Chicago Public Schools Will Transform Dropouts into Chefs
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Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 11/20/2007
The Chicago Public Schools system has a creative recipe for tackling dropouts—with food. A new school in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood will teach at-risk 11th and 12th graders to become chefs or hotel and restaurant managers.
The Community Services West Career Academy will open next fall in a building that housed a retail bakery. At-risk 16- to 21-year-olds will take math, science, social studies, and a wide range of food-preparation electives before earning their high school diplomas. Students can also earn college credit and a certification in food-service management and business management. The program will also be open to homeless students and foster children, as well those who have already dropped out of school or don’t have strong family support.
“With a school like this, [high-risk students] are in a setting with other students who are like themselves,” says Malon Edwards, a district spokesman. “They don’t have to be ashamed, and they don’t have to have their education compromised.”
The academy is part of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s Renaissance 2010 plan to create 100 new schools in underserved communities to help provide new educational opportunities and alleviate overcrowding in the district’s schools.
“Renaissance 2010 is about providing learning environments for all of our students,’’ says Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan. “What’s more, these students will have acquired some great skills so that they can go on to good careers immediately upon receiving their high school diploma.”
The academy will be Chicago’s first alternative high school with a focus on culinary arts, says Edwards.
Education officials have made dropout prevention a top priority in Chicago, where about 50 percent of students graduate from high school. The Chicago Public Schools are the nation’s third-largest school system, with more than 600 schools and about 409,000 students.
