The Burnham 2.0 Plan

The Burnham Group recently released a report entitled Burnham 2.0, which focuses on specific categories of educational reform in Illinois. This report has the near-term goal of strengthening the Illinois Race to the Top application.

Burnham 2.0 calls for student outcomes to be the basis upon which all Illinois schools are judged. Notable is the urging for school growth to become a metric for determining school success. The Burnham Group fully recognizes the need to boost the performance of weak schools and states that school success needs to be defined more fully, that the State Board of Education should improve a teacher assessment program as well as evaluation of instruction, and that operational and instructional be the basis of decisions regarding our state’s educational system.

The 22 page report was signed by several names in the educational arena, including Ron Huberman, State Representative Roger Eddy, Miguel Delvalle and myself.

The release of this report is cause for celebration. While we all come from greatly varied political backgrounds and leanings, our belief in educational reform and our passion for giving Illinois students the best possible future brought us together for this cause. We all believe education needs to have the student at its center.

-Sylvia Ewing

Independent authorizer article in Focal Point magazine

Written by Veronica Aguilar, soon to be a senior at
Noble's Pritzker College Prep

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

These are momentous words spoken by philosopher Lao Tzu. A recent article was written in Focal Point magazine, a Chicago international Charter School publication, titled “A Fresh Perspective: Why Illinois needs an independent charter school authorizer.” Written by Marvin Smith, Policy Manager here at INCS, this article successfully illustrates the significant need for an independent charter school authorizer in Illinois. Establishing an independent authorizer in Illinois will be that single step towards a journey of prosperous charters.

Charter schools are enabling Illinois scholars' to achieve academically. This article illustrates how having an independent authorizer would allow for the expansion of more schools to serve more students who need them.

Here's what an independent authorizer would do:

1. Suppoert current, active and effective authorizers
2. Assist communities with school districts working to improve local authorizing activity
3. Lead the authorizing effort in inactive communities

To further the success of high-quality charter schools in Illinois, INCS' proposes that Illinois' independent authorizer be composed of a board of appointed members: “education experts with responsibility for approving charters, overseeing school performance, and renewing charters.” The journey of a thousand miles can only get easier with a step in the right direction: a statewide independent authorizer in Illinois.

To learn more about this, as well as a background on authorizing and potential Illinois roadblocks, check out the full article here.

Charter Up! Up and Away!

Photo by Anna Bonick

Thank you to all that came out to yesterday’s fourth annual Charter Up! Recognition Ceremony! We had a wonderful event at the Garfield Park Conservatory with a roomful of charter supporters from across Illinois. Nearly 120 school leaders, community members and leaders, students, teachers and administrators, and principals from in-district schools throughout Chicago came to celebrate the honorees and to learn about these successful programs. We heard from guest speaker Jesse Ruiz, chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education about the impact charters have had across the state, and school leaders also learned from INCS very own Steve Zemelman how they can adapt and replicate these innovative programs at their owns schools or partner with a charter school to exchange ideas and work together through the Roadmaps Initiative. Also, a special thanks to CICS Ralph Ellison’s fantastic a capella gospel choir who helped close the event on a “high note”!

Be sure to read our Press Release about the event and learn more about the programs here!

SB 612 Passes! Charter Schools Double in Illinois!

Monumental news for the charter school movement! Last night, SB 612, also known as the Charter School Reform Act of 2009, passed the Illinois Legislative Assembly in a 45-10 vote. This means that we will now have 40 new charter schools available in Chicago and 15 in downstate Illinois, with 5 new schools allocated for drop-out recovery!

This remarkable feat could not have been accomplished without the exemplary efforts of everyone in the charter school family.

“We owe a great debt of gratitude to the charter school parents who wrote letters to their legislators, who traveled down to Springfield for Charter School Lobby Days, who spoke at events and rallies and who spread the word about charter schools to other parents and friends,” said Carlos Perez, INCS’ Director of Public Policy.

We are indebted also to all the teachers, administrators, students and community members who make charter schools the best schools they can be – innovative, high-quality, community-focused schools that are tailored to meet the needs of all students and to prepare them to succeed not just locally, but globally.

There is much celebration ahead, but with great success also comes hard work. We must continue to strive, and to provide ALL students the opportunity to attend a great school, despite where they live or what challenges they face. Each and all of you who are a part of the charter school movement deserve credit for the long, hard slog that led to the historic vote in the Illinois General Assembly yesterday and I am so proud to say that Illinois is the first state in the nation to respond to President Obama's call for more charter schools as part of his vision for a strong national economy and his goal that the United States return to the world's top spot for college enrollment.

This is wonderful news, but it has been a long and bumpy ride. As a result of this work literally tens of thousands of families in Illinois will have opportunities they could not have otherwise obtained. And teachers will have real choices for the kind of public school environment they want to work in.

~Elizabeth Evans, Executive Director