Understanding achievement (and other) changes under Chicago school reform

This article focuses on changes in student achievement in Chicago schools s ince the passage of the 1988 Chicago School Reform Act, and notes correspon ding changes in funding, staffing, and leadership. At the center is a 5-yea r longitudinal study of 14 Chicago schools (10 elementary and 4 high school s) that were chosen through a stratified, random selection process. The sch ools were studied intensively with particular concern for tracking the effe cts of changes in the governance structure of the schools resulting from th e 1988 reforms. Changes in the principalship in these schools had a signifi cant impact on achievement scores. The results of this study are linked to achievement changes that have occurred since the adoption of the 1995 amend ments to the reform act that put primary responsibility for the administrat ion of the school district in the hands of the city's mayor.