From outside to inside schools. Logan Square group lobbied for new buildings, now works to improve classrooms
- Author / organization: Williams, Debra. Catalyst Chicago
- October 26, 2008 Added by Фомина Елена Юрьевна Views: 4901
- Topics: School Community Partnerships
- Document type: Best practices
At the Logan Square Neighborhood Association they believe that creating the strong connection between the parents and the teachers helps break down barriers between the community and schools, as well as enabling students to achieve academically.
Logan Square Neighborhood Association, a nonprofit, multi-issue, grassroots community organization which started in Chicago during the early 1990’s, understands that creating and maintaining relationships between schools and communities is essential in achieving their mission “to ensure that the community is an excellent place to live, work, play, raise children, run a business, and worship.” They believe that creating the strong connection between the parents and the teachers helps break down barriers between the community and schools, as well as enabling students to achieve academically. LSNA is a lead partner for a series of community schools in its neighborhood as part of the Chicago Community Schools Initiative.
When it comes to forging solid relationships between communities and
schools, Logan Square Neighborhood Association has it all figured out.
Its roster of programs includes classroom mentoring, in which
parents assist teachers in the classroom; one-on-one tutoring by
parents of struggling students in benchmark grades; a “literacy
ambassadors” initiative that sends teams of parents and teachers on
home visits to teach literacy skills; community centers that offer
programs for children and adults; and a teacher preparation program,
called Grow Your Own, that has helped 25 community residents become
bilingual teachers and sparked the creation of a similar statewide
initiative. (See related story)
“It is a model that not [only] gets parents active in schools, but
breaks down barriers between the community and schools, helps schools
and builds on parent strengths,” says Chris Brown, who co-authored a
case study of the organization in 2002. (Brown is now the director of
education programs at LISC/Chicago, a national nonprofit redevelopment
group.)
In 2000, LSNA won the Chicago Community Trust James Brown IV Award
for Community Service; in 2005, the group won a national Leadership for
a Changing World award from the Ford Foundation. The Southwest
Organizing Project, a grassroots group in Chicago Lawn, is seeking to
replicate LSNA’s approach.
LSNA’s success got a jump-start in the early 1990s, with the
election of the first local school councils. “All of a sudden, we had a
base of people talking about education,” says Nancy Aardema, the
executive director of LSNA for the last 21 years. Foremost in their
minds, she adds, was increasing parent involvement and relieving
overcrowding—a long-standing concern in schools with large Latino
enrollment, like those in Logan Square.
So the group gathered parents, local school councils and school
administrators from Avondale, Monroe and Darwin elementary schools, and
successfully petitioned CPS to build Logandale and Ames middle schools;
redraw attendance boundaries for Monroe and Darwin; and build additions
at other schools.
Buoyed by its early success, LSNA
began to look deeper, exploring ways to improve what was happening
inside classrooms. The change in strategy was sparked when community
stakeholders—churches, block clubs, social service agencies, local
leaders and businesses—came up with a holistic plan for neighborhood
revitalization that stressed the importance of school/community
collaboration.
To bring parents into the school, LSNA launched the parent mentor
program. Funston Principal Sally Acker (now retired) came up with the
idea out of frustration with her students’ lack of academic progress.
“It occurred to me that if you want to change the child, you have to
change the family,” Acker says. If mothers were trained to work as
classroom aides, she reasoned, they would not only feel more connected
to the school, but learn first-hand the work that goes into educating
children.
Another grassroots group, Community Organizing and Family Issues
(known as COFI), trained stay-at-home moms, focusing on raising
self-esteem and awareness of the contributions that they could make in
the home and at school.
The initiative grew—from a handful of parents at Funston in 1994 to
132 mentors at nine schools last year—and proved beneficial in other
ways. When parents who weren’t involved in the school complained about
something at LSC meetings, the parent mentors stood up for the teachers
and the school.
“I loved it,” says Acker. “The parents who worked here told the
others, ‘You have no idea what is going on in this school and how hard
it is to do the work here.’”
Trust between teachers and parents grew. Teachers learned that
parents were real assets to them, and developed an appreciation for the
culture of the community. Moms who had never been active in their
communities boosted their self-confidence and learned how to help
children who were struggling academically.
Later, LSNA created a tutoring program, where parents work
one-on-one with students who are failing in the benchmark grades. Last
year, there were 13 tutors; this year, there will be 24.
OER Associates, an independent research group founded by the
College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago,
completed an evaluation of the parent tutor program last year,
comparing students who were mentored with students who were not. OER
found that students who were tutored had slightly better skills in
areas such as alphabet recognition, word recognition and vocabulary
development.
A community survey found that what residents most wanted
in schools were after-school programs, for themselves and their
children. LSNA stepped in, designing centers tailored with services
that the neighborhood wants.
At Funston, the focus is on serving adults with GED preparation and
adult literacy classes. At Brentano, the focus is on children, with
programs such as art, music and dance.
“They are not cookie-cutter centers,” says Joanna Brown, LSNA’s director of education organizing.
The centers are staffed by parents who have participated in other LSNA ventures.
“As a principal, you are involved in a lot of organizations and a
lot of them were a lot of talk,” says Acker. “But LSNA listened and
acted. I trusted them or I would not have opened my school up to so
many new things. They made a huge different in the community.”
Full story see at http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/news/index.php?item=2462&cat=23.
Imprint
By Debra Williams // Catalyst Chicago? http://www.catalyst-chicago.org. September, 2008. Looking Outside the Classroom... October 16, 2008 Vol. V, No. 17. Community Schools Online. If you wish to subscribe, register at ccs@iel.org.