Last year, the city opened a Teaching and Learning Academy to provide professional development linked to whole-school change. We wanted to help schools restructure, so we went in pursuit of designs or models that were already out there. The seeds of that effort are beginning to take root at Manor Lake Elementary School on the southwest side of the city. The school displays many of the hallmarks of the Roots and Wings design it has adopted. Children are grouped for reading by ability rather than by age, and they are tested and regrouped every six weeks.
Students spend large portions of each day working in teams or with a partner.
A tutor provides individual help to the neediest 1st graders. And a family-support team addresses noneducational problems that might interfere with learning. A few miles away at Graves Elementary School, which also serves a predominantly poor African-American community, teachers have decided that children will learn better if they can see some purpose to what they are studying. They have different personalities, and their neighborhoods are different. I think that's healthy for the whole district.