Confirming the district’s reputation as a national leader for driving academic improvement, the results of the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that CPS students have sustained their noteworthy academic progress and now outscore their large city peers in eighth grade reading for the first time. These results reaffirm what researchers from leading universities have found: CPS students are making durable progress that is an example for other urban districts around the country. Earlier this school year, groundbreaking research from Stanford Professor Sean Reardon showed that CPS students gain six years of growth in just five years of school and are improving at a rate faster than 96 percent of school districts in the U.S. – across every racial and socioeconomic subgroup.

According to the test:
• CPS students outscored the average of the nation’s large city school districts in 8th grade reading for the first time;
• Since 2011, CPS has achieved greater growth than all but two large districts in 4th grade reading;
• Since 2003, CPS has achieved greater growth than all but one large district in 4th grade and 8th grade math;
• CPS’ Hispanic 8th graders achieved the highest math scores of any large district in the country;  
• CPS ranked in the top 10 highest scoring large districts nationally for 8th grade math and reading; and
• CPS has made gains on the average of the nation’s large city school districts in recent years, matching or exceeding them in nearly all tested areas.