Little Village Programs Foster New Chicago Teachers

Story by Miles Maftean

Oct. 17, 2008 – A new program in Little Village is helping future educators learn about the teaching conditions and vibrant cultures of an urban environment.

The Teacher Education Pipeline, founded by Illinois State University (ISU), has seen major success in the Wheeling community since 1995, and has recently moved to Little Village to address the need for more urban teachers.

Many educational programs are offered in Little Village and continue to thrive in the neighborhood, as well as other neighborhoods in the Chicago area, according to Evelyn Perez, the ISU Professional Development School site coordinator in Little Village. Perez said the program is a great opportunity for students to understand a real urban environment.

“You have to learn about the community in order to understand the students,” Perez said.  “And living in the neighborhood with this program lets the teacher-students see the culture of the children they are teaching, and allows them to understand them better.”

The Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC) in Chicago assists in the development of quality and affordable student-teacher housing in the Little Village community for ISU students. The housing has been offered specifically for the program to the colleges’ students who are majoring in elementary education.

Keri Blackwell, the program director for LISC/Chicago, said the university first noticed the Little Village neighborhood around 2005 when they were ready to expand their newest educational program in an urban environment.

“Little Village attracted the college because it wanted their students to dispel any perceptions in teaching in an urban environment,” Blackwell said.

The success of the program has been recognized locally and nationally. Perez said Chicago Public Schools has seen the success of the program and continues to hire more and more students from the program  as full-time teachers.

On a national level, the Teacher Education Pipeline program has been selected by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education as the 2008 recipient of the Best Practice Award in support of global diversity and inclusion.

“It’s one of the best choices I have made,” said Gwen Kmiec, a senior Illinois State elementary education major who is a student-teacher in the Pipeline program.

Students in the program are beginning to see what teaching in an urban environment truly means. Jennifer Bock, who is also a student-teacher in the program, said she now fully understands how tough the lives of the children are, and how they are overcoming obstacles.

“It’s a real different experience,” Bock said. “I see what the kids are going through, but I also see the parents do really care.”

The success of this program has led to other teaching programs in Little Village.

One program has continued to increase the number of its students who enroll to study education at the university. The program is offered in seven Chicago public high schools on the Southwest Side and creates a learning experience about the education field. All students in this program are first-generation Americans in their families. In 2006, 23 percent, or 15 students, were accepted to and started at the college.

Programs are not only offered to high school students in the Little Village neighborhood, but also to community members and educational paraprofessionals. The Grow Your Own Teachers program helps people in the community complete their bachelor’s degrees with a focus on elementary education and English as a second language programs.