In addition, Passages will offer social and educational services that cater to immigrant and refugee families, including ESL instruction for parents, kindergarten-readiness programs for preschoolers, and counseling for all members of the family who have recently made the transition to a new country. Working with Asian Human Services, Passages will create a school community where all children, including those newly arrived to America, will find an educational home. In our first year we plan to have 135 students. Passages Charter School will be located on the far north side of Chicago, which is one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the United States. Many languages are spoken in the neighborhoods from which we will draw our students, including Russian, Arabic, Assyrian, Urdu, Gujarati, Spanish and more.
Charter schools represent one of the newest forms of educational reform.
Moreover, charter schools, ideally, serve as laboratory where innovative educational practices can be explored and, later, adopted by more traditional public schools. Passages Charter School would be Chicago's first charter school designed to meet the unique needs of immigrant and refugee learners. In addition to educating, Passages would be a site where parents can learn ESL, obtain their GED, and have access to Asian Human Service's comprehensive social services. Finally, Passages will be affiliated with Northeaster Illinois University's School of Education. This affiliation will lead to opportunities for professional development for our teachers, a site for research on best practices, and a forum for increasing the diversity and cultural competence of Chicago's teaching corps.