BPI's focus on education reform began in the early 1990s as an effort to improve the quality of public education for low-income children of color throughout the City of Chicago. As a result, BPI became an early and ardent proponent for the creation of small schools as places where such students could “beat the odds.” Subsequent BPI efforts addressed challenges faced by small and innovative schools. This early work indubitably raised the bar for public expectations of schools in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system, and helped ignite the emerging charter movement, which drew on educators’ experiences and lessons learned from small schools.
However, as accountability for CPS schools escalated dramatically – evidenced by 2001 No Child Left Behind legislation, successively more stringent CPS probation policies, school closings, and most recently a focus on rigorous performance management – CPS lacks systemic, scalable models to build the internal organization and capacity of traditional schools to meet the increased expectations for student achievement.
In response, during the 2008-09 school year, BPI initiated the Partnership for Instructional Leadership (described below) as a demonstration of a systemic, scalable model for whole school improvement. The Partnership applied an approach developed by Targeted Leadership Consulting that it had used successfully with schools in Boston, New Jersey, and Chula Vista, CA.
Current Initiatives
Partnership for Instructional Leadership: BPI's new report, Every Child, Every School: Lessons from Chicago's Partnership for Instructional Leadership, documents encouraging results from its three-year school improvement initiative among a group of Chicago elementary schools. The Partnership approach is different from most others in that it aims to build a school's internal capacity to improve achievement for all students at all grade levels, including areas like Pre-K and English Language Learners. It demonstrates that when the entire faculty and staff of a school are united by a shared goal with a coherent instructional focus--and are engaged with parents and the larger community--student learning increases and can be sustained.
BPI School Funding Litigation: On March 24, 2010, BPI and its pro bono partner, Sidley Austin, filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the state’s current school funding system.
Strengthening Schools in CHA Transformation Plan Communities: Drawing on findings from BPI’s 2010 report, The Third Side: A Mid-Course Report on Chicago’s Transformation of Public Housing, BPI’s Public Housing and Education staff are exploring a range of options to improve the educational opportunities of families living in Transformation Plan communities.
Chicago Schools Policy Luncheon Series: Each year since 2000, BPI has sponsored a series of information forums, each dedicated to a compelling issue of education policy, for school officials, educators and civic leaders. Catalyst Chicago, a publication dedicated to Chicago school reform, and the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, currently co-sponsor this series with BPI.
