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ERIC Number: ED547409
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2012
Pages: 24
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Community Responses to School Reform in Chicago: Opportunities for Local Stakeholder Engagement. A Report by Public Agenda for the Joyce Foundation
Public Agenda
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 the Joyce Foundation. Insights for this study were collected through two focus groups of parents, one focus group of public school teachers, and interviews with sixteen thought leaders with first-hand experience in school reform in Chicago. Parents and teachers were recruited to represent several neighborhoods in Chicago's south and west sides--those neighborhoods that have been affected most profoundly by recent school reform. Details of the methodology and the sample are summarized in the Appendix. This work builds on Public Agenda's recently published nation-wide study on community responses to school reform ("What's Trust Got to Do With It?" Public Agenda, 2011). Though the scope of this study is significantly smaller and designed to highlight Chicago-specific points of view, its conclusions are generally consistent with the findings of the national study. The report's recommendations build upon Public Agenda's wealth of experience in public engagement around education reform (in both the K-12 and higher education spheres). Based on interviews and focus groups, five tensions that might characterize the state of school reform actions in Chicago have been identified. They are: (1) A Legacy of Distrust; (2) The Limited Impact of Information; (3) Differing Perspectives on School Quality; (4) Accountability for Whom? and (5) Differing Definitions of Parent Engagement. The recommendations (pp. 16-21) focus on engagement strategies that could help resolve these tensions over time.
Public Agenda. 6 East 39th Street, New York, NY 10016. Tel: 212-686-6610; Fax: 212-889-3461; Web site: http://www.publicagenda.org
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Public Agenda; Joyce Foundation
Identifiers - Location: Illinois
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A