This roadmap for Illinois public schools through school year 2022-23 defines the steps the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) will take to provide each and every student in the state with safe and engaging schools, excellent teachers, and equitable learning opportunities. This plan reflects both the realities and uncertainties are faced…

The report contains real-world, proven school climate strategies to guide policymakers in building a comprehensive and coherent state-wide approach for improving school climate. It features 12 recommendations linked to existing state policy examples policymakers can use to build a comprehensive, coherent state-wide approach for improving school…

The Illinois State Board of Education's 2015 Comprehensive Strategic Plan is the agency's 11th such report as required by Public Act 93-1036. The first plan focused on ISBE's three primary goal areas: enhancing literacy, improving educator quality for all children, and expanding data-driven management and school support practices. Since 2005,…

The Illinois State Board of Education's 2014 Comprehensive Strategic Plan is the agency's 10th such report as required by Public Act 93-1036. The first plan focused on ISBE's three primary goal areas: enhancing literacy, improving educator quality for all children and expanding data-driven management and school support practices. Since 2005,…

Educational outcomes vary dramatically across schools in the United States. Many underperforming schools, especially in Chicago, also deal with high levels of violent crime on school grounds. Exposure to this type of frequent violence may be an important factor shaping already disadvantaged students' educational experiences. However, estimating…

As required by Public Act 93-1036, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) drafted its first Comprehensive Strategic Plan in 2005. The plan focused on three primary goal areas: enhancing literacy, improving educator quality for all children and expanding data-driven management, and school support practices. Agency staff members revisit the…

Publicly reporting timely, actionable, and comprehensible data is one of the most powerful ways states can promote transparency, strengthen accountability, and ensure that everyone with a stake in education--parents, educators, policymakers, researchers, and members of the public and press-- has access to the information they need to make good…

The central message of this report is that teachers across America understand that social and emotional learning (SEL) is critical to student success in school, work, and life. Social and emotional learning involves the processes of developing competencies, including self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and…

The central message of this report is that teachers across America understand that social and emotional learning (SEL) is critical to student success in school, work, and life. Social and emotional learning involves the processes of developing competencies, including self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and…

This dissertation is an empirical investigation of educational policies, practices and organizational settings that shape the schooling experiences of Chicago Public School (CPS) students. The first chapter, "Educational Choice and Student Participation: The Case of the Supplemental Educational Services Provision in Chicago Public…

This report reveals that about 100 Chicago schools suffer from chronically high rates of teacher turnover, losing a quarter or more of their teaching staff every year, and many of these schools serve predominantly low-income African American children. In the typical Chicago elementary school, 51 percent of the teachers working in 2002 had left…

Research has shown that students who like school have higher academic achievement and a lower incidence of disciplinary problems, absenteeism, truancy, and dropping out of school than do those who dislike school. Thus, one way to improve academic outcomes is to increase students' attraction to school. This study focused on the role of teachers in…

As the incomes of affluent and poor families have diverged over the past three decades, so too has the educational performance of their children. But how exactly do the forces of rising inequality affect the educational attainment and life chances of low-income children? In "Whither Opportunity?" a distinguished team of economists,…