Letter to SLI from American Institute of Research

                             

 

 

                                                                                                      April 18, 2011

 

John Simmons

Strategic Learning Initiatives

954 W. Washington Blvd.  Suite 600

Chicago, IL  60607

 

Dear John:                                                                                     

 

Thank you for sharing your most recent report using the 2010 Illinois test score data on the eight Chicago public schools in which Strategic Learning Initiatives has been working. 

 

This latest report builds on the data that served as the basis for our report “Validating the Impact of Strategic Learning Initiatives’ Focused Instruction Process (FIP Model)” (Steven Leinwand and Sarah Edwards, American Institutes for Research, July, 2009).

 

In the 2009 report, we concluded that “the results that SLI has achieved, and that AIR has validated, are very impressive and suggest that well before decisions are made to reconstitute schools under the mandates of NCLB, school districts would be wise to consider far less drastic, but clearly powerful, interventions such as the Focused Instruction Process.”

 

The updated 2010 ISAT data that you have provided show that the schools supported by Strategic Learning continue to close achievement gaps and accelerate student learning.  SLI continues to make a real difference in the lives of students and it is clear that its successes can, and should be, broadly adopted elsewhere.

 

 

Sincerely,

Steven Leinwand

Principal Research Analyst