Reforming Chicago's High Schools: Research perspectives on School and System Level Change

When the Reform Board of Trustees of the City of Chicago adopted the Design for High Schools in 1997, the Chicago Public Schools had been actively involved in school reform for nearly a decade. It was generally believed, however, that reform efforts had taken hold more thoroughly in the elementary schools than in the secondary schools. The Design was intended to spur change in the high schools by increasing both academic press and personalism. To establish a viable research agenda and prepare for a program of research on Chicago public high schools, the Consortium organized a conference, "Research on High School Reform Efforts in Chicago," at the University of Chicago's Gleacher Center in March 2001. The conference brought together a group of scholars and educators who, mostly independent of one another, were studying Chicago's public high schools, including the Design's efforts to improve them. The volume presents these authors' papers, which document the results of reforms during the late 1990s at the district, school, and departmental levels. The conference and the compilation were made possible by the support of The Chicago Community Trust.