State launches Center for School Improvement
Updated: October 8, 2012
SPRINGFIELD -- The Illinois State Board of Education is launching a new program aimed at helping low performing districts. It's called Center for School Improvement.
"I'm really looking forward to getting out there and meeting the needs of the districts," said Monique Chism.She's an assistant superintendent for ISBE. Her job is to make sure public schools are performing to the best of their abilities, but with 4,000 of them, there's bound to be some which don't reach their full potentials. That's where the Center of School Improvement comes in.
"We're targeting closing achievement gaps and turning around our lowest performing schools and were going to do that through coaches," she said.
These coaches will spend a year in the state's lowest performing schools, finding out what problems students are facing in the classrooms and fixing them. They will also be zeroing in on specific student groups, like those with disabilities and those learning English as a second language.
ISBE is spending $10 million in federal dollars to get this program going. Audits will be conducted within the next few months to find out which schools will be selected for it.
