Chicago school board approves move to de-rank schools after ‘longstanding structural racism’

Chicago Public Schools voted unanimously Wednesday to adopt a five-year strategic plan that pledges a “renewed focus on equity” and moves away from ranking schools based on student outcomes.

“Everything is done through an equity lens,” CPS Chief Executive Officer Pedro Martinez said at the Special Board Meeting Wednesday before the vote.

Martinez went on to say, “Our new approach does away with school rankings and labels, and like our change in determining student success, we won’t just look at a narrow set of outcome data.” He continued, “we will track and focus data on practices, conditions, resources, supports, and return accountability to the district to ensure that every school has the components to foster student success.”

The board’s vice president, Elizabeth-Todds Breland, cited Chicago’s past of “long-term structural racism and socioeconomic inequality.”

“Despite many educational reforms over the course of many CPS strategic plans, opportunity gaps for our students have persisted,” Breland said.

The 5-year strategic plan, titled “Together We Rise,” faces funding challenges as COVID relief funds dwindle.

According to the Illinois Policy Institute (IPI), a think tank that tracks policy decisions within the state, CPS currently faces a projected deficit of $500 million for the upcoming school year.

The plan consists of a 47-page document that outlines the district’s priorities and investments starting from 2025-2029.

During the board meeting Wednesday morning, Martinez further explained that student success was determined by a narrow set of metrics that “rely heavily on test scores.”

“Our new approach is to define student success more holistically,” Martinez said.

“Measuring not just academic progress because it’s still important, but the well-being and connection of students to the extent that they are an empowered decision maker. “Whether they’re prepared or not and making sure they’re prepared for post-secondary success,” he added.

CPS launched a new approach to an accountability system that moves away from ranking schools purely on performance metrics.

Martinez said the former accountability system only encouraged “families to choose the highest-rated schools and pitted schools against each other.”

“And then combine that with student-based budgeting. That’s where all our resources were going,” Martinez said.

Another component of the 5-year strategic plan aims to close the “equity gap” by changing the budgeting model to ensure that funding goes to schools that need it most.

The district is “ending the practice of allocating funds primarily based on enrollment and instead allocating funds based on the unique needs of each school,” Martinez said.

“We all know that success is not felt equally across the county. We know that the student experience varies widely based on where you live in the city and what school you attend,” Martinez said.

CPS presides over several types of academic institutions, such as neighborhood schools, charter schools, selective enrollment schools, sustainable community schools, and magnet schools.

“It’s also a dynamic plan that will continue to seek public input from the public to make sure we’re meeting the mark,” Martinez said.

Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova outlined the plan’s “targeted priorities,” including a new “black student success plan” that aims to improve the everyday experience for black students and provides “pathways to multilingualism.”

Breland previously clarified to the media that there was “never any intention” to dismantle selective schools, the Chicago Tribune reported.

There were concerns in the past about the impact on selective schools that fled the board’s approval of a new equity funding formula. The new capital funding formula has reportedly affected one of Chicago’s top schools, LaSalle Language Academy.

According to the Chicago Sun Times, local school board members in LaSalle were upset about such language courses being affected due to budget cuts next fall.

According to Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Board of Education President Jianan Shi in a press release, CPS last year passed a resolution aimed at shifting “from a model that emphasizes school choice to one that elevates schools of our neighborhoods to ensure every student has access to a high-quality educational experience.”

The board conducted its first survey earlier this year, a series of roundtable discussions called “Black Student Success Roundtables” to gather public opinion about their plan to strengthen neighborhood schools.

Local media outlet ABC 7 in Chicago reported that Alderpeople were briefed on the five-year plan before it was launched. 15th Ward Ald. Ray Lopez crashed the crowd.

“We’re seeing this tangible policy where everyone is going to get an attendance medal for being in school applied to CPS, and I think it’s going to have very dangerous effects for the next generation,” Lopez said.

IPI told Fox News Digital that “the board’s move to redefine ‘student success’ shows CPS’ unwillingness to admit that rapidly increasing funding has failed to improve student outcomes.”

“While it’s encouraging to see the CPS board articulate the district’s real problem with chronic absenteeism and low test scores, the new five-year plan has few teeth to meaningfully improve student achievement. The plan emphasizes equity for the school system without detailing how this can be achieved,” said Paul Vallas, policy advisor for IPI.

Vallas went on to say, “In the plan, CPS claims to support all school models, including charter and selective schools, but they want special attention for neighborhood schools and a focus away from school rankings or student outcomes.” .

A CPS official disputed IPI’s claims that the plan lacks details on how it would achieve equitable support for all students.

They cited to Fox News Digital their efforts to “expand preschool programming, provide interventions like high-dose tutoring, academic coaches for teachers, school interventionists to help struggling students.”

They also pledged to add “more arts and extracurricular activities to support a well-rounded and joyful education.”

A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools also told Fox News Digital in response to other IPI claims: “In many cases, the plan highlights ongoing work and strategies, including and most importantly how we have funded our schools. more evenly through our Fiscal Year 2025 budget.”

The statement added, “Over the past three years, the District has moved away from school budgets based primarily on student enrollment, and the FY25 budget complements that change by also providing core staffing for all schools. All schools were provided core shared positions according to the FY25 budget and the current district-wide teacher vacancy rate is below four percent. Core positions include principal and comprehensive teachers, administrative and operational positions, professional development funding, discretionary core funding, and out-of-school activities. .

It continued: “The FY25 budget also calls for the continuation of intervention strategies and practices that have helped the District continue its upward trajectory in many indicators. CPS posted a record four-year graduation rate of 84 percent in 2023, a number that has increased every year for the past two decades. In a post-pandemic national education scorecard, CPS ranks #1 in reading growth and #3 in combined reading and math growth from 2022 to 2023 out of 40 large urban districts reporting to the Council of Greater City Schools. Preliminary 2024 state assessment data showed that students continued to increase their academic performance.”