Audubon

Prescott

Erie

LaSalle II

Fulton

Catalyst (Howland)

Catalyst(Circle Rock)

Erikson Institute New Schools Project Data brief for 2011–12

Participating schools and locationsNew Schools Project: A PreK–3rd initiative

The New Schools Project partners with Chicago

Public Schools to promote high-quality early education,

PreK–3rd grade.

The project targets five key elements of PreK–3rd:

• Caring, inclusive classroom learning communities

• High-quality teaching that is intellectually challenging

• Responsive practices and comprehensive curricula that

support the development of the whole child, including

the social-emotional skills necessary for high levels of

learning

• Continuous assessment to guide teaching and learning

• Family and cultural connections

We emphasize the alignment of all five elements from

PreK through third grade.

The New Schools Project professional development approach

The New Schools Project provides coordinated profes-

sional development supports that increase early educa-

tors’ knowledge and teaching skills and build strong

PreK–3rd professional learning communities. A facilita-

tor serves onsite at each partner school to provide sup-

ports including the following:

• Formal professional development

• Classroom observations

• Co-teaching to model new practices

• Teacher coaching

• Co-facilitation of grade-level and cross-grade-level

teams to build PreK–3rd communities of practice

• Consultation for administrators

“We are very fortunate to have New Schools Project support. It’s an invaluable resource for the PreK–3 team!”

—Teacher, New Schools Project partner school

John Audubon Elementary School 3500 N. Hoyne Avenue

Catalyst–Circle Rock Charter 5608 W. Washington Boulevard

Erie Elementary Charter School 1405 N. Washtenaw Avenue

Robert Fulton Elementary School 5300 S. Hermitage Avenue

Catalyst–Howland Charter 1616 S. Spaulding Avenue

LaSalle II World Language Academy 1148 N. Honore Avenue

William Prescott Elementary School 1632 W. Wrightwood Avenue

2 New Schools Project | Data Brief 2011–12

Who are New Schools Project’s teachers?

More than 130 teachers, teacher assistants, and content

specialists received intensive professional develop-

ment support. Teachers had an average of 8.7 years of

experience. Almost two-thirds of teachers had advanced

degrees. New teachers with less than 3 years of expe-

rience made up about 21 percent of the New Schools

Project participants.

Teachers by race

Asian 3%

Two or moreraces 3%

White55%

AfricanAmerican

18%

Hispanic21%

Teacher education

Bachelor’sdegree38%

Master’sdegree

or higher62%

Who are New Schools Project’s students?

In 2011–12, the New Schools Project served more

than 1,500 PreK–3rd grade students enrolled in racially

and linguistically diverse partner schools in Chicago.

A large majority of these students were from low-income

communities.

Students by race

Two or more races 2%

Asian 1%

Hispanic30%

AfricanAmerican

52%

White15%

Students by income

LowIncome

78%

Other22%

“I learned SO much in just this year. What a great team of educators to work with through our New Schools Project partnership!”

—Teacher, New Schools Project partner school

“My facilitator continues to provide the best professional development I’ve had in 14 years of teaching.”

—Teacher, New Schools Project partner school

3 New Schools Project | Data Brief 2011–12

What professional development did the New Schools Project provide?

School-based support to teachers

New Schools Project facilitators provided more than

1,300 hours of professional development support to

teachers.

The majority of this support was provided through

one-on-one interaction between the facilitator and

teacher, including coaching, classroom observations,

and co-teaching.

Facilitators also helped lead team meetings, promot-

ing the alignment of learning expectations, curriculum,

instruction, and assessments across PreK–3rd.

Observation23%

Coaching34%

Formal PDsessions 14%

Leadership/team meetings 19%

Co-teaching or modeling 10%

Content of school-based teacher support

The majority of professional development support to

teachers focused on high-quality teaching and building

the classroom community and social skills needed for

children to learn at challenging levels.

Formal professional development sessions also

addressed other elements of high quality PreK–3rd,

including curricular alignment and assessment.

PreK–3 curriculumalignment 9%

Childdevelopment 7%

High-qualityteaching

63%

Family-culturalconnections 2%

Classroomcommunity

19%

How did the New Schools Project support school administrators?

New Schools Project facilitators spent 13 percent of

their time providing support to administrators and other

school leaders.

Facilitators provided consultation regarding PreK–

3rd curriculum, teaching practices, assessment, and

cross-grade alignment.

Support to administrators

The majority of support to administrators focused on

supporting lead literacy teachers, reading coaches, and

other content leaders regarding PreK–3rd practices.

Supporting lead literacy teachers, reading coaches, and other content leaders 70%

Consulting with principals and assistant principals 18%

Supporting administrator collaboration with teachers 12%

“The Erikson partnership has been extremely beneficial this year. I feel as though I have significantly grown as an educator because of the support that I have received from this program.”

“I am eternally grateful to New Schools Project. They authentically care about student academic learning.”

—Teachers, New Schools Project partner schools

4 New Schools Project | Data Brief 2011–12

What network-wide activities did the New Schools Project support?

The New Schools Project supplemented school-based

support with network-wide PreK–3rd professional devel-

opment activities.

Summer workshops

Seventy-five teachers participated in summer

professional development workshops to prepare for

the 2011–2012 school

year. Topics included

balanced literacy,

intellectual rigor in

reading comprehension,

and PreK–3rd

curriculum alignment.

Network conferences

Eighty teachers and administrators participated in NSP

conferences. These included two events:

An Evening of PreK–3rd Learning focused on the use of high-quality informational text to promote young children’s comprehension and content knowledge.

A Celebration of PreK–3rd Learning, a culminating conference, featured instructional presentations and professional sharing by teachers in the New Schools Project network.

Did the New Schools Project benefit teachers’ development?

Perceived value of supports by teachers

Teachers rated how valuable each type of support was

for their development as a teacher during 2011–12.

A large majority of teachers rated all types of support

as valuable or extremely valuable.

Coaching

Professional development

Team meetings

Co-teaching or modeling

Observations

93%

93%

84%

83%

81%

Valuable or extremely valuable Not valuable or minimally valuable

Did students make academic gains?

Partner schools that have participated in the New

Schools Network for three years or more showed acceler-

ated gains on the ISAT.

On average, third graders gained 14 percentage

points in their composite reading and math scores from

2009 to 2012 as compared to the Chicago Public School

district average of 6 percentage points.

Mean ISAT composite scores

Percent meets or exceeds

65

67

69

71

73

75

77

81

83

Chicago Public Schools New Schools Project

2009 2010 2011 2012

New Schools Project 451 North LaSalle StreetChicago, IL 60654-4510www.erikson.edu

How did the project contribute to the broader dialogue about PreK–3rd reforms?

Policy Forum

In February 2012, New Schools hosted “High-Quality

PreK–3rd in the Age of Common Core” in collaboration

with Erikson’s Herr Research Center for Children and

Social Policy. At the forum, a group of more than ninety

researchers, educators, and community representatives

grappled with the appropriate meaning of educational

rigor in PreK–3rd grade.

Speakers presented diverse views on how best to inte-

grate support for key aspects of children’s development,

such as executive functioning, interpersonal relation-

ships, and academic success.

These speakers included Cybele Raver, New York

University; Charles Payne, University of Chicago;

Gillian McNamee, Jie-Qi Chen, and Sarah Dennis,

Erikson Institute; and John Price, Stephen Zrike, and

Jennifer Cheatham, Chicago Public Schools.

Conference presentations

New Schools Project facilitators and faculty advanced

new ideas and shared lessons learned about PreK–3rd

through an array of presentations. Highlights from

national conferences and regional symposia:

• Maxwell, C., Dennis, S., & Mitra, S. High Quality

PreK–3rd in the Age of Rigor, June 2012, National

Institute for Early Childhood Professional

Development, Indianapolis.

• McNamee, G. Common Core State Standards and Early

Childhood, October 2011, Business and Professional

People for the Public Interest, Chicago.

• Fleming, J., et al., February, 2012, Imagining them-

selves as readers and writers: Using urban children’s

literature to improve literacy learning outcomes for

children in city schools, American Association of

Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) Annual

Meeting, Chicago, IL.

• Maxwell, C. PreK–3rd Grade: Building an Aligned,

High-Quality Foundation for Children’s Educational

Success, April 2012, The Northland Foundation Early

Childhood Summit, Duluth, MN.

For further information, please contact

Chris Maxwell, Ph.D., Director

New Schools Project

Erikson Institute

(312) 893-7204

cmaxwell@erikson.edu

Funding for the New Schools Project, 2011–12, was generously provided by

Chicago Public Schools

Joyce Foundation

Robert R. McCormick Foundation

Perkins Hunter Foundation Fund at The Chicago Community Trust

Polk Bros Foundation

W. Clement & Jesse V. Stone Foundation