To be successful and inspire trust, we knew we had to help the district create an inclusive policy-making process with transparent decision-making and stakeholders were solicited for their insights and kept informed about the project’s progress. Moreover, K1C and CPS co-created and co-implemented every stage of the project with a core Stakeholder Engagement Design Team.

With input from more than 21,000 stakeholders over two years, in late April of 2023, the Chicago Board of Education voted 7-0 (unanimously) to approve the policy framework that K1C and CPS co-designed.

Takeaways from Accountability Redesign

  • SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING. Across all stakeholder groups, a school’s ability to develop students’ social-emotional skills emerged as a top priority for any future school accountability system.

  • DISTRICT ACCOUNTABILITY. Schools cannot do this work alone. Specifically, any future school accountability system should establish greater accountability for the district, grounded in the shared responsibility of providing the necessary support to generate positive outcomes for students. This could be accomplished through more transparent reporting on what every school receives in terms of funding, staffing, and support.

  • OUTCOMES AND INPUTS MATTER. The system should not focus only on school-level outputs and outcomes but also give greater consideration to inputs such as the resources (e.g., funding to schools) and conditions (e.g., safe and inclusive professional and student learning environments) that foster a high-quality educational experience.

  • LESS PUNITIVE AND MORE SUPPORTIVE. Stakeholders want the district to use the new school accountability system to diagnose where and how to equitably direct funding and support to schools with greater needs.

Download our Workbook for Inclusive Policy Design