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Chicago Public Schools
Address
42 West Madison Street Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, 60602 United States
District information
Type	Public School District
Motto	Educate. Inspire. Transform.
Grades	Pre-K–12th
Established	1837 (1837)[1]
Superintendent	Janice K. Jackson (interim)[2][3]
Accreditation	AdvancED
Schools	660 (2014–15)[4]
Budget	US$5.69 billion (2015)[4]
District ID	1709930[5]
Students and staff
Students	396,683 (2014–15)[4]
Teachers	21,729 (2014–15)[4]
Staff	37,322 (2014–15)[4]
Student-teacher ratio	17.01 (2013–14)[6]
Athletic conference	Chicago Public League
Other information
Website	www.cps.edu

Chicago Public Schools (CPS), officially classified as City of Chicago School District #299 for funding and districting reasons,^[7] in Chicago, Illinois, is the third largest school district in the U.S. ^[4] For the 2014–2015 school year, CPS reported overseeing 660 schools, including 484 elementary schools and 176 high schools; of which 517 were district-run, 130 were charter schools, 11 were contract schools and 2 were SAFE schools.^[4] The district serves over 396,000 students.^[4]

Students attend a particular school based on their area of residence, except for charter schools and selective enrollment schools. The school system reported a graduation rate of 77 percent for the 2016–2017 school year.^[8] Unlike most school systems, CPS calls the position of superintendent "Chief Executive Officer", but there is no material difference in responsibilities or reporting from what is traditionally a superintendent. CPS reported an average of 20 pupils per teacher in elementary schools and 24.6 pupils per teacher in high school. Approximately 85% of CPS students are Latino or African-American. The student body includes 87% from low-income homes, and 12.2% of students are reported to have limited English proficiency.^{[citation needed]} Average salaries for 2008-2009 were $56,915 for teachers and $120,659 for administrators.^[4] For the 2013-2014 school year, CPS reported 41,579 staff positions including 22,519 teachers and 545 principals.^[4] In 2012 CPS reported a budget of $5.11 billion with $2.273 billion from local sources, $1.619 billion from the State of Illinois and $0.977 billion from the U.S. Federal Government.^[4] Per student spending was reported at $13,078 in 2010.^[4]

History

Children returning to class following a fire drill at a Chicago elementary school, 1973. Photo by John H. White.

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As Chicago was started as a trading outpost in the early 1800s, it took several years for a citywide school system with adequate funding and instructional personnel to emerge. As early as 1848, during the first term of the 10th Mayor of Chicago, James Hutchinson Woodworth, the city's need for a public school system was recognized by the city council. A higher educational standard for the system was stated by the mayor, both to reflect his philosophy as a former teacher, and to add an attribute to Chicago that would continue to attract productive citizens.^[9] In 1922, the school board voted unanimously to change policy that allocated library access based on color, "[extending] the same privileges to Race children to enter all the libraries as the white children enjoy", but maintaining segregated schools and specifying that "in each branch library all employees should belong to the race which attended the particular school".^[10]

School closures

From 2001 to 2008, CPS, under Arne Duncan's leadership, closed dozens of elementary and high schools due to classrooms being at low capacity or underperforming. Despite claims that the closures would help underperforming students, University of Chicago researchers found that most of the students who transferred as a result of the closures did not improve their performance. This is what led to the Renaissance 2010 initiative, which focused on closing public schools and opening more charter schools that were focused on one of the government structures: charter, performance, or contract.^[11] During this program's time, it has closed over 80 schools and plans to open 100 charter schools. This also include five military schools, three of which have Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps programs.^[12][13] In response to CPS's announcements in 2013 that it was considering closing nearly 200 schools,^[14] many Chicago parents, students, teachers and community activists voiced their opposition through the media and at hearings around the city.^{[15][16][17][18][19]} In addition, several Illinois lawmakers, including chairman of the Senate education committee William Delgado (D-Chicago), pushed for a moratorium on school closings in CPS, citing "the disproportion[ate] effect on minority communities, the possibility of overcrowding and safety concerns for students who will have to travel further to class."^[20] On May 22, 2013, the school board voted to close 50 public schools.^[21] However, the majority of the closed schools have been in poor neighborhoods with a black population, such as Bronzeville.^[22] These areas are not only sites of demolished public housing, but now to closed-down schools. For every four schools that have been closed, three have been in these neighborhoods. Over 88% of the students affected by these closings have been African American.^[23]

In a 2017 analysis, Local Government Information Services analyzed CPS’ published school occupancy data and found that CPS could save almost $200 million per year by closing more than 100 schools that are mostly empty. 304 of the 566 buildings CPS operates are “underutilized,” or at least 20 percent empty. Of the underutilized schools, 116 are more than 50 percent empty; 77 of those are more than 70 percent empty.^[24]

Student & Teacher Protests

In 2013, Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago initiated the closing of 54 public schools.^[25] Of the 54 public schools to be closed were 53 elementary schools and one high school.^[25] Mayor Rahm Emanuel claimed the school closings were a direct result from the nearly $1 billion deficit the city was facing due to under-enrollment at the schools.^[25] The schools to be closed were located on Chicago's South and West sides which provided education to mainly African-American Students.^[25] The Mayors decision to close the schools was met with rage and feelings of injustice by the communities effected and the Chicago Teachers Union.^[25] As a result, the CTU and other education activities responded by protesting.^[26]

In May 2013, the Chicago Teachers Union were joined by students and other education activities to march against the closings of 54 public schools that year.^[26] The activists planned three days of nonviolent demonstrations across the city of Chicago.^[26] The CTU gathered an upwards of 900 protesters to participate in rally's, marches, and sit-ins against Mayor Rahm Emanuels decision to close the schools.^[25] Over 150 protesters participated in a sit-in in the middle of LaSalle Street, blocking traffic, and forcing the response of the Chicago Police Department.^[25] Many protesters peacefully left the scene when asked to by the CPD, but many held their ground.^[25] Protesters that did not agree to leave the scene were issued tickets.^[25] Over 50 people were arrested throughout the entire protests, but no acts of violence were reported.^[27]

CPS teacher strikes

The teacher's union first strike occurred in May 1969, which lasted two days.^[28] The second strike occurred in January 1971, lasting four days from January 12 through January 15. The strike resulted in an 8% teacher's salary increase and a 7% increase for school staff workers.^[29] Another strike by the union occurred in January 1973, which lasted twelve days. The union was requesting that their salaries be increased and their class sizes be smaller. On September 3, 1975, The union went on strike for eleven days as a result to restore the loss of teaching and clerical jobs, overcrowding of classrooms. In February 1980, The union striked again for a total of ten days; asking for paydays worked during financial crisis, changes to school board’s spending cuts and job cuts.^[30] In 1983, CPS teachers went on a fifteen-day strike from October 3 to October 18 demanding a 10% salary increase. Superintendent Ruth B. Love offered raises between 1.6% and 4.8%, but the teachers' union rejected the proposal.^[31] The strike ended with the teachers receiving a 5% raise, 2.5% bonus and a one-year pact.^[32][33] Chicago public school teachers went on a ten-day strike from November 23 to December 3, 1984, which resulted in a 4.5% raise.^[34] In 1985, the teachers had a two-day walkout. CPS teachers went on a nineteen-day strike from September 8, to October 3, 1987.^[35] In September 2012, CPS teachers went on a nine-day strike, walking off the job for the first time in 25 years. The work stoppage, which began during the second week of the 2012 school year, culminated with a march on City Hall.^[36][37] Striking teachers voiced complaints about pay, teacher evaluations, and benefits, as well as general concerns about the neglect of the city's public school system.^[38] Soon after the strike, CEO Jean-Claude Brizard stepped down from his position.

Demographics

CPS logo from 2009 until 2014.

For the 2011-2012 school year, CPS reported having 404,151 students including 24,232 in preschool, 29,594 in kindergarten, 236,452 in grades 1-8, and 113,873 in grades 9-12. Latinos were 44.1% of the student body, African-Americans made up 41.6%, 8.8% were categorized as white, 3.4% Asian/Pacific Islander and 0.4% as Native American.^[4] Chicago Public Schools were the most racial-ethnically separated among large city school systems, according to research by the New York Times in 2012,^[39] as a result of most students' attending schools close to their homes. In the 1970s the Mexican origin student population grew in CPS, although it never exceeded 10% of the total CPS student population. From 1971 to 1977 and then to 1979, the Mexican student population in the Near West Side's CPS district 19 increased from 34% to 43% and then over 47%, respectively.^[40] In the 1980s, among the total CPS student population, the numbers of non-Hispanic Whites declined while Hispanics and Latinos, African-Americans, and other minorities increased. In 1982 16.3% of the CPS students were non-Hispanic white, while over 19% were of Mexican, Puerto Rican, and/or Cuban origin; that year the Hispanic and Latino population had overtaken the non-Hispanic White population.^[40]

Schools

CPS headquarters from 1998 until 2014 in the Chicago Loop

Lindblom Math & Science Academy

Roberto Clemente Community Academy

Lincoln Park High School

CPS is a system of primary, secondary, and disability schools confined to Chicago's city limits. This system is the second largest employer in Chicago.^[41]

Most schools in the district, whether prekindergarten-8th grade, elementary, middle, or secondary, have attendance boundaries restricting student enrollment to within a given area. A school may elect to enroll students outside its attendance boundaries if there is space or if it has a magnet cluster program. Full magnet schools are open to citywide student enrollment, provided that applicants meet a level of high academic standards. Magnets offer a variety of academic programs with various focuses, such as agriculture, fine arts, international baccalaureate, Montessori, math, literature, Paideia programs, and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). STEM Magnet Academy is the first elementary school in the state of Illinois, and among the first in the nation, to offer a STEM-focused curriculum.^{[citation needed]} The Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts) is the system's only audition based performing and visual arts high school. Chicago was the largest city in the country without a public high school for the arts until the establishment of ChiArts in 2009.

Selective Enrollment

Elementary schools

Lenart Regional Gifted Center

The school system contains two levels of elementary-middle school programs which make selective admission only. Regional gifted centers have an area of focus (such as math and science) and require one type of assessment, akin to an IQ test. Classical schools, in contrast to regional gifted centers, take a liberal arts approach focusing on all areas. Classical school applications thus require a different type of assessment.

Secondary schools

At the secondary level, CPS operates ten selective enrollment high schools, the top five include, Walter Payton College Prep, Northside College Prep, William Jones College Prep, Whitney M Young Magnet High School and Albert G Lane Technical College Prep.^[42] Selective Enrollment high schools work on a point system out of 900 points:,^[43]

• 300 points for the 7th grade standardized testing (NWEA, as of 2014)


• 300 points for the entrance exam (tested in vocabulary, literature, math)


• 300 points for 7th grade grades (A=75, B=50, C=25; D and below=0)

Competition is fierce, and many factors decide whether students are admitted or not:

• Ranking: Students are asked to rank their top 5 high schools—the higher a school is on the list, the higher the chance a high school will choose to admit a student


• Points from the point system mentioned above

Other high school options

In addition to the selective enrollment high schools, a number of other possibilities exist for high school students. These include military academies, career academies, and charter schools. Lincoln Park High School and Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center are neighborhood "magnet" high schools, which also offer various honors programs to students citywide. More specialized options, such as the Chicago High School for the Arts and the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences are also available.

Military academies

Chicago Military Academy at Bronzeville

In partnership with various Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps programs, six high schools are operated as public military academies:

• Air Force Academy High School


• Carver Military Academy


• Chicago Military Academy at Bronzeville


• Marine Leadership Academy at Ames


• Phoenix Military Academy


• 
  Rickover Naval Academy (Selective enrollment)

Career academies

Dunbar Vocational Career Academy

Some high schools have been designated as "Career Academies." According to CPS, these schools have "intensified resources to prepare students for careers in business/finance, communications, construction, health, hospitality/food service, manufacturing, performing arts, and transportation. Vocational shops, science labs, broadcast journalism labs and media/computer centers help students gain 'hands on' experience."^[44]

• Austin Business and Entrepreneurship Academy


• Chicago Vocational Career Academy


• Dunbar Vocational Career Academy


• Prosser Career Academy


• Simeon Career Academy

Charter schools

The Chicago district is responsible for 122 charter schools during the 2017-2018 school year.^[4] A variety of organizations run these schools. Frazier Preparatory Academy, for example, is sponsored by an independent board of directors and run by education management organization Pansophic Learning.

The Noble Network of Charter Schools runs eighteen high schools. These schools receive the majority of their operating budgets from the same tax sources as CPS. Charters in Chicago receive 10-25% less public funding than traditional schools, although some studies show their student achievement and performance metrics to be the same as traditional CPS results.^[45][46]

However, in October 2014, the University of Minnesota released a study that shows that Chicago charter schools perform worse than traditional schools in producing students that meet or exceed standards in reading and math. The study also showed that charter schools have lower graduation rates and "are much less likely to be racially or ethnically diverse."^[47]

In 2015, the Noble Network of Charter Schools was named the best performing large public charter school system in America by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and was awarded $250,000 by the foundation.

Operations

The structure of Chicago Public Schools was redefined after Mayor Richard M. Daley convinced the Illinois General Assembly to place CPS under the mayor's control. Illinois school districts are generally governed by locally elected school boards, where each district board hires a superintendent, who in turn hires administrators such as principals, who then must be approved by the school board. In contrast, CPS is headed by a Chief Executive Officer and school board appointed by the mayor. CPS is headquartered in the 42 West Madison building in the Chicago Loop, formerly headquartered in the 125 South Clark Street building from 1998 until November 2014.^[48] The district has offices in Bridgeport, Colman, and Garfield Park.^[49][50] The 20 story building, managed by MB Real Estate, and originally built as the Commercial National Bank,^[51] has 570,910 square feet (53,039 m²) of space.^[52]

Performance

The April 21, 2006 issue of the Chicago Tribune revealed a study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research that stated that 6 of every 100 CPS freshmen would earn a bachelor's degree by age 25. 3 in 100 black or Latino men would earn a bachelor's degree by age 25. The study tracked Chicago high school students who graduated in 1998 and 1999. 35% of CPS students who went to college earned their bachelor's degree within six years, below the national average of 64%.^[53] Chicago has a history of high dropout rates, with around half of students failing to graduate for the past 30 years. Criticism is directed at the CPS for inflating its performance figures. Through such techniques as counting students who swap schools before dropping out as transfers but not dropouts, it publishes graduation claims as high as 71%. Nonetheless, throughout the 1990s actual rates seem to have improved slightly, as true graduation estimates rose from 48% in 1991 to 54% in 2004.^[54]

In 1987, Education Secretary William J. Bennett called the Chicago Public Schools system the worst in the nation.^[55] In September 2011, the University of Chicago's Consortium on Chicago School Research published a report on the school system's performance over the course of 30 years of reform.^[56] While the report evaluated three decades of reform, it measured the progress of such policies by "analyzing trends in elementary and high school test scores and graduation rates over the past 20 years." The authors of the report highlighted five of their central conclusions:

• "Graduation rates have improved dramatically, and high school test scores have risen; more students are graduating without a decline in average academic performance."


• "Math scores have improved incrementally in the elementary/middle grades, while elementary/middle grade reading scores remained fairly flat for two decades."


• "Racial gaps in achievement have steadily increased, with white students making slightly more progress than Latino students, and African American students falling behind all other groups."


• "Despite progress, the vast majority of CPS students have academic achievement levels that are far below where they need to be to graduate ready for college."


• "The publicly reported statistics used to hold schools and districts accountable for making academic progress are not accurate measures of progress."

Pension fund

The Chicago Public School pension plan has increased its debt from $2.1 billion in 2003 to $10.1 billion in 2016. The table below lists the pension debt for each year since 2003:^[57]

The Illinois state government required Chicago Public Schools to move money from education to worker pensions. CPS is the only district in the state that the state government has done this to. CPS filed a civil lawsuit to ask the courts to require the state to rewrite its rules on how it funds schools. The lawsuit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court on February 14, 2017, and is CPS v. Governor Bruce Rauner, Illinois State Board of Education and its chairman Rev. James T. Meeks, Comptroller Susan Mendoza, and state school Superintendent Tony Smith.^[58]

Crime and corruption

In 2014, the Office of the Inspector General for Chicago Public schools received over 1300 complaints involving accusations of impropriety. Its subsequent 43 page report and audit noted that corruption and theft were still a major problem within CPS, detailing major theft of school funds, kickbacks to CPS employees, falsification of student transfer data, fraudulent selective enrollment applications, and ethics violations. In one particular case involving a half-dozen employees, almost $900,000 was stolen in what Inspector General Nicholas Schuler called a "major purchasing and reimbursement scheme". The schools involved were later identified as Gage Park Academy and Michele Clark Magnet High School.^[59][60][61] A spokesman for CPS later issued a statement that "Chicago Public Schools is committed to working with the Office of the Inspector General to eliminate corruption, fraud and waste across the district."^[59] In April 2015, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, the CEO of Chicago Public Schools, took a leave of absence during a federal investigation of a no-bid contract to a professional development organization that she had previously worked for as a consultant. She resigned from the position in June 2015. In October a federal grand jury delivered a 23 count indictment against Bennett and alleged co-conspirators. Bennet would go on to plead guilty to a $23 million kickback scheme and was sentenced to 7 and a half years in prison. In March 2016, the Chicago Board of Education filed a $65 million lawsuit against Bennet and her co-conspirators.^{[62][63][64][65]} In January 2016, the Office of the Inspector General for CPS again received over 1300 fraud complaints and issued another audit for 2015 which continued to highlight issues of corruption and theft. The 2015 audit reported the shakedown of a CPS vendor, a records falsification scheme by a principal, widespread selective enrollment fraud, illegal use of taxpayer-funded resources on political campaigns, theft from taxpayer-funded accounts intended for purchasing student materials, and numerous instances of abusing tax-exempt status to purchase personal items.^[66][67][68]

See also

• List of schools in Chicago Public Schools


• Chicago Public High School League


• Chicago Teacher Education Pipeline


• Communities In Schools of Chicago


• Local School Councils


• Middle School Cadet Corps


• Renaissance 2010


• Chicago Manufacturing Renaissance Council

References

Further reading

• Sartain, Lauren and Matthew Steinberg. "Teachers' Labor Market Responses to Performance Evaluation Reform: Experimental Evidence from Chicago Public Schools." The Journal of Human Resources, Aug 1, 2016, Vol.51(3), p.615.


• Torre, Marisa de la and Julia Gwynne. "When Schools Close: Effects on Displaced Students in Chicago Public Schools." University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. October 2009. Information page.


• 
  (in Japanese) Nakano, Shinji (中野 真志; Aichi University of Education). "Classes at Public Schools of Chicago and at Dewey's Laboratory School" (Archive; シカゴの公立諸学校とデューイ実験学校における授業). 生活科・総合的学習研究 7, 15-22, 2009-03-31. 愛知教育大学生活科教育講座. See profile at AUE Repository. See profile at CiNii.


• 
  (in Japanese) Shinohara, Takeshi (篠原 岳司 Shinohara Takeshi; 北海道大学大学院:日本学術振興会). "The Policy for Successful Academic Achievement and the Plan for School Improvement in Chicago Public Schools : Dynamism of the Theory and Practice of Distributed Leadership(IV Research Papers)^{[permanent dead link]}" (Archive, 現代シカゴ学区における学力向上政策と学校改善計画 : 分散型リーダーシップの理論と「実践」(IV 投稿論文)). 日本教育政策学会年報 (15), 153-166, 2008-06-30. Japan Academic Society for Educational Policy (日本教育政策学会). See profile at CiNii which includes the English abstract.


• 
  (in Japanese) Takei, Hiroshi (武井 寛). "Desegregating Public Schools in the Northern Cities: In the Case of 1960s Chicago" (Archive; 北部都市における公立学校の人種隔離撤廃運動 : 一九六〇年代のシカゴを事例にして). Hitotsubashi Bulletin of Social Sciences (一橋大学大学院社会学研究科), Hitotsubashi University. #5, 213-239, 2008-12. Abstract available in English (Archive). See profile at HERMES-IR (Hitotsubashi University Repository). See profile at CiNii.


• 
  (in Japanese) Yamashita, Kouichi (山下 晃一; Kyoto University). "THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LOCAL SCHOOL COUNCILS SYSTEM IN CHICAGO SCHOOL REFORM(II. RESEARCH REPORTS)^{[permanent dead link]}" (Archive; シカゴ学校改革における学校評議会制度の意義 : RollowとBrykの議論を手がかりとして(II 研究報告)). Bulletin of the JEAS (日本教育行政学会年報) (23), 135-146, 1997-10-17. The Japan Educational Administration Society (日本教育行政学会). See profile at CiNii.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chicago Public Schools.

• Official website


• 2016-2017 Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Analysis


• 
  Chicago Public Schools at the Wayback Machine (archive index)