To be successful in a Turnaround environment, AUSL recognizes that these highest-poverty, lowest-performing schools have many factors that contribute to their failing. The spectrum of needs is broad; the extent to which the difficulties and the traumas of day-to-day life affect the students is deep. The transformation will take time and will need to begin from a new culture of:

trust

mutual respect

intellectual curiosity

welcoming environment

consistent safety

true discipline

celebration

This deep level of change, this spirit of resiliency and long overdue reform originate from an understanding of what failed in the past, a willingness to commit to higher expectations of all adults involved, and an earnest respect and fondness for the children of our schools.

AUSL — Chicago’s first Turnaround organization — is well into our second year of turning around The Sherman School of Excellence in Englewood. Students, parents, community leaders, and staff all attest to marked and consistent transformation from its prior history. Parents of Sherman students have been eager to serve as public witnesses to the strength and veracity of the wide variety of improvements in their school; they have spoken at Chicago Board of Education meetings, and at community meetings for parents in the Auburn-Gresham and North Lawndale neighborhoods. AUSL is in its first year of turning around The Harvard School of Excellence, where whole-school transformation is well underway. AUSL will undertake the management of three new Turnaround Schools in summer 2008.