Chicago International Charter School - Longwood Campus

At CICS Northtown, we are extremely dedicated to supporting the diverse needs of our students. In our mission to become the best non-selective school in Chicago, we have taken supporting students to a whole new level in the past couple school years. To this end, we have formed the Student Success Team (SST). In years past, the student support services were mainly coming from counselors, social workers, deans, and administrators. This always left gaps between the student advocate and what was happening in the classroom. To address this issue, we developed the role of Intervention Teacher. Intervention teachers are both in the classroom and in Academic Lab periods. Their main goal is to help students who are facing academic hardships achieve success. During the 2014-2015 school year, our first year with Intervention Teachers, the team saw great success! We achieved a 95% freshmen on-track rate, one of the highest in the district and we ended the school year with 90% of the school passing all classes. This is by far the best passing rate we've seen at Northtown in years! Because of our students' great achievement and our effective interventions, we have doubled-down on our commitment to the SST for the 2015-2016 school year. This year, we have seven veteran teachers assuming the role of Intervention Teacher. They are focused on working with their colleagues to co-teach classes, pre-teach and re-teach difficult concepts, support academic and executive functioning skill building as well as manage a small caseload of students with more specific needs. We also have converted an underutilized space in the main hallway into a Student Success Center, which houses four computers, a printer, ample working space, and various school supplies for students to use whenever they are in need. This year's SST is committed to building a culture among Northtown students that is focused on self-advocacy and an eagerness to learn! We are greatly encouraged by the work our students are producing and excited to see how they do on their Quarter 1 report cards and BEYOND!