Center for American Progress Blog

In November, a quietly released study from Stanford University revealed that Chicago public school students, on average, learn more from third grade through eighth grade than in any other large or moderate-sized district in the country. That is to say, at third grade, Chicago students perform significantly below the national average; at eighth, they are more or less at the national average.

The nation’s third largest school district, Chicago Public Schools (CPS), serves 371,000 students, 78 percent of whom are from low-income families and 18 percent of whom are English language learners. Since 2010, the district has lost more than 30,000 students—many of whom are African American—which has led to underenrollment and school closures...