REAVIS REBIRTH - LISC Chicago

REAVIS REBIRTH 

Reavis Elementary School 

ISS Chicago Plan for School Transformation 

A partnership of Reavis Elementary School, Quad Communities Development Corporation, Chicago Public 

Schools and Local Initiatives Support Corporation/Chicago 

With major funding from The Atlantic Philanthropies 

and additional support from The Chicago Community Trust, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, 

and the Polk Bros. Foundation 

May 2008

This plan was created under a planning grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies, which seeks to create a robust and 

replicable model for middle-school improvement. The plan is constructed around four principles, which together comprise 

the Chicago model of Integrated Services in Schools: 

Principle 

1 

Learning time in schools must be 

extended through after-school, Saturday 

and summer programs; that extended-time 

content must be integrated with a strong 

core-school academic program; and out-of-school-time 

faculty, regular faculty and other staff should have 

significant shared training and planning opportunities. 

Principle 

2 

The highest quality of preventive, youth 

friendly and confidential health care 

must be provided on-site to middle-school 

students; and those health services must be 

embedded in broader programming that covers nutrition, 

fitness, prevention and reproductive education. 

Principle 

3 

Improved access to public benefits 

must be made available to parents of 

middle-school students; that access must 

be convenient; and it must be part of an array 

of social supports that ensure parents are providing the 

most stable base possible for their children. 

Principle 

4 

Parents, community members, local 

organizations, school faculty and 

students must be an integral part of 

planning, implementing and monitoring 

the transformation of the school. Community 

ownership helps ensure that the plans are realistic and 

appropriate for that particular school community, and it 

supports continuity and sustainability of programming 

beyond any one leader or group of stakeholders. 

1 | 

REAVIS REBIRTH

The Chicago signature 

The first three principles flow directly from Atlantic’s model, 

which is already being implemented in the state of 

New Mexico. The fourth principle — that parent and 

community involvement are integral elements of school 

change — is based on LISC/Chicago’s experience supporting 

comprehensive community development over the past eight 

years. By engaging a broad spectrum of stakeholders in both 

planning and implementation, LISC’s New Communities 

Program has shown strong promise of improving the quality 

of life for 16 Chicago communities. Embedding this approach 

into the Atlantic Philanthropies model will help transform 

schools and ensure that all students can succeed in their 

transition to high school, college and/or careers. 

The ISS-Chicago program builds on 15 years of schoolreform 

progress in the Chicago Public Schools. It is 

overseen by the Chicago Committee, which includes 

representatives of the following organizations: 

> The Chicago Community Trust 

> Chicago Department of Children and Youth 

> Chicago Public Schools 

> JP Morgan Chase Foundation 

> The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation 

> Michael Reese Health Trust 

> Polk Brothers Foundation 

The program is coordinated by LISC/Chicago and includes 

participation of five lead agencies in LISC’s New Communities 

Program, a 10-year effort to implement comprehensive 

community development in 16 neighborhoods. Participating 

schools and neighborhoods are: 

> Ames Middle School/Logan Square Neighborhood 

Association 

> Orozco Community Academy/The Resurrection Project 

(Pilsen) 

> Marquette Elementary/Southwest Organizing Project 

(Chicago Lawn) 

> Perspectives-Calumet Middle School/Greater Auburn- 

Gresham Development Corporation 

> Reavis Elementary/Quad Communities Development 

Corporation 

For more information, contact: 

Michael T. Johnson 

Principal 


834 E. 50 th St. 

Chicago, IL 60615 

773-535-1060 

mtjohnson2@cps.k12.il.us 

Syda Segovia Taylor 

ISS Program Manager 

Quad Communities Development Corporation 

(QCDC)/Reavis Elementary School 

4659 S. Cottage Grove Ave. 


312-371-7036 

taygovia@msn.com 

Chris Brown 

Director, Education Programs 

LISC/Chicago 

1 N. LaSalle St., 12th Floor 


312-385-4803 

cbrown@lisc.org 

Reavis Elementary School ISS Plan 

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Intensive Planning Draws Broad 

Participation 

Reavis Elementary School and the Quad Communities Development Corporation (QCDC) were chosen for participation in 

ISS-Chicago through a competitive process in early 2007. They represent one of five school-community partnerships 

seeking to create and demonstrate a new model of Integrated Services in Schools (ISS). 

The Reavis/QCDC partnership led a comprehensive planning process between February and May 2007. More than 40 

people participated in four initial visioning and goal-setting meetings followed by committee work and plan-writing 

meetings. The summary plan that follows is the result of their work. 

Reavis and QCDC thank all who contributed. The list below was compiled from sign-in sheets and may not include all 

participants. Our apologies for any omissions or misspellings. 


Michael T. Johnson, Principal 

Andalib Khelghati, Reavis assistant 

principal 

Quad Communities 

Development Corporation 

Bernita Johnson-Gabriel, Executive 

Director 

Rebecca Janowitz, New 

Communities Program Director 

Yvette Kelly, QCDC 

Planning participants 

Dawn M. Alvarez, Reavis teacher 

Brenda Bannor, consultant 

Yvonne Battle, Abraham Lincoln 

Centre 

Milo Boraz, Kenwood High School 

assistant principal 

Giselle Boyd, Youth Guidance 

Tinger Bryant, Reavis teacher 

Charlene Campbell, Reavis parent 

Demietrice Davis, Reavis 

Amanda Deisch, Abraham Lincoln 

Centre 

Latesha Dickerson, Chicago New 

Teacher Center 

Adrienne Garner, Chicago Public 

Schools 

Angela Hampton, Reavis parent and 

volunteer 

Phillip Hampton, Chicago Public 

Schools-Community Development 

Krista Hinton, CPS Positive Behavior 

Intervention Supports (Reavis PBIS 

coach) 

Melissa Jones, MLS 

Regina Little, Reavis parent and 

Local School Council president 

Dr. Tim Long, Komed 

Margaret Pinaglia, Reavis teacher 

Carol Reels, school nurse 

Evelyn Reid, Near North/KoMed 

Health 

Ken Roberts, Abraham Lincoln 

Centre 

Brenda Robertson, Reavis counselor 

case manager 

Dr. Mashona Smith, MLS 

Berneice Thomas, Near North/ 

Komed Health 

Wahabi Tijani, Komed 

Anita Tutson, Reavis teacher 

Daniel Ward, Chicago New Teacher 

Center 

Keshia B. Warner, Reavis resident 

principal 

Deonna Wheeler, Abraham Lincoln 

Centre 

Student participants 

Johnny Byrd, high school senior 

Tierra Burres, high school senior 

Revira Davis, high school senior 

Antione Williams, high school senior 

Erica Kellum, high school junior 

Jeremy Ward, high school junior 

Darcell Dawson, high school 

sophomore 

Timothy Pleasant, high school 

sophomore 

Technical support 

Chris Brown, ISS-Chicago 

consultant 

Jobi Petersen, ISS-Chicago 

consultant 

Richard Muhammad, scribe, LISC/ 

Chicago 

Patrick Barry, scribe coordinator, 


Liz Reyes, Illinois Facilities Fund 

Kirby Burkholder, Illinois Facilities 

Fund 

Susana Vasquez, LISC/Chicago New 

Communities Program director 

3 | 


1 SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY CONTEXT 

The Reavis Way: High 

expectations, mutual respect 

and teamwork 

Reavis Elementary School sits at 50 th Street and Drexel 

Boulevard on the border of the Grand Boulevard and 

North Kenwood neighborhoods, a short distance from 

historic Bronzeville and Hyde Park. The school’s 467 

children from pre-kindergarten to 8 th grade are almost 

entirely African-American, mostly poor and sometimes 

seen as trouble by teachers at area high schools. 

The school has a high population of students with asthma, 

diabetes and special education needs, and more than 

one-quarter of the students move in or out during the 

school year. Reavis feeds students primarily into two 

nearby high schools, the Walter H. Dyett Academic Center 

and Kenwood High School, and is down the street from 

Martin Luther King College Preparatory School, one of the 

city’s selective-enrollment high schools. 

PROFILE: 


STUDENT CHARACTERISTICS (2006) 

Number of students (PreK-8) 467 

Number of middle-school students (Grades 6-8) 147 

Percent low-income 95.9 

Percent African-American 98.9 

PERFORMANCE (2006) 

Percent 8 th -graders meeting standards – reading (ISAT) 67.4 

Percent 8 th -graders meeting standards – math (ISAT) 45.7 

Attendance rate 94.0 

Percent mobility (transfers out/year) 26.4 

Source: Illinois School Report Card, 2006 

Four years ago, Reavis was a low-performing school, and 

there is still room for improvement. The student 

attendance rate in 2006 was 94 percent, slightly below 

the citywide average of 95 percent. Teacher attendance 

and the quality of teaching have been serious issues in 

past years and more progress is needed. Discipline 

problems also require attention, with 45 suspensions as of 

May 2007, though this is a reduction of about 66 percent 

from the previous year. 

Despite these challenges, Principal Michael T. Johnson 

believes the school is on its way back; he calls it the 

“Reavis Rebirth.” A graduate of the New Leaders for New 

Schools principal-training program, Johnson arrived at 

Reavis four years ago when the school was on academic 

probation and had severe behavior problems. Now, with 


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SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY CONTEXT 

gains on many fronts, Reavis is considered a “turnaround 

school.” 

In 2005-2006, school test scores for every grade increased, 

as measured by the Illinois Standards Achievement Test 

(ISAT). Third grade students made substantial gains in 

reading, rising from 28.2 percent who met state standards 

to 46.5 percent. Third grade math scores increased from 

28.6 to 60.5 percent. Reavis 8th graders made gains in 

math that were above the district average, while reading 

scores were several percentage points below the average. 

The percentage of students who meet promotion criteria 

is trending up, rising 6.3 percent between 2004 and 2006. 

school day now takes about five minutes, versus 20 

minutes when Johnson arrived. Out-of-school suspension 

days have fallen dramatically, Johnson says, and fights 

have been reduced from a couple scraps a day and 

after-school violence that required police response to 

almost no in-school fights and significant reductions in 

instances where police were needed this year. 

The next steps are curbing the number of students in 

after-school detention and creating rewards for good 

Putting children first 

Principal Johnson, his staff and a core group of committed 

parents have grounded their work in “The Reavis Way,” an 

expectation that students can achieve, a commitment to 

strong teacher training and a determination that every 

student will be served. 

“When we are having any kind of communication, dialog, 

discussion, even an intense discussion, the adults in the 

building — it doesn’t matter if you’re a teacher, school 

aide, security guard or parent — you as an adult have to 

see children as the center of the conversation,” said 

Principal Johnson. 

The school has made serious efforts to forge partnerships 

and to address the social, emotional and health needs of 

students. One program helped students receive eye 

exams and eyeglasses. Another, called Barrel of Monkeys, 

engages primary- and intermediate-grade students in a 

10-week program that uses humor and drama to teach 

creative writing, short stories and skits. 

Chicago Communities In Schools helped expand cultural 

awareness through visits to the Lyric Opera. Churches, 

including the Church of Latter Day Saints, have provided 

tutoring services and participated in beautification projects. 

Gear Up, a federally funded effort, works with middleschool 

students to encourage college attendance and 

arranges a college tour that allows 8 th graders to experience 

student life and talk with African-American students. 

All the changes have created an environment more 

conducive to learning. Getting things in order to start the 

Profile: 

Quad Communities neighborhoods, Chicago, IL 

DEMOGRAPHICS 

Population (2000) 78,949 

Population change 1960-2000 down 119,323 

Percent African-American 88.5% 

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS (2000) 

Population below poverty level 38% 

Number of households (2000) 40,171 

Households w/public assistance 4,752 (14.8%) 

Households with income above $35,000 11,856 (37%) 

Public and private school enrollment 

(2005 estimate K-12) 12,585 

Reavis School is on the border of the Chicago Community Areas of Kenwood and Grand 

Boulevard. The service area of the Quad Communities Development Corp. covers all of the 

Oakland community and parts of Douglas, Kenwood, and Grand Boulevard. This chart shows total 

numbers for all four communities. 

5 | 


ehavior and positive contributions, like free time in the 

gym for students who have done well, or monthly pizza 

parties for classes that log perfect attendance. 

“We see a large number of students really trying to follow 

what we call the Reavis Way,” Johnson says. “We say we 

shouldn’t have to scream and shout at kids. We should 

treat them with respect and dignity even when they are 

being disruptive.” 

Quad Communities: 

Neighborhoods in transition 

Reavis School is at the south end of the Quad Communities, 

four adjacent neighborhoods between Chicago’s South 

Loop and Hyde Park, home of the University of Chicago. 

The four neighborhoods are also known as Bronzeville, 

which was the historic center of African-American life in 

Chicago and later became the site of the city’s largest 

concentration of public housing. With more than 9,000 

units of low-income housing in mostly high-rise 

developments that were poorly managed and deteriorating, 

the four neighborhoods became high-crime, high poverty 

areas. Over the years 1960 to 2000, they experienced 

severe housing loss and population decline, losing nearly 

120,000 residents. 

QCDC service area, only two were performing at 

acceptable levels, and neither of these is open to all 

children in the attendance area. 

Because of the limited choices for quality education, only 

about half of the public school students in the QCDC 

service area attend nearby elementary schools, and only 

one-fourth of local students attend area high schools. 

QCDC is working to change this situation. It helped 

leverage new resources to add full-day preschool at 

Donoghue and Robinson Schools and supports use of a 

local attendance area for all area schools, including 

charters and selective-enrollment schools that would 

otherwise draw from all over the city. 

This plan for Reavis School is part of a larger strategy to 

improve schools at all levels, from pre-school through high 

school. Keeping students close to home will allow them to 

form long-term relationships and develop cohort solidarity 

with their classmates, a crucial factor as they move 

together from elementary school into high school. Creating 

more local education options also helps stabilize the 

neighborhood as a mixed-income community where local 

schools are used by all residents, rather than developing 

new schools that primarily serve the higher-income 

residents now moving into the Quad Communities. 

Today, the neighborhood is undergoing rapid revitalization. 

The Chicago Housing Authority’s Plan for Transformation 

has led to the demolition of the vast majority of high-rise 

public housing, followed by new construction of mixedincome 

developments that are one-third market-rate 

housing, one-third affordable and one-third public 

housing. The private housing market is thriving and the 

neighborhoods are seeing new retail investment for the 

first time in years. 

Quad Communities Development Corporation (QCDC) 

was formed in 2003 to help manage and guide this new 

development so that it serves existing residents as well as 

newcomers. QCDC convenes residents, organizations, 

businesses and others, promoting a comprehensive 

approach to community development. When QCDC 

organized a quality-of-life planning process in 2003 and 

2004, the 450 participating stakeholders identified 

education improvement as the community’s number-one 

priority. An October 2004 report by the Illinois Facilities 

Fund found that of the seven elementary schools in the 


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2 VISION AND GOALS 

Our vision: Civic-minded 

graduates who take charge 

of their learning 

Graduates of Reavis Elementary School will take with 

them ownership of their learning process and a sense of 

respect for themselves and others. At a minimum, 

graduates will perform at grade level, develop solid 

nutrition habits, and will possess a high level of selfesteem. 

Graduates will also be civic-minded, willing and 

able to think about how their conduct affects others. 

They will balance working independently with asking 

for help when needed. Reavis students will graduate 

having had the experience of being part of an 

academically and socially enriching community centered 

on their own unique talents and abilities. 

Academics 

> Our students will be algebra ready by the 8 th grade. 

> Our students will be independent readers, using 

non-fiction and informational texts. 

> Our students will be self advocates for their own 

learning and will be able to set their own educational 

goals and know how to achieve them. 

Health 

> All children at Reavis will be physically and emotionally 

healthy through school and as they graduate. 

> No child will graduate with a preventable illness. 

> A comprehensive, family-based approach to illness and 

injury that can’t be prevented will be taken at Reavis. 

Social Supports 

> A central intake process for all students will be used to 

assess behavioral, social, emotional (including mental 

health) and academic challenges. 

> Our students will be served by a support system that 

engages students in becoming respectful, civic-minded, 

caring, academically successful and responsible 

human beings. 

7 | 


3 SCHOOL TRANSFORMATION PLAN 

An extended day and 

stronger core 

To continue its turnaround and better prepare its students 

for high school, Reavis will develop an extended school 

day and a more rigorous academic program, with an 

emphasis on the middle-school grades. 

We will work with CPS and the Chicago New Teachers 

Center (CNTC) to implement departmentalized classrooms 

for 6th through 8th grades, concentrating first on reading 

and math instruction and then on science and social 

studies. We are recruiting new teachers to work in the 

middle school grades and will orient them to the new 

program using CNTC’s training system and a coach 

trained by CNTC. The middle school will also be the focal 

point for introduction of new curricula covering reading, 

writing, math and science. 

Our extended-day will provide three and a half hours of 

after-school time, including 90 minutes for homework 

support and tutoring and two hours for enrichment 

activities and physical fitness. A Saturday school will be 

added one or two times per month, along with a four- to 

six-week summer session to help students maintain their 

school-year academic gains. We will also use an outdoor 

grade-level community-building camp experience early in 

the fall semester to help students build healthy 

relationships among themselves and with their teachers. 

The “Reavis Way” will continue to provide guiding principles 

for students, faculty, parents and staff as we pursue our 

goal of preparing graduates for high school and beyond. 

REAVIS ELEMENTARY School Integrated Program for School Transformation 

Reavis Rebirth 

Extended day and learning 

> Open until 6 p.m. 

> Saturday school 

> Summer programming 

> Physical activity and clubs 

> Music and arts 

> Middle school endorsements 

> Data-driven instruction 

> Drop Everything and Read 

> Teacher and tutor training 

> Readers and Writers Workshops 

> Ramping up Math 

Social supports 

> Needs assessments 

> Positive school culture 

> Life coaching and peer support 

> College for Certain 

Healthy students 

> On-site health clinic 

> Teen pregnancy and STDs 

> Fitness instruction 

> Aquatics program 

> Nutrition education 

> Healthy food 

> Meal supports 

Family/community involvement 

> Family income supports 

> Communication and problem solving 

> Parent council and parent workshops 

> Community action 

> Community Advisory Board 


| 8

SCHOOL TRANSFORMATION PLAN 

We will use team-building activities and a culture of high 

expectations to put the interests of students at the center 

of our thoughts, conversations and work. 

Alongside the extended-day and learning activities, we will 

partner with Near North Health Systems/Komed to build 

and operate an in-school health center. The center will 

provide a full range of physical and mental health services 

and its staff will manage or contribute to related health 

education programs. We will improve the quality of food in 

our cafeteria by adding a salad bar and add after-school 

meals through a Kid’s Café. 

Social supports will include needs assessment, 

introduction of the Unity Project to help faculty guide and 

support students as they build decision-making skills, 

mentoring programs and a partnership with the nearby 

Center for Working Families to help families improve their 

financial strength. All middle-school students will be 

exposed to multiple programs about high school selection 

and preparation, and eighth graders will participate in 

college-awareness programs. 

Phasing and impact 

The School Transformation Plan will be implemented over a 

four-year period, with an initial emphasis on building a 

rigorous academic program through the recruitment, 

induction and development of high-quality staff. The 

after-school, Saturday and summer sessions will be 

integrated into the academic day; wherever possible, 

after-school staff and tutors will receive the same 

curriculum training or professional development as the 

daytime teachers. 

The anticipated impact of an improved and more cohesive 

teaching staff is improved academic achievement; 

increased participation of students in the academic 

program; and higher levels of students that are engaged in 

the academic program. 

We also anticipate improvements in student reading 

capabilities and writing assignments; student portfolios 

with examples of their work and progress; and students 

who are prepared to take on a rigorous mathematics 

curriculum in high school. 

The health center and social supports will help create a 

healthier student body that is better able to engage in 

learning. We anticipate a reduction of preventable disease 

and injury, fewer health related absences and improved 

behavior. There will be a continued decrease in student 

discipline referrals as teachers are provided with more tools 

and support to manage students and classrooms. 

9 | 


4 EXTENDED DAY AND LEARNING: 

BUILDING A FOUNDATION 

We have made good progress at Reavis over the last 

three years on academic improvement, but much more is 

needed to reach our vision for Reavis graduates. Our plan 

is to create a more rigorous academic environment, with a 

special focus on the middle-school grades. We will create 

departmentalized learning in grades 6 through 8 and work 

with the Chicago New Teacher Center to hire and train 

new teachers with the required subject-matter certifications. 

We will also create an extended-day program that 

provides additional time for intensive academic work 

with teachers, tutors and other support personnel, 

along with enrichment activities that help address health, 

social and emotional needs. 

The foundation of the middle-school program will be a 

young teaching staff that participates in regular 

professional development and coaching to build a more 

effective and demanding academic program. When 

Principal Johnson began at Reavis, the school copier was 

printing 1.5 million sheets a year, an indication that much 

of the classroom time was spent filling in work sheets. 

Now, several new programs are already in place — such 

as the Chicago Reading Initiative to improve performance 

and the college-awareness program Gear Up, in 

partnership with the University of Chicago — and more 

programs will be added. 

Student success will continue to be celebrated, with 

student gains recognized in monthly cluster town hall 

meetings (grades K-2, 3-5 and 6-8). These assemblies 

celebrate student birthdays and achievements such as 

most improved for behavior, most improved academics, 

and other improvements and successes in or out of school. 

Departmentalized middle 

school 

Our middle-school students now stay with the same 

classroom teacher most of the day, but we will shift from 

these self-contained classrooms to a departmentalized 

program to expose all middle-school students to teachers 

with subject-matter expertise in language arts, math, 

history and science. Graduates of Reavis who participated 

in the planning process said that a departmentalized 

structure would help prepare students for the transition to 

high school. 


| 10

EXTENDED DAY AND LEARNING: BUILDING A FOUNDATION 

Chicago New Teachers 

Center 

Because much of the middle-school staff will be new, we 

will partner with the Chicago New Teachers Center for 

induction, training and mentoring of the middle-school 

teachers. Founded at the University of California-Santa 

Cruz and now operating in 17 school districts including 

Chicago, the CNTC uses highly trained mentors to work 

with new teachers both during the school day and after 

school. 

New teachers will be selected in part for their willingness 

to work the extended days that are part of this plan. But 

to avoid teacher burnout, the after-school and weekend 

programs will also depend on new part-time staff, interns 

and personnel from partner agencies. Professional 

development for the extended-day personnel will be 

aligned with the academic program. 

Extended-day plan 

With the school day extended until 6 p.m., all middleschool 

students will have the opportunity to participate in 

literacy, mathematics and enrichment activities to strengthen 

their ability to perform academically. The extended-day 

program will offer one hour of targeted academic tutoring 

or homework support, with two hours of arts and social 

recreational activities to extend their thinking, and be 

strongly integrated with regular school day programming 

and technology. 

The CPS after-school program and the Middle School 

Male Advising program are already in place and additional 

programs will be added. Formal relationships will be 

established with partners such as AmeriCorp’s City Year, 

Citizen Schools, the University of Chicago’s Neighborhood 

Schools program and other service and arts organizations 

that can provide the necessary programming support. 

A digital technology program will be created, modeled in 

part after the existing program at nearby North Kenwood- 

Oakland Charter School. The digital program might include 

writing and editing of web-based material, web-casting, 

creation of e-newsletter and video production. Arts, dance 

and cooking classes will be offered on a rotating basis, 

always with an academic component that links back to 

classroom teaching. 

We recognize that some of our middle-school students 

have responsibilities to care for younger siblings and 

relatives, but still need an opportunity to participate in the 

extended-day programs. Reavis will identify students 

responsible for the care of younger siblings and develop 

programs for primary and intermediate siblings of those 

students. The result would be more students who have 

such responsibility joining extended school activities. 

Summer enrichment 

A four- to six-week summer enrichment camp that operates 

four to five hours daily will keep students connected to 

their academic work and contribute to their emotional 

physical, academic and cultural development. 

Partnerships with local museums and cultural organizations 

(such as the Smart Museum, Oriental Museum, Museum 

of Science and Industry, Little Black Pearl Workshop and 

others) would be forged to offer stimulating off-site 

activities for middle grade students. 

Participating in summer camp is a way to keep students 

from losing ground academically during the break and a 

way to provide middle-school students with an opportunity 

to increase their literacy and mathematical knowledge. In 

addition, the students would participate in physical and 

recreational activities that support healthier lifestyle choices. 

Reavis is already involved with the CPS Summer School 

Remediation Program, Gear Up, and the Italian American 

Sports Hall of Fame. The camps connect well with proposed 

health, academic, and social supports at the school. 

Outdoor camp 

Grade-level community-building camps will be used to 

help students learn about themselves, develop social/ 

emotional thinking skills, create positive relationships with 

each other and envision their potential. Using camps like 

Iron Oaks, Camp Edwards or Camp Red Leaf, the 

Wednesday-through-Friday outings will take place each 

fall to build a sense of momentum early in the school year 

and increase student “buy-in” into the academic program 

and the Reavis Way. The camps fit established patterns at 

Reavis of gathering students to acknowledge their 

achievement and building a greater sense of community. 

The camps will also provide the faculty with an opportunity 

11 | 


to engage students in a different setting to build relationships. 

Parents will be invited to separate sessions for parents on 

the first day of each camp. 

Quarterly learning targets 

Working with the New Leaders for New Schools program, 

we will institute quarterly learning targets to help track 

student performance and more rapidly respond to their 

learning needs. These regular interim assessment tests, 

administered the first week of each marking period, 

provide teachers with timely data that allows them to 

teach or reteach material as needed. Periodic retesting 

shows if the students have grasped the material. The 

system also gives students and their parents a clear idea 

of the learning targets and their progress. 

In the first year of the program, starting in fall 2007, 

teachers will prepare mathematics learning targets aligned 

with the Illinois state standards, then share with students 

and parents so that they understand the purpose of the 

learning targets and testing. Teachers will also review and 

address curricular coherence through Illinois state 

standards and curriculum mapping in the summer of 

2007. In the following years, students will join in quarterly 

school-wide assessments in reading, writing, mathematics, 

science and history. The program will be designed in 

collaboration with Mark Murphy, interim assessment 

director for New Leaders for New Schools, with ongoing 

collaboration and support from the Quality Improvement 

Initiative of the CPS Office for Principal Preparation and 

Development. 

New curricula 

The ISS planning process has spurred Reavis to expand 

its use of high-quality curricula to better prepare middleschool 

students for high school. We will tap several 

programs that are established and well-proven in Chicago, 

including the Striving Readers Program, Chicago Reading 

Initiative, Chicago Math and Science Initiative, Facing 

History and Ourselves and Expeditionary Learning 

Outward Bound. The extended-day program will be used 

to support the new curricula through tutoring on the new 

subject matter, professional development for teaching and 

after-school staff, and integrated programming that 

reinforces the new curricula. 

> Striving Readers. The goal of the reading program at 

Reavis is to offer students a balanced program so that 


| 12

EXTENDED DAY AND LEARNING: A COORDINATED APPROACH 

they enter high school as independent readers and 

writers. Middle-school teachers will participate in the 

Striving Readers program which includes ongoing 

professional development in research-based best 

practices. Teachers will collaborate daily and weekly 

with a site-based intervention teacher. The Literacy 

Intervention Teacher will provide intensive instruction 

and support for struggling readers. Primary and 

intermediate students will be prepared for Striving 

Readers with instruction on comprehension, fluency 

and vocabulary, and with new basal-reading textbooks. 

> Everyday Math and Math Thematics. We will 

introduce new materials and professional development 

from the Chicago Math and Science Initiative, using 

Everyday Math in the lower grades (K-5) to prepare 

students for middle-school success, where the Math 

Thematics program will be used. Teachers are already 

attending CMSI trainings to institute these programs. 

> Apangea math tutoring. To help students build a 

strong mathematical foundation and be “algebra ready” 

for high school, the school will utilize Apangea, an online 

application that guides students through mathematical 

concepts using a combination of artificial intelligence 

and live support. The software allows teachers to 

monitor student progress and use it to differentiate 

classroom instruction daily. The software will be utilized 

for students in all grades — primary, intermediate and 

middle school. This program will require setting up a 

writing/mathematics computer center. 

> Facing History and Ourselves. Used successfully in 

Chicago and nationally, this program engages students 

of diverse backgrounds in discussions of racism, social 

justice and tolerance, making history relevant and 

applicable to the student’s daily life. We will implement 

the program at Reavis through a training module for 

middle school teachers, and have already begun 

meeting with faculty at another ISS-Chicago school that 

uses the curriculum, Ames Middle School in Logan 

Square. Reavis already employs a Chicago History 

Museum program for 3 rd and 4 th graders, providing a 

foundation for the middle school program. 

> Expeditionary Learning. We will organize our 

curriculum primarily through learning expeditions. 

Learning expeditions feature linked projects that require 

students to construct deep understanding, build skills 

and create products for a live audience. Learning 

expeditions support critical literacy, promote character 

development, create a sense of adventure, spark 

curiosity and foster an ethic of service. They address 

central academic standards of content, skills and 

presentation. They encourage the authentic integration 

of academic disciplines and include goals related to 

character and community. 

13 | 


5 HEALTHY KIDS – HEALTHY SCHOOL 

COMMUNITY 

Sick children don’t do well in school, whether the issue is 

missed days or the inability to focus on learning because 

of ailments or health problems. We also know that 

stressed-out teachers can’t provide top-notch instruction, 

which makes health services and health education a top 

priority for the Reavis school community. 

At Reavis, there are large numbers of students who are 

obese, suffer from asthma, and are at-risk of, or are being 

treated for diabetes. There are also many children with 

unmet mental health needs. The only ones receiving 

services are students with serious behavioral problems; 

most students have no access to mental health services. 

Poor health, for both adults and children, is a serious 

problem throughout the Quad Communities area. The 

Grand Boulevard community adjacent to Reavis shows 

the highest incidence of risk among the five ISS school 

communities, according to the Chicago Department of 

Health’s Behavioral Risk Factor Survey (2006). It had high 

risk factors for residents not having a health plan, no 

cholesterol check, no exercise, smoking, binge drinking 

and non-daily fruit consumption. The same neighborhood 

had 89 live births to teen mothers in 2003, a 23.4 percent 

rate compared to 13.5 percent citywide. 

A school-based health center will ensure that every child 

receives the physical and mental health care they need, 

facilitate the management of chronic conditions and 

provide effective preventive services. The center will 

ensure students and their families and the school 

community have comprehensive health care sufficient to 

address preventable disease and injury and manage 

disease and injury that cannot be prevented. 

In-school health center 

We will partner with Near North Health Service Corporation/ 

Komed to operate the school-based health center at 

Reavis and provide physical, mental and dental health 

services. Near North is a Federally Qualified Health Center 

that served 27,000 patients through 80,000 visits in 2006. 

It operates four primary-care sites in Chicago including 

two that are near the school: Cottage View Health Center, 

about two blocks from Reavis at 4829 S. Cottage Grove, 

and the Komed Holman Health Center, six blocks away at 

4259 S. Berkeley. 

The partnership with Near North/Komed will provide a 

medical home for students whose parents so choose and 

supplementary services for students whose primary 

medical home is elsewhere. Preventive services will be 

provided to the entire school community during nonschool 

hours. The proximity of the affiliated clinics means 

that family members of Reavis students can be easily 

served nearby. 

The center at Reavis will be designed as a “child and 

adolescent-friendly” facility and focus on offering an 

environment that is welcoming, reassuring safe and 

confidential. Komed, a longtime area health provider, will 

provide services based on its experience and operations 

that reflect the best practices of community-based health 

care operations. 

The center will provide physical, mental and dental health 

services and will integrate lessons on nutrition, health 

education, exercise and other preventative measures to 

benefit students and the school community. A school 

health index will be employed to look at the school’s 

health status in several areas, including individual health, 

physical safety, community health and school health (the 

building environment). 


| 14

HEALTHY STUDENTS: LIVING A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE 

Comprehensive health 

services 

The health center’s primary function will be to improve the 

health of Reavis students so that they can perform better 

academically and socially. A school Health Committee will 

involve staff and parents to make sure that there is a 

comprehensive approach and a focus on improved health, 

from physical and building safety to school meals and 

class curricula. The committee will meet at least once 

a month. 

Our plan for developing and providing health services 

includes the following components: 

> Each child will be provided with an individual health plan 

to support academic achievement. For example, a 

special-needs student who is overweight could be 

supported in weight loss efforts to boost self esteem 

and stimulate greater participation and engagement in 

academic work. 

> Case conferences and multidisciplinary meetings will be 

employed to identify health issues and any interrelationship 

to academic performance, such as a student who 

misses days because of continued illness or an asthma 

sufferer whose medicine increases his level of activity, 

and which otherwise might be construed as a 

disciplinary problem. 

> Ongoing assessments will be created to ensure proper 

care of students and a confidential “Health Report 

Card” will be used to engage and inform parents about 

the status of their children’s health. The ongoing 

assessments will be used to determine if any student 

health needs are going unfilled and to identify gaps in 

care that need to be filled. 

> The content and quality of student absence forms will 

be improved to offer a better picture of those conditions 

that contribute to children spending time out of school. 

> KoMed will provide dental services. 

The center will support existing school health programs 

providing for vaccination and screening; individualized 

health plans such as 508s; and counseling for children 

with diagnosed social/emotional disorders. It will also be 

integrated with the Reavis physical education curriculum, 

“Get Our Youth In Shape.” 

Health center build out 

Reavis identified rooms 115 and 117 for the health center 

space. The health center will be accessed from the main 

entrance and will not have a separate entrance from the 

exterior of the building. The center will incorporate the 

following elements, as shown in the floor layout: 

> Waiting areas 

> Reception area/desk 

> 3 exam rooms 

> Nurses’ station/secure medical record storage 

> Conference room for health education 

15 | 


Locked cabinet for medications 

> Office space for counseling and service providers 

> Laboratory space (workroom) with pass-through 

connection to washroom 

> Washroom 

> Accessory storage spaces 

To accommodate the program, Reavis will need to 

relocate a pre-K room and a special education resource 

room. The development budget provides funds for this 

relocation and associated physical improvements. 

Reproductive health and 

sexually transmitted diseases 

Reavis students will receive comprehensive reproductive 

health education through the SMART Moves program 

developed by the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. This 

program’s Stay SMART (Skills Mastery and Resistance 

Training) component teaches students the benefits of 

resisting alcohol, tobacco, drugs and sexual activity. An 

independent evaluation found that at 15 months and 23 

months after the program, participants had significantly 

less sexual behavior than the control group. 

Integrated health education 

The health center will be the central partner in creating a 

seamless connection between health and academic 

lessons, in particular health education and physical 

education classes, but also in any coursework where 

lessons about health can be related to core subjects. 

The health center will be an information center providing 

age-appropriate posters, pamphlets and opportunities for 

guided student and parent discussion groups. Students 

will be encouraged to share what they have learned with 

their peers and with others through art projects. For 

hands-on nutrition education, students and their families 

will have access to Near North/Komed’s model grocery 

store and kitchen. 

Reavis teachers and Komed health educators will work 

collaboratively on health-themed projects and curriculum 

units, and will partner with parents and students to create 

effective community outreach. 

Science, health and careers 

Students will have the opportunity to conduct science 

experiments relating to health in their science classes. 

Center staff will support appropriate science fair projects 

on health themes. Also, students will be introduced to the 

full range of health care careers through annual visits to 

nearby Komed health center sites at 43 rd and 49 th streets. 

Komed staff will be invited to make classroom visits 

through the year. 

Improved school nutrition 

To ensure no student begins his or her day hungry, Reavis 

will implement a universal breakfast program. Reavis will 

also work with the Chicago Public Schools to explore 

ways to provide healthy food choices for students, such 

as a cafeteria salad bar or other options to increase the 

nutritional value of school food offerings. 

Fitness and dance 

Existing sports programs at the school will be supplemented 

with classes in capoeira, the strenuous and fun Afro- 

Brazilian martial arts and dance discipline. We will develop 

a comprehensive dance program by bringing teachers 

and students together with outside experts such as Muntu 

Dance, a Chicago institution building a new theater nearby 

on 47 th Street, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. 

Hubbard Street’s education and community programs 

include workshops, professional development, afterschool 

programs and in-school residencies. Accredited by 

the CPS Teachers Academy and the Illinois State Board of 

Education, the programs are specifically designed to 

bridge after-school and academic activities. Our Youth in 

Shape (O’YIS), a program that provides systematic, schoolwide 

physical fitness and nutritional program designed to 

the meet the needs of the whole child, staff, families and 

community through creative movement, exercise and 

health education that provides the skills, knowledge and 

motivation to keep kids in shape and encourage lifelong 

learning, will also be used inside the school. 


| 16

6 SOCIAL SUPPORTS: MEETING NEEDS 

OF ALL STUDENTS 

The Reavis Way means always putting children at the 

center of the school’s agenda, and that means we must 

discover and meet the social and emotional needs of 

our students. 

We have made progress in recent years on reduction of 

discipline problems by instituting Positive Behavior 

Interventions Support (PBIS), a tested approach to 

creating positive school environments. PBIS brings 

together parents and staff to establish clear rules and 

expectations, implement appropriate strategies and 

reward good behavior. 

Reavis has been one of eight Chicago Public Schools 

implementing PBIS in partnership with System of Care 

Chicago. SOCC services are designed individually for 

about 30 students at Reavis and may include group or 

one-on-one counseling, tutoring, and building relationships 

with teachers, family members or other trusted supporters. 

While SOCC has helped address the needs of our most 

disruptive students, we believe a broader program of 

social supports is needed to serve all students. Also, the 

SOCC program is being phased out by CPS, so we will 

work with our health-services provider, Near North/ 

Komed, to develop a new program that will provide 

continuity and serve more students. 

We will also provide mentoring, specialized training on 

social-emotional issues, an after-school nutrition component 

and significant efforts to help students consider and 

decide which high school path they should take. 

17 | 


Needs assessment 

The first step in creating effective support systems will be 

a needs assessment to target programs. To gain honest 

and useful information from students and their families, 

Reavis will use its health partner, Komed, to do the needs 

assessment and coordinate services. The initial focus will 

be the 147 children enrolled in middle school. Interview 

guidelines will be developed and agreed upon between 

Reavis, Komed and our neighborhood partner, Quad 

Communities Development Corporation (QCDC). Komed 

and QCDC will help administer different aspects of the 

survey to maintain confidentiality within the guidelines of 

the various partners. 

We envision that some of the identified needs will be: 

> Connect students with services. 

> Establish a resource center for students. 

> Educate staff about adolescent growth and 

development to better recognize indicators of normal 

behavior and signs of problems. 

> Ensure that social emotional learning standards are taught. 

> Engage students and parents on adolescent issues. 

Unity Project 

The Unity Project was used in schools throughout New 

York City after the 9/11 tragedy, helping students develop 

resilient and healthy responses to the crisis. The program 

will be used at Reavis to help our students develop a 

heightened ability to turn challenges into opportunities for 

personal and community growth. Drawing on research of 

the Resilient Responses to Social Crisis Inter-Faculty at 

Harvard University, the project involves training of 

teachers, staff and students in the skills necessary to 

create a resilient school culture. By engaging students in 

structured service-learning opportunities and transformation 

exercises, the program provides a framework for integrating 

social and emotional goals into the academic curriculum 

and extended-day programs. 

Mentoring 

Effective mentoring can be an important part of a child’s 

life and Reavis is looking to incorporate a solid program. 

Reavis will start by implementing an in-school mentoring 

effort that focuses daily teacher attention on those 

students with the greatest challenges. Each staff member 

will have responsibility for one or two students. Such a 

program is already in place at neighboring North Kenwood 

Oakland Charter School and will be used as a model. 

Daily check-ins will be utilized and the extended-day 

program will provide additional opportunities to connect 

the youth with teachers and other caring adults. 

Another way we will provide stronger adult-child contact 

is through a program being negotiated with the nearby 

University of Chicago School of Social Services 

Administration. The school places student interns in 

community and school settings. We are designing an 

advisory program that will be supervised by Reavis 

personnel and includes an advisory period for 90 minutes 

that connects students to their education in informal 

ways. We are also exploring a mentoring partnership with 

Big Brothers Big Sisters. 

Inclusion 

Reavis does not currently meet the best-practices 

standard for the inclusion of children with special needs. 

We are committed to meeting this standard and providing 

every child with the optimal learning environment. Through 


| 18

the cluster meetings sponsored by QCDC, the school 

leadership became aware of the model inclusion programs 

implemented at a nearby neighborhood public school. 

The principal who spearheaded this program retires this 

June and has agreed to advise Reavis on full-inclusion 

practices. 

Attendance supports 

We want to increase attendance by adding home visits to 

track attendance problems more closely. For our health 

initiatives to have the full impact possible on academic 

achievement, we need direct knowledge of the 

circumstances that may impede attendance. Both 

physical and mental health issues can play a role in 

undermining attendance. At the same time, home visits 

can transform a potentially negative encounter between 

parents and the school into a positive connection. We will 

deploy trained support staff to track attendance and 

monitor referrals. QCDC will closely support this effort 

because of the widespread interest in the community in 

supporting attendance through purposeful outreach. 

After-school food: Kids Café 

With our school day extended to 6 p.m., our children will 

need an afternoon snack, and we plan to provide hot and 

nutritious meals in partnership with the Greater Chicago 

Food Depository’s Kids Café program. An initiative of 

America’s Second Harvest administered locally by GCFD, 

the Kids Café is already offered in 41 Chicago locations, 

including 16 schools. 

High school placement 

The Reavis community wants to make sure the work we 

do isn’t lost as our students go off to high school. Our aim 

is to make sure each graduate feels that good options 

exist for high school and to help the students choose the 

best school for their aptitude, interests and future 

ambitions. We will incorporate “High School Here We 

Come,” which exposes students to high schools, meets 

weekly to discuss student areas of interest, explains high 

school requirements and arranges high school visits. 

19 | 


7 COMMUNITY AND PARENT INVOLVEMENT 

Successful schools as 

community anchors 

Successful implementation of this plan can make Reavis 

Elementary School a true community resource. It can 

become a place where students from the community want 

to be from morning to evening and on weekends. It can 

become a central point of communication for parents and 

community members, and support the kind of balanced 

housing and retail development envisioned in the Quad 

Communities quality-of-life plan. 

Communication and outreach 

We believe that we must engage parents more effectively 

to implement our improvement plans. Grade-level 

meetings for parents will be held early in the school year 

for 6 th , 7 th and 8 th graders and their families. The initial 

focus will be on the Reavis Way — the school’s values, 

expectations, and processes. Outreach will continue at 

various times throughout the year, including report pick 

up days, which will be expanded to include more 

communication time among parents, students, teachers 

and staff. 

Quad Communities Development Corporation is committed 

to partnering with Reavis to transform the school into a 

local resource, and to create the community and parent 

involvement that will sustain the school over time. 

QCDC’s approach to education was developed in response 

to the quality-of-life plan published in 2005. The goal is a 

local network of high-performing neighborhood schools 

that are open to local residents so that all families have 

viable educational choices from preschool through high 

school. QCDC has partnered with elementary schools to 

expand and bring in new pre-school opportunities, and 

has reached up the high school level to promote articulation, 

cohort advancement and increased local opportunities. 

The school transformation plan at Reavis, with sustained 

involvement of QCDC and other neighborhood partners, 

will produce cohorts of graduating eight graders prepared 

for a rigorous local high school. QCDC will work to 

leverage this progress into other local elementary schools 

while simultaneously improving the two local high schools, 

with a goal of creating a high-quality network of local 

schools from preschool through high school. 


| 20

There will be ongoing opportunities to engage parents as 

the school offers greater programming such as the 

after-school, summer and outdoor camp programs. Each 

of these programs will be introduced at a meeting for 

parents, and the meetings will be used strategically to 

develop ongoing communication and relationships with 

the students’ family members. 

Education organizer 

QCDC will add an education-focused organizing position 

to support the communications and outreach outlined 

above, and to help spread the best practices implemented 

at Reavis to other elementary schools in the QCDC 

service area. For the community to experience the true 

value of what will happen in the middle school, substantial 

parent and community organizing must occur in support 

of high school options, transition and graduation. At 

present that ‘high school’ is itself a fragmented series of 

limited options. QCDC’s education outreach director will 

be recruited, trained and supported to conduct this work. 

Family academic nights 

Reavis will open its doors to family members once per 

quarter to provide regular opportunities for parents to 

learn about and get involved in their children’s academic 

work. These family nights will focus on a particular subject 

area each time, covering science, math, literacy and 

writing. The Family Science Night, for instance, might 

include hands-on workshops for students and parents to 

demonstrate concepts being taught in the classrooms. 

individuals, capturing $1.2 million in tax refunds and the 

federal Earned Income Credit. 

A network of local schools 

Reavis is a member of the Lakefront Cluster of elementary 

schools, all of which work with QCDC. Cluster principals 

from both public and charter schools meet regularly to 

discuss topics of common concern, including special 

education and the use of data to direct assessment. The 

cluster schools are improving, some dramatically, and 

there is a growing emphasis on learning from one another. 

This increasing coherence, however, is not yet mirrored at 

the high school level. None of the high schools in the 

service area is high performing, including the selective 

enrollment high school. High performing students seek 

opportunities outside of the service area, while many other 

students who complete elementary school are not 

successful in high school. For this reason, QCDC, Reavis 

and the Lakefront Cluster will focus over the coming years 

on producing viable local high school choices so that the 

gains at the elementary and middle-school level can 

continue for all local students. The partnership between 

QCDC and Reavis designed to implement ISS will be truly 

sustainable as the practices and policies developed for 

ISS at Reavis become a catalyst for change, transforming 

the entire network of neighborhood schools, charter and 

non charter alike. 

Family income supports 

All families at Reavis will be encouraged to take advantage 

of the resources of our partner institution, the Abraham 

Lincoln Centre and its Center for Working Families (CWF). 

The CWF is part of a national network of support 

organizations that connect low-income families with 

employment programs, financial counseling and screening 

for public benefits so that they receive all possible financial 

supports. The CWF at Abraham Lincoln Centre helps 

eligible families sign up for child health insurance, food 

programs and housing assistance, and in 2007 provided 

free income-tax-preparation services for 792 families and 

21 | 


For more information, 

contact: 

Michael T. Johnson 

Principal 


834 E. 50 th St. 


773-535-1060 

mtjohnson2@cps.k12.il.us 

Syda Segovia Taylor 

ISS Program Manager 

Quad Communities Development Corporation 

(QCDC)/Reavis Elementary School 

4659 S. Cottage Grove Ave. 


312-371-7036 

taygovia@msn.com 

Chris Brown 

Director, Education Programs 


1 N. LaSalle St., 12th Floor 


312-385-4803 

cbrown@lisc.org

REAVIS REBIRTH - LISC Chicago

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