Chicago Board of Education Approves the District’s New Five-Year Strategic Plan

CHICAGO – The Chicago Board of Education (CBOE) Wednesday voted unanimously to approve the District’s new five-year strategic plan, an ambitious and equity-focused vision to drive a rigorous, joyful, and equitable daily student learning experience and a continued upward trajectory in key academic metrics through School Year 2029. Called “Success 2029: Together We Rise,” the plan was developed over the past year with input from students, families, educators, community members and CBOE members and builds off of the District’s pandemic-era Blueprint which bridged the prior five-year plan to the one approved today.

This new five-year vision comes as the District celebrates many important initiatives and academic accomplishments, from boasting some of the nation’s top schools to showing significant post-pandemic academic growth, as well as passing a more equitable needs-based Fiscal Year 2025 budget and putting more resources into exploring and planning for the success of Black students, students with disabilities, and other student groups that have been historically underserved.

CPS posted a record-breaking four-year graduation rate of 84 percent in 2023, a number that has been increasing annually for the past two decades. In a national post-pandemic education scorecard, CPS ranked #1 in reading growth and #3 in combined reading and math growth from 2022 to 2023 out of the 40 large urban districts reporting to the Council of the Great City Schools. Preliminary 2024 state assessment data showed students continued their upward academic performance.

“Chicago Public Schools students, with the guidance and support of parents, educators, and community partners, continue to make important academic gains and we are proud of our collective success to date,” said CPS Chief Executive Officer Pedro Martinez. “This five-year vision outlines how we will build on our momentum and lead bold and transformational changes to improve and expand on positive daily practices and outcomes for all students, and especially those who have been furthest from opportunity.”

The plan can be viewed at http://cps.edu/fiveyearplan and sets the District’s vision and mission for the next five years.

 

The plan addresses historical decisions and missteps in the past that have prevented strategic investments and led to long-standing challenges and opportunity gaps, particularly for Black students, Latinx/e students, students with disabilities and students in temporary living situations, and English learners. Success 2029: Together We Rise calls for implementing Targeted Universalism which recognizes that systems and structures play a critical role in students’ experiences, and the way students interact with those systems and structures differs depending on identity and life circumstances - both of which can impact students’ daily school life and performance.

The strategic plan shifts the District’s philosophy for driving and measuring change in terms of how CPS defines student success, the approach to accountability, how the District supports schools, invests in schools and communities, and how the District makes decisions. In these four areas, the District is calling for a more holistic and comprehensive approach to defining and measuring success. 

Student success, for example, is not just defined by lagging data points, such as standardized test scores, but about the daily learning experience. CPS will be tracking how well schools provide a high-quality curriculum, meaningful assessments, student-focused instruction that honors students’ identities and prioritizes relationships, and more academic and social interventions to ensure that students get the support needed to meet grade-level standards. 

Accountability to our dedicated educators, staff, students, and families remains a key value. But rather than a ranking system that encourages competition among schools, CPS will provide schools with equitable resources and ongoing support so that schools can shape their own unique areas of improvement and the daily student experience. Schools and the District will be expected to meet annual growth on school-based Continuous Improvement Data Transparency (CIDT) measures, as outlined in their individual plans. This transformed philosophy is explained in the plan, including in this chart: 

Goals include expanding access to academic acceleration for students in predominantly Black and lower-income neighborhoods on the south and west sides and providing more resources for students in temporary living situations by adding more counselors and increasing professional learning on restorative practices. It calls for investments in neighborhood schools and historically under-resourced communities

“This plan takes an honest assessment of the societal and systemic inequities impacting our classrooms and vows to address those challenges head-on,” said Chicago Board of Education President Jianan Shi. “The core values and priorities outlined in the plan will help improve educational opportunities for every Chicago student and thus our collective success as Chicagoans.”

Elevating equity inside and outside the classroom also remains a top priority with several new or expanding initiatives outlined in the plan as follows:

• Black Student Success: Develop and implement a plan to improve daily learning experiences for Black students and eliminate opportunity gaps.
• Multilingual Pathways: Offer multiple pathways for students to become proficient in more than one language.
• Successful Integration: Ensure that students with disabilities are placed in the correct grade-level setting so they can fully engage in high-quality instruction.
• Aligned Early Learning: Create high-quality and cohesive early learning experiences for students in preschool through 2nd grade that are aligned to their future learning.
• Postsecondary Success: Increase opportunities for students to earn college credit and advanced certifications in high school.

“Every child deserves world-class learning and this strategic plan will get us closer to our mission of closing the opportunity and achievement gaps,” said Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova. “I am confident that we have the leadership, the educators, parents, and community partners to implement this vision and continue to make tremendous progress for our students and our city.”

The plan lays out strategies to ensure that all students have access to high-quality, well-rounded, rigorous, and joyful education and that every school has the resources it needs for success. In order to secure long-term adequate funding and meet all outlined goals and strategies, the plan calls for officials to partner with our communities to strongly advocate for full, fair, and equitable school funding across all levels of government, leverage philanthropic investments, and strengthen collaborative partnerships in every community.
Some key universal strategies called out in the plan include:

• Increase the number of schools adopting high-quality curriculum in all courses and all grades
• Promote student-focused instruction that honors students’ unique identities and prioritizes community engagement
• Empower educators with increased support for leadership opportunities, coaching, mentoring, and collaboration
• Expand universal full-day preschool to all neighborhoods and invest in foundational early literacy programs
• Expand opportunities for students to meaningfully engage in decision-making in their schools and across the District
• Align the Chicago Board of Education’s annual legislative agenda to advance the values and goals of the District and community and to strengthen advocacy for full, fair, and equitable school funding.

Some key universal goals or outcomes by 2029 related to the above strategies include:

• Increase by 20 percent the number of 3rd-8th graders who meet or exceed proficiency levels on the state’s annual assessment for English language arts and math
• Decrease the District’s chronic absenteeism rate by 15 percent
• Improve parent, faculty, and students’ feedback of their schools as measured through the State’s climate and culture survey, called “The 5Essentials,” specifically boosting the percentage of schools rated “strong” or “very strong,” to 25 percent on the “Supportive Environment” element on the 5Essentials survey.
• Increase the percentage of students to 70 percent who have earned the equivalent of one semester of college credit or advanced career credential by the time they graduate from a CPS high school

 Increase the District’s funding adequacy, based on the state’s funding adequacy assessment, so schools have the resources they need to ensure a high-quality and equitable student experience, regardless of the size of the school or the unique needs of the student population.On behalf of the District and the Board of Education CEO Martinez and Board President Shi expressed their gratitude to all those who participated in specific community engagement sessions around the strategic plan or have voiced their concerns at Board of Education meetings. District and Board leadership vowed to create opportunities for continued deep and authentic community engagement and collaboration with stakeholders who reflect the diversity of the CPS student body, especially those historically disenfranchised from the decision-making process and the most impacted by inequity.