Articles

• Teacher-Friendly Scientific Inquiry: A Summer Workshop for K-8 Teachers from High-Need Chicago Metropolitan Area Schools
  John J. Zenchak and Mary Jean Lynch
  Inquiry-based science curricula can improve student performance, but few teachers adopt these methods. With a grant from ACI's Center for Success in High-Need Schools, North Central College, Naperville, IL, offered Chicago-area teachers a week-long workshop that encouraged them to incorporate demonstration experiments into classroom activities.
• I-SPED Core Values
  Candace Baker
  The Associated Colleges of Illinois (ACI) Illinois Special Education Collaborative (I-SPED) responds to a critical shortage of special education teachers in Illinois, especially in the Chicago area.
• Professional Development Schools Transform Teacher Education at Quincy University and the University of St. Francis
  Ann Behrens and John Gambro
  The professional development schools established through partnerships led by Quincy University and the University of St. Francis link theory and practice and appear to have beneficial impacts for teachers, faculty, and candidates.
• Linking Lessons from Experience to Practice
  Jan Fitzsimmons and Anne Deeter
  After a rigorous, eight-week summer project with students from high-poverty schools, pre-service candidates may be more inclined to work in hard-to-staff schools.
• ACI Mentor Online: Electronic Support for Beginning Teachers in High-Need Schools
  Mary J. Selke and Shelli Nafziger
  Piloted in spring 2005, the Associated Colleges of Illinois' (ACI) Mentor Online program offers online forums in bilingual/ESL learners, classroom management and technology, mathematics, music, physical education, reading/literacy, science, social science, and special education.
• Feeling at Home: Linking New Teachers to High-Need Communities
  Shelley Sherman, Dawn Abt-Perkins, and Steven Rosswurm
  Before candidates begin observation and practicum experience in the Waukegan, IL schools, Lake Forest College provides them with an orientation program that introduces the social, cultural and historical context of this high-need Waukegan community.

Columns

Terry Mazany
The President and Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Community Trust believes that we all share a responsibility to create a public school system with the capacity to educate every student to a level at which college is a realistic option.

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Jan Fitzsimmons
The Director of ACI's Center for Success in High-Need Schools previews the first issues of the Center's new online journal, Success in High-Need Schools.

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Cynthia Kuck
Teacher-educator Cynthia Kuck poses the challenge: We can continue to maintain a system that fails children in high-need schools and robs them of their futures, or we can collaborate to identify the best practices for tough urban classrooms.

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