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
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