Strategic Learning Initiatives: New Learning Process Helped Make Chicago Public School Number One In Reading Gain

Chicago IL - The Willa Cather Elementary School, is rated Chicago's number one school in reading improvement for the past school year out of 481 Chicago public elementary schools. Cather showed reading gains at a rate of increase that is nearly seven times faster than the City average. At the heart of the school's success is its work with the Focused Instruction Process (FIP). FIP brings together Strategic Learning Initiatives' (SLI) fifteen years of experience in Chicago with some of the most successful school reform efforts from across the nation.

Strategic Learning Initiatives is a Chicago-based nonprofit focused on closing the achievement gap in urban schools, particularly in low income areas. Its approach is built around teams that focus on shared leadership, professional development, and parent engagement. Dr. John Simmons, president of Strategic Learning Initiatives, notes that "The Focused Instruction Process is a process, not a program. While programs come and go, a process can be continuously improved and adapted by the teachers, parents and administrators. It can be adjusted to meet the particular needs of different schools and it is low cost per school. " The Focused Instruction Process is a data driven process in which teachers and students get results back the next day on classroom observations and teacher-selected assignments, rather than relying on once a year statewide testing. Teachers become less isolated by attending regularly scheduled meetings with their grade level teams to discuss "what's working" and "what needs improvement". A shared instruction calendar and input into the shared assessment tools across the school and network also provide common ground. And, SLI's parent engagement team, winner of the for the past three years, offers parents the tools (in Spanish or English) to provide support to their children at home through a year long series of workshops.

Cather teacher Barbara Relerford explains, "FIP was so successful in our school, with its focus on reading, that we used aspects of the strategies in other subject areas as well, such as science and math." Located in the West Garfield Park neighborhood on the City's West Side, Cather is also number one with its composite score gains which combine reading, math and science, all measured by the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT).

Congressman Danny K. Davis visited one of the FIP schools in his Congressional District. He had the opportunity to hear from a third-grade boy about his struggle with one week's lesson, his opportunity to get extra help in the tutoring group when he didn't do so well, and his vow to get into the enhancement group in the following week by working even harder in class.

As a former Chicago Public School teacher himself, Rep. Davis is working to close the achievement gap in schools across the nation. "I'm impressed with our progress in Chicago and haven't seen this kind of progress in any other urban area in the country. I am committed to bringing the Chicago model to other cities. Strategic Learning Initiatives acts as a highly effective resource for schools. Cather staff, students and parents, plus the results that they have achieved are a model for the nation."

Cather, a K-8 school, is part of a network of five elementary schools which volunteered to work with Strategic Learning Initiatives for four years to implement the Focused Instruction Process. The network schools, in their first year of participation, showed reading gains on the average per school that were twice as fast as the CPS elementary schools citywide.

Cather's ISAT reading score increased 12.5 percentage points from 35.2 in 2006 to 47.7 in 2007. The citywide average for reading increased 1.8 percentage points from 59.1 to 60.9. (The CPS average is based on all the students, regardless of schools, while the network average is the school average not taking into account the different number of students at each school. The difference between the two is minimal.)

Cather Principal Hattie King described what happened as a "complete turnaround." She explained what is making the difference in her school:

"When I started here we were in the fourth year of restructuring, on probation, and ready to be reconstituted or closed. We realized that we had to prescribe a plan that would address those problems. And we needed to act fast."

"Strategic Learning Initiatives' Focused Instruction Process provided a framework for what we knew we had to do. This meant diagnosing the ills in terms of students; looking at their assessments, seeing what they needed and where they were falling short, and then providing a plan which targeted instruction for groups of kids."

"We were not only trying to get a plan for differentiating the instruction for different students, but also for the teachers. We provided professional development to guide the teachers. We wanted to make best practices routine."

SOURCE: The Willa Cather Elementary School