Leave Us Alone, We're Doing Fine

By Matt Wood in News on Sep 21, 2005 5:33PM

Last week Chicagoist theorized that perhaps a little TLC is the best way to improve schools. And whaddya know, here comes a 15-year research study to prove it. The report, sponsored by Chicago-based educational reform organization Designs for Change, shows that the best-performing schools in the city are those who have taken advantage of their local autonomy--not the schools saddled with disciplinary mandates from central administration. In fact, many of the corrective measures applied to undrperforming schools didn't work anyway. Basically, schools given room to breathe were able to flourish, while the rest suffocated.

The study (summary, full report) examined the practices and performance of 144 area schools that have shown steady improvement in test scores over the past 15 years. In 1988, the state legislature passed the Chicago School Reform Act, which among other things established local school councils with the authority to hire and fire staff and gave schools unprecedented local authority. Since then, every successful school studied, regardless of student income levels, racial makeup, or geographic location, had the same things in common--they made their own decisions, hired aggressive and involved principals and teachers, and built a strong community with students' families.

Teachers and school administrators certainly aren't in that business for the money, so they clearly love what they do and care about results. They're the experts, so Chicagoist isn't surprised that when given control, they turned their schools into winners. This leads us to fantasize about other organizations where field-level control could help. Jim Hendry, Andy MacPhail, Jerry Angelo, you listening?