Opinion
School & District Management Opinion

Lessons Learned From the Chicago Public Schools

By Timothy Knowles — May 26, 2009 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Since his appointment as the U.S. secretary of education, Arne Duncan has championed an approach to school reform based on research. In public appearances from Denver to Brooklyn, Duncan has emphasized the importance of data in measuring long-term student success and in determining which programs should be expanded, and which scrapped.

Duncan’s determination is backed by the unprecedented education funding, up to $100 billion, in the federal economic-stimulus bill. It was further reinforced by the choice of John Q. Easton as the director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, the nation’s engine for educational research, evaluation, assessment, and statistics.

Duncan and Easton developed a partnership while Easton was the director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago and Duncan was running the nation’s third-largest school system, the Chicago public schools. Easton and his fellow researchers dug deep into Chicago’s schools to document what made a difference. Duncan turned those findings into plans and programs for the Chicago district.

Their partnership came to some key conclusions that will likely play a role in the next wave of national school reform:

The best academic programs won’t succeed if they land in schools with weak principals, isolated teachers, and fearful students."

Freshman year is the make-or-break year of high school. Ninth grade attendance and course grades are key predictors of who will ultimately graduate. These measures outweigh both 8th grade test scores and family background.

Students in Chicago who complete freshman year with a B average or better have a 95 percent chance of graduating in four years; in contrast, those who earn less than a C-minus average are more likely to drop out than graduate.

And course performance is strongly correlated to attendance. Freshmen who miss two or more weeks of school per semester flunk, on average, at least two of their classes—even if they entered high school with high test scores.

Schools that track these key indicators can identify students at high risk of dropping out, and provide them with needed attention and support. In Chicago, Duncan adopted an “on-track indicator” developed by the consortium to measure whether students were making progress toward graduation. Districts nationwide have followed his lead. The federal Education Department has now begun using the indicator as part of its own work to improve graduation rates.

Trust matters, at every level. The best academic programs won’t succeed if they land in schools with weak principals, isolated teachers, and fearful students. Test scores improve when schools are strong on what the Consortium on Chicago School Research calls the “five essential supports” : effective leadership, focused attention on teacher training, instruction that sets high expectations, strong ties to parents and the surrounding community, and a student-centered learning environment in which students feel safe and supported.

If schools are located in neighborhoods where poverty is high, family education is low, social problems abound, and students come from dangerous or unstable home environments, the social organization inside the school must be strong enough to compensate. Schools located in such communities that demonstrate the five essential supports have shown above-average gains in student learning.

High schools must not only educate, but also help students navigate their way into college. Our research has shown that a college-bound culture in high schools, one that supports first-generation students in the college-application process, can make a big difference. Urban students have high aspirations for attending college, but many are derailed by the complexity of the application process.

Even when they are qualified, students struggle with the admissions process or fail to apply for financial aid. Applying for aid is the most important predictor of whether students who are admitted to college will actually enroll.

Chicago’s was the first major school district in the country to track whether its graduates apply to, enroll in, and succeed in college. A comprehensive database uses five sources of local and national data to track the district’s students through college and employment, and connects the data to high school performance and coursework.

Such a tracking system could be used nationwide to assess the progress of individual students, schools, and districts. Last month, the state of Illinois announced that it will begin tracking all schoolchildren from preschool through college, supported by a $9 million grant from the federal Education Department.

Past waves of school reform have relied on grand cure-alls—governance, money—to overcome chronic problems. Most recently, the mantra of accountability led us into a costly and time-consuming fixation on test scores that has done little to improve outcomes for students.

The Duncan-Easton history suggests a new approach, one that pays careful attention to what already works, and why. Reform, for them, is not about grand gestures toward a distant horizon; it is a pragmatic and rigorous process of evaluating and building, one success upon the next. It is a process in which not only students and teachers but also education reformers themselves are accountable to the facts on the ground.

A version of this article appeared in the June 10, 2009 edition of Education Week

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Assessment Webinar
Reflections on Evidence-Based Grading Practices: What We Learned for Next Year
Get real insights on evidence-based grading from K-12 leaders.
Content provided by Otus
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Student Well-Being Webinar
Creating Resilient Schools with a Trauma-Responsive MTSS
Join us to learn how school leaders are building a trauma-responsive MTSS to support students & improve school outcomes.
School & District Management Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: We Can’t Engage Students If They Aren’t Here: Strategies to Address the Absenteeism Conundrum
Absenteeism rates are growing fast. Join Peter DeWitt and experts to learn how to re-engage students & families.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School & District Management Work or Play? How Principals Are Spending Spring Break
Some principals are catching up on TV and traveling, while others are preparing for the last stretch of the school year.
1 min read
Photograph of sunglasses and a smartphone with an orange towel on the beach
iStock/Getty
School & District Management Research Is Shedding New Light on Superintendents to Help Them Succeed
An emerging body of research examining the leaders of the nation's 13,000 school districts is yielding actionable insights.
6 min read
Illustration of silhouetted group of business people and binary code in abstract bright lights
iStock/Getty
School & District Management Quiz Quiz Yourself: When Are District and School Leaders Most Likely to Read Emails?
Wondering when district and school leaders are most likely to check their emails? Take our quick quiz and discover the ideal times to send your messages for better engagement.
MB Data Emails 031622 GettyImages 1170828052
DenEmmanuel/iStock/Getty
School & District Management Opinion You Shouldn’t Have to Sacrifice Your Health to Be a Good School Leader
Far too many principals suffer from trying to carry a crushing responsibility alone. I was one of them.
Joshua Ray
4 min read
A blue balloon rises above a group of orange balloons. Metaphor for leadership finding themselves alone at the top.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva