CAAT Snapshot
Grades served: 9 – 12
Scheduled to Open: September 2009, with 9th grade
Total enrollment at capacity: 600
Core-curriculum: Rigorous math, science, social studies & language arts courses with cutting-edge courses in computer science and information technology
Instruction: A data-driven model of continuous feedback; research-based, successful teaching strategies and deep work-based learning
Location: Loop
Application Process: Open to any student interested; admission based on lottery, not test scores.
What is CAAT?
The Chicago Academy of Advanced Technology, CAAT, is a Chicago contract high school that operates independent of the Chicago Public School system.
CAAT is run by the Center for Polytechnical Education (CPE), which also operates Austin Polytechnical Academy (APA).
Obama & CAAT
Watch then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama praise Chicago's Austin Polytechnical Academy as an innovative model school during an education speech on September 8, 2008. "That’s the kind of model we’ll replicate across the country when I’m president of the United States," Obama says. Building on the success of Austin Polytechnical, the Center for Polytechnical Education will launch CAAT in Fall 2009.
Mayor Daley & CAAT
In 2008, leaders of Mayor Richard M. Daley's LEADS initiative approached CPE about replicating the Austin Polytech model. CPE assembled a school design team that included business leaders, nationally recognized educators, government officials, technology experts, and others for a new information technology-focused career and college-prep high school.
At the end of 2008, then Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan officially announced his recommendation that CAAT open September 2009.
| Obama - Replicating Success |
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(To listen to specific references, listen to audio starting at 2:25 minutes) In a speech on education in Dayton, Ohio, then U.S. Sen. Barack Obama stressed the importance of creating innovative schools and highlighted one Chicago high school as a national model for career-focused education: Austin Polytechnical Academy. Austin Polytech is a school run and designed by the same school operator as CAAT. Obama said his proposed Innovative Schools Fund “will invest in schools like the Austin Polytechnical Institute [sic].... And thanks to a partnership with a number of companies, a curriculum that prepares students for a career in engineering...Austin Polytech is bringing hope back to the community. That’s the kind of model we’ll replicate across the country when I’m president of the United States.” “We already have plans to replicate this school in other communities in the Chicago region, and other states have expressed interest in similar schools,” said CMRC Executive Director Dan Swinney, founder and CEO of Austin Polytech. Sen. Obama went on to say, “We will help schools integrate technology into their curriculum so we can make sure public school students are fluent in the digital language of the 21st-century economy. We’ll teach our students not only math and science, but teamwork and critical thinking and communication skills, because that’s how we’ll make sure they’re prepared for today’s workplace."
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