INTRODUCTION
Continuing in the spirit of positive change established by the 1988 School Reform Act, Clemente is about to embark on a new enterprise called Clemente 2001. The inspiration for this ambitious project has as its source the Four Point Program developed and approved by the Local School Council (See Appendix). Our school wants to reach out and enhance its partnership with the community. We believe that by doing this, our school community (students, parents, and staff) will develop its potential to the degree required by the demands and realities of the twenty-first century.
What follows is a detailed description of the aforementioned enterprise. We strongly believe that your input and active participation are critical to the success of this endeavor. We look forward to working together with you, in the spirit of educational reform. Ideally, it should be the responsibility of every member of the community to help in the educational process of our youth. It is through the education of our youngsters that this community will ensure itself a prosperous future and preserve its precious and unique multicultural character.
CLEMENTE 2001:
MOVING INTO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
Vision
Clemente will create an appropriate educational foundation that prepares its students to live and work in the twenty-first century. Clemente will accomplish this vision through a four-year plan called Clemente 2001. This plan will build and sustain a dynamic working relationship with our school’s larger community, and will aggressively integrate computer technology into its learning environment. This educational venture sees Clemente as an integral and indispensable part of the surrounding community, not simply as a school existing in isolation. Considered as an asset and benefactor, as a resource and facilitator, Clemente will act to empower all those with whom it works–students, parents, teachers, and members of the community.
Philosophy
The Clemente 2001 philosophy will be based on seven principles:
1. High school is a bridge to the future and every member of the school’s larger community is responsible for sustaining this vital structure.
2. High expectations provide a climate of high achievement.
3. Learning is most effective when the staff is committed to develop and improve basic and higher-order skills and students have opportunities to make connections between skills, content and the world of work.
4. Student responsibility builds self-esteem.
5. Teachers work most effectively in collaboration.
6. The school is a vital part of the community and it is in the mutual interest and betterment of both to have an interrelated focus of resources.
7. The school should be a safe and inviting place for students and parents to explore the world.
8. Technology is a necessary tool which must be incorporated into a school’s learning environment and should be used to link the school and community in the educational process.
School and Community Assessment of Educational Needs
Roberto Clemente Community Academy is a community high school serving 2,420 students (7/10/96) from the areas of West Town, Humboldt Park, and Logan Square. More than 85% of the student population is Hispanic, 11% is African-American, 2% is Asian and 1% is white. Approximately 75% of the student population is at the poverty level. A majority of the students’ parents did not complete high school. The employed working force in the community is on the increase. Newly rehabilitated businesses and housing are a sign of economic growth, particularly the Paseo Boricua Economic Plan, the new sports complex, the New Library, and the Wilbur Wright Vocational Technical Center. The community residents have worked for political representation and social and cultural institutions, all of which have a positive working relationship with the school. There are several mental and physical health care providers in the community.
Clemente High School is housed in an eight-story building. The school is organized into four houses (schools within a school)–one for each of the four years of high school. Each house is contained on a separate floor with its own cafeteria. Each house consists of the students of the same grade, an assistant principal, a dean, two counselors, aides, attendance personnel, security personnel, and parent volunteers. The houses are designed to be predominantly self-contained units with some inter-house interaction. Some activities, clubs, and organizations are exclusive to individual houses and some are school-wide. This enables the students to develop a class identity as well as a school identity.
Over the past three years, Clemente has an average attendance rate of 78%, a mobility rate{1} ranging from 28.9% to 36.4%, and a retention rate{2} ranging from 37% to 43.6%. In the 1994-95 school year, the failure rate was 2.1% due to true failures and 21.8% due to high absences, reflecting an overall passing rate of 71%. The number of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students ranged from 25.8% to 29.6%. Based on 10th grade IGAP results, approximately 80% of the students are below state standards in reading and math. The trend over the last four years reflects a decrease in the number of students who meet or exceed the state standards. The statistics show a positive correlation between the increase in the percentage of low income and the mobility rate and an increase in the percentage of students not meeting state standards.
Accomplishments to Date
Since 1989, when school reform was instituted at Clemente, our school has been able to develop the following:
•Multicultural Curriculum
•Student Work Initiative
•After-School Program
•Expanded Non-Tuition Summer School Program
•Multicultural Enrichment Programs & Activities:
Cimarrón, Cinco De Mayo Festivities, Fresh Start, GATE: Mural Projects, Son Del Barrio, African-American History Month commemoration, Vietnamese cultural activities, educational trips to Mexico and Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican Week activities, etc.
•School Within a School
•Peer Mediation Program
•Parent Mentorship Program
•University Without Walls
•Building Opportunity Program
•Teacher/Staff Development Programs:
Summer institutes, DePaul-Clemente partnership, Cohort Program with Northern Illinois University, etc.
•Access to the Internet and Nova Net
Building upon these successes and addressing new needs, members of the school community have identified the following priorities: preparing for the IGAP, increasing student motivation, responding to the needs of nonattending and under attending students, increasing freshman achievement, and increasing parental involvement. These priorities are reflected in the School Improvement Plan goals:
•improvement of reading, writing and communication across the curriculum;
•improvement of mathematical, computational and critical thinking skills; and
•the affective development to support achievement and self-esteem.
Implementation of the Schoolwide Program Design would address these priorities so as to enable all students to benefit. These programs include computer learning centers, reduced class size, staff in-service, parent training, school community identification, summer school, and an Interactive Math Program. A technology facilitator is included and is essential to the coordination of the computer centers and staff development.
Action Plan
1. Homework Net Sites
In response to the homework mandate by the Board of Education, Clemente plans to form a partnership with the community by establishing computerized Homework Net Sites (HNS) at various agencies, businesses, and organizations in the community. The program will be organized in the following manner:
•HNS will be on-line, with the Clemente Media Center/Library being the connecting source.
•There will be HNS on each of the house floors at Clemente.
•Teachers will enter their syllabi and homework assignments at Clemente.
•Students will access this information at an HNS of their choice in the community.
•School and HNS will be open in the evenings and weekends for student use.
•School staff will help manage and monitor the HNS on a voluntary basis.
The plan will also foster:
a. computer literacy,
b. positive relationships or mentorships with agencies, companies, and/or individual community members, and
•percentage of utilization by students and teachers,
c. possible future internships or employment.
The HNS will provide Clemente administration with the means to evaluate the quality of teacher assignments and their adherence to the state and local educational goals and objectives. The evaluation of the HNS will be based on:
•positive retention rate for the 1996-97 Freshman class, and
•standardized test scores.
This program will be available for all Clemente students; however, the Freshmen will be the observed group for research and evaluation purposes.
2. Teacher Institute/Resource Center
The second component of Clemente 2001 is to develop a Teacher Institute/Resource Center at Clemente. The overall goal is to improve the quality of teaching by providing teachers with the proper environment for them to function as the rightful intellectuals they are. The objective will be to utilize and develop the expertise of the faculty to meet the changing demands in education. Each department will have a master teacher who will conduct in-services, serve as a human resource primarily to promote reading, writing and math across the curriculum, and share innovative teaching methods. The resource center will supply not only materials, supplies and teaching aides, but also resources to challenge the teachers with new ideas, concepts, strategies and methodologies.
The Master Teacher program is already in its initial stages under the direction of Dr. Barbara Radner and DePaul University. Lead teachers have been identified and are receiving training.
3. Parent Institute
The third component of Clemente 2001 is the enhancement of the Clemente Parent Institute. Increased parental involvement is a cornerstone of academic improvement. The Parent Institute also recognizes the school as an institution to benefit all members of the community. This will be a center for learning, teaching, sharing and training. The vision of the Parent Institute is very broad in scope:
•Make parents feel welcome at the school.
•Teach parents to be helpers in the educational process.
•Teach parents to become computer literate.
•Inform parents about their rights and responsibilities.
•Provide evening school for parents as both student and teacher with an emphasis on utilizing the expertise and skills parents have from life experiences.
•Develop basic reading, writing, math, and communication skills among parents.
•Continue and expand the parent mentorship program. The parents will work in conjunction with the division teacher to make division a more meaningful time in which to organize and reflect on a daily basis. Clemente parent mentors are currently trained by DePaul University.
4. School-to-Work Program
The fourth component of Clemente 2001 further involves a partnership with the community in developing a school-to-work program. The purpose of this program is to assist students in preparing for future jobs by giving them timely and accurate career information along with the opportunity to gain high levels of academic and technical skills. School-to-work seeks to develop a system that enables students to move sequentially through various educational programs to reach their occupational goal. The frontline workers of today must possess not only technical skills but also a complementary set of academic skills that allows them to be adaptable and flexible in the workforce. These changes call for a new education mission, to prepare all students for further learning and productive employment.
The outcomes of a school-to-work program will provide secondary students with three education/career alternatives:
•attaining a high school diploma or an alternative diploma or certificate;
•going on to post-secondary education to continue developing high levels of academic and technical skills; and
•entering the world of work with the option of pursuing further education if desired.{3}
The business community would play an instrumental role in determining what the school needs to teach for employability skills and sites for students to do their internship. The community will also be encouraged to employ Clemente students and services, especially those who are part of a vocational or service-oriented class at Clemente.
CLEMENTE 2001:
MOVING INTO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
July 24, 1996
Chicago, Illinois
FOOTNOTES********************************
{1} The number of students who enroll in or leave a school during the school year.
{2} Compares the number of students who enrolled in ninth grade with the number from that group who actually graduate in four years.
{3}AVA Guide to the School-To-Work Opportunities Act
