In 1987, The U.S. Secretary of Education embarrassed the city of Chicago by
calling its public schools the worst in the nation. Chicagoans may have been
tempted to brush off that observation as heavy-handed Washington bluster. But,
the secretary was only repeating what civic leaders, educators, parents, and
students there already knew: the city's schools were failing, and they
desperately needed fresh resources, organization, ideas, and purpose.

Over the next decade, Chicago underwent the most ambitious school reform
effort in history, becoming a huge laboratory for school reform innovations in
areas such as governance, leadership, accountability, and community involvement.
Along the way, there were many notable successes, spectacular flops, and lessons
learned.

In highlighting the key issues and dynamics of Chicago's reforms, this book
identifies challenges and solutions that are applicable to other school systems.
For example:

Former accountability czar Philip J. Hansen discusses controversial school
accountability and intervention initiatives. Ken Rolling, former head of the
Chicago Annenberg Challenge, reflects on how privately funded school reform
efforts can succeed if they overcome some chronic problems. Andrew G. Wade and
Madeline Talbott show how parent and community involvement can support school
improvement. Other article highlights include the struggle to improve
instruction, teacher professional development, ending social promotion, the view
from inside the city bureaucracy, and the importance of rebuilding physical
spaces to accommodate new instructional goals.