Addressing the effects of the pandemic with a strategic plan refresh for CPS
Project: Chicago Public Schools 3-Year Blueprint
Client: Chicago Public Schools - Office of the CEO
Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) five-year vision for 2019 – 2024 committed to building upon the district’s academic progress, ensuring continued financial improvements, and strengthening integrity through regular parent and community engagement in all parts of the city.
However, much has changed in the world and in the district since that five-year vision was released in 2019. CPS has grappled with the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic, civil unrest, and internal CPS leadership transitions that call for an updated strategy.
Civic Consulting Alliance and our pro bono partner Slalom supported CPS in the development of a three-year Blueprint for 2022-2025 that builds upon the five-year vision CPS originally adopted in 2019. We supported key fronts of the effort by establishing the project approach and infrastructure for execution – two components that were essential to ensuring CPS had the necessary internal collaboration functions needed to support the creation of the Blueprint. We worked with our pro bono partner Slalom to design a multi-layered stakeholder engagement process that reached over 1,000 stakeholders including parents, students, principals, district leaders, and community members. Additionally, we worked with district leaders to draft and refine Blueprint content, leveraging the latest data on student outcomes and stakeholder input.
The Blueprint contains two sections. The first section recommits to key evidence-based and responsive strategies in the following areas: academic progress, operational excellence, and building trust; the second section identifies aspects that the district needs to reimagine in order to accelerate academic progress. Importantly, in line with the district’s focus on equity, the reimagine section also commits to a robust community engagement process to co-create solutions. As we continue to partner with CPS, the reimagine section will provide a roadmap in how we may work together over the next few years.
Long-term, the 3-Year Blueprint will put CPS on strong footing to address the widening post-pandemic racial gaps in academic outcomes, and will do so with extensive stakeholder engagement.
