5 Essentials School Reports Provide “Annual Physical” on 600 Chicago Schools

On Tuesday, September 13, Chicago Public Schools publicly released for the first time more than 600 individualized school reports produced by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. These reports reveal how schools across the city perform on the factors that matter most for student learning.

The interactive 5 Essentials School Reports for 2011 are available at www.ccsrsurvey.uchicago.edu/2011/.

Using 15 years of data, Chicago Consortium researchers found that schools strong on at least three of five essential elements are 10 times more likely to improve in math and reading than schools weak on three to five essentials. The Five Essentials are:

• Instructional Leadership: The principal works with teachers to implement a shared vision
•  Professional Capacity: Teachers collaborate to promote professional growth
• Family and Community Ties: The entire staff builds strong external relationships
• Learning Climate: The school is safe, demanding, and supportive
•  Ambitious Instruction: Classes are academically challenging and engaging

The Five Essentials provide a complementary approach to reform strategies focused on standardized tests. Tests are useful for measuring learning gains, but everyone working on school success also needs research-based evidence to set priorities that will accelerate learning and drive test score gains. The 5 Essentials School Reports for the first time puts this type of evidence in the hands of Chicago students, teachers, and principals, families, and others.

CPS chose to release the 5 Essentials School Reports publicly following the publication by Chicago Consortium researchers of Organizing Schools for Improvement, which made the case for the Five Essentials and was named one of the top education books of the decade by the journal Education Next.  “The 5 Essentials School Reports are like an annual physical,” said Chicago Consortium Associate Director Nick Montgomery. “They provide schools with the evidence they need to maintain optimal organizational health.”

The school reports are available for 608 schools, the 87 percent of Chicago Public Schools that participated in the 2011 My Voice, My School survey. Based on survey data provided by students and teachers, they reflect the perspective of 146,863 students in grades six through 12 and 12,688 teachers across all grades. Teachers and students from neighborhood, magnet, charter, and selective enrollment schools participated in the survey.

Parents, teachers, principals, community members and others can use the individualized reports to:

• Diagnose a school’s strengths and weaknesses
• Set priorities to help a school succeed
• Compare how it feels to be a teacher or student in different schools across the city

For more information, please contact Emily Krone at (773) 834-8036.