STEM Synergy Collaboration between IIT and Perspectives Charter Schools in Chicago
At a high-poverty charter school on the South Side of Chicago where more than 80% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, the STEM Synergy curriculum will help to both close the achievement gap faced by low-income students and fill the national deficit in students who earn degrees in the STEM fields. By integrating the inquiry and problem-solving skills used in the STEM fields across the curriculum, the program will build scientifically literate students who are prepared to pursue degrees in the STEM fields. In a school district where barely 50% of students graduate high school, the goal of the STEM Synergy curriculum is for 100% of graduates to attend college and for 80% of students to pursue degrees in the STEM fields.
About You
About You
First Name
Greg
Last Name
Lowe
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Perspectives Charter Schools
Organization Website
Organization Phone
312.604.2150
Organization Address
3663 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, IL 60653
Organization Country
United States, IL, Cook County
Country where this project is creating social impact
United States, IL
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
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Innovation
Entry Form title
STEM Synergy Collaboration between IIT and Perspectives Charter Schools in Chicago
What change do you want to bring to the world?
At a high-poverty charter school on the South Side of Chicago where more than 80% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, the STEM Synergy curriculum will help to both close the achievement gap faced by low-income students and fill the national deficit in students who earn degrees in the STEM fields. By integrating the inquiry and problem-solving skills used in the STEM fields across the curriculum, the program will build scientifically literate students who are prepared to pursue degrees in the STEM fields. In a school district where barely 50% of students graduate high school, the goal of the STEM Synergy curriculum is for 100% of graduates to attend college and for 80% of students to pursue degrees in the STEM fields.
What are the primary activities of your project?
STEM Synergy is a thematic series of courses offered as a systemic initiative in grades 6-12 at the Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy that integrates learning across all STEM curricula and is designed to develop students’ inquiry and problem-solving skills. This project will help us further develop the STEM Synergy curriculum at this first campus, and eventually expand it to our other campuses and other schools throughout the city of Chicago.
STEM Synergy will begin next year with a two-week STEM SYNERGY SUMMER CAMP for all incoming sixth graders. Students typically have not been exposed to inquiry-based learning at their previous schools, and the summer camp will provide a necessary introduction.
The STEM SYNERGY MIDDLE SCHOOL CURRICULUM builds on the skills learned in the summer camp. Through this project, we will further develop the curriculum to better serve our students. Our middle school students will identify, research and develop with their instructors their own locally relevant problems, such as traffic patterns and green energy. The curriculum will be presented as part of a ninety minute block of forty-five minutes of content and forty-five minutes of STEM Synergy four days a week.
Once our students have completed middle school, they will have the necessary skills sets to fully engage in the STEM SYNERGY HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM, which will be further developed through this grant. Currently we offer high school STEM Synergy courses on: Math and Music, Community Garden, Biotechnology, Alternative Energy, and Forensic Science. The STEM Synergy units take place four times a week as part of a ninety minute block that includes their content math/science course.
In addition the the regular school day curriculum, we will provide FIELD STUDIES to support STEM skill development. Field Studies are monthly learning experiences outside the classroom at local museums, universities, parks, businesses and other sites around the city.
Skills learned through the STEM Synergy program will help students succeed in college in any discipline they choose to study, and help them become scientifically literate citizens in a community where less than 10% of adults have a college degree.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
The comprehensive STEM Synergy curriculum is innovative in that they are teaching students to think in new ways using inquiry and problem-solving. We expect that our students will graduate from Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy as experienced and innovative problem-solvers, who see the STEM fields as a process of inquiry, rather than as established facts. This project will show that even students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds can graduate from high school prepared to earn a degree in the STEM fields. While other charter schools in Chicago have shown success in preparing low-income students for college, we believe that our STEM Synergy curriculum will uniquely prepare students for STEM majors by utilizing the expertise of professors and students at IIT. Our goal is for 80% of students at the Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy to pursue STEM majors in college.
As the STEM Synergy curriculum at the Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy begins to show results, we will share the curriculum at our other campuses, and eventually to other schools throughout the Chicago area. We believe the curriculum can help transform the number of low-income, minority and female students who become STEM professionals.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
The Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy is located in Chicago’s Grand Boulevard/Bronzeville community, an area that struggles with the challenges of poverty, crime, unemployment, and unmet needs for human and social services. A recent redevelopment initiative in the area relocated many MSA students from housing projects to Section 8 housing, and then stalled following the national economic downturn. As a result, there are nearly no resources (parks, libraries, gyms, retail, etc.) for families and the community at large. The following data illustrate the challenges facing families in Grand Boulevard/Bronzeville:
• According to the 2000 U.S. census, more than 40% of Grand Boulevard residents live below the poverty line.
• More than half of the residents of working age are unemployed or no longer in the workforce.
• Less than half the community’s youth graduate from high school; and,
• Violent crime occurs five times more frequently than in the rest of Illinois.
The combination of un- and underemployment, poverty, and violence in the neighborhood means that families in Grand Boulevard struggle to maintain a safe and constructive home environment for their children. While 87 percent of our MSA students report feeling safe in school, only 70 percent report feeling safe outside school.
Overall, barely 50% of students in Chicago Public Schools as a whole graduation from high school, showing the impact on academic achievement of the incredible challenges faces by out students.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
The STEM Synergy curriculum was created by Dr. Norman Lederman, Chair and Professor of Mathematics and Science Education at IIT, and Dr. Judith Lederman, Director of Teacher Education and Associate Professor at IIT, in partnership with the Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy instructional leaders.
The Ledermans believe that an understanding of scientific inquiry is essential for scientific literacy, which will be increasingly important in the 21st century. However, their research at IIT has shown that most high school graduates (and even college graduates) believe that scientific knowledge is absolute and produced in a totally objective manner, with individual creativity and subjectivity to be avoided at all costs. They have also found that there is a lack of comprehensive inquiry-based curriculum available to teachers; instead, STEM inquiry skills are emphasized in a course or two during high school, but are rarely integrated across grade levels in a meaningful manner. The STEM Synergy curriculum is designed to solve this problem by infusing STEM inquiry throughout the school day and after school, from 6th through 12th grade.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
The STEM Synergy curriculum has already helped Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy students achieve the highest ACT Science scores in the Perspectives network, and among the highest for any open-enrollment school in Chicago. Juniors at the school scored a 19 on the Science ACT, growing their scores by an impressive 3 points over the course of their junior year. Our goal short-term goal is for all students to reach a composite score of 20 on the ACT, which is considered consistent with college-readiness by the ACT. Our long-term target is for all students to reach a composite score of 23 on the ACT. We track students progress towards this goal using the ACT's Educational Planning and Assessment System from 8th grade through 12th grade.
The Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy will graduate its first class of students in 2012. We hope to reach our students will reach the same impressive outcomes as students from our other campuses, 97% of whom have been accepted to college.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
101-1,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
1,001-10,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
As our STEM Synergy curriculum finds success at the Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy, we will spread the curriculum throughout all five of our campuses, reaching nearly 3,000 students. In addition, we will provide professional development and curriculum support to other schools in Chicago. Eventually, we believe the STEM Synergy curriculum can be exported to schools throughout the country.
Sustainability
What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
The first barrier to the success of the project is financial; we need to raise money in the early years of the project to help develop the curriculum and train our teachers. To that end, we have reached out to a variety of funders, both in the public and private sectors, for this early stage of the project. As the project completes its third year, Synergy courses for grades 6-11 will have been developed and field-tested. In addition, teachers on both campuses will have developed capacity to deliver these courses, and mathematics and science teachers will have developed the knowledge and skills to coordinate their instruction with the Synergy courses. Continued professional development related to the STEM-Synergy approach will be integrated into Perspectives professional development activities during the academic year. Additional funds for summer camps will be procured from area supporters in the corporate sector. In short, the activities of the proposed project will likely be sustainable.
The other barrier to success will be in execution, as "the rubber hits the road" and the curriculum continues to be expanded and delivered to actual students. Our Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy educational leaders, together with the curriculum experts from IIT, will continuously evaluate and improve the curriculum to ensure that our students are developing their scientific literacy and are prepared for college when they graduate.
Tell us about your partnerships
The Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy was opened through a partnership with the department of Mathematics and Science Education at the Illinois Institute of Technology. The department has extensive experience working with Chicago Public Schools and faculty has provided professional development to teachers nationally and internationally. The STEM Synergy project builds on work that the IIT department of Mathematics and Science Education has done through Project ICAN (a professional development project for high school teachers in Chicago focusing on scientific inquiry and nature of science)the High School Transformation Project (funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and focusing on inquiry, nature of science, biotechnology, biology, chemistry, and physics in 23 high schools).
In additions, Perspectives Charter Schools has established relationships with foundations and corporations to help improve our facilities at the Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy. We are currently building a state-of-the-art chemistry lab with support from Lundbeck, Inc., and have just received another corporate grant to build a physics lab.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$100,000‐250,000
Explain your selections
As a charter school in the City of Chicago, the Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy receives most of its funding from Chicago Public Schools on a per-pupil basis. However, we rely on external fundraising to fund projects such as our after-school programming and the development of the STEM Synergy curriculum. To that end, we raise more than $100,000 annually from individual donors and corporations, and more than $1,000,000 each year from foundations. Our goal is that our STEM Synergy programming will eventually be completely covered in our per-student budget, with the exception of some after-school programming which will still be covered by corporate support.
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
We will evaluate the success of the STEM Synergy curriculum on an ongoing basis and provide professional development to teachers as necessary. Our partnership with the Illinois Institute of Technology gives us access to experts in STEM education, like Dr. Norm Lederman, who will continuously observe the success of the STEM Synergy curriculum and help us expand and strengthen it.
As the STEM Synergy curriculum finds success at the Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy, we will spread the curriculum throughout all five of our campuses, reaching nearly 3,000 students. In addition, we will provide professional development and curriculum support to other schools in Chicago. Eventually, the curriculum could be shared with schools throughout the nation.
Partnerships and Accountability
Please tell us more about how your partnership was formed and how it functions. What specific role does each partner play? What unique resources does each partner bring to the initiative?
The Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy is located just south of the IIT campus in Chicago, so IIT was a natural partner to help create the curriculum for the school. Dr. Norman Lederman and Dr. Judith Lederman worked with Perspectives education leaders to develop and fine-tune our curriculum, which is centered on scientific inquiry and problem solving in math, science and all subjects. As a result of this partnership, Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy students enjoy access to the IIT campus and many of its department heads, teachers and students. Our students receive campus tours, internships and after school tutoring. IIT staff also participates in Perspectives’ Career Panels and Dr. R. Russell Betts, Dean of the College of Arts and Letters served as Principal for a Day in October 2010, spending time with students to discuss their plans for college and careers.
As one of the State of Illinois’ first five charter schools, Perspectives Charter Schools has been nationally recognized as a model for urban education and was selected for replication by Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley and Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan, now the U.S. Secretary of Education. Beginning with our first school, Perspectives’ Rodney D. Joslin Campus in the South Loop, Perspectives has built a network of high-quality, urban charter schools throughout the city. As part of Mayor Daley’s Renaissance 2010 initiative, we opened three schools in the former Calument High School in Auburn Gresham. The schools now known as Perspectives Middle Academy and Perspectives Leadership Academy opened in 2006, followed by Perspectives High School of Technology in 2007. By the time the Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy opened in 2008, Perspectives Charter Schools had more than ten years helping low-income students achieve transformative outcomes.
How are you building in accountability for students' successful STEM learning outcomes? Please provide a summary and examples.
Perspectives Charter Schools is a data-driven organization, and we hold staff at all levels accountable for students' learning outcomes. We track student scores on curriculum-based assessments, as well as the EPAS series of tests from the ACT. These results are reported to our board of directors on a quarterly basis, and principals make decisions on staff training and retention using this data. For example, we have seen higher ACT score growth in science among our junior class at the Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy than at any other campus. This will help drive our professional development and curriculum development at our other schools.
Needs
Investment, Human Resources/Talent, Marketing/Media, Research/Information, Pro-bono help (legal, financial, etc.), Innovation/Ideas, Mentorship.
Please use this space to elaborate on your selection above and/or to add needs that may not be listed.
Perspectives Charter Schools is always seeking opportunities to bring in high-quality talent to our organization. Any advice or input from the Changemakers community would be greatly appreciated.
Offers
Research/Information, Collaboration/Networking, Innovation/Ideas.
Please use this space to elaborate on your selection above and/or to add offers that may not be listed.
For fifteen years, Perspectives Charter Schools has been an innovative leader among Chicago charter schools. We would be happy to share the lessons we have learned and some of the strategies that have led to our success.
