T/MC Maps Show where Chicago School Reform is a Reality, or an Illusion.

Regular "letters to the editor" and editorials in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago SunTimes, highlight school reform and youth violence issues that plague Chicago.

One wrote, "While politicians across the country are captivated by tales of "triumph" of Chicago's mayor and the schools' administrative team, educators are increasingly dismayed by the unsound, unprofessional tactics being employed in the city's schools."

On December 18, 2001 a Chicago Tribune Editorial wrote of "Taking Schools to the next Level". In and editorial on December 23, 2001 the Chicago Tribune called for "Casting out Bad Teachers", and extending "a wider net for good ones." On December 24, 2001 Chicago Tribune wrote about "Chicago’s stubborn murder rate" challenged the police department to "Search hard for new answers."

Since these stories were written, poverty has continued to create terror in the world, and in our inner cities. The President’s No Child Left Behind law signals an intent to reach all children, yet there is no strategy in place to make that a reality.

Unfortunately, these editorials fail to consistently go beyond words to use maps to show where poorly performing schools are located, and where organizations are in the field, trying to offset the impact of poverty with programs that mentor youth to careers.

The T/MC has been piloting a use of GIS software to create maps that clearly show the impact poverty has on poor schools. Such maps call for a 24-hour /365 day strategy that involved more leaders than just principals and school administrators.

The issue of the poverty surrounding poorly performing schools has not been given nearly as much media attention as has the firing of "poorly performing teachers". The goals of "preparing students to graduate with a strong knowledge and skill base to meet life's many challenges" should be the priority of school reform, not Iowa test scores. Rather than cheering the superficial results school reform has achieved thus far, we should be demanding a comprehensive action plan that will keep all students in school from 8th grade through the 12th grade, reducing our drop outs and increasing the number who graduate ready to work, or ready to move on to higher education.

The reality is, Chicago's schools won't change for most children any time soon, unless more adults and more of Chicago's businesses get involved to a much greater degree than they are now. Rather than congratulating Mayor Daley and the Reform Team, we should be looking deeper at the issues, and looking for ways to pitch in and help these children. When the next election comes around, the evaluation criteria for success with school reform should be much more focused on graduation and career-preparation rates than percent increases of Iowa test scores.

All any citizen of this region needs to do is look at a map of the entire city, with overlays for the highest concentrations of poverty, and overlays showing the schools which were put on probation in 1996 and the high schools which were reconstituted a year later, to see the relationship between poor schools and poverty. It is in these neighborhoods where the need for a wide range of adults, youth apprentice programs, arts and technology centers are desperately needed.


Below is a T/MC map that shows the location of Chicago schools that were "reconstituted" in 1996 as part of a highly publicized "crackdown" on poorly performing teachers and administrators.

It also shows that every one of these schools is located in some of the poorest and most isolated neighborhoods of Chicago.   

Maps like this tell a story of need.

They go beyond the media hype around "firing poor teachers" to the real issue of "healing" poor neighborhoods. This map, for instance, shows locations of Chicago Public Schools that were considered so bad that they had to be closed down and rebuilt with new leadership. While the public school administration has received national attention for such dramatic steps, the T/MC suggests that without addressing the poverty and the need for adult help, jobs and learning opportunities in the non-school hours, even these drastic steps may not be enough to assure that children in these neighborhoods can compete for jobs in the 21st century.

Maps like this can also help volunteers, parents, donors and business partners find tutor/mentor programs, if they exist in these areas, or find the willpower to start new programs if they are needed.

The Tutor/Mentor Connection hosts an on-line Program Locator Directory, listing contact information for nearly 300 sites around the Chicago region that offer some form of tutoring/mentoring in the non-school hours.

In the T/MC Map Gallery at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net you can find additional examples of how maps can be used to draw a more even distribution of resources to every poverty neighborhood in the Chicago region. If you search the LINKS section of this web site for the word “map” and “GIS” you’ll seen examples of ways that others are beginning to use GIS tools to connect volunteers, donors and parents with neighborhood organizations.

Volunteers have created the Tutor/Mentor Connection’s maps. However, we’ve not found donors or sponsors who would enable to volunteers, parents and/or donors to find tutor/mentor program listings just by pointing at a map and clicking a button. Imagine opening the Program Locator section on the HOME PAGE of this web site and seeing the map shown above. Imagine pointing to a section of the city and getting a detailed enlargement. Imagine pointing to a red dot and getting a paragraph that tells you the name of the program, contact information and some information about what age group the program serves, what activities they do and what time of day the program meets.

That's all possible. It is beginning to take shape thanks to T/MC volunteers that are working to make this stage of the T/MC web site a reality. Now you can see maps of Chicago that show where tutor/mentor programs for different age group are located. You can see current maps that show the public schools on the November 2001 warning list of the Illinois State Board of Education. You can see where kids have been shot and find contact information for tutor/mentor programs in those areas.
However, the T/MC needs help to make its vision of a GIS support/public awareness system a reality. Partners wanted!

The T/MC has tested and integrated a variety of technologies into its activities, borrowing from the good will of volunteers and using a patchwork of contributions to build this infrastructure. The T/MC is seeking a partnership with business and philanthropy leaders to enable the T/MC to expand the use of technologies such as the GIS that enables us to create maps that you see on t his site. It takes money, brains and equipment to do what we're trying to do, and we don't have enough of any of these to do it as fast as we want it and YOU need it.

If we can create an interactive GIS, we can show Generals and Leaders how to use it to win the war on poverty. Perhaps they will even use the T/MC GIS when they hold press conferences and perhaps the media will begin to use T/MC maps to do follow up stories when tragedy strikes and the media rush in to create a headline that sells papers.

If you can help, contact us at tutormentor2@earthlink.net or call 312-492-9614