Brizard Meets With Parent, Teachers At Fiske Elementary

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CPS CEO Jean Claude Brizard met with parents on Tuesday at Fiske Elementary. He is pictured here during a community newspaper rountable last June. (Photo by Thelma Sardin)
CPS CEO Jean Claude Brizard met with parents on Tuesday at Fiske Elementary. He is pictured here during a community newspaper rountable last June. (Photo by Thelma Sardin)

CHICAGO Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Chief Executive Officer Jean-Claude Brizard met with parents and teachers at John Fiske Elementary School to discuss the benefits of the Full School Day in helping prepare students to graduate college and career ready. Fiske, located at 6145 S. Ingleside Ave., was one of the 11 Full School Day Pioneer schools that stepped up last fall to provide teachers and students with the additional tools they need to help boost student achievement.

Beginning yesterday, an additional 39 schools are launching a Full School Day, including 37 charters and two CPS neighborhood schools. When combined with the 11 Pioneer schools, more than 22,000 students in Chicago will benefit from a Full School Day and be on par with their peers in other large districts across the country. Each school has worked with their teachers, students, parents, and communities to design a school day that meets the unique needs of their student body.

The Pioneer Schools full day provides students with an additional 90 minutes of instructional time to deepen their understanding of core subjects such as math, reading and science. In addition to the 90 minutes of instructional time, the Pioneer Schools have also dedicated 45 minutes for lunch and recess, giving students an opportunity to re-boot, release their energy and return to the classroom ready to learn.

Among the 11 Pioneer Schools that began in the fall, 71% of the 90 additional minutes have been spent focusing on core subjects, while 29% have been spent on enrichment, including physical education, art, music and other areas.

We know that our students need additional instruction time in front of a teacher in core subjects like reading, math and science, said Brizard. The Pioneer Schools will be the models on how we can provide our students with the high-quality education they need to become college and career ready. It is important that we obtain feedback and input from teachers and parents at these schools as we prepare for all schools in the District to implement the Full School Day for the 2012-13 year.

Fiske and other schools that started in September have already provided their students with an additional 85 hours of instructional time, which is the equivalent of 17 more days of instructional time, primarily focused on core subjects like reading, math and science.

Fiske moved to the Full School Day on September 26th and has used the additional 90 minutes to add an additional 30 minutes of instruction daily in each of three core academic subjects math, science and language arts giving students much needed additional time to deepen their understanding and excel academically. Prior to the full day, Fiske students did not receive any opportunity for physical activity and now benefit from 25 minutes of recess daily.

Studies show that the more students spend with time on task for reading, math and science, the more they understand, learn and grow academically. With a high school graduation rate of only 57% and 7.9% of 11th graders testing college ready, our children cannot afford to wait another day to get the time they need in the classroom with their teachers to boost their achievement. A recent report from the National Center on Time & Learning found that schools offering a full day consistently demonstrated at least 5 percentage points higher proficiency rates on state standardized tests in Math or English Language Arts compared to schools within their districts that did not offer a longer day.

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