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Communities in Schools
of Chicago Initiative (CISC) |
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Since 1994,
Communities in Schools of Chicago (CISC) has served as a bridge
connecting existing social service agencies to Chicago Public
Schools to deliver services that address student barriers to
learning. CISC staff partner with schools, developing leaders to
conduct priority service area assessments, identify and contact
community resources, coordinate service implementation, nurture and
leverage partnerships, and evaluate the impact and outcomes of
programming. CISC staff also works with partner agencies, providing
training and support by connecting agencies to appropriate schools,
analyzing program evaluation information, and providing
opportunities for networking. During the 2006-2007 school years,
CISC reached some 55,000 students in 138 schools addressing 50
different school priorities. The top five services provided
included: eye exams and eyeglass services, performing arts programs,
violence prevention programs, physical exams, and health education
programs.
CISC contracted with the Egan Urban Center in 2006 to help guide
their work through a three year collaborative evaluation of
organizational and student outcomes. A theory of change focusing on
CISC’s work with schools and agencies and the impact of that work on
students drives the evaluation process. At the school and agency
level, CISC’s main task is to build institutional and organizational
capacity. At the school level, capacity building positions schools
to better identify student and community needs, bring in more
services around identified needs, and monitor the quality and impact
of services. At the agency level, capacity building allows agencies
to serve more students, provide higher quality programs, increase
the impact of programming, build relationships with schools and
create cross-agency collaboration. Strengthening the capacity of
schools and agencies in turn leads to addressing student barriers to
learning by improving student knowledge, attitude and behavior,
promoting student physical and emotional health, increasing school
safety and improving school climates, and increasing access to the
arts and other enrichment activities. By addressing these barriers,
student academic engagement and achievement are expected to rise as
evidenced by improved school attendance, an increase in student
focus on academics, and increased test scores. In turn, increased
academic engagement and achievement lead to CISC’s organizational
mission: to help students learn, stay in school and prepare for
life.
Although the EUC and CISC are now beginning their third year of
evaluation, results from analysis are preliminary. Despite
challenges associated with insufficient data to conduct trend
analysis and unexpected variability in assessing school capacity,
there are some early indicators that CISC is impacting schools’
ability to meet student needs.
- leaders at
schools continue to improve their focus on building
collaborative partnerships
- schools saw a
modest increase in targeting services to specific populations
based on assessments
- 86% of
schools used informal assessments to identify needs
- Nearly 40%
of schools used formal assessments to identify needs
- the number of
schools using an evaluation process to provide feedback to
agencies increased
- 83% of
schools conducted informal evaluations
- Nearly 40%
of schools conducted formal evaluations
- schools saw
dramatic improvements in relationship building with local
agencies and developing long-term relationships with partners.
Preliminary results
for agencies also point to CISC having an impact.
- CISC partner
agencies reported that CISC helped them serve more schools and
more students. i.e. 10,000 more students were served in
2006-2007 than in 2005-2006
- Agencies were
able to provide more services and to more students per service,
particularly around violence prevention and conflict resolution,
and HIV/AIDS education
- 89% of CISC
partner agencies reported that CISC events helped improve their
programming tools and practices
- Agencies
reported improvements in communication with schools (64%), their
ability to market themselves within schools (82%), and
collaboration with schools (79%)
- In terms of
student outcomes, current data comes from survey responses of
school personnel. While this is less reliable information than
responses from students themselves, it suggests a positive trend
in schools in which CISC works. 72% of respondents reported
improved academic performance at their school. 62% reported
increased attendance. To gain a more accurate and detailed
assessment of student outcomes related to CISC’s work in
schools, student focus groups centered on the impact of CISC
services on knowledge, attitude, behavior, health, attendance
and academic engagement and achievement are slated to take place
in May 2008.
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