Kudos for Elev8 in Catalyst Chicago!

Exerpt is from "Three Communities Begin to Shape a Vision for Promise Neighborhoods" by Rebecca Harris/Catalyst Chicago.

Chicago Lawn: Climate for success

“Questions around educational excellence” are central to Chicago Lawn’s plans for a Promise Neighborhood, says Southwest Organizing Project’s executive director, Jeff Bartow.

The group is working with the Consortium on Chicago School Research to learn about what makes for successful schools – and create the right conditions in Chicago Lawn.

One idea is to expand Voices of Youth in Chicago Education (VOYCE), a program at GageParkHigh School that enlists young people in the fight to improve school achievement.

Another cornerstone program that could be integral to any plans is Elev8, a program for middle school students that provides holistic services similar to those of the Harlem Children’s Zone. In Chicago Lawn, Elev8 includes an extended school day program and health clinic at Marquette Elementary, as well as academic mentoring provided by parent leaders. (Elev8 also operates in Logan Square; both programs are funded by LISC.

Rabbi Joshua Salter, a community organizer with SWOP, attended a three-day practitioners’ institute offered through the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York City. While he was there, he became convinced that charter schools might be a solution for Chicago Lawn children. Union restrictions on working hours might make it difficult for existing schools “to do something more comprehensive,” Salter says.

“If schools would make the changes necessary… we would be in support of that,” Salter says. “(But) the systems in place right now don’t support a 21st-century education.”

His vision: students would study a rigorous, “Winnetka or Northbrook type of curriculum.”

Salter also was inspired by the BabyCollege.

“We’d have to create a preschool geared toward targeted children age zero to 3,”  Salter says. “It can be done, but it costs a lot of money.”

Southwest Organizing Project has not decided whether it would open charter schools or focus on Chicago Lawn’s existing public schools, Bartow says. For prenatal programs, “we would have to find people who do it well, and work with them to develop a program that fit our area.”

Even given the new ideas he encountered in Harlem, Salter says much of the emphasis will be on expanding existing programs. The grant “would only help us do on a grander scale, what we do now.”

Read the whole article on Catalyst Chicago's Website