He was born to a drug-addicted mother, struggled in institution and as a child was bounced between the homes of many relatives. Yet doors began to open for Shantell Hopkins four years ago immediately after he entered a new charter community substantial school in Chicago. Now he is preparing for his freshman year at Knox Institution in Galesburg, Ill., on a full-tuition scholarship from the school.
Shantell received his opportunities because of the Renaissance Schools Fund, a Chicago philanthropy started by business leaders by means of the Commercial Club of Chicago. Because 2005, the group has raised $50 million for 67 new charter and contract public school in Chicago. Six of its high school graduated their primary class this spring, and more than 90 percent with the graduates have been accepted to some two- or four-year school. By contrast, the most recent data from the Chicago Public Schools, from 2008, shows that 52 % of all graduating seniors had enrolled in institution for the following fall.
Supporters from the charter schools see the new program as an impressive model for transforming Chicago’s beleaguered neighborhood high school. But some education leaders caution that graduation prices don’t tell the complete story simply because several students still face hurdles on the road to college success.
First, as could be the case with all Chicago public schools, college enrollment rates appear only at graduating seniors who enroll in school and don’t include students who dropped out or transferred to other high schools.
For instance, there were 158 students in Shantell’s freshman class in the Chicago International Charter Schools’ Ralph Ellison campus. At his graduation in the South Side college, there have been 92.
“Clearly, you’re talking about selective retention,” said Barbara Radner, director from the Center for Urban Education at DePaul University.
Ms. Radner said she also worried that a lot of universities — not just chartered ones — were definitely becoming sophisticated about obtaining students into university but then have been not helping them to succeed in the next level.
“Are we preparing kids for college or are we preparing kids to be accepted to college?” she asked.
Whilst praising the charter schools’ success, Bernard McCune, deputy director from the Chicago school district’s Office of College and Career Preparation, claimed charter schools had greater leeway than typical public schools in weeding out underperforming students.
“At our neighborhood high schools, we have the responsibility of making certain all students receive a top quality education, and we give them that chance,” Mr. McCune said. “At the charters, they are able to do it with discretion. If students aren’t meeting their standards, they could advise that they be moved on to neighborhood high schools.”
Renaissance officials contend that students have the selection to remain with the charter college in which they are enrolled.
The six colleges that graduated classes this spring by way of the Renaissance School Fund initiative opened in 2006: Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men, Englewood Campus; two campuses of Noble Street Charter School, Rauner College Prep and Pritzker College Prep; University of Chicago Charter School, Woodlawn High School Campus; Perspectives Charter School, Calumet High School Campus; and Chicago International Charter School, Ralph Ellison campus.
Impressive college admission rates are common in the city’s selective-enrollment substantial universities and at top-performing high schools around the state. But the six charters are open-enrollment universities that accept students by way of a lottery system. Nearly all of the students are members of minorities living in poverty and are frequently the first in their families to graduate from high school.
Many of the students read well below grade level when admitted — at Urban Prep, an all-boys charter school around the South Side, only 4 percent of students was reading at grade degree as freshmen. But on average, a student attending Renaissance-financed classes from kindergarten by way of higher classes gets five far more years of instruction in core subject areas than the city’s public schools’ minimum, stated Phyllis Locket, president and chief executive of Renaissance 2010, which invested $2.6 million to commence the six high schools.
At all six campuses, there is an intensive effort to generate a “college-going culture,” and conversations about college generally start even just before the first day of college. The schools employ additional college counselors than the typical Chicago public school, take their students about the road for college tours and hold a yearlong senior course on filling out institution applications, economic aid forms and housing applications and writing entrance essays. Many schools also have longer classes days and an extended school year.
But acquiring students into college doesn’t guarantee their showing up inside the fall. According with a report in 2008 by the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago, 9 percent of students accepted to school did not enroll for causes that included financial trouble and family and work obligations.
“Every step in the way, the trouble manifests itself,” mentioned Christopher Mazzeo, associate director for policy and study for the consortium. “We lose students through the high school years. We lose students who are capable of going to college and just don’t go. And even for those students who do go to college, clearly not all of them earn a four-year college degree.”
Tim King, Urban Prep’s founder and chief executive, recounted the struggles so many of his students had endured to get to graduation— traversing neighborhoods plagued by violence, confronting homelessness and poverty. One student’s father killed his mother, as well as the student became the head of his household even though obtaining by means of school.
“These stories may well all sound super melodramatic,” Mr. King said. “But one thing that has really been tough for me to deal with is just how commonplace the hardship and tragedy is that our students need to deal with.”
Mr. King as well as other charter institution directors said it helped to develop smaller schools with rigorous academic standards and strict discipline. The schools often need four years of English, mathematics, science and social studies, and directors say they seek to hire staff members who are willing being accessible for after-school tutoring, late-night phone calls along with other support.
Charter institution leaders also emphasize that they are stepping up efforts to support students immediately after graduation by hiring full-time guidance counselors to track them in institution.
While Shantell Hopkins was at Ellison, his mother was in and out of prison for drug-related offenses and his father died. He mentioned he typically felt like an outsider as he was shuttled among relatives. Yet he mentioned he found a house at Ellison due to a supportive principal, teachers and counselors. A lot of teachers gave him their cell phone numbers. One particular even lent him a car.
“I’ll be motivated to exceed beyond even my own expectations now,” mentioned Shantell, who is seeking forward towards the liberal arts knowledge at Knox School. “My principal at Ellison, Eboni Wilson, constantly explained it’s all about breaking the cycle of what’s close to you.
“I just believe you must understand to say, ‘I want greater.’ ”