One year into the three-year Lighthouse Partnership between Evanston/Skokie School District 65 and Northwestern, officials on both sides have praised the collaboration between professors and teachers to improve education in local schools.
“It has given new energy and additional stimulation to our efforts to improve the development of instruction in the district,” D65 Superintendent Hardy Ray Murphy said.
Since the $670,000 partnership began in the fall of 2000, School of Education and Social Policy professors have worked with several D65 schools to implement science, math and bilingual education programs that eventually will be carried out across the district. Prof. Fred Hess, project coordinator, also has led community workshops to gauge the challenges facing the district.
Eugene Sunshine, NU’s vice president for business and finance, said the program has linked the university to the city in a way that takes advantage of NU’s resources.
“It represents exactly how a partnership between Northwestern and Evanston should work,” Sunshine said. “What we do is teach, and what we’re experts at is education. So this is exactly where Northwestern can make an impact in the community.”
During the three years of the partnership, NU will pay about $500,000 and D65 will contribute $170,000. The district received a state grant of about $50,000 to pay much of its share of the first-year costs.
Hess said one of the main initiatives of the partnership has been to assess problems facing the district. In a series of workshops last year – one of which was attended by more than 500 parents, community members and district employees – participants suggested more than 900 challenges, he said.
Hess and the Strategic Planning Advisory Committee, which includes Murphy and other D65 administrators, currently are compiling those suggestions into nine general goals that will be submitted to the D65 school board in coming months as a five-year plan.
Two of the goals will be to help low-scoring students in the district meet state standards and to address student behavior problems that draw attention away from learning, Hess said.
He said many participants felt the district’s science instruction needed improvement – one of the areas Hess and his team first began to address.
Revamping D65’s science program was the most extensive project undertaken last year, Hess said. As part of the venture, six teachers at Chute and Nichols middle schools implemented a six-week, technology-based unit developed by NU’s Center for Learning Technology in Urban Schools.
Assoc. Profs. Louis Gomez, Brian Reiser and Daniel Edelson trained teachers to use equipment that allows students to investigate complex real-world questions.
“The students try to investigate large questions, and they use large databases that scientists use now,” Hess said.
One class used a computer to investigate why large numbers of finches on the Galapagos Islands died in the 1970s. Their work attempted to mirror the research of Charles Darwin, an early biologist who based his theory of evolution on expeditions to the islands.
“(The students) were investigating nearly the same problems Darwin was investigating more than 100 years ago,” Hess said. “It nicely positions their research in the history of biology.”
After a positive reception last year, D65 has made the science program mandatory for all middle-school students this year.
The partnership also produced a dual-language immersion program spearheaded by Asst. Prof. Marjorie Faulstich Orellana.
At Washington and Orrington elementary schools, some kindergartners were placed in classes of both native Spanish speakers and native English speakers. With immersion instruction in each language at different times of the day, students got the chance to practice both languages.
The partnership also included several staff development projects between teachers and professors. In one project, Prof. Karen Fuson met with fourth- and fifth-grade math teachers to identify weak spots in their instruction.
In the remaining two years, the partnership may expand to include other issues, Hess said. One problem Hess said he is eager to tackle is the continuing gap between D65’s black and Latino students and their white peers on standardized tests.
After the first year of the partnership, Hess said the collaboration has been strong.
“I think it has gotten off to a very good start,” Hess said. “People on both sides feel the work they are doing is important, beneficial and worthwhile.”
Murphy said teachers have been impressed with the professors’ involvement in the project.
“It’s one thing (for professors to) offer suggestions,” Murphy said. “It’s another to actually be a part of the effort. Teachers appreciate that.”
Murphy said the partnership will continue to help the district improve its instruction and benefit from NU’s resources.
“By combining our efforts and energy, there is lots of potential for growth,” Murphy said. “Other districts – not just ours – will benefit.”
