Reform of midwest urban schools--conference summary

Chicago Fed Letter, May 2000 by Testa, William A, Sen, Surya, Rabbani, Nawsheen S

On November 18-19, 1999, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago held the final in a series of three conferences dedicated to education reform. Cosponsored with the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and the Consortium on Chicago School Research, the conference focused on reform in large urban school districts. In his opening remarks, William C. (Curt) Hunter, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said that the quality of urban school systems matters greatly because so many of the nation's future citizens and workers attend these schools. Efforts to improve public school quality are key in reviving city economies by attracting families back to the center.

Chicago, Baltimore, Washington, Hartford, Cleveland, Boston, and Detroit have experimented with mayoral assumption of school responsibilities in recent years, with mixed results. Paul Hill, University of Washington, argued that improvements cannot be realized by simply exchanging one group of decisionmakers for another. He suggested three strategies for reform: strong performance incentives for staff and institutions, substantial investment in both school and teacher capacity, and giving schools freedom to experiment with new models for teaching and organization. With regard to governance, it is essential to reward good schools, while closing poorly performing ones. Hill envisions a CEO-style superintendent managing a portfolio of strong, distinctive schools. In such a system, a superintendent and school board would enter into performance contracts with independent organizations--groups of teachers and parents, teacher cooperatives and unions, nonprofit human service organizations, colleges and universities, civic groups, and for-profit contractors. Such an approach develops the educational resources of an entire urban community, including new and existing independently operated schools, and makes them available to all the city's children. Lessons from the many political and managerial failures to date do not lead Hill to believe that fundamental reform will be quick or easy. He concluded that civic and business leaders must drive education reform by creating new public-private institutions to raise the quality of school systems.

Chicago reforms

Anthony Bryk, Consortium on Chicago School Research, discussed the beginnings of Chicago's school reforms in 1988 with its move to decentralize decisionmaking to the local school level. Principals were granted autonomy to better manage their schools through more control of personnel decisions. Councils of parents and teachers gained partial control of the school budget and improvement plans along with the power to hire and fire school principals. Such decentralization was intended to spur incentives and initiative while also providing greater accountability to the primary customers of school services. One-third of the schools have benefited from effective leadership and strong community involvement. Another one-third have made some progress. The remaining one-third have not benefited. Reform efforts in Chicago expanded in 1995 with mayoral assumption of responsibility for the school system. A CEO was appointed along with a five-member school board. Then, noticeable changes began to take root. Mandated exams and performance standards imposed higher accountability on principals, students, and schools and led to the expansion of instructional time and greater resources for pre-kindergarten and summer school. Some schools were put on probation with close evaluation and assistance. Some were reconstituted. Formalized instructional techniques and curricula were encouraged. At the same time, the Chicago public schools (CPS) system has expanded the availability of magnet schools with a specialized curriculum. Fiscal stability continues to be an important ingredient to success. Fiscal balance has generally been achieved due to better financial management and to the healthy economy of the 1990s. As part of the 1990s reforms, stable labor agreements have been struck. Jim Franczek, Franczek Sullivan P.C., noted that the reforms in 1995 saw the simplification of labor agreements, which served to streamline the bargaining process. Before that, the city had to negotiate with 29 unions; at present there are only three. In addition, successful negotiations have resulted in collective bargaining agreements in effect for essentially eight years.

Among the boldest of recent reforms, in 1996 the CPS began a new initiative aimed at ending social promotion. To be promoted to the next grade, students must achieve a minimum score in reading and mathematics on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS). Students who do not meet the criteria are required to participate in a special summer school program, Summer Bridge, and then be retested at the end of the summer. Students who do not achieve the minimum score after the program are either retained in their grade or sent to alternative schools called Transition Centers if they are age 15. The policy aims to focus teacher attention on students who are not mastering the material. Students who are at risk are given extended instructional time during the school year through Lighthouse, an extended after-school program that provides schools with funds to extend the school day and a centrally developed curriculum focused on reading and mathematics. Critics of the policy voice concern that grade retention has not been shown to lead to higher achievement and many educators frown upon using a one-time test score to make promotional decisions. The Chicago policy, however, does allow some discretion on the criteria by which a student is promoted or retained. Melissa Roderick, Chicago Consortium on School Research, shared the results of her evaluation of social promotion policy The study compares the progress of students who faced the promotional test cutoffs in 1997 and 1998 with that of a group of students two years earlier, before the policy was in place. The main findings are: 1 ) impressive increases in the proportion of students who meet the test-score cutoff for promotions; 2) mixed results on whether getting students up to a test-score cutoff one year allows them to do better the next year; 3) retained students continue to struggle; 4) much more positive results overall for sixth and eighth graders than for third graders; and 5) administrative issues shape students' experiences under the policy.