SCHOOL’S SUCCESS STORY AT RISK
Washington H.S. has made major strides under its principal, but now his future there— and those academic gains— are threatened
As math teacher Rosario Alvarez walked his students through probability scenarios in an advanced International Baccalaureate math class, he focused on the language used to solve different kinds of problems.
“We’re talking about sampling with replacement and without replacement,” he explained to his seniors at George Washington High School. “So you have to be very clear because when you get into college, your professor is not going to stop, to like, ‘Hey, everyone, let me make sure you understand what these words are.’ ”
Shira Davis still needed a little clarification before trying a problem on her own. The 17-year-old accepted into the IB Diploma Programme had taken an hour’s worth of buses from her home near 100th and Cottage Grove to 114th and Avenue O in Chicago’s East Side neighborhood, a good 5 miles farther than her home school, Corliss High, because the school is worth traveling to.
“I’ve never seen a high school so connected with the students,” she said afterward. “I really enjoy the teachers the most at GW. They’re great at getting you where you need to be academically while also giving ‘real life’ advice.”
Commuting to high school isn’t generally unusual for CPS, but it’s relatively novel at Washington, which over the past few years has become an attractive option for its skill at getting neighborhood high school kids into college.
Years ago, Washington was where kids just ended up, said Betty Gonzalez, a school counselor in her seventh year at the school, who lives nearby and married a GW alum.
“The amount of change we’ve gone through is incredible. Students never talked about college,” she said. “The culture changed dramatically.”
Now banners read: “Take another look: College prep. Performance. Community.”
Gonzalez said she and the three other counselors “used to struggle to get kids into college— now we struggle to keep up.”
But George Washington’s success could be threatened. Its principal, Kevin Gallick, may not return.
Tina Perez, the chair since 2014 of the Local School Council tasked with choosing a school’s principal, apparently wants him out and, according to several members of the school community, has cast votes to give him a poor evaluation and against renewing his contract.
She wrote to CEO Forrest Claypool, asking him to investigate insubordinate staff. CPS said her concerns were investigated but determined to be unfounded.
Perez did not respond to numerous requests for comment via email and telephone.
Gallick, principal since 2012, emailed the school community in December to say he wouldn’t seek a second term, saying he feared becoming a distraction. Enough LSC members have voted against keeping him, but the council has until February to make a final decision.
That’s why students have gotten involved.
Tiondra Turton, the student representative on the LSC, said she’s not allowed to vote, only to voice her opinions.
“But no one asked me about it,” she said. “I’m representing my peers, whatever I say is what I hear from people around me. The fact that they never asked me what the students want means they don’t really care.”
Some of her peers have launched a petition to keep Gallick and bombarded social media @proGallick2020. On the last day of class before winter break, several hundred of the 1,500 students enrolled staged a sit-in in support of him.
“It’s totally affecting my grades” in advanced classes, said Alicia Garcia, who sat in. Though she’s a senior, her younger brother is in eighth grade and plans to follow her to Washington. “I try to go to class focused, then I hear students talking about it in class and become unfocused.”
Sarah Duncan from the University of Chicago’s Network for College Success — one of Washington’s partners to help get kids to college — said four years isn’t quite enough for quality leaders to lay a solid foundation.
“A principal transition works best when planned,” Duncan said. “It doesn’t
work best when midstream in reform.”
Duncan said Washington has evolved into a model school for other CPS neighborhood high schools, with teachers and kids buying into the change.
“Kids identify with a school that keeps getting better. They want to be at a stronger school and take pride in choosing a neighborhood school,” she said.
Freshman teacher Ashley Fleming — who also helps coach the boys soccer team that just finished fourth statewide — has watched that perception evolve.
“They come to Washington because they want to be here. They have pride in their school when they walk in the door.”
She points to how much better the school is at sending kids to college.
About 59 percent of GW students enrolled in college in 2014, compared with 35 percent before Gallick and his team arrived in 2012, according to CPS stats. The graduation rate has jumped from 64 percent in 2011 to 78 percent in 2014. Students enrolled in Advanced Placement classes that could potentially lead to college credit have jumped from 5 percent to 24 percent — the school now offers at least 13 different AP classes, compared with only a few before. Two dual-credit classes are also now offered in partnership with the City Colleges of Chicago.
Gallick said his team freed up teachers from menial work as much as possible so they can plan and focus. And college is presented as a possibility for anyone.
Now the school also pulls down major full-ride scholarships — three Posse Foundation winners this year, three Quest-Bridge and the school’s first acceptance to Northwestern University on a 95 percent scholarship, Gallick said.
The halls are clean and unusually quiet, except for passing period, when assistant principal Tony Malcolm plays music to keep them moving to their next class.
That’s a lot of Journey and Van Halen the day that Gallick proudly leads a tour of the school.
Washington’s students wear a loose uniform featuring shirts with a GW or Patriots team logo. School walls are covered with college banners, student artwork, portraits of their namesake, goals for attendance (90 percent) and On-Track rates (75 percent) that are supposed to predict how many freshmen will graduate.
Freshmen are housed in their own wing, and their classes are kept under 25 so teachers can pay attention to each one as they transition to high school.
Murals painted by a recent Washington graduate cover some of the walls. They brighten landscapes, and better still, Gallick said, deter graffiti. One depicting icons of the Southeast Side — a tank fromthe Hegewisch Veterans Memorial and a view of the Skyway from the ground underneath — adorns a main wall of the library.
Gallick is especially proud that the school is succeeding while serving basically the same kids from the neighborhood with most of the same teachers. About 80 percent of students are low-income, and it’s not like wealthier families have moved nearby. The school remains CPS’ best at keeping kids living within the boundaries, exporting the smallest number to citywide or charter schools.
That’s partly because of the geography. Washington sits in the city’s farthest corner, practically a soccer kick from Indiana. But the rest, staffers say, is because it has become a place where kids are proud to be.
Gallick said some have even returned after deciding selective enrollment programs were not worth the travel.
“They want something more out of life and recognize this is their best shot,” he said.