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Engagement

As part of the accountability redesign process, CPS engaged more than 20,000 stakeholders to reimagine our approach to accountability.

Stakeholder Engagement Design Team

Recognizing that stakeholders with different identities, perspectives, and backgrounds would bring invaluable knowledge, talents, and insights to the design of a new accountability policy, CPS established a Stakeholder Engagement Design Team (SEDT). This team was centered in equity and always in service of students. The SEDT brought diverse expertise and perspectives into shared consideration for the co-creation of an equitable, human-centered stakeholder engagement plan.

Goals of SEDT

The SEDT were tasked with the following goals:

Inform Activities: Inform general plan for engagement & communication with stakeholder groups, then engage in participatory analysis of stakeholder engagement data and identify trends to be shared with advisory group.

Support Local Plans: Design and implement local and stakeholder-specific engagement activities to ensure stakeholders most impacted serve as collaborators in policy design.

Design Innovation: Support the development of informational content to be shared with stakeholders creatively throughout the engagement process.

Members of SEDT

Timeline of Stakeholder Engagement

 Stakeholder Conversations

Prior to the launch of the accountability redesign initiative’s current phase in February 2021, the District began holding small-group conversations with key CPS stakeholder groups such as parent advisory councils (PACs), Local School Council (LSC) members, and Community Action Councils (CACs). These key stakeholder groups are updated on a monthly to bimonthly basis to ensure they are informed about the work of the advisory group.

 Town Hall Meetings

In March 2021, the District held five town hall meetings to listen to stakeholders and provide a space and time to be heard by the District; to strengthen trust between the District and stakeholders; and to understand how stakeholders want to be engaged throughout the accountability redesign process. A report of the key trends and themes from the town hall meetings are posted below under Stakeholder Engagement Findings.

 Focus Groups, June 2021

In June 2021, the District’s partners at Kids First Chicago held 20 focus groups with a total of 161 participants, facilitated by a third-party facilitator using predetermined questions. The objectives of the focus groups were to understand how diverse stakeholders have experienced the current SQRP policy and its impact on school improvement; to understand the consequences and benefits of SQRP on stakeholders’ schools; and to understand how diverse stakeholders across CPS define quality in public schools in terms of both inputs and outputs. A report of the key trends and themes from the focus groups are posted below under Stakeholder Engagement Findings.

 Community-Wide Survey

The SEDT designed and administered a city-wide survey from November 29th 2021 to January 18th 2022. This survey received over 8,000 respondents from parents, teachers, students, and other stakeholder groups. The objectives of this survey were to learn what key stakeholders from across Chicago would like measured and included in the new accountability system as well as their knowledge and feelings about the old SQRP system. Survey findings can be found below.

 Focus Groups, June 2022

In June 2022, the District's partners at Kids First Chicago held 17 focus groups with a total of 145 participants, facilitated by a third-party facilitator using predetermined questions. The objective of these focus groups were to take the findings received from the community wide survey and get a deeper understanding from stakeholders about the results. The findings from these focus groups can be found below.

 Revisions July 2022 - April 2023

For 10 months, the policy was developed and revised based on feedback received from various stakeholders such as CTU, CPAA, CACs, the Advisory Group, and others. This culminated in a public comment process with record-breaking participation. Finally, the historic policy was passed in April of 2023.

Stakeholder Engagement Findings

Design Team Meeting Materials

All slides below in English and Spanish