Early Childhood Education
The long-term benefits of high-quality early childhood education are well researched. Children who attend pre-kindergarten are 44% more likely to graduate high school. For every $1 invested in early childhood education, society gains a $7.30 return due to reduced spending on crime, anti-poverty measures, and education. Yet only 25% of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students starting kindergarten arrive ready to learn—that is, with the social and emotional, language and literacy, and other developmental skills to thrive. Access to publicly-funded pre-kindergarten (or pre-K) is limited, and private pre-K is prohibitively expensive for most Chicago families.
To increase access to quality early childhood education, the City of Chicago committed in May 2018 to universal, full-day pre-K for four-year-olds and expanding birth-through-three services for high-need families. Since March 2019, Civic Consulting Alliance and our pro bono partners have supported several critical projects with the Mayor’s Office, Chicago Public Schools, and Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS) to achieve the systemic change that this vision requires and implement Universal Pre-K (UPK) by the 2021-2022 school year.
Chicago Early Learning Partnership
Chicago’s early learning system – which serves children from birth-through-five – is made up of hundreds of service providers and stakeholders, including community-based providers and CPS. Given this diversity, collaboration is key to ensure our city’s youngest students receive the best preparation for life.
From April through September 2019, to maximize pre-K enrollment in the 2019-2020 school year, including the first 28 community areas to offer UPK, Civic Consulting Alliance – with sponsorship from the Mayor’s Office – provided a centralized structure to coordinate enrollment supports and UPK policy implementation across six organizations: CPS, DFSS, Illinois Action for Children, Community Organizing and Family Issues, and Vera Communications. Read more in our FY2019 Impact Report.
Building upon this work, in the fall of 2019, pro bono partner Deloitte designed a new Chicago Early Learning (CEL) governance model to strengthen collaboration between Chicago’s early childhood education stakeholders (including the City, CPS, DFSS, and community-based providers) to ensure decision-making is inclusive and equity-focused. From February through May 2020, Civic Consulting Alliance worked with the Mayor’s Office to implement this new CEL governance model, including recommendations on how to engage more stakeholders in decision-making and operationalize a structure within the Mayor’s Office to manage CEL.
Universal Pre-K Expansion Planning
Over the course of 2019, Civic Consulting Alliance guided CPS through a collaborative process to integrate UPK into the City’s early childhood education system.
Realigning Stakeholders | October 2019 – February 2020
Two years into the City’s four-year UPK implementation plan, the policy had become controversial with some stakeholders due to the changes it would bring to Chicago’s early childhood ecosystem. Civic Consulting Alliance helped a new Mayoral administration step back and take stock of the policy. We compiled a fact base on progress, challenges, and options for moving forward to guide conversations between the Mayor’s Office and other early childhood education stakeholders. Additionally, Baker McKenzie provided pro bono support to analyze a recently completed RFP that awarded $200 million in early childhood funding, to ensure the process was done with integrity and met intended objectives. In sum, this work helped Mayor Lightfoot assess the UPK policy and determine if and how implementation of it should proceed—enabling Chicago early learning leaders to make strategic adjustments in response to stakeholder feedback, and keeping the City on track to implement UPK by the 2021-2022 school year.
Implementing UPK | March – August 2019
Civic Consulting Alliance, together with our pro bono partner Deloitte, worked with CPS to develop a plan to scale UPK to 49 remaining Chicago community areas (out of 77 community areas in total). We helped CPS complete their classroom expansion plan and set up a project management infrastructure to execute this plan by the 2021-2022 school year. Read more in our FY2019 Impact Report.
Bridging Pre-K to K-12 | September – December 2019
Civic Consulting Alliance and Deloitte developed a comprehensive strategic plan for CPS to integrate UPK into the Kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) system, to provide a more seamless experience for students as they transition from Pre-K to Kindergarten and beyond. This work included the development of a new cross-departmental governance model and a management structure to ensure smooth and coordinated execution of the plan.
Conclusion
Our work with the City, CPS, DFSS, and community stakeholders over the past two years has helped increase collaboration across these groups, in turn ensuring sound decision-making and accelerating the move to a single Chicago early learning system that is easier for families to navigate and ensures more children have access to these critical services.
The COVID-19 crisis has stressed our city’s education system, introducing new and ever-changing regulations for educators, and hurting small businesses that had to close their doors for months. Moreover, the pandemic has revealed the systemic inequalities that our education providers seek to change. In the months ahead, as the pandemic continues, we must continue to work to ensure that all families are able to access high-quality early learning services for children at this critical stage of their development.
Outcomes
Mayoral support and prioritization to continue the roadmap to Universal pre-K, on track for implementation in the 2021-2022 school year
Continuation of the Chicago Public Schools preschool expansion plan to scale Universal pre-K to all remaining community areas—77 community areas in total
More coordinated and efficient decision making among City agencies working to advance the Early Childhood Education system
Outputs
Program management—Structured governance model and program management toolkit to strengthen Chicago Early Learning collaboration
Fact base—Universal pre-K assessment and fact base to support early childhood education stakeholder alignment and enable continued progress on implementation
Strategic plan execution structure—Chicago Public Schools strategic plan and execution structure to integrate pre-K with K-12 programming and operations
