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Chicago International Charter School

Chicago, Illinois

Grants

2015 (1 year)
$300,000

The Chicago International Charter School CCICS) is the largest charter school network in Illinois, with 16 campuses serving more than 9,000 students in the Chicago and Rockford areas. CICS helps to incubate innovative approaches, disperse financial risk, and relieve the administrative burden on start-up schools. ChicagoQuest, a MacArthur-supported school on Chicago's near north side, is part of the network and a test-bed for implementation of curriculum based on the principles of Connected Learning. This award will enable Chicago Quest to sustain its recent academic progress and improved school climate. Grant funds will be used to restructure the Chicago Quest leadership team, update the curriculum, and provide its teachers with relevant professional development opportunities.

2013 (1 year)
$210,000

The Chicago International Charter School (CICS) is the largest charter school network in Illinois. Quest to Learn, based on the principles of game design, was developed by game designer and educator Katie Salen in 2007 and originally implemented in a New York City public school. It was adapted to create a MacArthur-supported Chicago-area middle school based on the Quest to Learn pedagogical approach, ChicagoQuest, which is part of the CICS network. This grant will fund the continuing adaptation of the Quest to Learn approach to create a new high school curriculum adapted to meet the needs of the Chicago school.

2012 (1 year)
$400,000

The Chicago International Charter School (CICS) is the largest charter school network in Illinois. ChicagoQuest, a new MacArthur-supported middle school based on the Quest to Learn pedagogical approach, is part of the CICS network. ChicagoQuest will use this grant to continue to create a curriculum based on the original Quest to Learn approach for the new Chicago school and two additional ChicagoQuest locations under development, by adapting the original curriculum for the three campuses; developing a set of professional development modules for Chicago; and building a toolkit of practices and processes so other CICS schools can implement elements of the Quest framework.

2011 ( 8 months)
$3,000,000

Chicago International Charter School (CICS) is an independent, non-profit organization that operates a multi-campus network of charter schools in Chicago. Chicago Public Schools has given CICS a school building in which it will open the first of three ChicagoQuest campuses: the first effort to expand Quest to Learn, a New York City public middle-school created with Foundation support that uses an innovative, hands-on game-design-based approach to learning to increase student engagement. The building needs renovations, and extensive work to comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act; this grant will fund CICS’ required contribution.

2011 (1 year)
$500,000

Chicago International Charter School (CICS) is an independent, non-profit organization that operates a multi-campus network of charter schools in Chicago, including the new ChicagoQuest school: a public middle school created with Foundation support that employs an innovative, hands-on approach to learning that uses principles of game design to achieve greater student engagement. With this grant, CICS will ensure that ChicagoQuest has sufficient enrollment and appropriate staff and technology in place when it opens in Fall 2011; and help six of the 16 schools in its network in adopting new approaches to learning that integrate digital media.

2010 (1 year 1 month)
$700,000

To support the creation of a school management organization to replicate Quest to Learn Schools in Chicago.