July 20, 2008
TECHNOS QUARTERLY Winter 1996 Vol. 5 No. 4
Cristo Rey—Partnerships for Life
By Shawna Brynildssen
Suppose a private religious high school opened with tough, college-preparatory academic standards, hefty tuition, and a requirement that students commit themselves to a 10-hour school day and an 11-month school year. Imagine also that such a school is located in an inner-city, low-income Hispanic neighborhood where the dropout rate is 60 percent, and gangs and violence are features of the streetscape. Sounds like a no-brainer—another crazy educational experiment doomed for failure, doesn't it? But it's a reality.
Cristo Rey's Student body celebrates a historic event: the opening day of
the new school on September 5, 1996.
Since September 1996, when Cristo Rey Jesuit High School opened in a former elementary school, it has continued to receive applications from aspiring students. By the end of September, nearly 100 students were enrolled in grades 10 and 11, with more arriving each day. (Other grades will be added, until the four-year high school accommodates 500 students.)
On Chicago's near southwest side, the Pilsen/Little Village area is 86 percent Hispanic, and only about one-quarter of the adults are high school graduates. The average household income is $22,500. In 1991, at the request of the local Archdiocese, the Chicago Province of the Jesuits agreed to staff St. Procopius Parish, located in the heart of the neighborhood. “Jesuits do not normally staff parishes—that's not our thing,” says Father John Foley, Cristo Rey's president. “However, we took this parish with the intention of getting a foothold in the Hispanic neighborhood.” For centuries, the Jesuits have been leaders in education, with a particular emphasis on serving immigrant populations. To determine how the Order could serve the educational needs of the neighborhood, they undertook a year-long study.
The findings were sobering. The eight square miles of Pilsen/Little Village is home to 10,000 high-school-aged young people, 9,000 of them crowded into one of two public high schools. The dramatically growing population of the community clearly needed more secondary school facilities, but a conventional Catholic school, with annual tuition costs over $5,000, was an implausible solution for an area where large families subsisted on poverty-level incomes. The Jesuits began exploring different options.
The $18,000 Solution
The first steps toward founding the innovative school took place in talks with representatives of Chicago-area businesses. They were asked to support the school and its programs by contributing to its equipment and scholarship funds and to serve on its Board of Trustees. Most important, they were invited to participate in an unusual and highly creative work-study program.
“We needed to find some way for students to earn part of their tuition without having to pay it out of their pockets,” says Preston Kendall, director of Cristo Rey's work-study program. “From that need, the work-study program was developed.” All students enrolled in the school participate in this innovative plan. They attend classes four days each week, and, on the remaining day, work at entry-level positions in Chicago-area companies. Five students fill one full-time position.
Businesses agreeing to sponsor the full-time position—and to oversee the training of the five students who fill it—pay $18,000 per year directly to Cristo Rey toward their total tuition of $27,000. The balance owed is divided among the families of the students, with each paying $1,500. The remaining $300 per student comes from the Diocese. A scholarship fund has been established to help families who cannot pay their $1,500 share.
The corporate sponsors, from such large companies as Ameritech and Sears to small, local groups such as the Latino Institute and Tribune Company, have greeted the program with enthusiasm. They applaud its emphasis on school-to-work and its high skill standards. “There's no question that the time is right for something of this nature,” says Kendall. “A lot of these businesses are looking for ways to make a difference in education in urban schools, but it's very difficult to go out and find programs to really get involved in.”
The sponsors concur. Lou Nieto, of Kraft, has Cristo Rey students working in his Ethnic Marketing and External Relations department. “It's a good concept,” he says. “It's something that addresses the seemingly insurmountable dropout problem in the inner city.” Tony McGuire of McGuire Engineering agrees. “I think it's a fantastic program. It's a great opportunity for children in an urban area who are hardworking and who aren't usually offered this type of chance.”
Full Value for Investors
Kendall and his colleagues at Cristo Rey are determined that the businesses that hire their students will get full value for their investment. “We're trying to make this as easy as possible for the sponsors,” Kendall says emphatically. “We want to fill real jobs within their organizations. They don't have to accommodate a typical school schedule. We want to work within their hours and conform to their expectations, rather than making them conform to ours.”
The work-study partnership helps students pay tuition bills, but the primary value of the arrangement is educational. Student learning encompasses far more than the skills required to perform a specific job. Kendall and Sister Judith Murphy, Cristo Rey principal, refer to “layers of benefits.” As students work and interact with each other and their employers, Murphy explains, they discover things about the work world that are easily transferred to other situations. “I think it gets back to the humanities and more general education,” she says. “Regardless of what the business looks like, how do people interact to make a better world? How do we form teams and partnerships? If young people can learn these things about the world of work—these attitudinal life skills—then they're going to be very valuable employees.”
Kendall agrees. “The idea of personal responsibility for your appearance, for attendance, for being on time—it doesn't matter where you're working or what you're doing—those types of experiences are very important.” Students who discover an aptitude and an interest for a particular industry can begin selecting classes with an eye toward the future. Kendall, who thinks students benefit from the work experience even if they don't like the particular job they have been assigned, says, “Even knowing what they don't want to do puts them far ahead of other high schoolers.”
Workplace Role Models
There's yet another advantage for students. The offices where they spend one day a week put them in touch with a variety of positive, career-oriented role models that are often lacking in their lives. Murphy says, “A lot of their parents have enough education so that, if they were still in Mexico, they would have technology-related—or even management- or middle-management—jobs, but because of the language problem here, they may end up doing more menial jobs. So these kids are not hearing Dad talk about the world of work when he comes home, as some other kids in this country do.”
“Success breeds success” says Kendall. Students performing effectively in the work-study program are likely to improve their level of self-esteem. Kendall and his colleagues hope that, by conquering intimidating situations, Cristo Rey students will come to believe in their abilities. “If they can do it in high school, they can certainly do it in college,” says Kendall. “They'll see that if they set their goals and make the commitment of time and effort, they can make things happen for themselves.”
Tough Standards and Long Days
Cristo Rey students soon realize that leisure is a pleasure of the past. Besides holding down one-fifth of a full-time job, they must meet rigorous academic standards. Catholic schools have traditionally offered a demanding college-preparatory curriculum, and Cristo Rey will require even more of its students than most such schools. To make up the time they spend at work, students spend ten hours a day at school, with classes from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., mandatory extracurricular activities between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., and a two-hour evening study session. The academic year is 11 months long.
During these long days, students pursue a fairly typical college-preparatory curriculum: four years of English and Spanish, religious studies, and social studies, and two years of algebra plus geometry and trigonometry, art, health and wellness, science (integrating biology, chemistry, and physics), and living skills.
However, this list obscures several unique features about Cristo Rey's program. Throughout September, for example, the school focused entirely on preparing its students for the workplace. Students rotated through workshops on such topics as Corporate Organization, Professional Demeanor, Office Technology, and Conflict Management. They participated in motivational exercises, skill development training, city tours, and workplace visits.
Another unique feature of Cristo Rey is its aim to be a dual-language school, with instruction in both Spanish and English. According to the Illinois Resource Center, a state-funded resource for teachers of minority-language students, dual-language teaching has distinct advantages. “The findings of our research are that students in dual-language programs are far more successful on standard achievement tests in English than their counterparts,” says John Hilliard, educational consultant for the center. “Even English-speaking kids from mainstream American households who are exposed to dual languages do better.”
Murphy says that few of these students have experienced dual-language teaching. Some attended English-immersion elementary schools. Others attended schools with transitional bilingual programs, where they were taught in Spanish until they learned enough English to move into the mainstream. The diversity of these students' linguistic backgrounds precludes immediate dual-language instruction. “This has to be a goal. Maybe in three or four years we'll be able to have a portion of instruction in Spanish as well as English,” says Murphy. “We won't be able to do that right away.”
Staff selection is affected by this goal of dual-language instruction. Every teacher must be a literacy expert in either Spanish or English (preferably both). President John Foley worked as a priest and teacher in Jesuit missions in Peru for 34 years, founding a center that supported the education of working children. One of his students there, who learned math from Father Foley as a fourth-grader, has joined Cristo Rey as a math teacher. The administrative assistant is a native of Mexico, and the assistant director of the work-study program is a first-generation Puerto Rican who formerly directed an agency for unwed mothers. Other staff members have extensive experience in working with Latino and Hispanic immigrant communities.
Besides having bilingual capability, teachers must also be expert collaborators. “We're envisioning a kind of cooperative teaching,” says Murphy, “an integrated education where, even when they're not functioning as teams, each discipline is aware of the other disciplines' requirements and skill building.” Teachers work together to organize and coordinate thematic units that integrate the curriculum across traditional barriers between subjects, and they emphasize collaborative learning.
Block Scheduling Adopted
The faculty's decision to adopt block scheduling has further increased the academic intensity. Students attend four 80-minute class periods daily, where content traditionally taught in a year is covered in one semester. Murphy advocates block scheduling as an effective way to address the “whole brain,” and believes the increased time spent on a single subject improves in-depth learning and long-term retention.
In spite of the stringent requirements for teachers, applicants haven't been scared off. Five months before Cristo Rey opened, the school had received over 80 teaching applications without soliciting resumes.
After tearing down walls between work and school, English and Spanish, and curricular subjects, Cristo Rey is also determined that no walls shall arise between the students and their own community. The school's mission statement affirms its goal “to advance the human, intellectual, and religious capacities of the families it serves while respecting and promoting their cultural heritage.” To recognize and validate Hispanic culture, the school celebrates Mexican and Mexican-American holidays, as well as traditional U.S. holidays. A strong arts program addresses Mexican music, dance, and visual art.
Cristo Rey is aware that, when immigrant youth pursue higher education, they are often perceived as turning their backs on their families and culture, severing their roots as they climb upward. “In some ways, these students may be doing something that's countercultural,” says Murphy. “They may be moving toward an educational level that's unknown in their families.”
To counter any feelings of disloyalty and to benefit the neighborhood as well, Cristo Rey administrators have pledged to be in close contact with parents throughout the school year. “This community,” says Kendall, “has a history of being very transitional. As people become more successful, find other opportunities, and get more education, they tend to move out into other areas. We hope the school will bring some stability to the area, and the only way for that to happen is for the younger generation to make a commitment to being a part of the community and to helping build it.”
First
Lady Hillary Clinton at the dedication ceremony of Cristo Rey Jesuit High
School in Chicago's Pilsen/Little Village neighborhood.
Technology as a Bridge
School and industry officials recognized early that technology and training were critical to the school's outreach into the community. They also knew that, because many of the students' jobs are technology-related, up-to-date computer equipment and skills are critical. School buildings were wired by Ameritech technicians who volunteered their time. During the weeks of intensive job training, students used some of the 50 PCs donated by Ameritech (five in each classroom) and were helped to master office technologies and such software as MS Office. A technology-training agency provided volunteer assistance in planning student training. Strong alliances with donors such as the State Board of Education's NetDay and Microsoft facilitated technology implementation.
Technology is equally valuable in the classroom. Murphy says, “There will be no computer class per se; computers will be in the classrooms and their use will be integrated into all of the courses.” Working with an application called HyperStudio, students create multimedia programs themselves, incorporating elements captured from the Internet and other sources. “This will encourage and develop metacognitive thinking,” says Murphy. “It's an example of technology used in support of critical and higher-level thinking.”
Ultimately, these technology skills learned in the classroom and on the job—far from distancing students from their community—may build bridges. School leaders have developed a tentative plan for students to become technology teachers in their neighborhoods. They anticipate that as students become familiar with technology, especially with the Internet, they will be able to share their knowledge with area businesses. “They may then be in the position to help by translating and teaching,” says Murphy.
Model for Inner-City and Immigrant Education
If the level of enthusiasm generated is any indication of success, Cristo Rey will flourish. “We have been so supported in this thing,” says Foley. “Everywhere we look, people are excited.” While the money from the work-study program is expected to cover approximately 60 percent of the school's operating expenses, the costs associated with start-up—preparing the school building, furnishing and equipping it—have come largely from donations and grants. Likewise, the scholarship fund, earmarked to help needy students pay the remaining $1,500 of their tuition, comes from donations.
Many individuals and organizations are already offering assistance. “We have successful businesspeople who say, ‘I am where I am because of the education I got, and I couldn't afford it. I was on scholarship in my high school in New York or Chicago or wherever,’” Murphy explains.
Cristo Rey also has support, if not funding, from the Chicago Province of the Jesuits, the Archdiocese, and several other area Catholic schools. Loyola University, St. Ignatius Preparatory, and the Loyola Academy have all offered their services, according to Kendall and Foley.
Potential National Prototype
At last the school has captured the serious attention and interest of the educational community. If this work-study program can work for Cristo Rey, it can work for other schools, in other places. The small private Jesuit high school in Pilsen could well become a national prototype. “Once we can show that this concept is a viable one for education, I know a number of Jesuits are convinced that it can be replicated,” says Kendall. “So, whether it's East L.A. or Florida or Texas or wherever, we can find urban areas that have enough businesses to provide positions for students so they can recreate this.”
CNN recently featured a report on Cristo Rey students going to work every day, and an Education Today reporter is spending a week at the school. Already some local universities and/or alumni groups have expressed interest in eventually having Cristo Rey students enroll. These include Loyola University, ITT, Northwestern, and Notre Dame.
The Cristo Rey staff knows that it works in the spotlight. And, while being an educational trailblazer may be exciting, it also carries with it pressures not normally associated with being a high school administrator. “There are a lot of people watching,” says Foley, “and that keeps me awake at night.”
Shawna Brynildssen is a freelance writer who lives and works in Bloomington, Indiana.