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Should Chicago Have an Elected Representative School Board?
A Look at the Evidence
Pauline Lipman
Eric (Rico) Gutstein
University of Illinois at Chicago
Collaborative for Equity and Justice in Education
1040 W. Harrison St., M/C 147
Chicago IL 60607
FEBRUARY 2011
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected] -
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SHOULD CHICAGO HAVE AN ELECTED REPRESENTATIVESCHOOL BOARD i
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank the following people who contributed to this report:
Phillip Cantor, Lynette Danley, Aisha El-Amin, Sandra Gutstein, Rhoda Rae
Gutierrez, Sarah Hainds, Stephanie Hicks, Pavlyn Jankov, Chris Sabino,Rachel Serra, Danielle Akua Smith, and Kelly Vaughn. We would also like to
thank Christine Olson for help with the production of this report.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary ................................................................................. 1
Introduction ............................................................................................. 5
Methodology............................................................................................. 6
Brief History of School Boards .................................................................. 7
Mayoral Control of Schools ....................................................................... 9
Justifications for Mayoral Control ................................................... 9
Effectiveness of Mayoral Control and Mayor-Appointed Boards:
What Do We Know? ................................................................... 10
Chicago: Assessment of the Mayor-Appointed School Board ...................... 11
High-Stakes Top-down Accountability ............................................. 11
Academic Achievement as Measured by the NAEP ........................... 13
Graduation and Dropout Rates ....................................................... 18
Renaissance 2010 ........................................................................... 19
Teacher Turnover and Loss of Teaching Staff ................................. 22
Expansion of Charter Schools ......................................................... 24
Chicago High School Redesign Initiative .......................................... 26
Public Accountability and Community Participation ................................. 27
Elected School Boards .............................................................................. 28
Steps to Strengthen Democratic Participation and
Public Accountability ................................................................ 29
Can an Elected School Board Make a Difference? ............................ 30
Milwaukee Public Schools ............................................................... 30
Tucson Unified School District ........................................................ 31
San Francisco Unified School District ............................................. 32
San Diego Unified School District ................................................... 33
Conclusion ............................................................................................... 35
Recommendations .................................................................................... 37
References .............................................................................................. 38
Appendix A: A Sample of Elected School Boards in Large U.S. Cities ........ 45
Appendix B: Biographies of CPS Board of Education Members ................. 47
Endnotes ................................................................................................. 48
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SHOULD CHICAGO HAVE AN ELECTED REPRESENTATIVESCHOOL BOARD 1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In December 2010, the Chicago Teachers Union-Community Boardproposed a shift from a mayor-appointed school board to an elected boardrepresentative of and directly accountable to Chicago Public Schools
constituencies. This report, authored independently of the Community Board,summarizes research on the effectiveness of mayor-appointed school boardsand the record of Chicagos mayor-appointed board. The report was written toprovide information to elected officials, educators, parents, and members of thegeneral public concerned about improvement of education in Chicago and theproposal to shift to an elected representative school board.
This report addresses the question: Should Chicago Have an Elected,Representative School Board? To address this question we explored severalsub-questions:
What does research say about the track record of mayor-controlledschool systems?Has mayoral control improved education for Chicago public schoolstudents?Have the appointed boards policies increased educational equity?Are there examples where elected boards have been responsive andaccountable to educators and communities?
To answer these questions, we reviewed research on school governancenationally. To review the record of Chicagos mayor-appointed board weexamined CPS and Illinois State Board of Education data, reports of researchpertinent to the Chicago experience, Chicagos performance on the NationalAssessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and qualitative studies of theeffects of CPS policies on teaching, students, and communities. We alsogathered information on elected school boards in four major cities drawing onmedia reports, published research, school district websites, and conversationswith local actors.
Key findings are:
1. There is no conclusive evidence that mayoral control and mayor-appointed boards are more effective at governing schools or raising
student achievement.
2. The Boards policies oftop-down accountability based onstandardized tests, and its simultaneous expansion of selective-
enrollment schools, expanded a two-tier education system in
Chicago. Based on their scores on a single test, thousands of primarily
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African American and Latino students were subjected to probation,retention, scripted instruction, test drills, and basic-skills education.This was not supported by education research, did not result in realimprovement, and reinforced a lower tier of educational opportunities forthese students. At the same time, the Board also expanded a top tier of
world-class, selective-enrollment schools that serve just 10 percent ofhigh school students and are roughly three times more white and moreaffluent than CPS high schools overall.
3. Under the mayor-appointed Board, CPS has made little progress inacademic achievement and other measures of educational
improvement, and on nearly every measure there are persistent, and
in some cases, widening gaps between white students and African
American and Latino students. Chicagos scores on the NAEP have
increased very modestly in ways that cannot be distinguished fromincreases in other urban districts, and Chicago continues to significantlylag behind other large cities. There are persistent and significant racialdisparities at the At-Or-Above-Proficient and Advanced levels in mathand reading on the NAEP, and scores for African American students atthese levels are abysmal. Graduation and dropout rates have improvedslightly but graduation rates are still very low and dropout rates still veryhigh, and the gap between the rates for whites and for African Americansand Latinos has widened.
4. The Boards policy of closing neighborhood schools and openingcharter schools (Renaissance 2010) has generally not improved
education for the students affected. In some cases, it has madethings worse. Most displaced elementary school students transferredfrom one low-performing school to another with virtually no effect onstudent achievement. Eight of ten students displaced by school closingstransferred to schools that ranked in the bottom half of the system onstandardized tests. In the affected communities, the policy has increasedstudent mobility and travel distances, led to spikes in violence, andincreased neighborhood instability. School closings are also associatedwith patterns of gentrification, raising troubling questions about therelationship of Board policies and real estate interests and about theprioritization of affluent students who make up a small percentage ofCPS families.
5. Although data on charter schools, nationally and locally, are mixed,there is no evidence that, overall, CPS charter schools are
significantly better than its traditional public schools. The largeststudy conducted to date in the U.S. found that students in charterschools are not doing as well as students in regular public schools:17%of charter schools perform significantly better, 37% significantly worse,
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and 46% show no significant difference. Chicago charter school outcomesare mixed, overall showing roughly comparable performance toneighborhood schools. On average, Chicago charter high schools servedfewer English language learners and low-income and special educationstudents, and on average, Chicago charter schools replaced more than
half of their staff between 2008 and 2010.
6. Chicagos mayor-appointed board is comprised of elite decisionmakers who are neither representative of the student population of
CPS nor directly accountable to the public. Board structures and
processes severely limit public input in decisions. The Board iscomposed primarily of corporate executives, while the district is 92percent students of color and 86 percent low-income students whosecommunities have no role in school district decisions. This is problematicbecause perspectives and knowledge of parents, educators, and studentsare essential to good educational decision-making. It is evident thatcommunity members feel that the Board is unresponsive to their inputand concerns. Parents have felt it necessary to take extreme measures tobe heard, including candlelight vigils, marches, campouts in front ofBoard headquarters, a hunger strike, and a recent 43-day occupation ofa school field house to get a long-needed school library. Case studies inthis report illustrate that elected school boards can create conditions fordemocratic public participation.
The evidence we collected for this report does not support the Chicago
miracle. There is compelling evidence that, for over 15 years, the Boards
policies have failed to improve the education of the majority of Chicago publicschool students, especially African American and Latino and low-incomestudents. Some students entire K-12 education has been dominated by high-stakes testing, the fear of retention, a basic-level education, and schoolclosings and their resulting instability. There is an urgent need to shift course.Although responsive and directly accountable governance structures are notsufficient by themselves to improve schools, they are an important condition.
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INTRODUCTION
In 1995, the Illinois StateLegislature used its power to put themayor in charge of Chicago Public
Schools.1 The 1995 Amendatory Act(an amendment to the 1988 SchoolReform Act) gave the mayorauthority to appoint a five-memberBoard of Trustees and a CEO to leadthe school district. The legislatures
rationale was that school reformwas moving too slowly; centralizingauthority in the mayors office would
drive reform and improve efficiency
in CPS. In 1999, the AmendatoryAct expanded the Board to sevenand restored the name Board of
Education of the City of Chicago.
After 15 years of the appointedBoard in power, there are calls for ashift to an elected representativeschool board.
This report addresses the question:Should Chicago have an elected
representative school board? Theimpetus for the report was theDecember 2010 call by the ChicagoTeachers Union-Community Board(CB)a coalition of a number ofwell-known communityorganizations in Chicago and theChicago Teachers Unionfor anelected representative school boardin Chicago.
The CB asked researchers at theCollaborative for Equity and Justice
in Education(CEJE), at theUniversity of Illinois at Chicago, toinvestigate the case for an electedboard and make recommendations.This report was written to provide
information to elected officials,educators, parents, and members ofthe general public concerned aboutimproving education in Chicago andto recommend policy changes. (The
study was not funded by the CB nordo the conclusions imply itsendorsement.)
A concern voiced by the CB is thatunder mayoral control, the Boardhas been composed primarily ofcorporate and banking leaders whoare not directly accountable to thepublic. None is an educator. In asystem in which 92% are studentsof color and 86% qualify for free orreduced lunch (a measure of low-income),2 the mismatch between thecomposition of the Board and thestudents in CPS raises concernsabout how representative the Boardis of the communities it is chargedto serve. Thus, our assessment ofChicagos mayor-appointed schoolBoard over its 15-year history
highlights the effect of its policies onlearning opportunities andeducational outcomes for thesestudents.
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This report addresses the
question: Should Chicago have an
elected representative school
board? To address this question
we explore several sub-questions:
What does research say about
the track record of mayor-
controlled school systems?
Has mayoral control
improved education for
Chicago public school
students?
Have the appointed Boards
policies increased equitable
opportunities to learn andequitable outcomes?
Are there examples where
elected boards have been
responsive and accountable
to educators and
communities?
The report begins with a briefhistory of school boards and the
move to mayoral control and mayor-appointed boards in some big cities.The next section summarizesresearch on the effectiveness ofmayoral-controlled school systems.The third section reviews outcomesof policies of Chicagos mayor-appointed Board and implicationsfor low-income African Americanand Latino students from the
standpoint of equitableopportunities to learn. The fourthsection discusses publicaccountability and communityparticipation. Finally, we presentshort case studies of four urbanschool boards that illustrate theircapacity to be responsive and
accountable to educational concernsof their communities. We concludewith recommendations.
METHODOLOGY
Although governance is important,there is not a simple cause-and-effect relationship with schoolimprovement. Many factors, inaddition to school districtgovernance, contribute to successfuleducation systems.3 However,school boards are responsible forthe policies and outcomes of theirschool districts. Therefore, we
evaluate Chicagos appointed Boardon the results of its decisions.
For this report, we reviewedresearch on school governancenationally. To look specifically at therecord of Chicagos mayor-appointedboard, we used publicly availableCPS data, Illinois State Board ofEducation (ISBE) data, and researchand reports compiled by the
Consortium on Chicago SchoolResearch (CCSR), National ResearchCouncil, and other researcherspertinent to the Chicago experience.To examine test scores, we turned tothe National Assessment ofEducational Progress (NAEP),commonly known as the nations
report card. According to the U.S.
Department of Education, which
administers it, NAEPis the onlynationally representative andcontinuing assessment of whatAmerica's students know and cando in various subject areas.4 Wealso reviewed qualitative studies ofthe effects of CPS policies onteaching, students, and
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communities. For the school boardcase studies, we drew oninformation from media reports,published research, school districtwebsites, and conversations with
local actors.
Although we examine test scores asone measure of studentachievement, many educationexperts agree that standardizedtests do not comprehensively oreven accurately assess studentlearning for several reasons.5 First,test scores may simply reflect afocus on a narrow set of skillsmeasured by high-stakes tests,rather than real learning.6 As thebar for Adequate Yearly Progress(AYP) set by No Child Left Behind(NCLB) increases annually, schools,districts, teachers, administrators,and students have been underincreasing pressure to focus onpreparing for standardized tests.Second, test scores should not be
used by themselves to assess themany aspects of learning.7 Third,instructional practices designed toraise test scores are not necessarilyaligned with what is best forstudents. For example, researchershave documented that many schoolsaround the country, including inChicago, have focused instructionon those scoring closest to the
meets expectations level who aremost likely to raise the schools
scores, while neglecting students farbelow or above.8
Thus, although we looked at testscores, we examined a broader set ofindicators of academic achievement,
opportunity to learn, and effects onschools and communities. Theseinclude graduation and dropoutrates, effects of school closings onstudents and communities, teacher
turn over and loss of teaching staff,and opportunities for publicparticipation in education decisions.Researchers use opportunity to learnas a measure of the extent to whichstudents have access to necessaryschool resources, high-qualityschool facilities, highly qualifiedteachers, rigorous and relevantcurricula, higher-order thinking
activities, safe school environments,and so on.9
BRIEF HISTORY OF SCHOOL
BOARDS
Schools are part of the foundation ofa democratic society. They arecharged with educating andpreparing the next generation ofdemocratic participants in society.
The role of school boards in thisprocess is to provide leadership,policy direction, and oversight todrive school improvement.10 Infulfilling this role, it is theresponsibility of school boards toensure that schools work to advancethe public interestthe education,health, and welfare of all membersof the community.
Historically, elected school boardshave been a central feature of localdemocracy in the U.S. Underlyingtheir election is the belief that thedemocratic process is a means forcommunity members to express andimplement a vision of the commongood. Local school boards are the
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political institutions that are closestto voters. As Allen and Planksummarize, Public education
remains the policy domain in whichcitizens [residents] have the greatest
opportunity for democraticparticipation and democraticcontrol.11
Elections of school officials, publicschool board meetings, and LocalSchool Councils (LCSs) (e.g., inChicago) are opportunities for allcommunity members, not onlyparents and students, to have avoice in policies that affect them andthe well being of the community.This is why the vast majority ofschool boards in the U.S. have been,and continue to be, elected by anddirectly accountable to theirconstituencies.
However, in the past two decades,elected school boards have been thetarget of criticism by business
leaders, think tanks, and variouspolicy makers who charge that theyare ineffective in leading schoolreform, particularly in urbandistricts. These critics also contendthat elected school boards allowinterest groups to influence policy
(specifically singling out unions), arenot accountable to the communityat-large, and lack fiscal discipline.12Especially in urban districts, theyhave pushed for mayoral control
and mayor-appointed boards.Mayoral control is commonly linkedto an agenda of high-stakes, top-down accountability, charter schoolsand vouchers, teacher pay based onstudent performance, and the beliefthat public participation ineducation should occur primarilythrough private consumer choice.
Over the past decade, mayoralcontrol has spread to several largeurban districts with the promise ofimproved student learning, higherschool-completion rates, fewerdropouts, and better test scores.Mayoral control with mayor-appointed school boards is a centralplank of Secretary of EducationArne Duncans initiatives, especially
the competitive Race to the Top
federal funds for education.13
Still, in the U.S. today, most schoolboards are elected by municipalvoters. In 2008, 96% of U.S. schooldistricts had elected boards,including more than two-thirds ofthe 25 largest districts.14 Accordingto the National School BoardsAssociation, as of June 2009, 31states have only elected boards.15
Public education remains
the policy domain in which
citizens [residents] have
the greatest opportunity for
democratic participation
and democratic control.
In 2008, 96% of U.S. school
districts had elected
boards, including more
than two-thirds of the 25
largest districts
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MAYORAL CONTROL OF SCHOOLS
Under mayoral control, mayorsappoint some or all of the membersof the school board andsuperintendent/CEO. In 1991,Boston became the first U.S. city toshift school governance to mayoralcontrol. In 1995, Chicago followedsuit. As of 2009, roughly a dozenbig-city mayors controlled theirschool districts.16 Across the U.S.,appointed boards are mostly in largeurban or municipal districts. InCalifornia, only Los Angeles has anappointed board. Of the almost 900school districts in Illinois, Chicago isthe only one with a mayor-appointedboard.17
Justifications for Mayoral Control
There are four main justificationsgiven for centralizing power in themayors office:18
1. Efficiency: Mayors are bestequipped to efficientlycoordinate municipal andeducational services and workas ambassadors to businessinterests who are expected toplay a key role in shapingschool policies.
2. Accountability for results:Because mayors are high-profile elected officials
subjected to media scrutiny,they are more responsive topopular demands and moreaccountable to the public.When schools are not makingprogress, the public knowswhom to blame.
3. Alignment of schools withbusiness goals: Because thecitys business climate and
corporate economicdevelopment are tied to the
quality of its school system,mayors are in the bestposition to align educationalgoals with business interests.
4. Streamlining educationsystems: Mayoral controlstreamlines educationalsystems by aligningorganizational goals,curriculum, rewards andsanctions, professionaldevelopment of teachers andprincipals, and classroominstruction with academicachievement.
In cities that have moved to mayoralcontrol, the business communityhas usually enthusiasticallysupported the shift. Business
leaders favor a management modelthat puts a single executive incharge and accountable for efficientcoordination of resources anddelivery of services.19Corporateleaders have assumed the unrivaledauthority to define the purposes andmethods of public schooling inresponse to the new technology-driven global economy.20 Chicago isa well-known example of thedominance of business ideas andpractices in education.
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Effectiveness of Mayoral Control
and Mayor-Appointed Boards
What Do We Know?
Research on the relationship of
mayor-controlled school districtsand school improvement is limitedand inconclusive. Hesss 2007
research survey found that therewere few rigorous, systematicstudies of the effect of appointedboards on aspects of schoolimprovement.21 Researchers at theInstitute on Education Law andPolicy at Rutgers University
Newark found that while mayoralcontrol does have some benefits(public attention to publiceducation, increased funding, andstability), there is no conclusiveevidence that governance changesincrease achievement.22 Asdocumented by Hess, who drewupon a survey of more than 25
years of research on the
effectiveness of school boards andfrom research conducted by theCenter for the Study of SocialPolicy,23there exists remarkablylittle evidence that mayors orappointed boards are more effectiveat governing schools than electedboards.24 Larry Cuban, nationally
respected education expert, sayssimply, there is no connection at all[of mayoral control] with academicachievement.25
Some cities with mayoral control
have posted increases in scores onstate standardized tests.26 Howeverstate tests are problematic becausestates have progressively loweredthe bar to make AYP under No ChildLeft Behind. Even Secretary ofEducation Duncan admitted in a2009 speech before the Departmentof Educations Institute of Education
Sciences,
When states lower [academic]standards, they are lying tochildren and they are lying toparents. Those standardsdon't prepare our students forthe world of college or theworld of work. When wematch NAEP scores and statetests, we see the difference.Some states, like
Massachusetts compare verywell. Unfortunately, thedisparities between most statetests and NAEP results arestaggeringly large.27
On the NAEP, some cities withmayoral control score above and
Corporate leaders have
assumed the unrivaled
authority to define the
purposes and methods of
public schooling in responseto the new technology-driven
global economy.
There is remarkably little
evidence that mayors or
appointed boards are more
effective at governing
schools than elected
boards.
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others below those with traditionalgovernance.28 In short, there is noclear evidence that studentachievement improves undermayoral control and appointed
boards. And Kenneth Wong, aleading proponent of mayoralcontrol, contended that it does notreduce the racial achievement
gap.29
Even case studies that suggest somepositive impact of appointed boardson test scores emphasize the tradeoff in loss of broader involvement indemocratic processes, particularlythe participation of AfricanAmericans and Latinos.30 This lossis particularly serious for a districtlike Chicago with a high percentageof African American and Latinostudents. There is an emerging bodyof research on the important role ofcommunity participation in schoolreform.31 Including the perspectives,knowledge, and political power of
these communities can ensure thatthe district adopts policies thatimprove educational opportunitiesfor their children.
CHICAGO: ASSESSMENT OF THE
MAYOR-APPOINTED SCHOOL BOARD
Should a mayor-appointed schoolboard be retained in Chicago? Inthis section we assess the Boards
record over the past 15 years. Inparticular, we examine its record ofimproving equitable opportunities tolearn and equitable outcomes for thevast majority of studentslow-income African American and Latinostudents. We look at results of theBoards two major initiatives: a) a
system of top-down accountabilityusing high-stakes tests whilesimultaneously expanding selectiveenrollment schools; b) Renaissance2010,a policy to close neighborhoodschools and replace them withcharter, contract, or CPSperformance schools.32
High-Stakes Top-Down
Accountability
The hallmark of the early years of
mayoral control in Chicago washigh-stakes testing, which was usedto enforce a system of top-downaccountability with penalties forlow-scoring students and schools.The Board added more stakes withthe expansion of selective-enrollment schools in the late1990s.
Beginning in 1996, the Board
mandated strict accountability forfailing schools and students. Itplaced low-scoring schools onprobation and retained students atgrades 3, 6, and 8 based on theirscores on standardized tests. Eighthgraders who failed the test were not
In short, there is no clear
evidence that student
achievement improves under
mayoral control andappointed boards.
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allowed to graduate with theirclassmates, and eighth graders, 15or older, who failed the test insummer school, were assigned toremedial Academic Preparation
Centers. These basic skills highschool programs were geared topassing the standardized test, andtheir students were segregated fromother students and academicallystigmatized.
The consequences of failing the testspushed low-scoring schools to focuson intensive test drill and practice.33Robert Hauser, Chair of theCommittee on Appropriate Test Useof the Board of Testing andAssessment at the NationalResearch Council wrote, The NRC
Committee concluded that Chicagos
regular year and summer schoolcurricula were so closely geared tothe ITBS [Iowa Test of Basic Skills]that it was impossible to distinguishreal subject mastery from mastery of
skills and knowledge useful forpassing this particular test.34 Someschools were mandated to adoptscripted instruction for all students(a model designed for specialeducation students). There was alsoevidence that to raise their scores,some schools triaged instruction tofocus on students on the cusp ofpassing the standardized tests
(bubble kids).35These Board policies contradict aconsensus among assessmentexperts that using standardizedtests to make high-stakes decisionsabout individual students isinappropriate and inequitable,36
particularly because all students donot have an equal opportunity tolearn.37 Yet, based on their scoreson a single test, tens of thousandsof Chicago students were sent to
summer school, retained in gradefor as long as three years, barredfrom their 8th grade graduation,and assigned to remedial highschools.
These policies did not result in realimprovement. While citywide testscores went up, students retained in1997 were doing no better in 1999than previously promoted students,and in many cases were doingworse.38 Nearly one-third of retainedeighth graders in 1997 dropped outby fall 1999.39By 2001, Chicagostest scores leveled off as the effectsof intensive test prep reached theirlimits.40
The consequences of these policiesfell heavily on African American,
Latino, and low-income students.41
In 1996 CPS placed 109 schools onprobation. They wereoverwhelmingly African American,and the average poverty level of the71 elementary probation schoolswas about 94%.42 And, in 2000,Parents United for Responsible
Educationwon a civil rightscomplaint against CPS for adversediscriminatory impact of theretention policy on AfricanAmericans and Latinos. Thestudents and schools subjected toscripted instruction, drilling forstandardized tests, and basic skillseducation were also overwhelminglyand disproportionately African
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American and Latino. As a whole,top-down high-stakes accountabilityconsolidated a lower tier of learningopportunities in CPS.
In the late 1990s, the boardexpanded a top tier of world-classschools with six new selective-enrollment high schools. The newschools in affluent or gentrifyingareas were in lavish new or
remodeled buildings with state-of-the-art resources.43 There was alsoevidence that these schools drainedresources from neighborhoodschools.44
Current data on the eight selective-enrollment high schools45 show thatonly 10.1% of CPS high schoolstudents attend them; furthermore,they are disproportionately whiteand non low-income. As of the2010-11 school year, CPS as awhole was 9% white and 14% nonlow-income, but the selective-
enrollment high schools were 25.3%white and 43.5% non low-income.46Thus, the selective-enrollment highschools student bodies are roughly
three times more white and morewell off than the district as a whole.
In sum, the Boards high-stakesaccountability policies were notbacked up by research, and itsexpansion of world-class selective-
enrollment schools benefited a verysmall percentage of CPS students.The Boards policy decisions led to
improvements for a disproportionatepercentage of more well-off white
students and test-driven, remedialeducation and penalties for low-income students of color. Thesepolicy decisions created a two-tiereducational system along lines ofrace and income.
Academic Achievement as
Measured by the NAEP
Chicagos academic improvement
has been widely accepted andreported in the media as theChicago miracle.47 The mayor, theCEO of CPS, and the Board contendthat student achievement hasimproved under mayoral control. Infact, the Board of Education sectionof the district website states,Chicago Public Schools is regarded
as a leading innovative model for
public education around thenation.48 These claims have largelybeen made based on state test data.However, in 2010, the ChicagoTribune reported that Illinois hadlowered the cut score for passing theIllinois Standard Achievement Test(ISAT)making it easier to pass thetestwhile claiming students weremaking gains.49
Noting this, the Civic Committee ofthe Commercial Club of Chicagowrote:
As recently as January 2009,CPS distributed brochuresshowing that 8th gradereading scores improved from
CPS policies created a two-
tiered educational system
along lines of race and
income.
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55% of studentsmeeting/exceeding standardsin 2004to 76% in 2008. And8th grade math scoresimproved from 33% in 2004 to
70% in 2008. But these hugeincreases reflect changes inthe [state] tests and testingproceduresnot real studentimprovement. The reality isthat most of Chicagos
students are still left farbehind. Real studentperformance appears to havegone up a little in Chicago
elementary schools during thepast few yearsand eventhose gains then dissipate inhigh school.50
Therefore, we evaluate Chicagosacademic achievement based onNAEP scores rather than useproblematic state test data. NAEPscores are recorded by district for
math and reading in grades 4 and8.51
Since 2002, CPS NAEP scores haveincreased very modestly in waysthat cannot be distinguished fromincreases in other urban centers
around the country.52 Chicagotrailed other urban districts (NAEPrefers to these as Large Cities
[LCs] of over 250,000 residents) as awhole in 2002 (and 200353). And
despite small increases, CPS did notmake up any ground as of 2009, thelast time NAEP scores were recorded(in math and reading). In short, CPSlagged then and still lags now.
Average Scores: The Department of
Education (DoE) records averageNAEP scores of each district. It alsogroups together Large Cities anduses their average combined scoresas a basis of comparison withindividual urban districts. From2003 to 2009, Chicagos average
scores in math (grade 4 and 8) and4th-grade reading slightly increased,while its 8th-grade reading scoresstalled. Chicagos increases were
comparable to the gains of the LargeCities. However, in both 2003 and
2009, CPS significantly trailed theLarge Cities average scores in math
(4 and 8) and reading (4), whileslightly trailing in 8th-grade reading.The gap between Chicago and theLC average scores that existed in
Since 2002, CPS NAEP
scores have increased very
modestly in ways that
cannot be distinguished
from increases in other
urban centers around the
country
The only place Chicago
significantly leads the LargeCities is in the percent of
students Below-Basic in
math (grades 4 and 8) and
reading grade 4.
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2003 remained the same in 2009 (see Tables 1 & 2 below).
Table 1: Math Grades 4 & 8, CPS vs. Large Cities Average Scores2003 & 2009Subject-
GradeYear
CPS
Avg
LCs
Avg
CPS-LCs
DifferenceYear
CPS
Avg
LCs
Avg
CPS-LCs
Difference
Math-4 2003 214 224 -10 2009 222 231 -9
Math-8 2003 254 262 -8 2009 264 271 -7
Table 2: Reading Grades 4 & 8, CPS vs. Large Cities Average Scores 2003 & 2009Subject-
GradeYear
CPS
Avg
LCs
Avg
CPS-LCs
DifferenceYear
CPS
Avg
LCs
Avg
CPS-LCs
Difference
Reading-4 2003 198 204 -6 2009 202 210 -8
Reading-8 2003 248 249 -1 2009 249 252 -3
Percent meeting or exceeding NAEP
benchmarks: The DoE also recordsthe percentage of students meetingor exceeding various NAEPbenchmarks.Chicago significantlylags behind urban districts acrossthe U.S. The NAEP defines fourlevels: Below-Basic, At-Or Above-
Basic, At-Or-Above-Proficient, andAdvanced. CPS 2009 scoressignificantly trailed the Large Citiesaverage in At-Or Above-Basic, At-Or-Above-Proficient, and Advancedin math (grades 4 and 8) andreading (grade 4).
In 8th-grade reading, Chicago iscomparable to the Large Citiesaverage only At-Or-Above-Basic andis significantly behind in At-Or-Above-Proficient, and Advanced (seeTables 3 & 4). In other words, theonly place Chicago significantlyleads the Large Cities is in the
percent of students Below-Basic inmath (grades 4 and 8) and readinggrade 4.
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Table 3: Math Grades 4 & 8, CPS vs. Large CitiesAt-Or-Above Basic, At-Or-Above Proficient,
Advanced2003 & 2009
Subject &
GradeYear
CPS: At-
Or-Above
Basic
LCs: At-
Or-Above
Basic
CPS: At-Or-
Above
Proficient
LCs: At-Or-
Above
Proficient
CPS:
Advanced
LCs:
Advanced
Math-4 2003 50% NA 10% NA 1% NA
Math-4 2009 62% 72% 18% 29% 2% 5%
Math-8 2003 42% NA 9% NA 1% NA
Math-8 2009 51% 60% 15% 23% 2% 5%
Table 4: Reading Grades 4 & 8, CPS vs. Large CitiesAt-Or-Above Basic, At-Or-Above
Proficient, Advanced2003 & 2009
Subject &
GradeYear
CPS: At-Or-Above
Basic
LCs: At-Or-Above
Basic
CPS: At-Or-Above
Proficient
LCs: At-Or-Above
Proficient
CPS:
Advanced
LCs:
Advanced
Reading-4 2003 40% NA 14% NA 3% NA
Reading-4 2009 45% 54% 16% 23% 3% 5%
Reading-8 2003 59% NA 15% NA 1% NA
Reading-8 2009 60% 63% 17% 22% 1% 2%
Racial and income disparities:
Average scores of CPS AfricanAmerican and Latino studentssignificantly trailed white studentsin math and reading at grades 4 and8, in 2003 and in 2009. Similarly,low-income students significantlytrailed non low-income students in2003 and 2009. African Americanand Latino students made up noground on white peers; low-income
students made up no ground onwealthier peers.
Furthermore, the racial disparity forstudents meeting or exceeding
various benchmarks was large in
2009. In math (grade 4), 44% ofwhite students were At-Or-Above-Proficient, but only 9% of AfricanAmerican students; 7% of whitestudents were Advanced, but 0% ofAfrican Americans. The disparitiesfor 8th-grade math and for 4th- and8th-grade reading are similar. Inparticular, African Americanstudents, in 2009, had 0% advanced
in 4th
-grade math, 8th
-grade math,and 8th-grade reading, and 1%advanced in 4th-grade reading (seeTable 5 below). This is alarming.
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Table 5: 2009 CPS NAEP Scores: White-Black Racial Disparities, At-Or-Above-Proficient andAdvanced Levels2009 CPS NAEP
SCORESMath
Grade-4
Math
Grade-8
Reading
Grade-4
Reading
Grade-8
WhiteAt-Or-Above-Proficient
44% 39% 41% 40%
African American
At-Or-Above-Proficient9% 7% 10% 11%
White
Advanced7% 10% 12% 3%
African American
Advanced0% 0% 1% 0%
These results raise significant issuesabout equal opportunity to learn.The data reinforce the concernabout mathematics learning for low-income students and students ofcolor raised long ago by educationexpert Walter Secada.54 Secadapointed out that most of the gainsfor these students were in lower-
level computation skills, rather thanconceptual understanding, higher-order thinking, and problem-solvingskills that would have shown up ingains at the Advanced level. That
is, to the extent there are gains, low-
income students of color are likelyacquiring very basic skills.
In summary: Chicago studentsmade only very modest progress onthe NAEP test from 2003 -2009under mayoral control and themayor-appointed board. Moreover,those modest gains were statisticallyindistinguishable from the gainsmade by students in other largecentral cities around the country.CPS students trailed students inLarge Cities in 2003 and made up
no ground by 2009. Racialdisparities were statisticallysignificant in 2003 and remained soin 2009. The percent of AfricanAmerican students at the Advancedlevel in 2009 is abysmal.
To the extent there are gains,
low-income students of color
are likely acquiring very basic
skills.
The percent of CPS African
American students at
Advanced in the 2009 NAEP
were:
Reading grade 4: 1%
Reading grade 8: 0%
Math grade 4: 0%
Math grade 8: 0%
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Graduation and Dropout Rates
Chicago high school graduation anddropout rates under mayoral controlhave barely improved. The gapbetween the rates for AfricanAmericans and whites, and betweenLatinos and whites, has widened.Dropout rates at schools onprobationessentially all low-income students of colorhaveincreased.
In his report for the Education
Research Center on the 50 largesturban areas in the U.S., Swansonreported a 2003-4 school yeargraduation rate of 51.5% for CPS.(Chicago ranked 31st of the 50.)55 A2005 CCSR study found that [o]nly
54 percent of the CPS students whowere 13 years old in 1998 graduatedfrom CPS by age 19 in 2004.56
More recent data show little or no
increase since 2004. Catalyst, usingCCSR data, reported that thegraduation rate had inched up to56% in 2006.57 However, after 2006,the graduation rate slipped back. InSummer 2010, Catalyst reported aCPS graduation rate of 54%, no
higher than what the CCSR reportedfor the 1998-2004 time period.58
Under the appointed Board,graduation rates at very low-performing CPS schools, whichoverwhelming serve low-incomestudents of color, are especiallytroubling. In 2006, Catalyst reportedthat graduation and dropout ratesbarely budged in the 18 highschools that were on probation from2002 to 2006, although they hadextra instructional support.59 TheCatalyst, using CCSR data, alsoreported in 2007 that the gap ingraduation rates between AfricanAmerican and white students grewfrom 15.4 percent in 2002 to 18.5percent in 2006.60 District datacorroborate the racial gap.According to CPS, the differential ingraduation rates between Latinosand whites, and between AfricanAmericans and whites, increasedfrom 1999 to 2010.61
The district made progress overall inlowering dropout rates since 1999,although they stopped decreasingafter 2007. CPS refers to a 5-yearcohort dropout rate, which is the
percent of students who drop outwithin five years of entering highschool. This dropout rate declinedfrom 50.1% in 1999 to 41.1% in2010.62 However, racial disparitiesincreased. The difference betweenthe dropout rate for AfricanAmerican and white students was6.4 percent in 1999. This grew to10.8 percent in 2010. Latinostudents 1999 dropout rate was 0.7
percent higher than the white
Chicago high school
graduation and dropout rates
under mayoral control have
barely improved. The gap
between the rates for African
Americans and whites, and
between Latinos and whites,
has widened.
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dropout rate; this grew to 3.4percent by 2010.63
Under the mayor-appointed Board,graduation rates barely improvedand then trended downward, whiledropout rates decreased slightly.Racial disparities increased for bothgraduation and dropout rates.African Americans and Latinosgraduate at lower rates than whites,and the gap is growing. Both AfricanAmericans and Latinos drop out athigher rates than whites, and thegap is growing.
Renaissance 2010In 2004, the Board approvedRenaissance 2010, a policy to close60-70 failing schools (later under-enrolled schools were added) andopen 100 new schools, two-thirds ascharter or contract schools (similarto charter schools). CPS states thatRenaissance 2010 is an initiative toexpand quality education options
to children in the most underservedareas. 64 Yet overall, Renaissance2010 has not improved educationfor these students who are low-income students of color. Six yearsafter the policy began, almost 75%of Chicago school children stillattended low-performing schools.65And only 16 of the 92 new schoolscreated under the policy have
reached the state average on testscores.66
School closings
After the first two years of schoolclosings, most displaced studentswere reassigned to schoolsacademically and demographically
similar to those they left, with 84%attending schools with below-average district test scores and 44%in schools on probation.67 Thispattern continued.
A CCSR study of Renaissance 2010in 2009 found that most displacedelementary school studentstransferred from one low-performingschool to another with virtually no
effect on student achievement. Eightof ten students displaced by schoolclosings transferred to schools thatranked in the bottom half of thesystem on standardized tests.68 Atthe same time, teachers andcommunity members claimed thatschools closed for low performancehad not been given the resources tosucceed. Parents and educators in
an area of the Midsouth,69
whereRenaissance 2010 was first focused,said that they were set up for
failure.70
Renaissance 2010 has beendestabilizing for communitiesalready under stress.71 The evidence
Renaissance 2010 has not
improved education for
students it was designed to
affect primarily low-income
students of color in lowperforming schools.
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indicates that for students andschools directly affected byRenaissance 2010, mobility wentup,72 travel distances increased, andschool violence spiked.73 The Board
closed some schools for lowachievement, although they showeda record of improvement, and insome cases, documented that theylacked necessary resources.74 Goodneighborhood schools, particularlyin Latino communities, were closedfor low enrollment despite evidencethat they were utilizing theirfacilities in educationally
appropriate ways and that some ofthe best schools in the system hadeven lower enrollments.75 CPStransferred some students in theMidsouth to as many as fourschools in three years as the districtclosed one school after another.Receiving schools were alsodestabilized by the influx ofdislocated students.76
As CPS closes neighborhoodschools, more students are forced totravel outside their neighborhoods.In 2008, the Catalystreported,Among charters opened since 2004,
when Renaissance 2010 waslaunched, the percentage of
students who commute to schoolfrom 6 miles away or more hasincreasedto 13 percent forelementary school students, up from9 percent; and 15 percent for high
school students, up from 10percent77
School closings also led to spikes inviolence in high schools and someelementary schools. CPS transferredstudents to schools out of theirneighborhood and placed them inphysical jeopardy. For example,there were violent confrontationswhen Austin High School studentswere transferred to Clemente, andEnglewood students weretransferred to Robeson, Dyett,Hirsch, and Hyde Park HighSchools.78 After the Board turnedCarver Area High School into aselective-enrollment militaryacademy and transferredneighborhood students to FengerHigh School five miles away,
violence spiked at Fenger,culminating in a highly publicizedstudent death in September 2009.
Local School Councils(LSCs)
Under Renaissance 2010, the Boardcloses neighborhood schools withelected LSCs and opens charter andcontract schools without them. YetLSCs are an important component
of building school-communityrelationships and a means forparent input in local schooldecisions. (LSCs hire principals andapprove school improvement plansand discretionary budgets.) TheBoard seems to be ignoringsubstantial research on the
For students and schools
directly affected by
Renaissance 2010, mobility
went up, travel distances
increased, and school
violence spiked.
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important role of school-communitypartnerships and the value of LSCsin school improvement.
Two large-scale studies of successfulCPS neighborhood schools identifyrelationships with parents andcommunities as essential tosubstantially improve academicachievement.79 Designs for Changeresearchers studied 144 high-achieving inner-city elementaryschools that had been lowperforming but had significantlyimproved academic achievement inreading and mathematics over 15years. They found that the most
consistent feature of these schools isthat all adults work as a team toimprove education, including theteachers, parents, Local SchoolCouncil, principal, and communityagencies [emphasis in the
original].80
The CCSRs extensive research on
successful school reform in CPS81
identified parent, school, andcommunity ties82as one of the fiveessential supports83 for schoolimprovement. Effective LSCs
institutionalize this relationship inCPS, yet by reducing the number ofLCSs, Board policies diminish thecapacity of parent-communityinvolvement to improve schools.
The Relationships of School Closingsand Gentrification
Maps produced by the Data andDemocracy Project84 show thatunder Renaissance 2010, schoolclosings have been concentrated inAfrican American and Latino areas
experiencing gentrificationthedisplacement of low-income andworking-class residents by upper-income residents. In 2008 and2009, proposed school closings were
mostly in, or adjacent to, areaswhere housing prices had gone uprapidly and significantly.85 Largechanges in housing prices are oneindicator of gentrification.
Closing a school is a very seriousdecision under any circumstances,but it can have particularconsequences for already-destabilized, low-incomecommunities. A school closing canbe the last straw pushing low-income residents out of theneighborhood and facilitating theprocess of turning it over to middle-class residents. Closing a schoolmeans the loss of communityprograms, trusted educators, andincreased student mobility. It meansdisruption of established parent-
school connections.86 Schools areanchors in neighbourhoods alreadydestabilized by high housing prices,foreclosures, unemployment, andthe loss of community institutionsdue to disinvestment. At several CPShearings about school closings,community members testified thattheir school was the heart of thecommunity.
The Boards decisions, in 2008 and
2009, to phase out severalneighborhood schools serving low-income African American and Latinostudents are examples. The Boards
rationale was that the schools wereunderenrolled.87 However, teachers
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predominantly African Americanthan schools with otherracial/ethnic compositions.
While some teacher mobility is to beexpected, high rates of teacherturnover disrupt sustainedprofessional development andprogram continuity. This is criticalbecause the majority of theseschools struggle with low studentachievement, and teacher instabilitymakes it more difficult to strengthenteaching and learning.
Over the past 10 years, there was a
disproportionate loss of AfricanAmerican teachers. From 2000 to2010, CPS African American
teaching force declined by 11%(from 40.6% to 29.6% of theteaching force) while the percentageof white teachers increased by 5.2%.(See Figure 1.) ISBE state reportcards show that the district lost
2759 African American teachers.92
Because most schools closed underRenaissance 2010 were in AfricanAmerican communities with theheaviest concentrations of AfricanAmerican educators, these teachers
have been particularly affected byschool closings.
Education research shows thatsuccessful teachers of AfricanAmerican and Latino studentsunderstand and relate to theirstudents communities,
backgrounds, and cultures.93Increasing the percentage ofteachers from these communities isone important way to address thiscomponent of effective teaching.Thus, the loss of 11% of AfricanAmerican teachers in a districtwhose population is nearly 50%African American is a step backwardfor educational equity.
The loss of 11% of African
American teachers in a
district whose student
population is nearly 50%
African American is a step
backward for educational
equity.
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Figure 1: Percent Change in CPS Student and Teacher Demographics, 2000-2010
Expansion of Charter Schools
The Board has significantlyexpanded charter schools inChicago since 1996 when the IllinoisState legislature authorized charter
schools to operate in the state.Under the Boards authority, charter
schools increased from six in 1996to 77 charter school campuses in2011.94 Arguably, closingneighborhood schools and openingcharter schools, primarily servingstudents of color, is the districts
most dramatic education initiative.
Yet, in an era of evidence-basedreform there is little evidence that
charter schools overall improvestudents educational experiences
and outcomes. When charterschools began in the 1990s, theywere seen as incubators forinnovative educational practices
that could revitalize publiceducation in general. Instead, overthe last decade, charter schoolexpansion exploded nationally as asilver bullet for lagging urban
schools, without adequate data towarrant this move.
The data on charter schooloutcomes are mixed. The mostauthoritative national study to datewas published by the StanfordCREDO Institute in 2009 andencompassed data from 70% of thestudents in U.S. charter schools.
(Researchers reviewed over 1.7
million records from more than2400 schools.)95 CREDO researcherscompared charter school students tothose in what they calledtraditional [neighborhood] public
schools (TPS).
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The CREDO study found that,overall, charter school students arenot performing as well as TPSstudents: 17% of charter schoolsperform significantly better than
TPS, 37% significantly worse, and46% show no significant difference.Elementary charter schools, overall,do better than TPS, while charterhigh schools do worse. Additionally,charter schools nationally are moresegregated by race and poverty thanpublic schools.96
Chicago charter school outcomesare also mixed. CREDO concludedthat charter school students inChicago are doing significantlybetter, however, the study onlyexamined Chicago data fromstudents in grades 3-8. Since theirstudy found that charter high schoolstudents are doing significantlyworse nationally, it is likely thatCREDO results for Chicago wouldhave been different if high schoolstudents had been included in theChicago data. The study found thatChicago elementary charterstudents are performing no better inreading than their peers in TPS butsignificantly better in mathematics.
However, racial disparities surfaced.African Americans in Chicagoelementary charter schools did nobetter in mathematics butsignificantly worse in reading, and
Latino students did significantlyworse in both mathematics andreading than their peers inelementary TPS. Another study ofChicago charter schools, conductedby the RAND Corporation in 2008,examined achievement in grades 3-8in 32 charter schools and foundonly small differences in averageachievement gains between
[elementary] charter schools andCPS schools, and these differencesdo not point in consistentdirections.97
The RAND study also foundevidence that Chicago's charter HSs[high schools] may produce positiveeffects on ACT scores [of 0.5 points],the probability of graduating, andthe probability of enrolling in
collegebut these positive effectsare solidly evident only in thecharter HSs that also includedmiddle school grades. It is
important to note that these dataare estimates based on probabilities.
A 2009 study by Brown andGutstein, found that Chicagos
charter high schools produced nosignificantly better academicachievement on the ACT thanneighborhood high schools, whileserving fewer English languagelearners and low-income students,and significantly fewer special-needsstudents. The study alsodocumented that CPS charter high
Although data on charterschools, nationally and
locally, are mixed, there is
no evidence that, overall,
CPS charter schools are
significantly better than
traditional public schools.
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school teachers have less experienceand less education on average thanthose in neighborhood high schools.There is also a higher rate of teacherturnover in charter schools than
other CPS schools. On average,Chicago charter schools replacedmore than half of their staffmembers between 2008 and 2010. 98The Catalyst notes that this isusually symptomatic of a school in
turmoil.99
Chicago High School Redesign
Initiative
One Board policy that showedpromise was the Chicago HighSchool Redesign Initiative (CHSRI).However, when external startupfunding ended, the Board chose toend CHSRI and pursue Renaissance2010. Before CPS embarked on abroad policy of closing neighborhoodschools, the district embraced smallhigh schools through CHSRI. Under
the initiative, CPS created 23 small,neighborhood high schools between2002 and 2007. In August 2008, theBoard ended the program with 17 ofthe original schools still inexistence. Yet, a comprehensive2010 report on CHSRI outcomes bythe CCSR found that CHSRI schoolsoffered a promising alternative toimproving educational outcomes forlow-performing students in areas ofthe city not served by high-qualityhigh schools.100
The CHSRI small schools wereintended to provide educational
opportunities for students in under-served neighborhoodsneighborhoods marked by
significant educational need.101 Thereport found that CHSRI schools didthis. They served students who didnot have privileged backgrounds orstrong academic records102 (so-
called at-risk students, in CCSRslanguage), and who would havelikely attended traditional under-performing neighborhood highschools.
Students in CHSRI schools, incomparison to their peers in regularneighborhood schools, as a wholetended to have lower elementaryschool achievement and greatermobility and were more likely tohave changed schools right beforehigh school. They were also morelikely to have received specialeducation services. Across the years,they were about 98% students ofcolor. Yet the CHSRI studentsperformed as well or better than
similar students in other similarCPS schools on a number of
important outcomes.103 Theseoutcomes included attendance,grades in core subjects, percentagesof students on-track to graduate,and graduation rates.
Although the report found thatCHSRI graduates as a whole werenot yet college-ready (based ontheir ACT scores), CCSR researchersconcluded:
this initiative did
accomplish much, but not all,of what it was intended todo.Many other school
districts are facing the sameproblem: how to bring under-performing students to college
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readiness in the span of fouryears. Countless researchersand practitioners aresearching for a replicable,scaleable method to
accomplish this formidabletask. The CHSRI schools havegotten at least part of theequation: their studentspersist in school and theygraduate. This foundationshould be recognized andbuilt uponand notforgottenas schoolscontinue to find ways to
accelerate academicachievement for theirstudents.104
CHSRI was a relatively successfulinitiative to accelerate academicachievement in neighborhood publicschools. But the Board dropped theprogram and directed resources toclosing neighborhood schools,expanding charters, and opening
turnaround schools.
PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY AND
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION
The Chicago Boards structures and
practices significantly limit theinvolvement of parents, teachers,students, and community membersto have input in Board policy anddecisions. Years of announcing
school closings on short noticewithout consultation with thoseaffected have left many communitiescynical about the responsivenessand accountability of the mayor-appointed Board.
Board members generally do notattend hearings related to schoolclosings. Instead, the Board hireshearing officers to take two-minutetestimonies from community
members, teachers, parents, andstudents. At the February 2009meeting, Board members admittedthat none of them had read thetranscripts of these communityhearings even though they were tovote on school closings that day.105Some hearings take place at CPSheadquarters downtown, making itdifficult for community members to
attend.The structure of Board meetingsminimizes public participation.Meetings are held on Wednesdaymornings when most people work.To speak at a meeting, one must getin line as early as 6:00 AM to signup for an opportunity to speak.Those who actually get to speak arelimited to two minutes. Seating in
board chambers is extremelylimited, with nearly one-third ofseats reserved for CPS staffers, whorarely participate in the meetings. Attimes, hundreds of communitymembers who wish to attend themeeting of a public body makingcritical decisions about theirchildrens education are excludedfrom the chambers. After a public
comment period, the boarddiscusses behind closed doors.
It is evident that communitymembers feel that the Board isunresponsive to their input andconcerns. The Board used to haveseveral committees that met
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monthly and allowed multipleopportunities for the public to speakon key issues. These weredisbanded under mayoral control.
Parents, students, communitymembers, and teachers have felt itnecessary to picket, hold candlelightvigils, and even sleep out twice infront of CPS headquarters, once inthe dead of winter, to have theirviews heard. In 2010, parents ofWhittier elementary school becameso frustrated by years of the Boards
unresponsiveness to their requestfor a school library that theyoccupied the school field house for43 days. This recalled the 19-day,2001 hunger strike by parents andcommunity members in LittleVillage. The hunger strike was a lastresort after years of petitioning theBoard for a new high school andafter $30 million earmarked for theschool was diverted to build two newselective-enrollment high schools in
gentrifying neighborhoods.106
At Board meetings and communityhearings, teachers, parents, andstudents warned about the dangersof district proposals to close specificschools and transfer studentsacross neighborhood boundaries.The Board made the decisions toclose the schools anyway, andviolence to students followed.Teachers and administrators inschools slated to be closed (orphased out) for low enrollmentprovided the Board withdocumentation that the buildingswere being used appropriately, thateducational programs were of high
quality, and that the school spacewas being used to the benefit of thecommunity.107 In the vast majorityof cases, the Board closed (orphased out) the schools
nevertheless. This record raises afundamental question: How well canthe Board make informed policydecisions when it does not involvethe public it serves?
The current Board composition issharply distinguished from CPSfamilies who are nearly 90% lowincome. The Board members are: apartner in one of the 10 largest lawfirms in the world, a chair of afinancial consulting company, apresident of a managementconsulting firm, a corporate vicepresident, a vice president of aninvestment company, a president ofa financial consulting firm, and aphysician. None is an educator.
This Board is an appointed body of
elite decision-makers, not directlyaccountable to the public. This isdisturbing because there issubstantial research demonstratingthat the knowledge and experienceof proven educators and engagedparents is essential to goodeducational decision-making.108
ELECTED SCHOOL BOARDS
Ninety-six percent of school districts
in the nation have elected schoolboards, with a variety of structuresand methods of electing members.Election by subdistricts or regions ismore frequently found in largeurban areas. Boards elected bysubdistricts increase broad
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representation. They are moreheterogeneous, bringing a moreracially and economically diversegroup of people into school policymaking.
In contrast, boards elected citywidetend to be homogeneous anddisproportionately white, and middleand upper class109 and tend todisadvantage working-classcandidates and people of color.110Boards elected citywide tend to passmore unanimous resolutions andmay appear to operate moresmoothly. Yet, evidence suggeststhat they are often more connectedto (and possibly influenced by)special interests. Individuals needmore money to run citywidecampaigns and are therefore morelikely to be associated with powerfulbusiness interests111 and thus lessrepresentative of all the students inthe school district.
Steps to Strengthen Democratic
Participation and Public
Accountability
A number of problems have beenidentified with elected schoolboards: representatives can
narrowly represent theirconstituencies and fail to look outfor the interests of students as awhole; board meetings can becomepartisan and adversarial with
localized interests predominating;election are a weak form ofdemocracy if there is littleinteraction with constituencies andif voters with less power have lessaccess to elected representatives;voter turnout tend to be small; andthose with less power in the city aredisadvantaged in runningcandidates.112
While these problems exist, researchsuggests structural and proceduralsteps can strengthen democraticparticipation and publicaccountability:113
1. School board elections heldat the same time asmunicipal elections resultin higher voter turnout.
2. Election by district orregion of the city increasesracial and economicdiversity.
3. Processes of open,deliberative democracy andengagement promote publicparticipationwe ratherthan I thinking.
4.
School boards elected as aslate committed to workingtogether toward a commoneducation program offervoters clear policy choicesand decrease local selfinterest in decision-making.
Boards elected by subdistricts
are more heterogeneous,
bringing a more racially and
economically diverse group of
people into school policy
making.
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Can an Elected School Board
Make a Difference?
We searched for examplesdemonstrating that having anelected school board can make adifference in the kinds of policydecisions the board makes. Weespecially looked for cases of electedboards being responsive andaccountable to concerns ofcommunities and teachersissuesaddressed in this report. We wantedto see if democratic processes ofelected boards helped to advanceequity policies. The following casesillustrate processes of deliberativedemocracy. In these cases, havingan elected school board seemed tocreate conditions for communitymembers and teachers to contributeto educational decisions.
Milwaukee Public Schools
Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS)hasa nine-member elected Board ofSchool Directors with eightmembers elected by subdistrict andone at large. Currently the Boardconsists of two former teachers,three professors, an accountant, acity administrator, a retiredcommunity and union activist, anda firefighter. Committee meetingsand regular Board meetings
generally begin at 6:30 p.m.
Board processes. The MPS Boardhas structures and processes thatenable community members andeducators to raise issues and affectdecisions. Members of the publiccan bring issues to individual Board
members or to the Boards Office ofGovernance, or they can request apublic hearing before the Boards
Parent and Community EngagementCommittee. Each of the Boards five
committees has monthly publicmeetings where anyone can speakon each agenda item. Thecommittees meet until everyone whowishes to speak has done so.
Proposed school closings go througha community-based process thatincludes the Superintendentmeeting with the school communityand school personnel, a period ofdiscussion, and then a public Boardmeeting to consider the closing.After lengthy deliberations, theBoard has cancelled some schoolclosings while approving others.
Textbook adoption issue. A recenttextbook adoption illustrates aBoard process that facilitatescommunity involvement. In 2008,
teachers and community memberslearned that MPS was about toadopt a K-8 social studies textbookseries that they believed wouldmiseducate students and fail toteach social responsibility. (TheNational Council for the SocialStudies recommends thatcurriculum should provide accuratecontent and diverse and globalperspectives to allow students tounderstand the realities of our worldand their responsibilities as caringand effective citizens/communitymembers.114) The 5th-grade text didnot mention racism or anti-Semitism, hardly mentioneddiscrimination, and did not
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acknowledge that some U.S.presidents had owned slaves. At thesame time, social movements thathave historically addressedinjustices (e.g., labor, womens,
peace, and environmentalmovements) were omitted from thebooks.115
The educators and communitymembers voiced their concernspublicly and lobbied their electedschool board members. In response,the Board postponed adoption of theseries and gave concerned partiestime to review the texts and thedistricts approach to teaching social
studies. In June, communitymembers and educators formed aSocial Studies Task Force, a broadcoalition of educators andcommunity organizations, co-chaired by a representative of theNAACP and an award-winningelementary teacher.
Ultimately, the Task Force anddistrict decided to: a) reject the K3textbooks in favor of securingalternate high-quality resources andpromoting best instructionalpractices; b) adopt the WisconsinState Historical Society's 4th gradetextbook and provide a supplementto address race and labor issues;and c) adopt the publisher's 5th-grade textbook if the publishersupplied a district-approvedsupplement to address itsweaknesses.116 The district alsoagreed to provide supplementaryprofessional development onantiracist, multicultural
understandings and teachingstrategies.117
The social studies textbookadoption, involving $4 million, was aserious decision for the district.Because there was a process ofpublic discussion and a responsiveschool board, the final decision wasmore aligned with MPSs
Characteristics of High PerformingUrban Classrooms. The processalso began a public conversationamong community members,teachers, and administrators aboutappropriate textbooks andcurriculum.
Tucson Unified School District
The Tucson Unified School District(TUSD) has a five-person GoverningBoard elected citywide. The Board iscomposed of a lawyer, a citytransportation department manager,a director of a County teen court, aprofessor, and a university student.The Board holds its monthly publicmeetings at 6:30 PM.
School Closings. In January 2008,the district superintendent proposedthat the Board close four schools forbudgetary reasons, including OchoaElementary, an 85-year old schoolthat is 95% Latino and Native
American and has relatively low testscores. At the February 2008 Boardmeeting, many in the largegathering expressed anger that thesuperintendent made the proposalwithout consulting the affectedschools. Board members decided toconsider the proposal, but also
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planned to hold evening communityhearings at each school, which theyand the superintendent wouldattend. In March, the 600 peopleattending the Board hearing at
Ochoa school overwhelminglysupported keeping the school open.
At the April Board meeting, three ofthe five Board members spokeagainst any school closures, partlyin response to concerns about thedistricts federal desegregation order
and partly in response to theoutpouring of support for the fourschools. Thus, the district closed noschools.
When the superintendent retiredsoon afterward, the Board selected areplacement who agreed to consultwith school communities beforeproposing closings. The newly hiredsuperintendent offered the idea,adopted by the Board, that schoolcommunities facing possible
closings due to poor performance orlow enrollments develop their ownproposals about consolidating withother schools, closing, remainingopen, or exploring other options.
Mexican American Studies Program.Tucson has had a MexicanAmerican studies program since1997. Its goals include that schoolsuse students culture and language
to support learning, culturalawareness, and civic engagement.High school seniors in the MexicanAmerican Studies program havehigher achievement and graduationrates than students not in theprogram.118 Starting in 2007, then-State Superintendent of Schools,
Tom Horne, began to criticize theprogram for teaching MexicanAmerican history, saying that it hada radical separatist agenda.119
Throughout the multi-year conflictover the program, teachers,students, parents, and universityfaculty supporting Mexican-American studies in Tucsonmaintained a consistent presence atBoard meetings. In January 2011, alaw passed by the state legislaturewent into effect essentially requiringTUSD to disband the program orforfeit 10% of state education funds.On December 30, 2010, underthreat of losing millions of dollars,the Board resolved to implementethnic studies in TUSD, while also
being in accordance with all
applicable laws.120The Boardsattempt to preserve a program thatbenefits all students was inresponse to strong support in theMexican American community.
San Francisco Unified School
District
The seven-person San FranciscoUnified School District (SFUSD)Board of Education is electedcitywide. The Board is composed ofa writer, an education policy expert,a director of a parent organization, a
former teacher, a director of awomens health program, a public
administrator, and a fundraiser. TheBoard holds its regular monthlymeetings at 6:00 PM.
Racial Equity Report Card. The SanFrancisco case illustrates that a
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community can hold an electedboard accountable for transparencyand for addressing equity issues. In2005, community members andeducators concerned with
inequitable educational experiencesof African American studentspressed the Board to publishstudent outcomes by race and toproduce a Racial Equity ReportCard. The Report Card reportedacademic achievement and truancy,drop out, suspension, and expulsionrates by race. It also reported kindsof discipline infractions and severity
of punishments by race. The resultsrevealed broad racial inequities anddisparities.
The Report Card demonstrated tothe public where the district neededto concentrate resources andprovided a basis in evidence to lobbyfor change. The discipline data werethe basis for community membersand educators to press for a
restorative justice policy (enacted in2009) that has brought down therate of expulsions and suspensions.The Racial Equity Report Card isnow published annually as a way togauge progress, press for necessaryinitiatives, and hold the districtaccountable.
School closings. In 2004, the districtsuperintendent proposed closingschools to address low academicachievement. However, manyparents, teachers, and communitymembers believed soundalternatives existed. They organizedto elect Board members who pledgedto find educationally effective
alternatives to school closings. Thenew Board selected a newsuperintendent more aligned withthe communitys goals and
educational philosophy, who has
since closed no schools. Instead, thesuperintendent has opened thedoors of his office to meet withstakeholders and has worked closelywith the Board of Education to passand implement policies that aremore inclusive of students of colorand to address disparities in racialachievement.
The San Francisco case alsoillustrates a mechanism for anelected board to coordinateeffectively with other branches ofcity government. In San Francisco, ajoint committee of the city counciland Board of Education coordinatesschools policy. In 2007 the citycouncil set aside surplus city fundsin a rainy day fund for schools. In
the last two years, despite revenue
losses, similar to other cities, theSFUSD has not had to lay off anyteachers because of this fund.Because both the city council andBoard are elected, constituents canhold them collectively accountable.
San Diego Unified School District
The San Diego Unified School
District (SDUSD) has a five-memberBoard of Education. Members arenominated by geographic area andelected by San Diego countyresidents. The current Board,elected after a series of communityforums, is composed of a teacher, a
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psychologist, a president of ataxpayer organization, aunion/community organizer, and anex-teacher. The Board holdsmonthly meetings at 5:00 PM.
College-Ready Graduation
Requirements. Community-basedand other civic organizations in SanDiego have proposed severalinitiatives to which the Board hasagreed. One proposal was to changethe district graduation requirementsso that all graduating seniors wouldbe fully qualified for the highlycompetitive University of California(UC) system. This proposal wasinitiated by the EducationConsortium (EC), a broad-based,non-partisan collaboration oforganizations and individualsworking to increase educationalopportunities and achievements ofeconomically and educationallydisadvantaged students in SanDiego County. The EC includes
diverse organizations such as theACLU and NAACP.
In June 2009, the SDUSD voted toadopt an EC-drafted resolutiondirecting the district superintendentto ensure that all graduating seniorsmeet UC entrance requirements,starting with students in the 2010-11 school year. The resolution hasmajor implications for SDUSDbecause in 2009, only 42% ofgraduating seniors took theappropriate coursesand an evensmaller percentage of students ofcolor, low-income students, English-language learners, and special-needs students. The College-Ready
Graduation Requirements representa commitment to equitableopportunity to learn for thesestudents.
Education Not Arms. The Board alsoresponded to two initiatives of acoalitionof communityorganizations and high schoolstudents. One was a decision inFebruary 2009 to ban weaponstraining and JROTC gun ranges inSan Diego schools. Students wereintegral to convincing Boardmembers. One member, John LeeEvans, said, I am extremelyimpressed by this fine group ofyoung people. I have an immenseamount of respect. [for] a group of
young people who are committed toeducation, committed to non-violence and who are alsocommitted to the democraticprocess in terms of organizingthemselves in the community andspeaking out.
He was responding, in part, to ahigh school students testimony atthe meeting: A school that teaches
students to shoot weapons seemsclearly ironic. Our books are theultimate weapons to succeed, notguns. I also expect the board touphold the idea that no guns inschool means no guns in school!121
The second initiative was also aresponse to public pressure,particularly from organized studentswho said they were besieged byunwanted solicitations from militaryrecruiters in their schools. TheBoard voted in November 2010 tolimit military recruiters to no more
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than two visits per school year forany given school. Under new Boardrules, students have to initiatecontact with recruiters, andstudents personal information is no
longer available to the militarywithout permission. Prior to theboard decision to restrict militaryaccess to students, militaryrecruiters had been able to set updaily recruitment stations withinschools and could approachstudents to recruit them.
CONCLUSION
This report addresses the question:Should Chicago have an electedrepresentative school board? Therationale for mayoral control ofChicago Public Schools was that anappointed Board of Education,answerable only to the mayor, wouldmore effectively and efficientlyimprove schools. After 15 years, wecan take stock of Chicagos mayor-
appointed Board and how well it hasmeasured up. Several themesemerge from a review of theresearch.
First, despite the press for mayoralcontrol nationally, there is noconclusive evidence that appointedboards are more effective atgoverning schools, nor is theredefinitive evidence that mayoral
control improves achievement.Second, contrary to the story of the
Chicago miracle, there has been
minimal improvement in academicachievement, graduation rates, anddropout rates in Chicago PublicSchools. Chicago continues to
significantly lag behind other largecities on the National Assessment ofEducation Progress, and to theextent Chicago has made progress,it has largely been at the basic level.
Third, the Board has reinforced atwo-tier system of public educationthat is differentiated by race andeconomic status. Opportunities tolearn and educational outcomeshave actually become moreinequitable for African Americanand Latino students. Chicagocontinues to have large racialdisparities in achievement, andracial disparities in both graduationand dropout rates increased from1999 to 2010. African Americanstudents have an abysmal rate ofachievement at levels above basicproficiency on the NationalAssessment of Educational Progress.
Over the past 15 years, AfricanAmerican and Latino students have
disproportionately experienced astring of punitive and destabilizingpolicies. They have born the brunt ofthe negative effects of high-stakestesting as thousands have beensubjected to school probation,retention, curriculum narrowed tobasic skills, and drilling forstandardized tests. AfricanAmerican students schools have
also faced the highest rates ofteacher turnover, and thepercentage of African Americanteachers in the district has droppedsignificantly.
In contrast, the Board createdworld-class selective-enrollmentschools, but these have benefited
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only a small percentage of studentswho are disproportionately whiteand not low income.
Board decisions to closeneighborhood schools haveprimarily affected African American,Latino, and low-incomecommunities. School closings haveincreased student mobility ofaffected students and negativelyimpacted their safety. They havealso contributed to communityinstability, particularly in gentrifyingareas. These impacts have not beenoffset by gains. Most s