Policy and Reports

Our policy work aims to improve the conditions under which school leaders operate, enabling Chicago to be the best city in which to lead a public school.

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For more than two decades, our team has invested significant resources
in advancing policy goals that matter to school leaders.

From eligibility to accountability to compensation, our model is simple:
We assemble a diverse group of principals, aspiring principals, and other stakeholders;
we facilitate a process for clarifying needs on all sides;
we leverage the available data; and we work toward collective action.

We start with school leaders.

In addition to principals and aspiring principals engaged in our programs, we gather insights from an annual Principal Engagement and AP Survey and publish the results through The Chicago Principal Partnership. We also engage educators through our Educator Advisory Committee (EAC). Since 2013, we have gathered committee members four to eight times annually to shape The Fund’s program and policy work. These educators are valuable members of our team and have a direct impact on our work.

We support principal managers.

Locally, we also engage Local School Council (LSC) Members. These elected officials play a critical role in principal performance and leadership stability at the local level. We develop resources and create space for LSC members to learn from one another through bilingual workshops and focus groups. 

And we convene national partners.

Nationally, we launched a Community of Practice (CoP) in 2019. With 19 member organizations, the CoP gathers quarterly to share data, reflect on promising practice, and elevate principal voice.

See more about CoP collaborations here.

Reports

Four or five times a year, our policy work and data use informs results in public reports.
Our reports dive deep on the impact of our programs, the potential for policy change, and
the stories of our school leaders. You can read them all below.

Report categories

Type

Across Chicago, educators are designing and implementing solutions to help students reach their fullest potential and are leveraging new tools beyond traditional academic models, including hundreds of educators now implementing elements of personalized learning. This report features three case studies of Breakthrough Schools: Chicago Cohort One principals and their teams as they transform their schools’ instructional models. As other school leaders look to pursue personalized learning or school-based innovation more broadly, we are confident that they will learn from these pioneering school leaders.

This report identifies four promising practices related to implementing the Common Core State Standards, and profiles four principals who are using these practices to set a higher academic bar for students.

In 2013, The Fund launched the Summer Design Program with the belief that educators are best-poised to lead change in schools - and that belief is paying off.

Despite serious challenges in the 2015-16 school year, 545 of 664 principals stayed in Chicago’s public schools through the start of the 2016-17 school year.

This brief explores strengths and challenges of the teacher evaluation system used in Chicago, from the perspective of school leaders.

Our 2016 School Leadership Report has one central premise: Keeping great principals starts with hiring the right principal.

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