alphabet
when they start kindergarten, nearly all are
poor, and one was jumped by a gang recently,
just off campus. But the school this year
posted its highest reading and math scores ever
-- a feat that earned cash bonuses for
teachers, administrators, even janitors.

City schools chief executive Arne Duncan,
President-elect Barack Obama's choice for
education secretary, pushed that performance-
pay plan and a host of other innovations to
transform a school system once regarded as one
of the country's worst. As Duncan heads to
Washington, the lessons of Chicago could
provide a model for fixing America's schools.

"Obama chose Arne Duncan for a reason, and part
of that reason is the experimentation that
Duncan has done in Chicago and his real
attention to data and outcomes," said Elliot
Weinbaum, assistant professor at the University
of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education.
"Duncan's willing to try new things and see if
they work, hopefully keep the ones that do and
drop the ones that don't. I expect that
experimentation to continue on a national
scale."

With a 408,000-student system, smaller than
only New York's and Los Angeles's public
schools, Chicago has become a laboratory for
reform in Duncan's seven-year tenure. Officials
here court new charter schools, teacher
training is being reinvented, and some low-
performing schools have been shuttered and
reopened with new staff. Officials are also
offering some students cash for good grades and
seeking proposals for boarding schools. In
addition, Duncan backed a plan to start a gay-
friendly high school. For the most part, the
changes came with little organized opposition,
except for some skirmishes with the teachers
union.

Duncan, a longtime Obama friend and basketball
buddy, helped shape the incoming
administration's education platform. As
education secretary, he will be Obama's point
man for carrying out the No Child Left Behind
law and negotiating revisions with Congress.
Through regulatory power, federal funding and a
pulpit he can bring to classrooms nationwide,
Duncan will be able to push for changes in
schools.

Duncan, appointed by Mayor Richard M. Daley in
2001, has shown unusual longevity for a big-
city school leader, cultivating ties with
unions, nonprofit groups and other
stakeholders. The wide-ranging reforms he has
pushed appeal to struggling school systems and
highly regarded suburban districts looking to
boost performance. Many educators in Chicago
say Duncan's efforts have upended school
culture, building a record of progress,
although the high-poverty system has far to go.

"This is no utopia. It's no Candy Land,"
Cameron Principal David B. Kovach said one day
this month. "But teachers enjoy their job more,
because they are learning and getting better at
it, and the kids are able to do things that
they weren't able to do before."

Across the city, educators point to
improvements. At Noble Street College Prep
charter school, every senior graduated last
school year, and the class logged nearly $2
million in college scholarships. The
flexibility given to independently operated
charter schools means a longer school day, with
a class dedicated to helping seniors complete
college applications, navigate financial aid
and write résumés.

At the National Teachers Academy, another
Chicago school, Erin Koehler Smith did a better
job teaching fourth-graders to estimate
centimeters and meters with help from a mentor
teacher. Next year, the former theater major
and other trainees will take on classes of
their own in struggling schools.

Little more than half of Chicago students
graduate on time. But since 2001, fewer
students are dropping out and more are heading
to college. The number taking Advanced
Placement classes has tripled. Chicago students
lag behind the statewide average on Illinois
tests, but the gap has narrowed.

Cameron's Kovach said the 1,040 students at the
red-brick schoolhouse come from a high-crime,
high-poverty area in West Humboldt Park.
Teachers, worried about the safety of
neighborhood parks, agreed to work an extra 20
minutes each day to ensure that kids can have
recess and to maximize class time.

"Our kids come in two steps behind," Kovach
said. "We can't control what happens to them on
the outside -- drugs, gangs, an incarcerated
parent."

Cameron Elementary is using powerful tools to
jolt teaching and boost achievement: money,
coaching and collaboration. With the
overwhelming approval of teachers, the school
last year began a performance-pay pilot program
now in place at numerous city schools. Much of
the money for the program has come from a
federal grant and private foundations.

Teachers earn extra cash for taking on
additional responsibilities and are judged in a
series of evaluations. Entire staffs get
bonuses when state test scores rise. Slightly
more than 50 percent of students passed the
latest state reading exam, but the trend is up.
The gains meant about a $1,000 bonus for most
teachers, about $250 for janitors and $625 for
the principal.

Teacher Erin Montana, 33, fresh out of
education school and a three-month student
teaching gig, took over a class in chaos two
years ago. Students cursed, fought, even threw
desks. "Every day I came in thinking I was
doing the worst job ever," she said.

One afternoon last week, Montana's fifth-
graders huddled quietly, reading a story about
a boy who destroys a neighbor's garden in a
vegetable-throwing fight. The students then
built "story mountains," identifying
characters, plot and theme.

"They trash Mr. Bellavista's garden," said
Shanygne, 11, a slight girl with a ponytail.
She scrawled the sentence on a Post-it note and
added it to her "mountain."

Montana, crouching to check the group's
progress, pointed to a picture of the glum boy.
"What do you think is happening here?" she
asked. "Do you think it's important?"

Eleven-year-old Shawnell, nodding at her
teacher, began writing that the boy "felt sorry
because he looked at the garden and the mess he
made."

Montana said the isolation of her first year
has disappeared. Her class is well-behaved,
thanks partly to her growing experience and
partly to advice from colleagues, including the
"doing the right things raffle" she started at
the suggestion of a mentor teacher.

Teachers meet weekly to discuss the best way to
reach kids. Master teachers pinpoint where
students fall short, study research and script
lessons to target weak spots. They try lessons
on a handful of kids, and when they find an
approach that works, the school takes it to all
kids.

"It's not like pulling something out of a
book," Montana said. "We know that it's really
thought through specifically for our kids."

Washington area schools have launched
experiments similar to Chicago's. Charter
schools are multiplying in the District, and
D.C. schools are trying cash incentives for
students. A Fairfax County initiative bumps
salaries for some teachers who work a longer
year and take on extra tasks, such as coaching
colleagues. Pay for performance is underway in
Prince George's County, tying some teacher
bonuses to test scores.

What sets Duncan apart, education experts said,
is his willingness to embrace a range of
reforms and his ability to work with people who
hold diverging, often conflicting views on how
to fix schools. He has straddled the reform
divide: On one side are advocates of dramatic
shake-ups and tough accountability, and on the
other are teachers unions and some educators
who want more flexibility, support and money.

Chicago Teachers Union President Marilyn
Stewart said that the union clashed with Duncan
when he closed failing schools and replaced
staff but that school and union leaders teamed
up on performance pay. "He had my home phone
number," Stewart said. "He always returned my
calls, and I returned his. You can't not talk
when you need something done."

Consensus-building will prove critical as
Congress considers an overhaul of the 2002
education law, which spotlighted the failings
of schools as well as deep rifts among unions,
civil rights groups and education advocates.
From his on-the-ground perspective, Duncan has
praised the law's "high expectations and
accountability" but pushed to give credit to
schools that make gains even if they fall short
of state academic standards. He also has called
on Congress to double federal funding over five
years.

The next challenge is reaching agreement on a
new blueprint for school reform. Obama has said
he wants to add $18 billion in annual federal
education funding (equal to nearly a third of
the Education Department's $59 billion
discretionary budget), reduce high school
dropout rates and improve math and science
education. He also has vowed to double federal
funding for successful charter schools to $400
million a year and promote alternative teacher
training.

"There will be disagreements, but Duncan's
personality is going to minimize the
negativity," said Jack Jennings, president and
chief executive of the Center on Education
Policy in the District. "You get a feeling of
somebody who is willing to listen and be open
to ideas."


— Maria Glod
Washington Post
2009-12-30


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