The challenge

Logan Square is a mixed-income Chicago community of about 85,000 people, two-thirds of whom are Latino. More than 90 percent of the students in the public school system come from low-income families and are either Latino or African American. The high school dropout rate is above 50 percent, and classes are often too large, with too few resources for teachers. Although many of these schools have improved considerably over the past decade, all still rank below the national average in achievement. Many parents work long hours and have little time to shepherd their children through school; other parents are intimidated by education systems, don’t know how they can help, or feel their status as Spanish speakers means they are not welcome. “Twelve years ago when we started,” the leaders of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA) Education Team write, “many of our schools appeared to be ancient fortresses with locked doors.”

Seeds of commitment

The leaders of LSNA’s Education Team include Maria Alviso and Leticia Barrera, who immigrated to Chicago from Mexico as adults; Lissette Moreno-Kuri, who is the daughter of Mexican immigrants; Ada Ayala, who came from Puerto Rico as an adult; and Joanna Brown, who is the granddaughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants. All these leaders have children in public schools. Ayala, who runs the neighborhood’s School Community Learning Center at Funston Elementary, was one of LSNA’s first parent mentors. She says her work with LSNA’s programs inspired her to do more to help. “What motivated me was the change in me when I was a parent mentor. How I grew, my commitment to get somewhere -- and I see that in other women, also.” Moreno-Kuri, director of School Community Learning Centers, says her work stems from her background as the daughter of immigrants. “They didn’t have a community to help them. That motivates me to do what I do because I saw them suffer economically, and from discrimination.” Brown remembers a childhood where she was “taught to give back, but in this work I get back much more than I give – where else can you work where respect, trust, and support are an essential part of the bottom line?”

Accomplishments

Over the past 12 years, the LSNA Education Team has transformed the way schools and the people of the Logan Square Neighborhood interact with one another, improving the lives of parents and their children. Today, the eight community-based schools are a national model for their effective approach to involving parents in school reform. Hundreds of families participate in literacy and health programs, adult education, school leadership training and community development, including affordable housing. According to LSNA’s Education Team, “We have an answer to the universal question: ‘How do you get parents involved?’ We have parent involvement that uses parents’ skills and knowledge to help schools.”

LSNA’s decade-old Parent Mentor program annually places 120 parents as tutors in classrooms at eight schools. The mentors also set goals for themselves during their training. Many parents have used the program as a launching pad for their own continued education, to find better jobs, and to undertake leadership roles in LSNA. The education team’s Literacy Ambassadors program brings teachers into students’ homes, where they read books together and get to know each other. The program teams a literacy ambassador with a parent mentor to bridge the sometimes uncomfortable gap between parents and teachers. Evaluations after the first year and a half showed the 30 teams made 240 visits to 676 parents and 1,315 students, resulting in a substantial impact on parents’ involvement with literacy and school.

Parents who have become comfortable with their children’s schools have even more options now, as LSNA has opened five school-based, community-run Community Learning Centers that serve more than 700 families a week. The centers offer several adult-education classes, including English, computer training and General Educational Development, the high school equivalency certification known as GED. Parent-taught classes range from sewing to folkloric dance. Each site offers free tutoring for children and free childcare. Since the centers have opened, each year more than a hundred adults have earned their GED credentials. Test scores and grades of student attendees have increased significantly.

The LSNA Education Team takes parental involvement yet another step in a university-developed model program called Nueva Generación, which trains parents and others to become bilingual teachers. Currently, 30 students are in their sixth year of study. In order to replicate the program, the Illinois state legislature passed the Illinois Grow Our Own Teachers Education Act in 2004.

The members of the education team have become valued speakers and role models. They frequently speak with reporters, testify before state legislative committees, and meet with elected officials to talk about how community involvement with schools can make a difference. In the past year, they hosted 15 groups who traveled to Chicago to learn more about LSNA’s education successes. And LSNA’s parent leaders shared their ideas at a parent conference in Puerto Rico. In 2002, the Chicago Public School system proposed opening 100 more schools to the community as evening learning centers, largely because LSNA’s Education Team had shown this to be an effective approach.

Leadership style

The LSNA Education Team has been successful because these leaders know how to build trust among people who often have reasons to be cynical. To build trust, leaders say, they must produce what they promise. “At the beginning, people don’t know you. How are they going to trust you?” asks Barrera. “Nobody is going to trust you unless they see the work that you do. When you say, ‘I’m going to do this,’ you do it, so people can see. You become a model when they see that you are responsible and accountable. You’ve built a strong reputation.”

According to Barrera, this is a long process that requires gentleness and patience. “You let them see you have the same vision as they do, because you are a community person just like them. You begin to form a relationship, and when you are into that relationship you can show them you are accountable, and just like them.”

LSNA’s Education Team does come from the neighborhood, and in part their success is based on what they learned during their training to become leaders. “Most of us are mothers who became leaders and then staff, and believe that others can do the same,” they say. Because of that background, they teach through experience, and see themselves as “learners, mentors, and role models. You can empower people by talking with them and showing them examples of other people, including yourself. You can figure out their talents and put them to work,” the leaders write.

The future

LSNA’s Education Team works toward a future where its school programs are considered so important that they have permanent public funding and “become part of what a school is,” as Brown says. The team plans to continue to create new programs to meet neighborhood needs. For example, a pilot program with AmeriCorps puts parent tutors in classrooms to boost the achievement levels of students who need extra support.

More about Logan Square Neighborhood Association Education Team

“Some people might conclude from the way they operate that they are not sophisticated, but they are very purposeful and knowledgeable about what they are doing. It’s community organizing. They are about putting other people into the limelight and giving them opportunities. They are intentional in this and smart about it.”
- Peggy Miller, Senior Program Officer, Chicago Community Trust

“In Chicago, the Logan Square Neighborhood Association has formed an impressive collaboration with the local schools. This successful effort employs the work of many parents in the community to ensure that the schools play a large role in the neighborhood.”
- Nation’s Cities Weekly, 2001