AUSL is a not-for-profit that partners with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to transform chronically underperforming schools, typically in high-poverty areas.

 

AUSL accomplishes this through a two-pronged approach:

 

• Special training for teachers – AUSL’s Training Academies prepare quality teachers using an innovative urban teacher residency (UTR) program, which is an intense, full-year apprenticeship with a mentor teacher at a Chicago school. Graduates earn their Illinois teaching certification and a master’s degree through a partnership with National Louis University, the University of Illinois at Chicago or the Erikson Institute.

 

• Transforming schools top to bottom – AUSL transforms CPS-chosen “turnaround schools” by completely overhauling them. The overhaul takes place over summer break and includes renovated facilities, a new curriculum, a new principal, and new teachers, many of whom are graduates of the UTR program.

AUSL manages six Training Academies.

 

• AUSL has trained more than 300 teachers, 35 percent of them African American, 13 percent Hispanic, 5 percent multi-racial and 2 percent Asian. There are currently 70 residents and our acceptance rate for this year’s class was less than 10percent. Our selectivity ensures that only the highest caliber candidate is accepted.

 

• AUSL-trained teacher retention is significantly better than the national average. Over 87 percent of the 312 graduates of AUSL’s teacher training program are still working in education; 83 percent are still working at CPS. Nationwide half of all new teachers leave teaching within five years.

 

• The Training Academies are:

 

 The Chicago Academy (Portage Park) – opened by AUSL in 2001

 Dodge Renaissance Academy (East Garfield) – re-opened by AUSL in 2003

 Chicago Academy High School (Portage Park) – opened by AUSL in 2004

 The Tarkington School of Excellence (Marquette Park) – managed by AUSL since 2005

 Collins Academy High School (North Lawndale) – managed by AUSL since 2007

 National Teachers Academy (South Loop) – managed by AUSL since 2007

 

Since 2006, AUSL has transformed five “turnaround schools” and is overhauling three more during the 2009-10 academic year.

 

• The turnaround schools are:

 Sherman School of Excellence (Englewood) – managed by AUSL since 2006

 Harvard School of Excellence (Auburn-Gresham) – managed by AUSL since 2007

 Howe School of Excellence (Austin) – managed by AUSL since 2008

 Morton School of Excellence (East Garfield Park) – managed by AUSL since 2008

 Orr Academy High School (Austin) – managed by AUSL since 2008

 Dulles School of Excellence (Greater Grand Crossing) – managed by AUSL since 2009

 Bethune School of Excellence (East Garfield Park) – managed by AUSL since 2009

 Johnson School of Excellence (North Lawndale) – managed by AUSL since 2009

 

The need for reform:

 

• More than 180,000 CPS students attend a low-performing school – those in which more than one-third of the students don’t meet state academic standards.

• Only 50 percent of CPS high school graduates attend college.

• Only three in 100 African American CPS graduates will earn a college degree.

• Teacher turnover is a major part of the problem: teachers are 27percent more likely to leave the profession if they begin teaching in a high poverty school. Half of all teachers leave the profession within their first five years of teaching.

 

 

• All of the schools AUSL manages have seen steady increases in Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) scores. Three of AUSL’s four turnaround elementary schools in 2009 broke the 50 percent barrier for the first time in over a decade.

• Ninety-three percent of AUSL’s first high school graduating class (2008) enrolled in college.

• AUSL’s teacher retention is over 87percent, significantly higher than the national average of 50 percent for new teachers.

• Parent and student testimonials speak to the improvement in safety and behavior at AUSL turnaround schools.

 

About the Academy for Urban School Leadership: AUSL was founded in 2001 by Martin J. Koldyke, venture capitalist and founder of The Golden Apple Foundation, who inspired business, community and education leaders to design a program that would reform teaching. AUSL is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation; NewSchools Venture Fund; Boeing Charitable Trust; Motorola; and other Chicago corporations, as well as many generous individual donors and other philanthropies.