Fifteen years ago, Lands’ End founder Gary Comer embarked on a wildly ambitious project to improve the struggling South Side neighborhood where he grew up. Read more
Across the city, most public school children are eligible for free or reduced lunches—an 85 percent average across the city, showing distinct geographical patterns, and 30 percent higher than the state average. The highest eligibility? It can't get any higher than in East Saint Louis. Read more
One semi-silver lining for the Great Recession, as it's been for most American recessions in recent years, is that people obtain more education (at, on average, a modest increase in lifetime earnings). But the benefit to the economy doesn't compare to what was lost. Read more
Even in the era of No Child Left Behind, it's surprisingly hard to get good data on school truancy across the country. To the extent that it exists, other urban districts seem to share our problems. Read more
As Chicagoland struggles with education reform, it faces a stiff headwind from income-based educational-achievement gaps that have been growing since the 1970s. What happened? Wealthier parents may have learned a great deal from programs targeted at very poor children. Read more
The outgoing CPS CEO once described the negative effect of “revolving door superintendencies” on school districts. The average, Brizard said, was 18 months. He lasted only 17. What's next for him? Read more
Studies of Massachusetts and Milwaukee school kids suggest that one straightforward way to improve school performance, even on standardized tests alone, is to reduce lead exposure. Read more
Far from the heated rhetoric of the charters-versus-public schools debate, a 2009 paper looking at a decade of charter schools in Chicago suggests that they don't necessarily improve test scores all that much, but that charter high schools are good at sending kids to college, in ways traditional schools might learn from. Read more
Obstreperous, loud, and unscripted, the Chicago Teachers Union president led the city's public school teachers to strike against Rahm Emanuel’s reform agenda—and became a national figure overnight. Who is this person? Read more
