Editorial: CPS doubles down on ‘sustainable community schools.' Where are the results?

Yahoo

16 hours ago

Education is the great equalizer, and we believe everyone should have access to a good one.
So we took notice when Mayor Brandon Johnson announced late last week that the city would be nearly doubling the number of so-called sustainable community schools in the city.
What is a sustainable community school? It's a model — widely supported by teachers' unions — which turns public schools into community hubs offering services such as housing and food assistance, medical and dental care, mental health support and classes, including parenting or English for non-native speakers.
Right now, Chicago Public Schools has 20 of these schools, but the number is going up to 36 — with more to come after that. Each of these schools costs an extra $500,000 annually, so adding 16 will cost an additional $8 million next year.
You may be asking yourself why, when the district has a deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars it needs to sort out by the end of the month, that Johnson is announcing this. Well, it's simple: The new Chicago Teachers Union contract requires an additional 50 sustainable community schools by the end of its four-year term. To some degree, the district's hands are tied.
We should say here that we don't think the idea of sustainable community schools is meritless. It makes sense that low-income and disadvantaged kids may need more to succeed than just the three Rs.
But is the sustainable community school model the way? Let's look at the track record of these schools in Chicago.
Chalkbeat reported that since 2018, enrollment at the 20 schools in the program has dropped by 15%, with six of them losing more than a quarter of their students — a far steeper decline than the district as a whole. And many of these schools are among the city's worst-performing academically.
We'll allow that numbers don't tell the entire story when it comes to a program such as this one, but they're not meaningless either. And so far they're downright discouraging.
Johnson, the former CTU organizer who has spent his mayoralty attempting to make his former employer's demands reality no matter how unaffordable or questionable, doesn't think we should be considering metrics at all.
He dismisses using test scores or graduation rates to gauge success, defining the effort's worthiness instead as 'when every child has everything they need.'
Perhaps that's because the data don't support this investment. Even the most ardent public school advocate should never say something like that. Just like any other program, sustainable community schools need to justify their investment, and they do so at least in part by demonstrating measurable success.
Here's the reality. The situation with Chicago's low-income kids warrants urgent attention. Among low-income CPS students, just 22% are proficient in reading, 12% in math, and nearly half miss 10% or more school days. Those numbers cry out for meaningful solutions.
Improving this woeful reality is challenging, and schools aren't well-positioned to be everything to everyone.
The best thing schools can do is help foster stability. An environment of reassuring routines, predictable interactions and secure relationships helps children feel safe and ready to learn.
Here are some extra school services that seem to work.
One-on-one or small-group tutoring, especially in the early grades, provide some of the strongest evidence for boosting achievement. In Mississippi, intensive early-literacy tutoring, among other reforms, helped raise fourth-grade reading scores to above the national average. CPS has made strides with its Tutor Corps program and Tutoring Chicago help, but more is needed.
Before- and after-school programs, summer learning and extracurriculars boost attendance, engagement and outcomes. And pairing students with consistent adult mentors (through Big Brothers Big Sisters, for example) improves graduation rates and reduces disciplinary incidents.
These add-on services boost learning — but only with a solid academic foundation; without it, they risk distraction over results.
Based on the CTU contract, CPS doesn't have a choice — it has to move forward with these sustainable community schools. If CPS' own data showed these schools were moving the needle academically, this investment could be justified — but so far, that hasn't happened. We're not convinced spending more and expanding on this model is the answer Chicago kids need.
Schools can connect families to outside help, but they cannot become the housing authority, the health department and the social services office without sacrificing their core mission: teaching children to read, write and think critically. When schools try to be everything to everyone, they risk doing nothing well.
So the jury is out on sustainable community schools. Supporters of the concept, including the mayor, should focus on delivering results for students rather than defining success in terms of how many new CTU members are employed.
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