Jean Mollo swelled with pride as she read the letter from Chicago`s Mayer Elementary School saying that her daughter, Nicole, a 4th grader, was a bright child and inviting her to apply for its independent studies program.
”Wow,” she said. ”They want my kid. I was thrilled. My kid is so smart that other schools want her.”
What Mollo read was a letter that began:
”Your child is one of the selected students who may be eligible for the Independent Studies Magnet Program. The IS program is an intensive academic program designed for intellectually curious 5th and 6th graders who are ready for the challenge of learning how to work independently on several major academic projects each year.”
The letter is a recruitment tool in a growing competition among the top Chicago public schools to gain their share of a relatively small number of high-achieving children. The schools need them to survive and to enhance their own reputations.
”There are not enough qualified students to fill all the positions in all the programs,” said David Goodwill, coordinator of a special program for top 7th and 8th graders at Kenwood Academy, 5015 S. Blackstone Ave.
The city`s public school system offers 124 elementary school magnet programs, which can recruit children from across the city. In an average U.S. school system, 50 percent of the pupils read above grade level. In Chicago public schools, 35 percent of the 310,000 elementary pupils do.
Aggressive Chicago principals and district superintendents in a battle over the pool of academic talent are mounting recruitment drives that sometimes start with a request to the Chicago Board of Education for the names and addresses of top pupils.
Since magnet schools emerged 10 years ago as a way to promote desegregation in Chicago, some neighborhood school principals have complained that their best students were being siphoned off.
Now, magnet schools are battling other magnet schools for student talent. Some school officials defend the recruiting activity as the only way to inform parents of exemplary programs available for their children.
When Mollo, who lives in Bridgeport, received the letter about Nicole, she was one of 800 parents of Chicago 4th graders who read above grade level and live in one of 14 city districts within a 30-minute bus ride of Mayer, 2250 N. Clifton Ave.
Nicole, who attends Sheridan Science and Mathematics Academy, a magnet school at 533 W. 27th St., was ready to go to Mayer after reading the letter, her mother said, even though both are happy with their present school. ”Then I decided to check it out,” Mollo said.
Beverly Tunney, Sheridan`s principal, told Mollo that Mayer probably got her daughter`s name and address from a list of pupils reading above average, and that soured Mollo immediately. ”Are they trying to hijack kids?” she asked.
John Garvey, Mayer`s principal, said he has no such intention and tells parents who respond to the letter to consider keeping their children where they are if they are satisfied.
But he also defended the letter as a way to inform parents about the Mayer program, which in coming weeks will require children to do a 15-point research project on a nation of their choice, including studying its demography, economy, geography, architecture and cultural development.
Garvey may attract top 5th and 6th graders from other schools to his independent studies program, but he also loses some top 7th and 8th graders to Kenwood and other schools with programs in those grades.
While Mayer is trying to draw students from among 4th graders reading at or above grade level, more high-powered programs have more selective targets. In addition to Kenwood, two other high schools, Young, 211 S. Laflin Ave., and Morgan Park, 1744 W. Pryor Ave., also offer accelerated programs for 7th and 8th graders.
Jointly, they requested a citywide list of all 6th graders in the top 10 percent in reading and math, and they use that list as their recruiting base. ”It`s the major source of our clientele,” Goodwill said.
He said some may regard the letter as a raiding effort to take academic talent from other schools, but he said he does not.
”Our goal is to inform parents this option exists,” Goodwill said.
”Other elementary schools may not be serving their needs.”
In the Kenwood program, which continues through high school, a youngster takes algebra in 7th grade and geometry in 8th grade. He can finish calculus as a high school junior and qualify for advanced calculus as a senior and study at the University of Chicago.
James Maloney, Chicago District 3 superintendent, also asked for the same list of the top 10 percent of 6th graders to use to attract youngsters to the pre-international baccalaureate program for 7th and 8th graders at two elementary schools, Ogden, 24 W. Walton St., and Lincoln, 615 W. Kemper Pl.
Those students will go on to Lincoln Park High School, 2039 N. Orchard St., for the international baccalaureate program, which is designed to give academically gifted students a liberal arts education as preparation for entry to any university in the world.
Asked if others schools are being raided of their best pupils, Maloney said:
”Is it raiding a kid or advising them of a particular opportunity? How many times are we accused by parents who say they didn`t know that type of program existed?”
But Maureen Schmit, coordinator of the program at Lincoln Park, said the system permitting schools to recruit at will is counterproductive.
”It is a paper chase that is incredible,” Schmit said. ”Application forms of every size and shape go about. I wish somebody could bring some sanity back to us. We`re chasing our tails like crazy.”
