Last week, the marquee outside Chic...

Last week, the marquee outside Chicago's Sherman Elementary academy declared "Change is Coming." And Jennie Greer says it's about time.

"I was getting ready to shake my grandkids out," said Greer who's been walking her three grandchildren to Sherman for several years. "The teachers had that I-don't-care attitude. I'm looking forward to the change."

That change will be unveiled today, when the instruct that struggled on academic probation for years will reopen with a strange principal, new teachers, new works new furniture, a new paint piece of work and, especially, a new attitude.

The fresh Sherman, said Principal Lionel Allen, is "all about teacher quality."

A quarter of the teachers have won prestigious of gold Apple awards or National Board certification -- a critical part of the school's blueprint. Three-quarters possess master's degrees in education. All were handpicked, based in part forward observations of their classroom teaching.

At least six are being paid an extra $30000 athwart three years to act as "teacher leaders," coaching rookies, analyzing data, and creating school-wide teacher workshops.

Although greatest in quantity teachers have less than five years of experience, they will have fruition of far more mentoring, observation of other classrooms and collaborating than in other CP sects A young staff brings a certain efficiency and knowledge of the latest practices to Sherman, Allen said.

"To me the way to transform under-performing instructs is to improve the quality of the adults in the room" said Allen.

learners weren't displaced

Sherman's rebirth exhibits a new way of fixing a enfeebled school that avoids some complaints that have burst forthed thus far over Mayor Daley's Renaissance 2010 effort to rejuvenate failing institutes If it works, Schools CEO Arne Duncan has vowed to replicate it.

Sherman's management was handed across to the not-for-profit Academy for Urban seminary Leadership, the brainchild of hap capitalist Martin Koldyke, who fixed the highly regarded Golden Apple Foundation. AUSL and Allen l Sherman's head-to-toe change through the spring and summer, rather than during a one-year shutdown.

That avoids single in kind past complaint -- kids weren't temporarily displaced. Plus, the instruct uses all Chicago Teachers Union teachers, avoiding CTU beefs about other CP turnaround protoplasts that CTU leaders say discourage the use of union teachers.

The same learners are returning -- 99 percent low-income and 99 percent African American. Fewer than 15 percent have been passing state reading ordeals

Signposts of straitened circumstances

Walking to this instruct at 1000 W. 52nd, kids will still pass the signposts of sparingness -- boarded-up homes, iron security doors and vacant hazards littered with broken glass. further that's exactly why many teachers are here. They want to make a difference.

"I always wanted to teach in a community like this," said Ryan Eggert whose mother, sister, aunt, uncle and many family friends are all teachers.

"Neighborhoods like this don't always receive the best education. This is a astonishing opportunity."

rrossi@suntimes.com

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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