Linda Lenz, founding editor of Catalyst Chicago, dies at 77 | Technical assistance for local schools advocates

This entry is in keeping with the two previous entries which are schools related, especially:

-- "School closure and consolidation planning needs to focus on integration planning at the outset as a separate process"  

Linda Lenz (obituary, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reporter obituary) who died in May, was the founder of Catalyst Chicago, which was a news reporting and technical assistance organization focused on Chicago schools issues.  From the article:

a state law decentraliz[ed] the Chicago school system and giving parents and educators the power to review school budgets and hire principals. The publication put a spotlight on schools where reform efforts were working, as well as those where reform efforts were running aground. Catalyst also published opinion columns, studied education experiments in other cities and surveyed students, teachers and principals on certain issues.

Lenz, had an extensive background in local news reporting, including on the education beat, realized that advocates needed focused information to better help them carry out their responsibilities wrt school management and oversight.

It was somewhat comparable, although independent of government, to how Minneapolis created the Neighborhood Revitalization Program to train residents and provide technical assistance and training to undergird their participation in significant neighborhood capital projects.  They realized, once they started the program, that most participants lacked the right skills and knowledge to carry out the project.

I've written about other kinds of systematic citizen support efforts that impress me here, "Framingham Massachusetts creates Citizen Participation Officer position."

Interestingly, Chicago had at least two other similar publications on local issues, the Chicago Reporter, and a publication by the Center for Neighborhood Technology, which later became much more nationally focused, and those might have influenced the creation of Catalyst.  The same organization that publishes CR published Catalyst, which ceased operation in 2016, after publishing for 26 years.  For awhile, a sister publication also operated in Cleveland.

School reform and how can communities respond.  I bring this up because of the two related previous entries on schools issues, and the issue of "school reform."  I wrote many entries about it.  

-- "Schools #2: Successful school programs in low income communities and the failure of DC to respond similarly," 2017

-- "Missing the most fundamental point about urban educational reform," 2009

DC was a national example of the movement, centered around Michelle Rhee, a charter school proponent who became Chancellor of DC schools, and who mostly blamed "bad teachers" for the problems, not acknowledging that (1) "bad" teachers were produced by the system, and (2) charter schools usually had more resources, more time on task, and fewer school and legal requirements than "traditional schools."

Plus, because she couldn't take credit, basically she was against programs that were already successful before her arrival like language immersion and Montessori--when those kinds of programs are ways for traditional public schools to distinguish their programs.

Mostly the DC reform effort failed, but the Washington Post sure was all in.

-- Fawning coverage of DC school "reform" doesn't push better practice forward," 2017

Advocates need a solid narrative.  I was on an e-list on DC schools issues, and my complaint to the advocates and "opponents" to the reform program was that they failed to develop a counter narrative to Rhee.  They were inchoate.  Without a narrative you lose by default.

And so like my belief in civic engagement training for people participating in planning issues, I believe the same is true for schools.  There aren't a lot of available resources.

Sure there are PTAs and PTOs, and theoretically the two main teachers unions, but none of these organizations have provided the kinds of resources I think people need to have to be better informed and able to articulate alternatives.

Printed resources.  For publications there is the newsweekly Education Week, which I think all main branches of public libraries should get.  For alternative publications, I can only think of Radical Teacher and Rethinking Schools.  I guess there are others, like K12 Digest, and blogs.  

That's why Catalyst Chicago was so innovative.

For years I've recommended that main branch libraries create collections comparable to the Urban Information Library at the Dallas Public Library, along with programming which I don't think they do, but I never suggested adding schools-related publications to the mix.

There are probably others.  Plus decent academic journals, of which there are many.  At the same time there need to be trained professionals available to help advocates, because they can't be expected to assimilate all the information and apply it.

While speed bumps do suck, what's being proposed are raised crosswalks, and the way they are implemented in Salt Lake they don't "hinder" traffic, but they do provide visual, aural and physical cues to not drive as fast.

Safe routes to school is a good example. (See the end of this entry on walk and bike to school).  It ought to be noncontroversial.  

But even in my neighborhood, some residents are fighting a proposal to add raised crosswalks to an arterial serving two schools that have a high percentage of students walking to school.  

There should be resources and technical assistance aimed at helping bring people together.  

Especially since walking improvements for students also improve neighborhoods for everyone.  Interestingly, though our greater neighborhood is T4 in the New Urban transect it's pretty walkable, except when people do walk--other than to school--it's mostly recreational.

Conclusion.  Then again, we could provide all the civic engagement and technical assistance in the world and maybe the outcomes would be the same.  However, I do know that doing things the way we are doing them--even if by omission--isn't working, so it's obvious that alternatives are in order.