In 2013, the Chicago Board of Education voted to close 50 schools due to underutilization — 49 elementary schools and one high school. This was the single largest school closure in the history of America’s public education system.

Rousemary Vega gets emotional when she walks down Augusta Boulevard in Humboldt Park. It's hard for the mother of five to see the former Lafayette Elementary School with its signs now touting the Chicago High School for the Arts.

"They closed Lafayette School and gave it to another school. Do you know how fucked up that is?" she asks. "Me and my children have to walk past it every day. And now that building is not open to the community. They have great programs in there that the community cannot benefit from. How unfair is that?"

The Chicago school board Wednesday will consider a new policy formally doing away with a longstanding and controversial system that rated schools on a scale of 1+ to 3.

The new draft policy for sizing up schools’ performance, in the works since 2019, would expand the metrics used to evaluate campuses — and aims to place greater emphasis on how schools promote students’ social and emotional development...

The UChicago Consortium on School Research is one of the most respected education research groups in the country, and they just published Investing in Adolescents High School Climate and Organizational Context Shape Student Development and Educational Attainment.

I’m going to share my short-and-sweet synopsis, along with a tweet from one of the study’s co-authors, but it’s definitely worth reviewing the entire report...

After beating eight other candidates to become Chicago’s next mayor, buoyed by more than $2 million in support from the Chicago Teachers Union, Brandon Johnson will take the helm of Chicago Public Schools with his inauguration May 15 — embarking on a four-year term that will see Illinois’ largest school district profoundly changed.

Timothy Knowles currently serves as president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Over his career, Knowles has worked in K–12, higher education, and philanthropic institutions. He has founded and led multiple social sector and commercial organizations, served on a wide range of boards, and writes and speaks widely on public policy, education, and entrepreneurship.

Albert Bertani is currently a senior fellow with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Across his career, he has served in multiple teaching and leadership roles in K–12 education and higher education. He also has served as a board member for Learning Forward, UChicago Impact, and Leading Educators.

Sharon Greenberg is formerly a CPS high school English teacher and presently a quality improvement advisor and a literacy and education consultant. She is a cofounder of the Center for School Improvement, where she was director of research and director of literacy. She also was a cabinet member and literacy consultant to Barbara Eason Watkins when she was the CPS Chief Education Officer.

In 1987, Chicago was among the most troubled school systems in America. Thirty years later it ranked among the most improved. How a City Learned to Improve its Schools offers an account of how this transformation in Chicago’s schools occurred at every level from enhancing classroom instruction, to the organization of more engaging and effective school communities, to strengthening the preparation and support of teachers and school leaders, to sustaining an ambitious evidence-based public informing agenda on the progress of key reform initiatives and the challenges still ahead.

Chicago Public Schools’ next chapter hangs on the result of the April 4 mayoral runoff election between two candidates boasting unusually strong ties to public education — and diametrically opposed ideas for schools.

Paul Vallas plans drastic changes to CPS’ structure, bolstering principals and local leaders’ power over spending and programming — and even the ability to let a charter school take over their campus. He would prioritize standardized testing and make it easier to hold students back a grade so they don’t graduate without necessary reading and math skills...