It's the story of two Chicago principals, Amy Rome of NTA and Tamara Witzl of Telpochcalli, who, despite the pressures of NCLB, keep an eye on what matters.
Like Amy, Tamara keeps an eye on test scores, but she refuses to let such concerns overwhelm the broader vision of Telpochcalli. “We believe in the popular education model,” she says. “Building capacity and using education as a means of doing that.” It makes sense, then, that the school is a true community center, offering ELL (English language learner) classes for adults, aerobics and sewing courses, men’s basketball nights, domestic violence workshops, and a lot more. In a given week more than 400 people use the building outside of school hours.
This is a great article. Thanks Greg Michie.
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