Greater Chicago Prism Coalition

3656 North Halsted Street,Chicago IL 60613

27 July, 2021

Description

Our Prism coalition is a network of LGBTQ+ support groups in each of Teach For America's regions. The Prism coalition mobilizes TFA alumni l Nearly half of Teach For America's regions have formed a Prism coalition with locations across the country. Members of each coalition advocate for and engage people who identify as LGBTQ+ in ways that best match the unique needs and complexities of their local communities. If you are a member of the LGBTQ community we invite you to come learn more about the Greater Chicago Prism Coalition Tuesday, July 27th from 6-9PM Center on Halsted 3656 N Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60613 GUEST SPEAKERS Gloria Allen (She her) Mama Gloria is Chicago’s Black transgender icon Gloria Allen, now in her 70s, blazed a trail for trans people like few others before her. Emerging from Chicago’s South Side drag ball culture in the 1960s, Gloria overcame traumatic violence to become a proud leader in her community Jesse Holzman (they/them) is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. They are a queer, non-binary, anti-racist, educator, and gender, sexuality, and organizational scholar. Teach For America is a network of leaders transforming the education landscape in Chicago and Northwest Indiana in order to ensure that one day all students have access to an excellent education. We recruit and develop promising young leaders to teach in low-income schools for at least two years, then support their impact throughout their career, both within and outside of the education system. By 2020, our network of teachers, school leaders and advocates will impact one-third of the population of public schools in Chicago. 18% of CPS students are on track to graduate from college, twice as many as a decade ago. That said, 76% of incoming freshmen aspire to earn a degree—a huge gap. The leadership talent provided by Teach For America has been core to the recent gains in CPS, and will be critical to ensuring that all students, regardless of their background, achieve their aspirations for college or career. Our region’s 3,000 members work across sectors to improve student outcomes and drive systemic change. After their initial two-year teaching commitment, two-thirds stay in education, a community that makes up over 7% of Chicago’s teachers and over 20% of Chicago’s principals and assistant principals. Teachers in our network achieve an average 1.4 years of academic growth with their students, and our principals lead the highest-rated schools at nearly two times the rate of their peers. Our alumni are policy-makers, and also lead the highest impact education organizations in Chicago, such as OneGoal, The Chicago Public Education Fund, and the Noble Network of Charter Schools.