What is the ARA?
The Annual Regional Analysis (ARA) is a collection of reports that provide information about Chicago Public Schools. These reports include details about student enrollment, district demographics, school quality, school choice, and academic program offerings. The purpose of these reports is to help CPS leaders and members of the community better understand schools in the communities they serve and live.
The reports present CPS data in one place, without making recommendations or suggestions for action. This helps ensure that everyone can have an open and honest conversation about how to improve local schools. By using these reports, the district and communities can have more productive conversations about the needs of local schools and how to make improvements.
The ARA is designed to support the district's Five-Year Vision and Three-Year Blueprint to provide a high-quality public education for every child, in every neighborhood, that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life.
What's In It?
The ARA consists of a district report and 16 regional reports. The City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development created boundaries for regions based on housing and employment research. Natural borders such as rivers and train lines divide each region. These borders are likely considerations for families when selecting a school. The ARA uses these regions since they are more consistent than city wards or school networks.
The ARA includes all CPS schools, including traditional neighborhood schools, Charter schools, Selective Enrollment, Magnet, Special Education, Specialty, and Options High Schools.
Each report has four sections:
01. Quality
Provides select information on how schools are preparing students for graduation and life after high school.
02. Quantity
Provides information on student population trends, capacity to serve students, and Pre-K enrollment.
03. Choice
Provides information on school choice patterns, where students are choosing to enroll in school, and how near or far students live from school.
04. Variety
Provides information on the types of schools and programs offered throughout the district.
There are multiple ways to engage with the ARA depending on your preferred method of viewing and the level of detail you are interested in:
01. Web Reports
The full text and data for the 2023-24 district overview and each of the 16 regions is available on this website. There is no need to download anything, just select the report you want to view and scroll to explore its information. You can also select from multiple foreign language options and immediately translate the information using the "Select Language" feature in the top right corner of each page.
02. Archives
The ARA was first released in 2018 and has been produced annually ever since. Archived versions of the ARA are available from the 2017-18 school year to present.
Data from each school year can be accessed through our archive section. PDF reports are available in English, Spanish, and select other languages for select previous years.
03. Data Dashboard
The ARA Data Dashboard is designed to help users dive deeper into the data used in the ARA reports. The data dashboard shares even more comprehensive data and allows users to select data filters that help answer critical questions about school quality, enrollment patterns, school choice statistics, and program offerings.
04. Downloadable Data
ARA data from the district and region reports is available for users to download and explore. Data includes all metrics presented in the most recent ARA at the aggregate level.
DOWNLOAD
The ARA Glossary
The ARA Glossary provides detailed explanations of select metrics, data sources, and where to learn more.
Acknowledgments
CPS would like to thank Kids First Chicago for their continued partnership in producing the Annual Regional Analysis. Kids First Chicago (K1C) is an education nonprofit that works to ensure that every family and child in Chicago has access to a high-quality education. Their work focuses on empowering families to identify, navigate to, and advocate for quality public schools for their children and communities -- supported by facts. CPS' Planning and Data Management department continues to utilize the ARA analytical framework first developed by K1C.
