History
Supporting New Schools: A New Chapter in UEI’s Work in Chicago’s Public Schools
The Urban Education Institute (UEI), formerly the Center for School Improvement, has been engaged in efforts to improve education in Chicago’s public schools since 1988. It was founded in response to the Chicago School Reform Act, which decentralized CPS control and enabled local governance by granting parents, communities, and principals the power to make site-based decisions about personnel and finances. UEI’s early work focused on building both the capacity of principals to use this newfound authority to lead school-based reforms and the capacity of teachers and teacher-leaders to implement reforms in literacy instruction. These efforts were situated in networks of schools, thus maximizing opportunities for shared learning and attempting to demonstrate the effectiveness of targeted capacity-building strategies at a scale of 6 to 10 schools.
New opportunities arose in 2005, when Mayor Daley and Chicago Public Schools then-chief executive officer, Arne Duncan, announced an ambitious plan to open 100 new schools by 2010. These new schools would have autonomies over curriculum, time, resources, and staffing and would operate independent of CPS’ traditional administrative and supervisory structures. In keeping with UEI’s efforts to make significant contributions to reform efforts in Chicago public schools, the Urban School Improvement (USI) Network was launched in March 2006. The USI Network’s goal was to offer new Chicago public schools sharply focused supports for teaching and learning, helping them to ensure that high levels of instruction were being provided to every student, every day. Nearly 4 years later, the USI Network firmly believes that new schools, although equipped with unparalleled levels of autonomy, can benefit from, and need, to explore effective instructional practices with other colleagues. The USI Network exemplifies an intentional community of school-based practitioners in which practices are made public, lessons and effective innovations are shared, and adult learning and leadership are supported through ongoing, high-quality professional development.
Today, the USI Network is 19 schools strong, with 9 elementary schools, 2 free-standing middle schools, and 8 high schools (one of which is a 6-12 school). As the Network supports the enactment of new and innovative models of schooling, it seeks to contribute to what is known about how to build, at scale, both within one school and across a group of schools, the capacity of adults to effectively lead school-wide improvement of the quality of instruction and deepening of student learning. We hope that this collaboration can identify and share innovations in school design, new models for professional development, and innovative approaches to deeply enriching, while simultaneously accelerating, the quality and depth of student learning and achievement at scale.