Over the years, the nation's large urban school districts have consistently learned from the progress of their peer districts across the country. In 2002, the board of directors of the Council of the Great City Schools (Council) authorized what became known as the Performance Measurement and Benchmarking Project to develop and implement key performance indicators across the member school districts in operations, business services, finances, human resources, and technology. These performance indicators in operations have evolved over the years and are now reported annually by the Council in its "Managing for Results in America's Great City Schools" series. However, one critical element was not included in these annual reports: academic performance. Because of that information gap, the board of directors took the next step in authorizing the development of "Academic" Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in October 2014. Based on the pilot, data-collection surveys and the indicators themselves were further refined, and all Council member districts were asked to participate in a full-scale pilot of the Academic Key Performance Indicators in 2016. A third pilot was conducted in 2017 and included the collection of data across three school years. The 2018 report presents an updated set of data through school year 2016-17. This report presents a number of different ways that member districts can analyze the data themselves by disaggregating results, showing trends, and combining variables. This report focuses on the data collection and analysis of the following Academic KPIs: (1) Pre-K enrollment relative to Kindergarten enrollment; (2) Percent of 4th and 8th graders proficient in reading and math on NAEP; (3) Algebra I completion rates for credit by grade 9; (4) Ninth grade course failure rates -- at least one core course; (5) Ninth graders with B average (GPA) or better; (6) Absentee rates by grade level; (7) Suspension rates; (8) Instructional days missed per student due to suspensions; (9) AP participation rates; (10) AP-equivalent participation rates; (11) AP exam pass rates; (12) Early college enrollment; and (13) Four-year graduation rate.