The Area 14 team serves 27 schools in the Greater Grand Crossing, Englewood, West Englewood, Auburn-Gresham, Park Manor, and Chatham communities. In 2008, only five of our twenty-seven schools achieved AYP according to the Federal Improvement status guidelines. At the start of the 09-10 school year, two successive years of ISAT data show one Englewood-Gresham Network school with negative value added in reading and three schools with negative value added in math. By contrast, one Englewood-Gresham Network school has demonstrated positive value added in both reading and math for two years. Based on spring 2009 ISAT, approximately half our students are meeting or exceeding state standards – 54.1% in reading, 57.7% in math and 45.1% in science. Twenty-three of twenty-seven area schools are on CPS academic probation. In our continuing effort to raise student achievement and improve educational opportunities for our young people, Englewood-Gresham Network embraces our district’s performance management (PM) focus, routinely reflecting on and targeting outcomes and strategies to enhance teaching and learning. Weekly PM activities have helped principals engage teachers in more meaningful, data-driven discussions to improve academic outcomes.
Englewood-Gresham Network schools have adopted a balanced literacy framework that implements mini-lessons and readers’ and writers’ workshop and incorporates whole group, small group, and individualized instruction. Teachers use running record assessments – Strategic Teaching and Evaluation of Progress (STEP) for K-3 and Benchmark Assessment System (BAS) for gr. 4-8 – to inform their instruction so they can provide customized support to address students’ varied learning needs.
Since 2008, math and science have also been an area focus. All schools in Englewood-Gresham Network are part of CMSI and are using one or more of the following curricula: seven are in Math Trailblazers, eight in Connected Mathematics, twenty-three in Everyday Math and twenty–three in Math Thematics. No formal assessments monitor math and science instruction in Englewood-Gresham Network other than embedded end-of-unit assessments in the math workbooks.
The teacher turnover rate in Englewood-Gresham Network is the lowest in three years. In connection with this, student attendance is rising – currently at 94.3%.
