Philip Scott Andrews for Education Week

CCA Academy

Honor Roll Student Disconnects,

Re-engages at CCA

By Lesli A. Maxwell

Kimberly Mitchell didn't fit the typical high school dropout profile. A good student, she was in class every day, earning good grades and making the honor roll at Orr Academy, a Chicago high school on the city's West Side. But between the chaotic environment she said was prevalent at Orr—a long-struggling school that has been subjected to several turnaround efforts over the years—and a spate of violence in her neighborhood that killed some of her friends, Mitchell slowly drifted away from school. "It was just too negative for me," says Mitchell. "Two of my friends were shot and killed in my last couple of months at Orr. I was depressed." By the time Mitchell made up her mind to return to school in January 2012, she had lost a year. Through a friend, she'd heard about CCA Academy, a small, alternative school for dropouts in the nearby North Lawndale community. But she was reluctant to enroll, assuming it must be a place where violent and disruptive students land when they get expelled or drop out.

"It's a perception we have to fight all

the time," says Myra Sampson, the principal and founder of the school. "Students like Kimberly are surprised when they walk in here and find a place that's conducive to learning." No longer skeptical, Mitchell says she had never had meaningful connections with teachers until she came to CCA Academy. "They know me here," she says. "They ask me all the time what I need, what they can do to help." She caught up quickly on lost credits through CCA's online credit-recovery program and has discovered a deep interest in environmental science. "I've never learned in such a hands-on way before," she says of the school's urban-ecology and aquaponics programs. In the past two years, the aquaponics program—which involves raising fish and food in a symbiotic system—has become its most promising engagement tool. "It's totally opened my eyes to nature, to fish, and to plants, and to the whole idea of understanding and reducing my carbon footprint," Mitchell says. Rosemarie Markopoulos, CCA's

science teacher, says students who show up with little interest in science quickly turned into some of the most devoted keepers of the fish tanks and the gardens. "They get so excited when the fish get pregnant," she says. "They are in here, every day, measuring the nutrients in the water, researching what they want to grow. It's amazing to watch the transformation." Nancy Zook, who teaches art at CCA Academy, has been intimately involved with the aquaponics program. She works with students to harvest the plants, extract essential oils from them to make soap, and design homemade stationery. "To create something and nourish it really excites them," Zook says. "It also gives them a much bigger idea of what's possible for their lives. Too many of them can't see beyond the neighborhoods they live in." That's what happened with Mitchell, who is set to graduate this month from CCA and now has her hopes set on becoming a lawyer. She has applied to two colleges: Northern Illinois University in Dekalb and DePaul University in Chicago.

As first appeared in Education Week June 6, 2013.

Reprinted with permission from Editorial Projects.

Philip Scott Andrews for Education Week

Students at the academy maintain an aquaponics program in which plants and fish are raised together in a symbiotic system.

The program has become the school's most important tool for re-engaging students.

Education Weekly Volume 32, No. 34, Page 20

Philip Scott Andrews for Education Week

Philip Scott Andrews for Education Week

Students are engaged in a science class at CCA Academy, a Chicago charter school that specializes in serving dropouts and students at risk of dropping out.

Through the school's aquaponics program, in which fish and plants are raised together, students are exposed to hands-on science learning and a possible career path.

Education Weekly Volume 32, No. 34, Page 1

CCA Academy student John Crooks works with Jason Axt, a design engineer, to create his own aquaponics system using a bathtub salvaged from the recycling center, a soda crate, and soda bottles. Aquaponics, which combines raising fish with growing food, has captivated numerous students at the school and engaged them in science. Aquaponics, which combines raising fish with growing food, has captivated numerous students at the school and engaged them in science.

Education Weekly Volume 32, No. 34, Page 17

Philip Scott Andrews for Education Week

Chicago Charter Network Specializes in Dropouts

By Lesli A. Maxwell

At CCA Academy, Principal Myra Sampson and her faculty have adopted urban agriculture and ecology, as well as aquaponics, as a key piece of their strategy to get students engaged not only in science learning but also in mathematics and other subjects.

Aquaponics—which combines the raising of fish with the growing of food in a symbiotic relationship—has captivated numerous CCA students, Sampson says. A few years ago, with the help of a local foundation, students began raising perch and tilapia in large tanks, along with a variety of vegetable plants and herbs that are nourished by the nutrients from the water in the fish tanks. "We're trying to give them a chance for a different school experience than they've ever had," says Sampson, who founded the school. It is now home to 600-800 fish and hundreds of tomato, basil, spinach, and mint plants that students harvest and either sell at markets or extract their essential oils. Some students

have used their plants to decorate paper and letter stationery to sell. Imari Bearden, a 19-year-old senior at CCA Academy, dropped out of North Lawndale High School at 17. She struggled to read and fell so far behind in credits that she "didn't see the point of going back." Two months later, Bearden regretted her decision, but knew she couldn't return to North Lawndale. She'd heard about CCA Academy, enrolled, and was quickly drafted by teachers to join the school's fledgling aquaponics "For the first time in my life, I got to know my teachers," she says. "And I got help with my reading." Bearden says the small school—located in an old bottle-cap factory in the heart of a neighborhood hit hard by drugs and gang violence—is "nothing like it is out on the streets." She graduates this month and is considering enrolling in Chicago State University's aquaponics program. (Chicago State is a CCA Academy partner.) At the end of last year, CCA Academy was one of the network's top-performing schools on a number of accountability measures monitored by the public school system. The

school posted strong growth in reading and math skills and had a

one-year graduation rate of 91.2 percent among seniors who had been enrolled in the school for at least 125 days. On measures of student engagement, the academy didn't rank quite as highly. But by the midpoint of this school year, the school had already shown growth on two measures related to engagement—its attendance rate and its "stabilization" rate, the latter of which is the percentage of students who have remained enrolled for 125 days or more or who have graduated within a year of enrolling. Sampson, the CCA's principal, says there is no magic formula, but every setting needs a few essentials, such as staff members willing to keep their commitments to students who've had few positive experiences with schooling. "All of us who work with this population need to remember that none of this is about their inability to learn," she says.

As first appeared in Education Week June 6, 2013. Reprinted with permission from Editorial Projects.

CCA Academy

CCA Academy

CCA Academy

CCA Academy

We connected her to the aquaponics piece. She came and toured Chicago State, she toured Sweet Water. She brought it back to her school. We helped her get it going in the cafeteria at the school. The kids helped in the construction. Five teachers get in the mix. The janitorial crew, who have skills and trades, got in the mix. We got them going with two small, 55-gallon systems with perch and lettuce and basil. They took it over. We showed them the basics. They took it and ran with it.   Four   months   later   they’ve   got   four   functional  aquaponic  systems  at  that  school.  They’ve  got  an  after  school  club.  They’ve  integrated  it   into  the  curriculum.  They  own   it.   She’s   now  using   that   as   a  way   to   teach  this whole agriculture, science, and transformative, social   entrepreneurship   piece   that   she’s   turning   the  whole school around on.

Leading with vision: A conversation with urban designer, educator and farmer, Emmanuel Pratt

Magazine

By Zak Rosen April 17, 2012 This  isn’t  just  a  story  about  teaching  a  man  (or  woman)  how to fish.  It’s  more  about  teaching  him  or  her  how  to  grow their own eco-system. It’s   a   story   about   re-use and waste, sustainability and design.   It’s   about   plants,   food   security,   farming,  community, entrepreneurship and planning. In Detroit, as new projects are constantly sprouting up in   all   sorts   of   places,   there’s   been   a   shift   in   how  we  think about leadership and where it comes from. Describe the kind of leadership that excites you at this time  and  that  you’re  seeing  in  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  Detroit. This is a story about space and what we can do with it…

There  is  a  school  in  Chicago  that  we’ve  been  working  with, the Community Christian Alternative Academy. It’s  got  former  high  school  dropouts  and  the  executive  director and principal of this school, Dr. Sampson, had a vision.

“We  showed  them  the  basics.  They  

took it and ran with it. Four months later  they’ve  got  four  functional  

aquaponic  systems  at  that  school.”-Emmanuel Pratt on CCA Academy

Courtesy Sweetwater Foundation

CCA Academy

Plant Tomatoes. Harvest Lower Crime Rates.

A growing body of research shows urban farms reduce violence.

over whether there is, in fact, food deserts. (A couple of recent studies have suggested that proximity to decent grocery stores isn't the key problem of inner-city nutrition.) But considering Emily Schiffer's photos, I was reminded of Mother Teresa's visit to a housing project on Chicago's West Side in the mid-1980s. What rattled her was not the poverty of the pocketbook. She'd seen worse in India. Rather, it was what she called "the poverty of the spirit." Looking at Schiffer's photos and talking with people involved in urban farming, I've come to realize that their efforts have less to do with providing healthy food than they do with a reclamation of sorts, taking ownership of their community and their daily lives… At the Community Christian Alternative Academy, a charter school on the city's West Side, students have been gunned down in neighborhood incidents. Principal Myra Sampson says they're in a constant state of agitation. "A bump in the hallway can lead to a major flare-up," she told me. "It's almost like, 'The only thing I have is myself and my image.'" To help combat violence she built a garden just north of their building, a place that now draws people from throughout the community, young and old, a place to share lunch or just congregate. Neighbors feel such ownership over the garden that Sampson has never seen the need to erect a fence. The school's also experimenting with aquaponics,

and she says that the communal aspect of growing food and raising tilapia and perch has gotten students more invested in each other and in their neighborhood, so much so that she's asked the city—which has embraced urban farming as a community development tool—to turn over 10 vacant lots to the school so that it might convert them into gardens and orchards.

By Alex Kotlowitz and Emily Schiffer I suppose the easy thing to do would be to rail against food deserts, the dearth of fresh produce and other healthy foods for those living in impoverished neighborhoods. Or to

July/August 2012

CCA Academy

CCA Academy

Volume 8, No. 19 Chicago’s  Largest  West  Side  Newspapers   Week of May 16, 2012

Community Christian Alternative Academy, 1231 South Pulaski Road, has become a green laboratory linking components of the food chain in an ecological project promoting new commercial opportunities, developing local food sources, and encouraging environmental sustainability.

The   school’s   Executive   Director,   Dr.  Myra Sampson, explains that the ideas developed when a law firm in the Loop donated a 525-gallon aquarium to the school. Instead of stocking it with tropical fish, she decided to raise yellow perch, a species of fish native to Lake Michigan, but almost extinct in the wild today. She gets the fish from a farm in Wisconsin, but was warned that they do not breed well in captivity.

The school also has a 150-gallon tank and two 40-gallon tanks used for raising Tilapia, a popular food fish that mates prolifically in captivity, and pacu, a fish in the piranha family.

Connected to the large aquarium is a feeder tank where aquatic plants are raised as food for the fish. Students and teachers care for the fish and the component fish food tanks and connected crop beds. Because this aspect of green science is so new, there are few experts or instructional manuals to reference for guidance. In fact, Rosemarie Markopoulos, the school’s   Environmental   Coordinator,  says,  “This  is  all  still  a  new  art  rather  than  a  pure  science.”

Part of the experimentation is maintaining the optimum climate for

the fish. Tilapia like the water warm, but perch like it cold. The pH of the water needs to be balanced as well between acid and alkali. The students test the water and keep it regulated between 6.5 and 8.5 in the neutral range. But, the staff and student hydroponic and aquaponic farmers are working green. Instead of regulating pH with chemicals and fertilizing crops with chemical treatments, everything is being adjusted naturally at the approximate level of two plants per pound of fish.

As the fish and plant waste are filtered out of the aquariums, they are used to feed and fertilize the crop beds of lettuce and basil, instead of using commercial fertilizer. The plant beds are watered and fed from the aquariums and grow under special lighting. Waste from the vegetable beds are fed to the fish and used for compost and mulch to grow the next generations of vegetables.

Community Christian Academy operates the CSW Career Academy with a culinary arts program next

door, so the food chain continues with the fish being cooked and served by students, along with the vegetables, herbs, and spices being raised in the school.

Outdoor grow beds have been built behind the school to raise additional crops. Alderman Michael Chandler arranged for the city to give the school ten vacant lots in North Lawndale to be developed for aquaponic and hydroponic urban gardens. The city of Chicago is conducting soil tests to ensure the safety of raising food crops for people to eat. The city is also interested in partnering with Community Christian Academy in developing solutions to urban food deserts. Extra produce raised on the urban farm plots will be given to the community, according to Dr. Sampson.   She   says   the   school’s   next  project is launching vermiculture – worm farms to enrich and aerate the soil for the crops.

CCA students recently participated in the  city’s  Green  Festival  at  Navy  Pier,  letting people everywhere know that North Lawndale is leading the way in going green!

CCA Academy

24th Ward Alderman Michael Chandler  tours  CCA’s  aquaponics  with  Dr. Myra Sampson, CEO and founder of the school.

Isaac Jones

CCA Academy

(CBS) – In Chicago and around the country, communities are trying to improve their look and get rid of blight while developing urban-farming techniques. Now, Chicago schools are learning how to grow food indoors using fish to grow plants. At CCA Academy, a charter school on   the   West   Side,   they’re   trying  something   new:   aquaponics.   It’s  the brainchild of urban planning expert Emmanuel Pratt, who runs Chicago   State’s   aquaponics  program. “When  you  feed  the  fish,  they  eat,  they excrete, they create a waste that actually is a fertilizer source for the plants which then filter the

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water to go back to the fish, in a re-circulating and balanced ecosystem,”  he  tells  CBS  2’s  Rob  Johnson. In tank after tank at CCA — some big, some small — the principles of aquaponics are being put to the test. Nancy Zook helps run the program and has seen a real transformation in her students. “When   they   start   working   with  these systems, they get that excitement back, that curiosity back from when they were little kids and when you see those moments   happen,   that’s   really  special,”  she  says.

This hands-on experience has helped the budding urban farmers learn the finer points of nitrates, ph levels and the nitrogen cycle. Right now, they’re   growing basil, thyme and strawberries. “I  really  didn’t  know  too  much  about fish or the plants and how   they   help   each   other,”  senior Jasmine Hassell says. The aquaponics program is paid for in large part thanks to organizations like the MacArthur Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Ten more schools are looking to add it, too.

Your Chicago: CCA Academy and ‘Aquaponics’ Rob Johnson Reporting Aired on May 3, 2013