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HPKCC program home. Committees. About HPKCC.

  HPKCC Hyde Park Schools Committee, Schools and Education homepage
About the committee-short in pdf. Longer.
Return to Schools Hot Topics and Issues. Hot Topics home.
To page with dates of some LSC candidate forums, SIPAA discussions
Read about Sept 2009 HPKCC Schools Networking Dinner in S Comm. Reports page.

To About the Schools Committee brochure (including pdf version and to short version).
View Report on February 23 2010 Recognition Ceremony and Talk, in pdf
To our recent reports and minutes.
To More on assets building collaborative, Promises
To Youth Programs Database

Next regular meeting April 5, Monday, 7 pm. 1448 E. 53rd -Blackstone entry. (Knock loud if not early).

VISIT FEBRUARY 23 2010 CEREMONY AND FORUM page.
View Report on February 23 2010 Recognition Ceremony and Talk, in pdf

Local School Councils- go to table in the LSC page- always check with school. Note: Kenwood has changed to 2nd Tuesday 6:30 pm.

One of our tasks is to promote effective Local School Councils and encourage committed parents and residents to run. 2010 nominations are already open (deadline March 11)-- so get started. CPS hotline:
773 553-1400, www.cps.edu, or at schools or libraries. And parents and community- attend the candidate forums-- Kenwood Academy's will be April 13 at the LSC meeting.

Visit also Link to Kenwood School Improvement Plan survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/33SSMNN.
View/print pdf of flyer about Kenwood Academy and Kenwood SIPPAA.

Find out all about any public school including detailed scores at www.cps.edu. Search school.

Help schools if you can on their school improvement plans. KENWOOD ACADEMY SEEKS NEIGHBORS TO PARTICIPATE IN SUBCOMMITTEES PREPARING AND TO HELP DISTRIBUTE AND TAKE COMMUNITY AND PARENT SURVEYS (starting mid January) FOR THE TWO-YEAR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN (SIPAAA). Contact Megan Hougard 773 535-1417 or mjhougard@cps.edu or Ted Fetters 773 667-0550 or efetters@gmail.com. Updates in http://www.kenwoodacademy.org.
The Five Fundamentals of School Success model is used to focus school planning on what matters most. This model was built on research developed and refined by CPS practitioners and stakeholders and used to guide the CIPAAA process: Instruction, Instructional Leadership, Professional Capacity, Learning Climate, and Family and Community Involvement.

Did you know there are lots of ways for councils and schools to get freebees or funds from CPS and others. One is to get your neighbors to donate the "points" they earn from the weight of recyclables in their blue carts--one Hyde Park already has! Find out in http://www.recyclebank.com/greenschoolsprogram. Donated RecycleBank Points are matched with dollar donations by RecycleBank to environmental initiatives at schools nationwide. RecycleBank will donate $10 for every 100 Points donated to your school and double it thanks to Gconony Visa and Coca Cola. They are once again accepting grant applications from schools in RecycleBank - serviced areas for the development of programs that empower youth ages 6–18 through a focus on environmental awareness, education, and action. Deadlines Oct. 15 and Dec. 15.

Access HPKCC Youth Programs Database in PDF- All are encouraged to download, print, and share: http://www.hydepark.org/schools (printable pdf)
That portal also leads to the complete topical, descriptive Afterschool database (direct link).

The Schools Committee of HPKCC

The Committee had a long and illustrious history and citywide reputation in the era well before elected local school councils. Today our revitalized committee monitors developments and progress in our neighborhood's schools, shares information about schools and educational resources and issues (including through the website), seeks collaborations with agencies and local groups, and most of all seeks to foster a conversation about the direction of our schools. We are heavily involved with promoting, growing and helping Local School Councils.

Our goal: "Every school in the neighborhood one that every parent would be glad to send their children to."

“The mission of the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference Schools Committee is to provide community support for the schools and to provide a place where Local School Council members can get together to share information.” We propose that all schools be such as parents are proud to have their kids attend and that all kids have available the means and programs to build the assets and skills they will need for adulthood.

Our Committee core members: Chair: Nancy Baum. Members: Judy Dupont, Anika Frazier-Mohammad, Camille Hamilton-Doyle, Irene Freelain, Zoe Mikva, Julie Monberg, Gary Ossewaarde, Ismail Turay, The Reverend Larry Turpin, Julie Woestehoff.

Sister committee: Chicago Academic Games League. Chairs Judy Dupont and _____. Visit the CAGL homepage to learn how this math and life learning project is being revitalized with the University of Chicago Service Center.

 

We hope community members will want to choose a school and attend some of their meetings to show community support. The Local School Councils have many good-hearted people whose hard work deserves to be recognized by all of us. Or join the Schools Committee.

 

What we are working on early 2010:

1. A Forum /Awards Ceremony with speaker for principals, LSCs, public encouraging participation in the coming election cycle, information sharing, networking, an engaging speaker, and Kenwood Jazz Band.

2. U of Chicago Woodlawn Charter School Visit December 8th.

3. Assets Survey progress and meetings incl. possibly with Canter School

4. School(s) with probation and issues we can help on

5. Proposal for a reimbursement prize for teacher classroom purchases

6. Continued update, expansion and improvement to database for parents and creation of an assets building collaborator (what's this?).

 

Scuttlebutt and Alarms

Are "promise neighborhoods" the way to go for poverty neighborhoods, and what might be adapted here? See page about. Schools Committee idea for our neighborhood-page about.

BE SURE TO SEE IMPORTANT SCHOOL RESEARCH FINDINGS FROM U OF C CONSORTIUM AND URBAN EDUCATION INSTITUTE-
visit Organizing Schools for Improvement, UC Research Findings. And related Defining Excellence.

At the end of 2009, three local elementary schools (Shoesmith, Reavis, Kozminski) were put on probation and middle school Canter was being reviewed it for a combination of falling or non-advancing scores and failure to meet on-time and attendance (95%) standards. The scores certainly were not advancing (and many dropping for 2009), thus not meeting the objective of the school "growing" with real impact on student growth year to year. But, The new practice of comparing two current years with the two before that to get "trends" and of insisting all scores advance and being picky on this (including meaningless statistical static), as well as using the term"probation"-- which used to mean next step to closing or cleaning house, were by some called a disservice (the Herald said "staining" schools )that are trying mightily with limited resources.

So, what were the scores?
Shoesmith: ISAT reading: 2006 68.6%, 2007 59, 2008 73, 2009 63 (quite a see-saw)
Exceeding ISAT: 2006-07 11%, 2008 12.8, 2009 8.7 (is this a bump or a setback?)
ISAT exceed state stand. highest grade: 2007 10.3%, 2008 9.3, 2009 8 (consistent drop)
Attendance : 94.3 vs req'd 95%

Canter: ISAT reading: 2006 78.2, 2007 81.1, 2008 84.2, but in 2009 80.4 (does this mean stagnant?)
ISAT Math: 2006-07 73%, 2008 77.7, but 2009 a modest drop to 75.6
Science: 2006 81.6, 2007-08 73, 2009 66.4 (looks like an ongoing slide)

Reavis: ISAS Math 2006 43.3, 2007 51.7, 2008 57.4, 2009 53.5 (is this 1-year slide meaningful?)
Science: 2006 46.2, 2007 44.4, 2008 41.1, 2009 35.3 (steadily from bad to worse)
Attendance: 94.8 (nearly at the minimum).

So what are some of the schools doing about this?

Shoesmith: evaluating, finding ways to inform and impress on parents how important it is to get their kids to school, and on time (the two are related, they find), no excuses. The PAC has a "coffee and..." program for parents who watch over kids in the morning and talk to parents about attendance and upcoming activities and the school. The staff says it is aggressive with chronically absent students. There is tutoring morning and evening in math and reading.
Ismail Turay of the LSC and HPKCC Schools Committee was quoted in the Herald that there should be a collaborative to get all schools to be performing and that principals of the schools should confer on the probation challenge since the schools funnel into Canter, then Kenwood. The Kenwood Principal is seeking such meetings with the principals, suggesting on attendance what they do--have an audit committee over attendance looking every day and to address straying as soon as it starts.
The Canter principal has held planes on ways to increase preparedness for Kenwood.

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It's out, and may help us in our goal of engaging schools-programs and parents: A new CPS guide to integrating the arts (including social studies and sciences) into the curriculum and creating full engagement with arts program providers was released as of October 23. It was announced at, inter alia, the HPKCC Schools Committee September 29 2009 Networking Dinner for Schools and LSCs. For details contact artseducation@cps.k12.il.us. It's called the "Chicago Guide for Teaching and Learning in the arts."

The committee encourages parents to sign their kids up for the school lunch program-- each school's funding in part depends on this.

 

Visit these Schools and Education pages:

 

 

 

 

 

A service of Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference (email).
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