This is a report on how community stakeholders, including parents, teachers, community leaders and advocates, think about current efforts by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to "turn around" Chicago's lowest-performing schools, and their expectations for future school reform actions. It was prepared by Public Agenda, with support from…

In summer and fall of 2007, Public Agenda completed five focus groups with principals in high-needs districts and sixteen one-on-one interviews with superintendents and other high-ranking education officials including a state superintendent of education. Interviews followed a systematic interview guide revolving around two broad questions: (1)…

Transforming failing schools presents special leadership challenges. What do successful "turnaround" principals actually do? What skills do they need? Where should we be looking for such leaders and what support do they need? For answers, the Wallace Foundation asked Public Agenda to interview principals currently working in high-needs schools as…

This is the fourth in a series of reports from Reality Check 2006, an ongoing set of tracking surveys on education issues. Reality Check surveys attitudes among public school parents, students, teachers, principals and superintendents on a regular basis. In surveys on education, it is not uncommon for the public, parents and teachers to see…