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Howe Elementary School is located in Chicago's Austin community on the west side of the city. Howe is home to just under 1000 students, 99.7% of whom are African-American and 85.6% of whom are low-income.
Howe has worked in partnership with Northeastern Illinois University and its Chicago Teachers' Center since 1990. The school became a partner in the Professional Development Program at the Chicago Teachers' Center which worked with a team of consultants to coordinate staff development at the school in the areas of math, science, writing, and technology.
The school became a partner in the Collaborative Learning
Centers Project in 1994. During the first year of the project, the school
participated in the project as a whole school team.The school was in the
process of identifying areas for school improvement using "Pathways
to School Achievement," a tool developed by the Consortium on Chicago
School Research of the University of Chicago. Through this process, the
entire staff was engaged in identifying needs for improvement in each of
five areas and that information was used to inform the development of the
School Improvement Plan. Staff from the CLC Project, faculty from Northeastern
Illinois University, and preservice teachers from NEIU were invited to participate.
[Click here
to view an article about Pathways from the November 1995 issue of Catalyst,
"an independent publication covering the progress, problems and politics
of school reform in Chicago since 1989."]
In the Summer of 1995, Howe teachers made up the largest group of teachers participating in the Integrated Thematic Units workshops offered through the CLC Project. This led to the formation of a K-3 Integrated Thematic Units Team which developed several units to be used during the following school year.
Howe had a hands-on science team at the 4-6 grade level which participated in the Scientific Literacy Project at the Chicago Teachers' Center.
A cross-grade Newspaper Team evolved out of the interest in developing new and engaging ways of improving literacy instruction and the school's application to the Chicago Public Schools to become a Writing Academy. The school participated in a summer writing institute in the Summer of 1995 which was a huge success with 26 staff members participating, including teachers, the principal, and several of the Career Service personnel who work as classroom aides. This writing institute generated ideas which led to the creation of the newspaper.