Phyllis Lockett, the founding president and CEO of New Schools for Chicago (NSC), a venture philanthropy organization that invests millions in the growth of top-performing charter schools, knows today the kind of life-changing course public education can have on a child’s future.
“We know that education, particularly for the African-American community is the make or break point,” she says. “When you look at the current statistics and see that 50 percent of Chicago Public School (CPS) students dropout and when you see that of the African-American and Hispanic males who do graduate, only three percent of them will earn a college degree…it just feels criminal.”
Growing up on the South Side in the 1960s and 1970s, Lockett will tell you that she was among the fortunate few to have encouraging parents –– both of whom were Chicago public school teachers –– who pressed for her to attend good Chicago public schools: McDade (today a top classical school with selective enrollment), Wendell Smith (on the list of turnaround schools); and Lindblom High, now a math and science academy that has maintained a tradition of excellence.
But some of her childhood friends growing up in the legendary Robert Taylor Homes back then along State Street between Pershing Road and 39th Street –– one of the nation’s largest and poorest public housing projects that Mayor Richard M. Daley demolished years ago –– were not so lucky.
“I don’t think it should come down to luck that you get into a great school and then have opportunities for successful careers in life,” Lockett said during an interview at her office, located in the Chase Bank Building downtown. “Unfortunately, for too many of our children –– Black and brown children –– it does come down to luck.
“New Schools for Chicago is an important resource for the city for its most critical communities to bring resources to families that don’t have them,” she said.
Since it was established by leaders of the city’s civic, education and business communities in 2005, the social venture fund has raised more than $70 million to start 73 new charter schools across the city.
NSC has launched the nationally recognized Urban Prep Academy, the first all-boys high school in Englewood, and developed partnerships between universities, corporations and education leaders to establish several math, science and technology academies.
Tensions Over Charter Schools
The fight to transform public school education in Chicago is stirring a perfect storm hotter than ever.
The tensions stretch across the rapid rise of charter schools, parents protesting over school changes, the formidable Chicago Teachers Union, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s promise to create better schools that produce more graduates ready for jobs even if it means shutting some schools down, assigning others to turnaround organizations, and extending the school day.
“We have a stratified (castes or class system) city,” says CPS Schools Supt. Jean-Claude Brizard. “We have to look deeply at our neighborhoods and empower parents to make the best active choice for their children.”
Adds Lockett: “What we can do is work together to create options. This is not a one size-fits-all model…Some of these schools have been failing for a long time. We need to face that hard truth and do something about it.”
Before doors open, each new charter school undergoes intense scrutiny by NSC charter leadership and must be approved by the District.
NSC awards a new charter school about $500,000 to help out with startup costs, but the typical charter operates with a deficit of about $2 million until it acquires enough students to qualify for state funding, Lockett explains. Many charters also rely on fundraising and grants to make up any shortage.
Most charter schools are an admissions-free alternative to traditional neighborhood and selective enrollment schools. They are typically more flexible and innovative with fewer union restrictions.
A 2009-2010 report by CPS Office of New Schools offers a number of NSC highlights, including:
• NSC elementary schools tend to outperform District counterparts by an average of 11 percentage points on state tests.
• NSC schools graduate far more students than other non-selective CPS high schools.
• Freshmen entering NSC schools are twice as likely to enroll in four-year colleges as District peers.
One of the fund’s star performers, Noble Street Charter High Schools, is reporting that 91 percent of its graduates enroll in college and produce ACT scores rivaling those at some of the city’s most selective traditional public high schools.
“I really see the biggest change amongst our boys who come in as freshmen, and say, ‘yeah, college, whatever’…and then see them four years later focused on going to college,” says Vincent Gay, assistant principal at UIC College Prep at 1231 South Damen Avenue.
Better, Or Not?
But state school report cards released last year suggest that many charters in Chicago are performing no better than traditional neighborhood schools and some are actually doing much worse.
The report found that more than two dozen schools in some of the city’s most prominent and largest charter networks, including the United Neighborhood Organization, Chicago International Charter Schools, University of Chicago, and LEARN, fell short of district averages on key standardized tests.
“The results are mixed on charter schools, as they are on regular schools,” said Brizard, during a speech before the Chicago Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. “People think that charter schools are a panacea, but they are only as good as the people in them.”
Lockett and other charter school leaders counter that they are seeing impressive academic growth considering that many students enter at least two to three grade levels behind their selective school peers and come from dire circumstances.
“The difference we’ve made in the charter schools is that we have been serving students extremely well,” Lockett said. “We’ve been getting kids to the point of college readiness that only a few selective schools have been able to do.”
The secret sauce is higher expectations, she continued. As early as kindergarten, students are called scholars. Elementary schools are referred to as college prep academies.
Throughout the hallways at several charter schools are streams of college pennants, including those of Harvard, Princeton and Yale.
“There is a belief system that says that it doesn’t matter where you come from, you are going to be successful,” Lockett says.
These charter schools are by no means easy to get into, however. The public demand is higher than the supply of limited seats available.
Like a scene out of the movie Waiting for Superman, many parents’ hopes for their children’s future hangs on a lottery system.
For example, the Noble Network, which operates more than 10 campuses, received some 8,000 applications for 2,800 available seats this school year alone, a spokesperson said.
For the students who get in, like Monica Soto, 16, a junior at charter UIC College Prep, it is worth the sacrifice of a daily commute to school on the Near West Side from her home miles away near O’Hare Airport. She leaves home as early as 4:30 a.m., takes two buses and a train to arrive to class on time.
“I started understanding what getting an education really means,” she said, speaking of the tougher standards. “Every day teachers remind me that education is key.”
In North Lawndale’s community, the LEARN Romano Butler campus at 1132 South Homan Avenue opens to 600 scholars, grades pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.
Last year alone, the bursting charter school received 1,000 applications for 250 seats, says Robin Johnson, the school’s principal.
Operating on an extended school day, students receive instruction from two teachers per classroom to ensure that no child is left behind. “We have a no excuses policy,” she said.
Leveraging Her Background
Those haves and have-not memories years ago left a deep fingerprint on Lockett, who holds an engineering degree from Purdue University and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management. She went on to successful careers at IBM, Kraft Foods and General Mills before reaching a turning point.
“When I was in corporate America, I didn’t have a passion for creating the next snack product at Kraft. I had a desire to use my experiences to help my community and to leverage my education and business background to make a difference for others,” Lockett says. “My parents and my church home, Progressive Community, taught me that I stand on too many shoulders just to think about me.”
Moving on to city government, she worked as a special projects manager on redevelopment projects for the Public Buildings Commission.
Prior to her current role, she was executive director of the Civic Consulting Alliance, a pro bono consulting firm sponsored by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, which endorsed the mayoral run of the late Mayor Harold Washington.
The Key To Jobs Creation
Chicago’s business community is depending on a renewal in public education to re-ignite the workforce, the majority of which will be African American and Hispanic, economic trends indicate. Investors in the NSC venture include the Exelon Foundation, the Northern Trust, and the Searle Funds at the Chicago Community Trust.
Mayor Emanuel’s new plan under the design of World Business Chicago, an economic development nonprofit, is calling on a transformation of the city into “a global economic powerhouse for jobs creation.”
Keys to attracting business are educational opportunities and development of a talent pool, the plan found.
“If Chicago is going to be a world class city, it has to have a world class education system,” Lockett said. “The pipeline of talent coming out of Chicago public schools is going to be the future employee base for the companies.
“The business community very much cares and we do not have the luxury to ignore that part of the population. If I can leverage those resources that our communities never get access to, I want to bring them to the South and West Sides.”
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