Gresham Elementary School One of Three CPS Designated for Turnarounds

Lee Edwards | As of Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Walter Q. Gresham Elementary, 8524 S. Green St., is one of three recently announced turnaround schools slated to by managed by non-profit organization, Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL) for School Year 2014–2015 (SY 14-15).
Walter Q. Gresham Elementary, 8524 S. Green St., is one of three recently announced turnaround schools slated to by managed by non-profit organization, Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL) for School Year 2014–2015 (SY 14-15).

Last week, Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) Board of Education voted in favor of “turning around” Walter Q. Gresham Elementary, Dvorak Technology Academy, and Ronald E. McNair Elementary for School Year 2014–2015 (SY 14-15).

"CPS is committed to ensuring that all of our students have access to a high-quality education and strong school leadership that will provide them the foundation necessary for academic success.” said CPS CEO Byrd-Bennett. “We do not take a decision to bring systemic change to a school lightly, but when change is in the best interest of our students, we will not waver. We will continue to work with these school communities to ensure a smooth transition that will put these students on a path to be 100 percent college-ready and 100 percent college-bound.”

As part of the turnaround, CPS enlists, Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL) to replace the current teaching staff at turnaround a school.

According to its website, AUSL, created in 2001, is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve student achievement in chronically failing schools, primarily in Chicago, through its disciplined transformation process, built on a foundation of specially trained AUSL teachers.

AUSL currently manages 29 Chicago Public Schools serving over 17,000 students and has graduated over 650 residents from AUSL’s Chicago Teacher Residency.

“We obviously want to be respective of the process and now that the board has voted we will then begin to engage the community through LSC meetings, by hosting open meetings at nearby AUSL schools and engaging the community prior to the first day of school,” said Deirdre Campbell, AUSL Communication Director.

Some parents of children who attend Gresham Elementary, 8524 S. Green St, and community members are in support of the Board decision to turn around the school.

There are parents and community members who are opposed as well, however.

“You would be hard pressed to find somebody more committed to seeing improvements from students at this school than the teachers and parents who are already there; that is the heat of our objection to the turnaround model used by AUSL,” said Matthew Luskin, an organizer for the Chicago Teacher’s Union (CTU).

“Did they even hear what the parents were asking [for]?” said Anthony Jackson, parent of 1st grader Gabriel Harris who attends Gresham. “To me, it means the Board did not consider parents at all. They did not even acknowledge that the parents took a vote on the last report card pick-up expressing our desire to keep the school as it is and the teachers remain. A lot of the children are going to be hurt, like my child, for instance.”

The Chicago Citizen Newspaper asked Campbell about the communities' mixed emotions about turning around Gresham.

“For us, it’s not about the specific communities but rather about making sure that we’re in schools that are the lowest performing in Chicago Public Schools,” said Campbell. “That’s where our focus is, to increase and improve educational outcomes for all students.”

Campbell added that once AUSL is brought in many, parents become strong advocates of the turnaround “because all parents want the best education for their children.”

For more information about AUSL visit http://auslchicago.org/ and to learn more about Chicago Public Schools vist http://www.cps.edu/Pages/home.aspx.

Chicago Public Schools serves 400,000 students in 658 schools. It is the nation’s third-largest school district.

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