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COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
Perspectives Charter School has formed partnerships with over 60 businesses, governmental agencies, community organizations, and institutions of higher learning in the Chicago area in order to provide students with experiences in real-world settings. Reasons for Practice The principal reason for adopting community partnerships was to provide Perspectives students with opportunities for real-world learning outside the classroom. Opportunities of this nature are regarded as an integral part of the learning process at Perspectives, as they provide students with experiences that help them to formulate the six-year plan for post-graduation activities that is required of them as a condition of graduation. Length of Time in Effect Partnerships with businesses and employers in Chicago has been a key component of the curriculum at Perspectives since the school's founding as a school-within-a-school program (at a Chicago middle school) in the early 1990s. These partnerships grew in number and significance when Perspectives sought and gained charter school status in 1997.
ONE OF THE distinguishing features of the Perspectives Charter School curriculum is the series of partnerships that the school's co-directors and governing board have forged with more than 60 businesses, governmental agencies, and institutions of higher learning in the Chicago area. Examples of community partners that work with Perspectives include the Chicago Tribune, a law firm, an architecture firm, a Chicago Police district station, and the Children and Family Justice Center at the Northwestern University School of Law. Perspectives uses partnerships to provide students of all ages with
opportunities to do work and service in real-world settings. All eight
graders, for example, participate in community service, which takes
place in a variety of locations including daycare centers and nursing
homes. Ninth and eleventh graders participate in more in-depth activities
at partnership sites, including job shadowing and internships, on a
weekly basis (typically for one full day each week). Students explore
potential career interests, express these interests during surveys and
interviews with school staff, and are matched with placement sites where
they go weekly. Reflection on the activities in which students participate
becomes a part of writing and discussion activities at school, as well
as a source of connections for future employment. What are the Benefits to the Student?
What are the Benefits to Employers Involved with the School?
What are the Benefits to the School?
Perspectives Charter School: http://www.perspectivescs.org/ Kimberlie Day/Diana Shulla-CoseCo-Directors Perspectives Charter School 1915 S. Federal Chicago, IL 60616 Tel: 312-225-7400
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