District 65 Teacher Residency Program Post-Mortem

How District 65 Burned $2.5 Million to pad resumes and put some new Black educators in a bind

A causality of the “re-imagining” going on at District 65 has been the teacher and principal residency programs: CREATE65 and PREP65. I previously wrote about this program almost a year ago - it was a key initiative of the Board and Horton administration.

CREATE65 was modeled after the CPS AUSL teacher residency program, which many current and former District 65 staffers were involved with including Dr. Horton, Dr. Turner, and others (my story on this here). The core objective for CREATE65 was to identify mid-career black folks looking to get into teaching. The District would provide compensation ($30,000), tuition support, mentoring, a masters’ degree from Northwestern or National Louis, and eventually a job in District 65.

In addition, the entire training would be anti-racist; according to an Edweek story.

But CREATE 65 came with a twist. Horton also wanted to train his new teachers to be anti-racist. Then he wanted to place them in strategic spots around the district, including the brand-new elementary school he hoped to construct in the Fifth Ward.

It’s not clear in the story or in any documents I’ve seen what exactly was anti-racist about this program.

Most of the residents in the program were educators of color. According to the District’s documentation, Cohort 1 was 89% teachers of color and Cohort 2 was 86% (there is a third cohort but I don’t know the breakdown)

District Leaving Residents Hanging

The program was initially funded via grant from the federal government and was a joint effort with Northwestern and National Louis. Here’s a picture of House Rep Jan Schakowsky presenting the District with a giant check in May 2022:

The first year was rocky. Only 12 of the 19 residents (Cohort 1) finished the program and only 9 were hired by the District. The relationship with Northwestern and National Louis soured and both universities pulled out of the program. You can read emails obtained via FOIA request at this link. The email from National Louis’s Dean of Education suggested some serious problems with the program;

As you also know, the program experienced significant attrition during the first year – we need to co-design to prevent that in recruiting, student supports and placement, and also to support mentor teachers.

In response, Dr. Horton replied with a “you can’t fire us, we quit” email terminating the relationship.

Afterwards, the program switched to Chicago State University, Dr. Horton’s Alma mater, for the remaining two years of the program. Cohort 2 and 3 residents who thought they were getting a Masters from Northwestern or National Louis, now were getting their degree from Chicago State and were required to commute from Evanston to 95th Street in Chicago.

In addition to the university change, according to the article in Edweek the District began to renege on its offers of employment;¹

And most troubling of all was a rumor that District 65 was going to renege on its promise that every resident who successfully finished the year would be guaranteed a full-time teaching position. Instead, they’d have to interview at individual schools. A Zoom meeting intended to clear up the confusion only made things worse.

…

CREATE 65’s original cohort of 19 would soon be cut down to 12.

This challenge continued into Cohort 2 and 3, which completes this summer. According to sources, residents were told that there are 7 full-time licensed teaching job openings in the District available for the 11 residents of two cohorts.

To make matters worse, residents are required to work for the District after completing the program. According to their contract;²

1. The Resident agrees to work in the district Year 1, July 1, 2022, thru June 30, 2023 and Year 2, July 1, 2023 thru June 30, 2024.

2. The Resident agrees to work in the district for 4 years at the completion of the residency.

3. The Resident agrees to pay the district the following amounts, if a decision to leave the district is made prior to the 4-year commitment:
   0-1 year= 25% of total stipend
   1-2 years= 50% of total stipend
   2-3 years= 75% of total stipend
   3-4 years = 100% of total stipend

The District hasn't indicated to residents whether they will be required to pay back the money if they take a job elsewhere. These folks seem to be in quite a bind: promised jobs if they did the program and now that they finish, the jobs aren’t there and they’re required to pay the money back.

The Final Cost - $2.5 million dollars

I went through all the bills, annual statements, and compensation lists to tally an approximate summary of the costs of the program. All-in CREATE65 cost about $2.5 million dollars. You can view my summary below, which includes resident salaries, staff salaries, and tuition payments.

A large chunk of this funding came from the federal government:

• 2 x $250,000 Grants: According to the ISBE, they received grants for two years (with Jan’s big check).

• ~$1,000,000 COVID Relief (ESSER) Money: According to the District’s own reporting, almost a million dollars of COVID relief money was used to fund this program.

Especially with the ESSER funding, the District could’ve used these funds to do more permanent improvements, such as improvements to heating and cooling systems - consider what District 129 in West Aurora did;

The administration spent only 26% of COVID funds on salaries and dedicated 46% to capital outlays such as personal protective equipment and upgrading the heating and cooling systems.

Compare to District 65, which according to their own reporting spent less than 20% of the COVID relief money on capital outlays and the rest on salaries and temporary programs, such as CREATE65. According to their own reporting, not a single penny was spent on (much needed!) improvements to heating and cooling systems.³

Self Promotion & Electoral Politics

This program is a top highlight on Dr. Horton’s resume

He started a similar program in DeKalb (with a much larger budget) called IGNITE, offering similar benefits to the CREATE65 program. The IGNITE program also employs Frontier Educational Consulting, an old colleague of Dr. Horton, who worked with him in CPS, East St. Louis, and Evanston.

Dr. Horton wasn’t the only person using CREATE65 to promote their career - during the last election in 2023, various board candidates cited this program as a reason to vote for them. Consider this interview with Mya Wilkins, one week before the 2023 election;

To combat the educator shortage, District 65 has already instituted residency programs designed to create pathways for individuals to earn their teacher certifications (CREATE65), their principal and assistant principal certification (Aspiring Leaders), and an apprenticeship program for paraprofessionals in a partnership with BloomBoard. As a Board member I will continue to support these programs.⁴

Or the candidate forums in March 2023, where Board President Sergio Hernandez cited the program as a success as the current board “taking action”

Hernandez also touted “high-impact tutoring,” early childhood programs and recently-created teacher residency fellowship as evidence of the current board taking action to improve student performance and invest in a sustainable workforce of educators.

Or perhaps even the ISBE, which gave an award to the program one week before the 2023 municipal elections. You can read a nomination letter, written by a contact at Chicago State University, which describes the program.

The Board and administration made promises of employment to these residents - in fact, the District website still has that promise on it - yet according to accounts by residents, they’re being required to jump through hoops, if they can get a job at all.

Finally, the Edweek story on the program notes;

The constant barriers were a reminder of just how much work still needs to be done to build an effective pipeline for K-12 teachers of color

Yet, here in Evanston, it was the very people who purport to care about this erecting the barriers: the Horton Administration and the District 65 Board. There weren’t white parents or North Evanston folks standing in the way - the administration is perpetuating the barriers - for their own political and career advancement. For Dr. Horton, it meant a $100,000 raise when he took a job in DeKalb County, Georgia. For the Board, it meant some favorable press a week before the 2023 election.

1. If you find this offensive and potentially in violation of the permitted uses for COVID relief money, I recommend contacting the Dept of Education Office of the Inspector General.

2. Yes the payback schedule makes no sense. If they quit in year 1, they pay back 25% of the stipend but quit in year 3, then they have to pay back 100%? What?

3. I’m computing this by looking at (d) Supplies, Materials, Desks and Chairs for Schools + (h) Building Cleaning/PPE - I think that’s even a generous estimate because I don’t consider building cleaning to be a permanent benefit.

4. I didn’t even include Bloomboard on the list of costs - not entirely sure what it is but if it’s involved in the program somehow, I will have to add it.