TWO DECADES OF WORKING TOGETHER
|
|
In a
significant, peer-reviewed
study
, Stanford University’s Sean Reardon found that CPS elementary students are making educational gains faster than students in any of the nation’s 100 other large, urban school districts. In fact, Reardon found that Chicago students achieved six years' worth of learning in five years' time.
According to the
University of Chicago Consortium on School Research
, the five-year high school graduation rate at CPS has increased from 57 percent in 2006 to 77 percent in 2017, and the percentage of CPS students going to two- and four-year college directly after graduation has increased from 50 percent in 2006 to 63 percent in 2015.
|
|
Researchers and practitioners have different theories for the most important sources of these gains, but one factor almost everyone agrees on is the critical role of improved school leadership. For more than two decades, CPS, civic leaders, universities, philanthropists
, the
Chicago Principals Association
, parents, and others have worked together toward a common goal: to ensure there is a great leader in every Chicago public school.
CCA’s work in school leadership began when we were known as FRAC, the Civic Committee’s Finance Research and Advisory Committee. In the early 1990s, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley asked FRAC Executive Director Janet Froetscher to help on several issues at CPS. Froetscher quickly realized the key to any improvement in a school was its principal. “If one school was doing well and another was doing poorly and they were in the same neighborhood, the difference was the principal,” she said recently. Working with the
MacArthur Foundation
and the Principals Association, FRAC helped the
Local School Councils
(LSCs)
, the elected bodies with power to hire school principals, with the hiring process and began the work of developing a pool of strong candidates for school leadership positions.
|
|
“If one school was doing well and another was doing poorly and they were in the same neighborhood, the difference was the principal,” said then-FRAC Executive Director Janet Froetscher.
|
|
Over the years, dozens of organizations and hundreds of individuals from within CPS and from the broader Chicago community have helped to ensure a great leader in every school. Mayor Daley convened a blue ribbon panel that established the nation’s first eligibility pool as a mechanism for ensuring that LSCs were choosing among qualified candidates.
New Leaders for New Schools
and the
University of Illinois at Chicago
developed a nationally-renowned program to train future principals, creating a pool of talent for the LSCs. Janet Jackson, CEO of CPS today, is a graduate of the UIC program.
Mayor Emanuel has been steadfast in his support of improving school leadership, launching the
Chicago Leadership Collaborative
, an effort to streamline and continuously improve the programs training principals for CPS schools, with UIC and New Leaders as the largest members. He also launched the
Independent School Principal Program
, which gives more than 60 principals additional autonomy to innovate in their schools.
Of particular note is the public-private partnership sustained between CPS, members of the charter community, and the
Chicago Public Education Fund
. With the support of local philanthropists, The Fund has helped raise more than $75 million since 2000 to support principal training, professional learning, and retention. The Fund’s annual principal survey garners nearly an 80 percent response rate, and the results have helped make Chicago a better city in which to lead a public school. Today, nearly 70 percent of practicing principals in CPS have been trained or supported by Fund programs.
|
|
As one indication of everyone’s collective success, The Bush Institute recently recognized Chicago as among the top 5 percent of districts nationwide when it comes to principal support.
|
|
More than a decade after Janet Froetscher worked with CPS, CCA again lent a hand to the work of improving school leadership. Under the direction of CCA Principal Kelly Ruppel (now Chief Financial Officer for the Madison Metropolitan School District), CPS created the Department of Principal Quality, an evolution on the original, that today drives a continued focus on principal quality as a critical lever for school improvement citywide.
The work of improving our education system is not done. Significant race- and gender-based inequities remain, and too few graduates are fully prepared to compete in a global economy. But many deserve credit and we salute Chicago at its best, when disparate actors work across silos to achieve a common goal. As one indication of everyone’s collective success,
The Bush Institute
recently recognized Chicago as among the top 5 percent of districts nationwide when it comes to principal support.
Back in 1987, Secretary of Education Bennett told Chicago parents that they should abandon CPS and send their children to private schools. In Chicago, a dedicated cadre is proving him wrong and is changing our corner of the world every day.
|
|
To learn more about the accomplishments referenced in this article:
|
|
A NEW APPROACH TO PUBLIC TRANSIT FOR CHICAGO'S NEW COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
|
|
Public transit exists to connect people with communities, businesses, and opportunities. This mission is as relevant today as ever, but across the country public transit agencies face challenges. Bus ridership has been in long-term decline in major cities, and rail ridership has declined steeply since 2015, in Chicago and in peer cities. While the causes are varied, new alternatives and changing customer needs contribute significantly to these declines. The
Chicago Transit Authority
(CTA) is working to rise to the challenges of meeting its mission in a changing landscape, and CTA's leadership recently asked the Civic Consulting Alliance to identify new ways for CTA to innovate.
Working in partnership with
PwC
, the CCA team learned that leaders of peer transit systems in other cities hold the CTA operational model in high regard. They are impressed by CTA's execution, given the available funds and distances traveled. At the same time, the team came to appreciate the stiff challenges facing public transit in general and Chicago’s public transit system in the new economy, including competition from Uber and Lyft, shifts in populations and business locations, and the coming development of technologies like automated vehicles.
|
|
Over the course of a four month engagement, the CCA and PwC team put together a strategic roadmap for the CTA to maintain its operational excellence while fostering a culture of innovation, beginning with robust analysis of CTA's passenger data. The new culture of innovation at CTA will entail:
- A renewed focus on customer expectations and experience
- A proactive engagement on policy issues, based on a comprehensive vision of mobility and equitable access to transit services for Chicago residents
- A renewed effort to communicate the social value of public transit in serving all residents, relieving congestion, and improving air quality
- A willingness to pilot new programs that address changing population and transit usage trends
|
|
“I am grateful for the support of CCA and PwC at a critical time in CTA’s history,” said Dorval Carter, CTA President. “With their support, CTA is positioned to meet the transit and mobility needs of Chicago’s residents long into the future.”
|
|
In addition to the proposals supporting a modernized public transit culture and an embrace of innovation, the consulting team made several tactical suggestions for immediate improvements in service quality.
“I am grateful for the support of CCA and PwC at a critical time in CTA’s history,” said Dorval Carter, CTA President. “With their support, CTA is positioned to meet the transit and mobility needs of Chicago’s residents long into the future.”
|
|
IN OTHER NEWS...
- In 2016, Civic Consulting worked with pro bono partners Accenture and Sagesse Lumiere to train a cohort of small business owners on high-performance work practices. Earlier this month, the U.S. Small Business Administration named one of the participants — Rebecca Fyffe, owner of Landmark Pest Management — the National Small Business Person of the Year. Congratulations, Rebecca!
- Sydney Roberts, the new Chief Administrator of Chicago's Civilian Office of Police Accountability, was featured on Chicago Tonight. Civic Consulting, in collaboration with pro bono partner Lantern Partners, developed and helped manage the recruitment and interview processes that led to her hiring.
- West Side United launched its first request for proposals earlier this month, for grants that aim to expand the number of community health workers on the West Side. Civic Consulting and multiple pro bono partners are supporting WSU's work.
|
|
Civic Consulting Alliance is an affiliate of the Civic Committee of
the
Commercial Club of Chicago
|
|
|
|
|
|
|