Overview
The Office of New Schools (ONS) is committed to creating new and innovative schools that provide high-quality educational options to serve the diverse needs of Chicago’s public school students. ONS creates and supports quality schools through a comprehensive approach that recruits high-quality school operators, evaluates school proposals through a rigorous selection process, supports approved schools through planning, incubation, school opening, and school operation, and ensures accountability through regular monitoring of multiple measures of success.
ONS manages a portfolio of 86 schools that consists of the district’s charter and contract schools. These schools can include "new starts" and "turnaround" schools which seek to transform struggling schools into quality educational options for Chicago students.
Goals
ONS works to continue to open high quality school options throughout Chicago and take the necessary steps to recruit a diverse array of excellent educational providers. ONS will work to:
- Continue opening high quality schools
- Serve the priority communities as identified by IFF’s “Here and Now”
report
- Support the portfolio of 86 schools
- Make the opening of new schools a community-based process at all steps
Current initiatives
One ONS initiative revolves heavily on the recruitment of high quality education providers. This will be begin through the current Request for Qualifications (RFQ) . ONS will simultaneously work to ensure that all schools are moving towards academic and operational excellence.
- Career preparatory schools
- Single sex schools
- Alternative schools
Accomplishments
The portfolio of charter and contract schools continues to provide quality education options for families across the city. The 2008-2009 Charter and Contract School Performance Report, available below, highlights the achievements of these schools. It also points to areas that schools need to improve upon.
Resources
The Chicago Public Schools publishes this annual report of charter and contract schools’ performance to increase transparency on the successes and points of improvement for charter schools.