At a glance
At a Glance
We are agents of change. We are community builders.
We are your charter schools. We are the Catalyst Schools.
The Demographics
Howland (K – 8), 472 students
99% African American
99% Free and Reduced Lunch
16% Scholars in Special Education
17% STLS (temporary living situations)
17% Graduates in Selective Enrollment High Schools
Circle Rock (K – 8), 520 students
100% African American
95% Free and Reduced Lunch
10% Scholars in Special Education
7% STLS
14% Graduates in Selective Enrollment High Schools
Maria (K – 12), 832 students
50% African American
50% Latino
16% Scholars in Special Ed
4% STLS
Though it has limited data after one year, initial data demonstrates that Catalyst-Maria high school is one of the top performing charter high schools in Chicago.
The Need
3 Number of campuses
1,818 Number of students (521 Circle Rock; 470 Howland; 827 Maria)
425 Number of Catalyst alumni currently in high school
$13,078 Cost to educate one student in Chicago Public Schools
$10,121 Cost to educate one student in the Catalyst Schools
$9,514 What Chicago Public Schools awards Catalyst annually per student
$607 What Catalyst Schools must raise each year per student
$1,103,526 Catalyst’s fundraising need for 2013-14 (1,818 students x $607)
Results
Over 99% of Circle Rock Alumni are enrolled in high school, 28% from a Selective Enrollment or Private School. Thus far, 90% of Circle Rock alumni have graduated from high school within four years
Over 99% of Howland Alumni are enrolled in high school, 17% from Selective enrollment schools.
The Problem
Of 100 Chicago public high school freshmen, only eight earn a bachelor’s degree by their mid-20’s. Every year that a child stays in school reduces his or her statistical risk of being involved in violent crime.
The University of Chicago’s Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics, James Heckman, has calculated that if just one year’s high school dropouts could be converted to high school graduates, Illinois households would have an additional $11 billion in accumulated wealth over the lifetime of the students from that one graduating class. Further, Heckman determined that a 5% increase in male high school graduation rates is estimated to save Illinois $263 million in annual incarceration costs and crimerelated expenditures.
A Solution
90% of Catalyst graduates go on to graduate from high school.
99% of Catalyst graduates over the last four years are in high school today.
“A dropout costs the nation more than $300,000.00 in his or her working years compared with a high school graduate, in lost tax revenues; dropouts pay less in taxes because they earn less”
“In the neighborhoods in which Catalyst Schools are located, the percent of those with a high school diploma are: 39% North Lawndale, 47% Austin, and 50% Chicago Lawn”
The Catalyst Way
Philosophy
REVERENCE and RESPECT for each student as a unique person is critical to Catalyst’s success. We foster respectful relationships as a key to building a mutually supportive community that sets high expectations and demands mutual responsibility. The GOLDEN RULE is the foundation at the Catalyst Schools. By internalizing the demand of the Golden Rule, that we treat one another as we would like to be treated, we join together to promote justice and peace.
Mission
We believe every child possesses inherent value and potential regardless of background educational level or life circumstances. We create agents of change in society by showing profound respect for students, and by joining with their families and communities to foster each scholar’s growth.
The Vision for a Catalyst Graduate
Catalyst graduates will be young men and women of character and class who recognize their own value, who are academically, socially, and emotionally prepared to succeed in private, charter, or selective enrollment high schools and who envision college graduation as part of their development in life.
The Catalyst Identity
Catalyst is deeply connected to the educational philosophy and spirituality of the 350 year old tradition of the De La Salle Christian Brothers.
We serve children living in communities challenged by the effects of discrimination and economic poverty. We understand that each of the communities in which we serve is blessed with incredible gifts and whose assets, culture, and heritage hold the promise of a great future. Catalyst helps unlock the gift that is within each child by addressing the whole child: academic, social-emotional, psychological, and spiritual realities that make each person real.
We value family because home is the context in which each child grows and develops. Parental involvement in the school is welcome, encouraged, and needed for a child to achieve full potential.
At Catalyst, the relationship between a teacher and a student is the key to building trust, love, and the creation of a sacred space where teaching and learning can happen.
Core Values
Four core values guide the Catalyst Schools: RIGOR, RESULTS, RELATIONSHIP, HOPE. These values form the cornerstone on which our values-based culture is built.