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Jacqueline Edelberg, co-author with Ruth Kurland of "How to Walk to School" (about*) about the turnaround of Nettelhorst School on Chicago's North Side, will headline HPKCC School Committee's Biennial Award Ceremony and Public Forum on Schools and School Improvement, February 23 2010, 6:30-8:30 pm at Kenwood Academy High School, Little Theater, 5015 S. Blackstone Avenue.
The program includes light repast, awards for schools community and parent leaders, information and discussion on school issues and encouragement of vigorous and broad participation in the April 2010 local school council elections, Kenwood Academy Jazz Band, and our speaker (with a lively video included).
The public is cordially encouraged to attend. Special invitations go to all Local School Council members, PTA and PAC leaders, other parent groups, and school principals.
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You are encouraged to visit Ms. Edelberg's website, http://www.howtowalktoschool.com. (See links to video clips in the following release). And the book is highly recommended by the Schools Committee.
How to Walk to School: Blueprint for a Neighborhood School Renaissance (Foreword by Arne Duncan and Afterword by Rahm Emanuel) by Jacqueline Edelberg and Susan Kurland
From the press release:
When two gutsy moms ventured inside Nettelhorst, their neighborhood’s underutilized and struggling public elementary school, the new principal asked what it would take for them to enroll their children. Stunned by her candor, they returned the next day armed with an extensive wish list. The principal read their list and said “Well, let’s get started, girls! It’s going to be a busy year…”
How to Walk to School is the story—from the highs to the lows—of motivated neighborhood parents galvanizing and then organizing an entire community to take a leap of faith, transforming a challenged urban school into one of Chicago’s best, virtually overnight. Susan Kurland, Nettelhorst’s new and entrepreneurial principal, and Jacqueline Edelberg, the neighborhood mom, prove that the fate of public education is not beyond our control. How to Walk to School provides an accessible and honest blueprint for reclaiming the great public schools our children deserve.
Check out the whole story at www.howtowalktoschool.com; take a tour at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPZr6BYJSGc;
or listen to the Chicago matters piece at http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=2055;
or the latest NPR 848 piece at http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/content.aspx?audioID=38602Jacqueline Edelberg has been the driving force behind the Nettelhorst School's dramatic turn around, a story that has been featured on Oprah and Friends, NPR, CNN, 60 Minutes, Education Weekly, and in the local Chicago media. A community organizer, writer, and nationally recognized fine artist, Jacqueline has led workshops for the Community Schools Initiative, Northside Parents Network, and Chicago Public Schools on how public schools and reformers can improve public education. Before devoting herself to art, community organizing, and cutting the crusts off bread, Jacqueline taught political science at the University of Osnabrueck in Germany.
Library Journal
“This is a fascinating account of the collaboration between a public school principal, Kurland, the parents of young children considering her elementary school, and the community that transformed a failing public school into an outstanding and revitalized one. In the face of disastrous, widespread public school system failures across America, parent dissatisfaction, and teacher despair, the Chicago-based Nettelhorst School’s success story is a beacon. Edelberg, one of the Nettelhorst parents, and Kurland offer educators hope that change can happen in any public school, given the right mix of parent-teacher patience, willpower, community involvement, pluck, creativity, collaboration, and ability to overcome adversity. They provide a blueprint that schools can use for revitalization projects, detailing, for instance, how to procure donations from area businesses and to ask questions that will get answers about difficult educational problems such as coping with dysfunctional and unsatisfactory teaching. VERDICT: This book is essential reading for all elementary school parents and teachers, especially those who have lost their faith in the American public school system and are looking for ways to improve it. Here are solutions and inspiration.”Visit our Schools and Education pages:
- HPKCC Schools Committee (Schools home)
- Schools Directories and information
- Educational Resources for parents, community and schools
- Access HPKCC Youth Programs Database in PDF and find more guides to programs in and out of school
- After School informational reports from Conference Reporter
- To a more complete description of the CPS After School/Office of Extended Learning Opportunities programs
- Local School Councils schedules, membership, role, about the elections
- School and Education News and Issues
- Renaissance 2010 and former Mid South Initiative discussion
- Test Scores and School Rankings
- Canter Middle School
- Kenwood Academy
- News about and from individual schools
- Awards, Honors and achievements by area schools and students
- University of Chicago schools outreach initiatives and research results
- Chicago Metro History Fair, a page of the Preservation/Development Committee
- Schools and Community-student relations (in Neighborhood)
See our profile of Hyde Park educator Sara Spurlark, from the Summer, 2004 Conference Reporter, in People You Should Know.
CAGL: Chicago Academic Games League, an HPKCC Committee Affiliate Program--see there how it is being revitalized with University of Chicago Service Center.
See more discussions in Tracking Community Trends. To Calendars and Directories