About School Reform in Chicago

In 1987, The U.S. Secretary of Education embarrassed the city of Chicago by calling its public schools the worst in the nation. Chicagoans may have been tempted to brush off that observation as heavy-handed Washington bluster. But, the secretary was only repeating what civic leaders, educators, parents, and students there already knew: the city's schools were failing, and they desperately needed fresh resources, organization, ideas, and purpose.

Over the next decade, Chicago underwent the most ambitious school reform effort in history, becoming a huge laboratory for school reform innovations in areas such as governance, leadership, accountability, and community involvement. Along the way, there were many notable successes, spectacular flops, and lessons learned.

In highlighting the key issues and dynamics of Chicago's reforms, this book identifies challenges and solutions that are applicable to other school systems. For example:

• Former accountability czar Philip J. Hansen discusses controversial school accountability and intervention initiatives.
• Ken Rolling, former head of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, reflects on how privately funded school reform efforts can succeed if they overcome some chronic problems.
• Andrew G. Wade and Madeline Talbott show how parent and community involvement can support school improvement.

Other article highlights include the struggle to improve instruction, teacher professional development, ending social promotion, the view from inside the city bureaucracy, and the importance of rebuilding physical spaces to accommodate new instructional goals.

Contributors include John Ayers, Timothy D. Brandhorst, Richard F. Elmore, G. Alfred Hess, Jr., Jacqueline Leavy, Linda Lenz, and the editors of the Harvard Education Letter.

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Table of Contents for School Reform in Chicago

Foreword
Douglas Clayton
Introduction: "Third Wave"--or Lull--in Chicago School Reform?
Alexander Russo

PART 1: SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY

The Power-and Limits-of Civic Capacity
Alexander Russo
Reflections on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge
Ken Rolling
Site-Based Management During a Time of Centralization
Andrew G. Wade
The Importance of Social Trust in Changing Schools
David T. Gordon
How Trust Helped Transform a Small Chicago School
David T. Gordon
Parents as School Reformers
Madeline Talbott
Moving Instruction to Center Stage - Click here to read the full-text of article
David T. Gordon
School Improvement at Benito Juarez High School
Richard G. Gelb

PART II: POLICY AND POLITICS

Establishing Accountability for Chicago Schools
Philip J. Hansen
Transition Programs for Retained Students: Segregation or Salvation?
Michael Sadowski
Ending Social Promotion: A Signature Reform
G. Alfred Hess Jr.
Forget Governance: Build Capacity
Richard F. Elmore
A View from Pershing Road
Timothy D. Brandhorst
Missing in Action: The Chicago Teachers Union
Linda Lenz
Picking Principals: Vallas Goes Too Far
John Ayers
Beefing Up Professional Development
Alexander Russo
Concrete Improvements: Chicago's School Construction Boom
Jacqueline C. Leavy

A Final Word: Ten Questions for Paul Vallas' Right-Hand Woman
Cozette Buckney

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Publishing Information

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