More than 40 members of the University of Chicago, Chicago Women's Alliance gathered this spring to learn more about the University's changing role in improving Chicago Public Schools.
That role has come a long way since the days when William Rainey Harper served not only as the University's first President but also as president of the CPS school board, noted Penny Bender Sebring, the CWA's May speaker and co-author of Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago.
Public education is one of the many topics the CWA explores during its five meetings throughout the year, which provide a forum for new knowledge. The organization is an interdisciplinary, shared interest group created for "women with significant life experience," who are alumnae, faculty, administrators and/or research associates from the University of Chicago. Each meeting features a female guest speaker with any of these UChicago affiliations, who gives an informative talk on her area of expertise.
Although the organization was created for women, all members of the University of Chicago community - male and female - are welcome to attend the events and become CWA affiliates.
As a network of women who share a common intellectual curiosity, especially about the work and research conducted at UChicago, the CWA settled in for an evening with presenter Sebring, co-founder of the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University's Urban Education Institute.
"The ultimate goal," said Sebring, "is to build knowledge that can be used to improve urban education." That knowledge is then shared with school leaders, teachers and other practitioners working in education. "We investigate the questions that are top of mind for people who are working hard to improve schools," she said.
While CCSR's research has revealed weaknesses in the school system, it also has identified what makes schools succeed. "We're looking at both success and failure," said Sebring. What CCSR has found in its longitudinal studies is that "education in public schools is a team sport," said Sebring. School leadership, teachers and parents all play a significant part in that success.
"There are five essential supports that create successful schools," said Sebring, noting strong school leadership; strong parent and community ties; professional capacity of the faculty; a student-centered learning climate; and a coherent instructional plan.
The University of Chicago Charter School, which operates four campuses that offer pre-kindergarten through high school curricula, works to maintain these supports to improve the academic achievements of its students.
As current or former educators in Chicago, a number of attendees at the talk had an invested interest in Sebring's data, including Ted Kavados, MBA'05, who was attending his first CWA meeting. Kavados said the subject of Sebring's talk drew him to the meeting to learn more about CPS and UEI's initiatives. Any insights he could gain for his tutoring of Chicago school children would be useful, he said.
CWA members queried Sebring about how charter schools operate, how they differ from other public schools, and about their accountability. Sebring noted that charter schools have more autonomy in their curriculum choices, but they are held accountable for attendance, test score performance, and other measures of effectiveness.
Sebring is among numerous distinguished speakers who have addressed the CWA over the past four years. Past speakers include Hanna Gray, President Emerita and the Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor Emerita in History and the College; Alice Schreyer, Director of Special Collections Research Center in the Joseph Regenstein Library; and Wendy Doniger, the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor in the Divinity School.
The CWA's membership has grown significantly since 2006, when Agnes Roach, AM'71, MBA'80, and Pamela Peterson, MBA'97, identified an unmet need within the University community for a general interest women's organization and decided to form the alliance.
The CWA also has collaborated on programs with the School of Social Service Administration, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Women's Business Group, and the Alumni Association. In addition to its five guest speaker presentations, the alliance also hosts several informal networking events throughout the year.
CWA's Thursday, July 22 event, "Conversations and Connections," will feature a roundtable format on a variety of topics. The program begins with registration at 5:30 p.m. and includes dinner and discussion from 6 to 8:30 p.m. "Conversations and Connections" will take place at Reza's Restaurant, 432 Ontario, in Chicago. The cost is $30 per person.
Illinois State Representative (D) Barbara Flynn Currie, U-High'58, AB'68, AM'73, will talk about her work in the Illinois legislature over the past 30 years at the Thursday, Sept. 30 CWA meeting, and Eve Van Cauter, the Frederick H. Rawson Professor of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, will present "Sleep and Biorhythms Research" at the Thursday, Nov. 10 meeting of the alliance.
"The CWA steering committee holds a brainstorming session twice a year to specifically develop a list of speakers and diverse range of topics that the committee thinks will be of interest to CWA's target demographic," Roach said. For example, CWA steering committee member Gerry Oberman, PhD'99, facilitated the May 2010 speaker and program.
"CWA is also in the process of building committees to provide additional opportunities for even more women to become involved," added Roach.
The CWA's long-term plans include the development of alliance subgroups based upon geography such as Singapore and London, personal and professional interests, and University divisions, departments and/or schools, noted co-founder Peterson.
Also, the organization is working with the Alumni Association to build an integrated, interactive website that will be accessible via a link from the Alumni Association homepage.
For additional information regarding the University of Chicago, Chicago Women's Alliance, or to be added to the organization's mailing list, contact Agnes Roach at (847) 356-0575 or aaroach@aol.com.
—Prof. Jacqueline Stewart
