The politics of urban school reform: Legitimacy, city growth, and school improvement in Chicago

As urban school systems experiment with new governance and organizational structures, many political leaders point to high-profile initiatives in Chicago as a model of reform. Rather than interpreting Chicago school reform as being motivated simply by a desire to promote student learning, this article sees the past 10 years of reform in Chicago as layered efforts to legitimize the public school system and promote city growth, as well as improve schools. These common goals have been interpreted and enacted very differently across two major state-legislated reforms of 1988 and 1995, The analysis indicates that Chicago school reform has increased system legitimacy and supported city growth, yet it has thus far failed to support the development and exercise of educators' professional capacities. This failure is likely to inhibit substantial improvement in the quality of schooling over ti,ne, and consequently, could undermine new-found legitimacy and growth.