Big Picture Phase-Out for RWurd Magazine

As an average student during grammar school, 18-year-old Guadalupe Ramirez never thought he would be able to simultaneously attend a class at National Louis University and have an internship during high school, but at a Big Picture he does it with close attention and motivation from classmates, teachers, and even the principal.

Big Picture High School’s phase out is finally complete. After years of being on probation and not accepting any of the hundreds of freshmen applications, the little school in the Back of the Yards neighborhood will be closed. Now the school that gives him the drive to excel is being wiped away from Chicago.

Ever since being put on Probation near its first year in 2005, he senior said he felt “worried” and “uncomfortable” about the school being phased out throughout his three years at Big Picture. This year is the last for Ramirez, the less than 30 seniors and the school. The building is now being turned into an alternative school, says Big Picture High School Principal Alfredo Nambo.

It is being turned from a small high school with a low drop out rate of about 5 percent from 2005 to 2007, into an alternative school for older students who have already dropped out and are looking for their second chances. Chicago Public Schools is installing expensive add-ons not usually seen in public neighborhood schools, like Wi-Fi high speed internet, this summer and all throughout the final school year of Big Picture students.

CPS gave reasons for closing the school down; it is expensive, allotting $1,916,530 for just 81 students in 2008.

“Practically speaking, though, they can make a good case. The school is
very small. That does cost more money, and CPS is supposed to use their
budget in the most cost-effective way possible. Also…data showed that it is not one of the better-performing schools,” says Julie Woestehoff, Executive Director of Parents United for Responsible Education.

Students have an average ACT score of about 14 compared to the Illinois average of 20.

“Our Area Instructional Officer has not seen enough gains in test scores and in academic performance during the time we have been opened,” says Krista Lewandowski a teacher at the school.

She adds, the school has been having trouble balancing CPS requirements and the Big Picture model, which is a small teacher to student ratio and taking two whole school days off for internships. CPS wanted more student enrollment and traditional classroom curriculum. If requirements aren’t met, Big Picture would have to look for its own funding by turning into and independent charter school.

“I wish it would stay open and be more true to the Big Picture model and not have to juggle both CPS and Big Picture expectations,” Lewandowski says.

Nambo says CPS isn’t being honest. The decision was premature because ACT scores were taken into account only after the first graduating class and have made a 2-point gain since then.

Don Moore from Designs for change, a school reform group, says CPS’s real reasons for closing schools down are usually because they want to take the space or there is a hostile relationship between the school and public school officials.

“I think CPS shuts down schools when it's in their interest to do so ... CPS keeps open schools that are smaller, that cost a lot more, and where test scores
are worse than Big Picture. CPS has a school closing policy … but they use it
unevenly and change it when it suits them,” Woestehoff said.

Nambo says he should have done more, by pushing the students and teachers to do better academically. He could have gathered a strong group with political and financial power. The school might have been able to become a charter school with that kind of support, or at least comply with CPS and add more students and teachers.

Instead, what he tried to do was to become a Renaissance 2010 school (Mayor Daley’s program to make large schools into smaller more independent schools). But to do that, he needed to completely shut down the school and open it back up. He couldn’t do that to his students and their parents. It would be a long process and the students would have to go to traditional large neighborhood schools, where their success is uncertain.

However the decision has been made. Starting this September, this will be the last school year for the soon graduating students left in the school. Staff is working on finding new jobs.

Nambo says the situation has been tough on the staff but has made those who stay despite the lack of job security, closer and more committed. Reactions from parents, students and teachers have been disappointment, anger and sadness.

“I think the action we needed to take to try to save BP distracted me and took up time that I could have been working on other things. I also think students became less motivated and then there seemed to be this attitude from students and staff that BP was a sinking ship and that depressed me a little,” Lewandowski says.