Aligning early learning systems across school communities
Project: P-2 Early Learning Strategy
Client: Chicago Public Schools - Office of Early Childhood Education
The first five years of a child’s life are the most important for healthy development, well-being, and lifelong success. Over the last few years, we have worked with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to expand the number of pre-kindergarten (Pre-K) seats, and CPS invested significant funding to build Pre-K classrooms with the goal to achieve Universal Pre-K. Since the 2018 – 2019 school year, CPS has more than doubled its Pre-K classrooms to be able to serve an additional 5,000 students, of which 90% qualified as at-risk based on federal guidelines. This expansion has increased the urgency for CPS to develop a robust program to complement future growth in enrollment for the Pre-K – 2nd grade (P – 2) grade band to ensure students remain on track for benchmarked learning and development during these critical early learning years.
Civic Consulting Alliance partnered with Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Early Childhood Education to support the development of a multi-year strategy for P– 2 that will help CPS close achievement gaps so that the benefits of Pre-K are further developed. The process included a stakeholder engagement component that led to the development of three strategic pillars to support the P – 2 vision and facilitate alignment:
enhance student and family experience
build teacher and principal capacity, and
align and coordinate systems.
Our team assisted the Office of Early Childhood Education to chart a new course with deliverables that included a unified vision, priorities, action plans, and structures for tracking progress. Now, the Office of Early Childhood Education can better accelerate student outcomes across student groups and community areas. This aligned system provides a roadmap to enable teachers and administrators to create an intentional, differentiated, and seamless P – 2 experience for students and families. Long-term, this strategy will help CPS increase the number of students meeting kindergarten readiness benchmarks across all developmental domains, as well as increase the number of children who meet and exceed national attainment in math and reading through elementary and high school.
