Recently released research shows that among large urban school districts, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) 3rd-8th grade students ranked first in post-pandemic reading gains and in the top third in math gains, cementing CPS as a national leader in academic recovery outcomes and validating the District’s post-pandemic academic recovery strategies and investments. While CPS and other school districts have never been adequately funded, the influx of federal pandemic relief dollars, which is now phasing out, helped the District to implement its comprehensive and strategic approach to supporting students and teachers. The independent project from the Center for Education Policy Research from Harvard University and the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, showed how more fully funding education can make a difference. The Education Recovery Scorecard project and subsequent analysis shows that CPS students not only led large urban districts in pandemic recovery reading gains, but outpaced the state of Illinois as a whole, and far outpaced similar Districts in the state. When compared to other large urban school districts in The Council of Great City Schools (CGCS), here are some of the most promising findings: 

• CPS ranked No. 1 – posting the greatest growth in reading from 2022 to 2023 and the greatest net growth in reading from 2019-2023 – among large school districts in the U.S.

• The District’s LatinX students also led large city districts in reading improvement; in fact, CPS was the only district where LatinX students demonstrated overall growth in reading from 2019 to 2023

• LatinX students at CPS were also in the top third among large urban districts for growth in math from 2019-2023