Illinois State Board of Education Selects the Alain Locke Charter School as a 2011 Spotlight School

CHICAGO, March 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Alain Locke Initiative announced that the Alain Locke Charter School was selected by the Illinois State Board of Education as a 2011 "Spotlight School" and named to the Illinois Honor Roll. The Spotlight award recognizes high-poverty schools where academic performance is closing the achievement gap. This is the sixth consecutive time that Alain Locke has earned this recognition. In 2005 the school also received the "Improvement" award. The 2011 Illinois Honor Roll celebrates the accomplishments of exemplary Illinois public schools.

The Alain Locke Charter School was founded in 1999 by The Alain Locke Initiative, a national nonprofit education organization focused on closing the achievement gap by energizing urban schools with the high-impact leaders of today and tomorrow. Located in the heart of Chicago's West Side, Alain Locke Charter School serves a student population that is 94% low-income and 99% African-American.  Alain Locke Charter School students have achieved the greatest test score gains in the history of the Illinois ISAT test, growing for nine consecutive years from 12% to 91% of students meeting or exceeding Illinois state standards in reading and math combined.  The U.S. Department of Education has recognized Alain Locke Charter School as 1 of 7 schools in the United States best "Closing the Achievement Gap."  The School now serves as a demonstration site for urban school leaders in accelerating student achievement.

"The Alain Locke Charter School is thrilled to earn the honor of being named a 'Spotlight School'," said Patrick Love, principal of the Alain Locke Charter School. "Our staff and students are dedicated to achieving academic success and performing to their highest potential. This recognition is more evidence that we are making progress in our goal to close the achievement gap in urban education."

For more information about the Illinois Honor Roll and criteria for selecting Spotlight Schools, please visit

http://ilhonorroll.niu.edu/.

About The Alain Locke Initiative
The Alain Locke Initiative, named after the first African American Rhodes Scholar, is a national nonprofit education organization focused on closing the achievement gap by energizing urban schools with the high-impact leaders of today and tomorrow. The Alain Locke Initiative was founded by Pat Ryan Jr., a leading technology and education entrepreneur. Pat also founded INCISENT Technologies, ranked by Inc. Magazine as the #4 fastest growing private software company in the U.S. in 2008. A former inner-city teacher and gang narcotics police officer in Chicago, Pat created The Alain Locke Initiative by combining three urban education programs he founded over the past twenty years: the Inner-City Teaching Corps – empowering urban classrooms with the leaders of tomorrow; the Alain Locke Charter School – one of the nation's most successful urban charter schools; and The Ryan Fellowship and its predecessor program ExSL to identify and develop principals ready to create student achievement-accelerating urban schools. Rooted in an entrepreneurial spirit, The Alain Locke Initiative is driven by mission, results and a sense of possibility to close the achievement gap and provide an equal education for all children. For more information, visit www.alainlocke.org.

Media Contact:          The Harbinger Group
                                  Eileen Rochford, [email protected], 312/953-3305

SOURCE The Alain Locke Initiative