Economic forecasts prior to the COVID-19 pandemic predicted that 7 out of 10 jobs would require some form of postsecondary education by 2030. While it is still too early to precisely predict what will happen in the short-term U.S. economy, evidence suggests that the combination of technology and economic forces will favor upskilling in the U.S. workforce.

The evidence was clear: enrollment in full-day preschool had long-lasting benefits for students, especially students who started off the farthest behind. Beginning in 2013, Chicago Public Schools officials invested in new policies and programs that resulted in quadrupling full-day programs, most notably on the West and South Sides of Chicago in primarily Black neighborhoods with the lowest income levels. Full-day preschool enrollment became more equitable, and preschool daily attendance rates rose to their highest levels ever.

Key Findings

• The 2022 CPS high school graduation rate has surpassed pre-pandemic measures after a decline in 2021--reaching its highest rate ever.
  • Among first-time ninth-graders, the high school graduation rate was 84.0% in 2022 vs.

Key Findings

• All parents in our sample had visions for what an ideal learning environment would look like for their child: a school that was safe and supportive, with a strong academic environment which provided their children with the supports and services they needed within an inclusive climate.
• Yet many parents of students with IEPs did not have viable options to engage in school choice. This was partly because:
  • Many parents perceived the short list of school options they received from school- or district-based officials

Enrollment in Chicago Public Schools is flat for the first time in more than a decade, according to preliminary data obtained by Chalkbeat.

New preliminary numbers for this school year show just over 322,500 students are registered at CPS schools. The data represents enrollment as of the end of the day Monday, the 20th day of the school year, when the district traditionally takes its official count. On the 20th day of last school year, 322,106 students were enrolled according to official data...

While releasing new standardized test scores Tuesday, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez celebrated elementary students’ gains in reading and math scores that, according to the district, constitute a partial rebound from learning loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

About six years ago, Lori Zaimi’s daughter told her mom that another longtime friend was leaving their elementary school in Edgewater on the North Side. The friend’s apartment building, she explained, had been sold to someone who was going to renovate it.

Zaimi recognized the familiar story of gentrification, when higher-income families move into a working class neighborhood and drive up property values. She’d seen property demolitions and pricey single family housing go up across Edgewater, the formerly working class neighborhood where she grew up...

Key Findings

• Principals had immediate influence on student learning and school culture, and they also had lasting impacts on students’ outcomes into young adulthood.
• CPS’s principal residency program appeared to increase principal effectiveness at improving achievement in the first two years of the principalship.
• The slow pace at which residency completers became CPS principals dampens the potential benefits of the residency program to the district.
• CPS’s principal merit pay program led to improvements in student achievement, but there were some

JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — The school year ended at Washington Elementary at 2:35 p.m. on a hot Tuesday afternoon in May, but one hour later, 9-year-old Malaysia Robertson lingered outside.