Our Mission
To provide a high-quality public education for every child, in every neighborhood, that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life.
Renewing Our Approach
After several challenging years dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, this Blueprint is our call to action — to ensure a strong recovery for our students and seize the opportunity to create a better, more equitable District. It builds on the important work outlined in the five-year strategic plan that was developed with our community in 2019 in two key ways: by acknowledging our obligation to do more to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, and by confronting longstanding challenges and opportunity gaps that impact our students and our communities.
There are Two Main Sections of this Blueprint:
Recommitments & Reimagining.
Recommitments
Our district has three overarching commitments that drive our work: Academic Progress, Operational Excellence, and Building Trust. Within each priority area, we are outlining our Recommitments — proven strategies that we are using in the immediate term and beyond to help our students and school communities fully recover from the pandemic.
Reimagining
The strategies contained in the Recommitment section of our Blueprint are essential to support our students’ recovery from the pandemic in the immediate term and set them up for future success. But the bottom line is that these recommitments on their own will not be enough to eradicate persistent opportunity gaps and address longstanding challenges in our District. We need to Reimagine what is possible for our District and work together to co-create solutions for our students and families.
Our Core Values
These core values will continue to guide the work we do every day for our students. They will also guide our planning and practices as we work together with our educators, families, and communities to implement the programs, services, and initiatives detailed in this Blueprint.
Student Centered
We place students at the center of everything we do.
Whole Child
We support our students so they are healthy, safe, engaged, and academically challenged.
Equity
We eliminate barriers to success and ensure equitable opportunities for all students.
Academic Excellence
We provide diverse curriculum and programs with high academic standards to prepare students for future success.
Community Partnership
We rely on families, communities, and partners in every neighborhood to shape and support our shared mission.
Continuous Learning
We promote an environment of continuous learning throughout CPS for students, teachers, leaders, and district staff.
Graduate Profile
The Graduate Profile is what we aspire for our graduates to be. Ideally, when students graduate from CPS, they possess the knowledge and skills to pursue their interests and achieve their postsecondary goals. Whether entering the workplace, training programs, or higher education, they are socially, emotionally, and academically prepared to think critically and creatively to solve problems. They are culturally sensitive and informed decision-makers capable of understanding multiple perspectives and eager to contribute to civic life. And they are dynamic and balanced individuals able to establish productive personal and professional relationships and live rich and rewarding lives.
Ethical and Collaborative Leaders
Inquisitive Learners
Empowered Decision Makers
Engaged Community Members
Adaptable and Independent Thinkers
Getting Involved
In order to arrive at the best solutions, we need the voices of those who are most impacted to be central in the process. Schools and communities are experts in their lived experiences — and our solutions must respond to those lived experiences. We want to encourage students, families, teachers, leaders, partners, and community members to get involved with co-creating solutions to longstanding challenges in our District.
If you are interested in getting involved, please fill out the form below so that we can contact you with opportunities to engage with CPS on these important issues. For more information on the methods and activities CPS uses for community engagement, visit our Reimagining With Communities Toolkit.