CPS Opportunity Index | Chicago Public Schools

What is the CPS Opportunity Index?

The CPS Opportunity Index is a tool that uses school, community, and historical factors to measure differences in access to opportunity across schools in the district. It helps ensure that schools with high levels of need get the resources they require to have strong and healthy school communities. CPS Offices, Networks, and External Partners can use the Opportunity Index when deciding how to distribute resources.

CPS Opportunity Index Individual School Scores

Opportunity Index Sum Score: The sum of each of the indicator scores. Schools range from 12 (lowest need) to 48 (highest need) out of a possible 55 points.

Resource equity at CPS

At CPS, we are committed to Equity. We use an Equity Lens in all our work to understand the structure and conditions that create and sustain systemic inequities. This helps us make the necessary changes to build more equitable learning environments where all students can achieve their full potential. In alignment with the CPS Strategic Plan, “Success 2019: Together We Rise,” and the CPS Equity Framework, the Opportunity Index (OI) is a tool to help achieve Resource Equity. Resource Equity means consistently giving priority and resources such as staff, time, and money, based on the different levels of need and opportunity across our schools. The Opportunity Index operates on the principle of Targeted Universalism. This means that different groups might need specific support to achieve the same goals.

The Opportunity Index is based on many years of research about how school districts can consider systemic oppression and distribute resources to equitably support all students. Experts in child development understand that a child’s well-being is affected by their immediate surroundings (like school), which exist in larger community and historical factors that shape policies, opportunities, and social norms.

Developing and updating the
Opportunity Index

The CPS Opportunity Index was created by working with CPS staff, community members, and research partners to make sure their opinions and needs were central to the process. The Office of Equity is committed to continuously improving the Opportunity Index, and used Inclusive Partnerships, which is a key part of the CPS Equity Framework, to revise the previous version (the SY24 Opportunity Index). This was accomplished with the SY25 Opportunity Index Working Group (OIWG), which led to the development of the SY25 Opportunity Index. To learn more about the process of updating the Opportunity Index, please review the SY25 OIWG Phase 1 Summary. This revision process made sure to include the input of different people, including those with long-term experience with the Opportunity Index, those affected by decisions around the Opportunity Index, and those responsible for using the Opportunity Index.

School Demographics

These indicators reflect the characteristics of the students attending the school.

% of Students with Disabilities: The percentage of all enrolled students with an assigned Individualized Education Program (IEP)
% of English Learner Students: The percentage of all enrolled students designated as English Learners
% of Students in Temporary Living Situations (STLS): The percentage of all enrolled students who are designated as STLS
% of Teachers Retained: The percentage of staff employed in the previous school year who are still with the school in the current school year
Simpson Diversity Index: This index measures the likelihood that two randomly selected students will be of the same race (how not diverse a school is)

How the Opportunity Index should
(and should not) be used

The Opportunity Index helps CPS Offices, Departments, Networks, and external partners understand the levels of need in schools across the district or a network so they can share resources equitably and prioritize schools that have less opportunity than others. The Opportunity Index should not be used to measure the needs of individual students or groups within one school - for that, other tools such as the CPS Student Prioritization Index (SPI) and the CPS Resource Equity Tool should be used. It is important to know that the Opportunity Index is not a rating or evaluation of how well a school is performing. Instead, it is a way for the district to hold itself accountable and check if it’s meeting the needs of schools based on their past and present needs for resources.

Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

The Opportunity Index is a tool created by CPS in 2021 to assess each school’s proximity to opportunity and level of resources needed. It uses data from the school’s student population and students’ surrounding community to provide a holistic understanding of current and historical school context.
The Opportunity Index is just one of the tools CPS uses to achieve the goal of distributing resources equitably and supporting schools that have less opportunity than others.
CPS defines Equity as “Championing the individual cultures, identities, talents, abilities, languages, and interests of each student by ensuring they receive the opportunities and resources that meet their unique needs and aspirations. In an equitable school district, every student has access to the resources, opportunities, and educational rigor they need, irrespective of their race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, language, learning path, accessibility needs, family background, family income, citizenship, or tribal status.” To learn more, please visit https://www.cps.edu/sites/equity/

The Opportunity Index is rooted in CPS’ 5-Year Strategic Plan, called “Success 2029: Together We Rise,” and the CPS Equity Framework. It was created to help make sure resources like staff, time, and money are given to schools based on what they need to create equitable learning experiences for all students, also known as Resource Equity. To learn more about Resource Equity, please click here.
The Opportunity Index works using the principle of Targeted Universalism, which means that different groups might need specific kinds of support to reach the same goal. To learn more about Targeted Universalism, please click here.

Opportunity Index scores help CPS figure out which schools might need more focused support with resources (staff, time, and money) based on environmental factors that the school can’t control.
A higher Opportunity Index score means that the school needs more support and resources compared to other schools in CPS to have the same level of opportunity.
A lower score doesn’t mean a school has everything it needs. It just means that schools with higher scores need more help right now to operate as well as schools with lower scores because of their school and community contexts and past lack of funding due to inequity.
School Opportunity Index scores are not good or bad, and they don’t show how well the school or teachers are doing. It is not a ranking and shouldn’t be used for schools to compare themselves to one another.

School Demographics
- Percentage of Students with Disabilities
- Percentage of English Learner Students
- Percentage of Students in Temporary Living Situations
- Percentage of Teachers Retained (i.e., stayed at the school)
- Simpson Diversity Index (i.e., how not diverse the student population is)
Community Factors
- Percentage of people living below 200% of the federal poverty line
- Percentage of people without health insurance
- Chicago Hardship Index (i.e., social and economic difficulty)
- Community Life Expectancy (i.e., how long people in the community are expected to live)
Historical School Funding
- School Budget and Changes in School Budgets from school years 2014 - 2024 (i.e., years that CPS used student-based budgeting)
- Capital and Outside Funding from school years 2008-2013 (i.e., money spent on acquiring, constructing, or renovating school buildings, facilities, and equipment)
You can find more details about what each indicator is in the “Metric Descriptions” Tab in the SY25 | CPS Opportunity Index Scores file.

School Demographics tell us about the students and teachers at each school.
Community Factors show the economic and social context of the areas where students of each school live.
Historical School Funding considers the resources the school has had in the past.
You can find more details about why each item is included in the “Metric Descriptions” tab in the SY25 | CPS Opportunity Index Scores file.

Creating and Updating the Opportunity Index

The Opportunity Index was developed with help from CPS community members through discussions and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Great Cities Institute. It was first used within CPS offices in the 2020-2021 school year. You can read more about how it was first created in the CPS Opportunity Index Prototype: Executive Summary.
The Opportunity Index was made public in the 2023-2024 school year when it was used by CPS in school budget planning for the first time for the 2024-2025 school year. The previous version, the SY24 Opportunity Index, was used in the 2024-2025 school budget calculations.

In the 2024-2025 school year, the Office of Equity used the Spectrum of Inclusive Partnerships from the CPS Equity Framework to update the Opportunity Index. This involved getting input from staff and community partners who have long experience with the Opportunity Index, those affected by it, and those who use it. To learn more about Inclusive Partnerships, please click here.
The goals of the SY25 Opportunity Index Working Group (OIWG) were to (1) Decide which 3-4 indicators of the Opportunity Index needed to be changed most, and (2) Give feedback on how to change those indicators.
You can learn more about the updates and changes in the SY25 OIWG Phase 1 Summary.

Using the Opportunity Index

There are many ways to use the Opportunity Index. Generally, it can help identify schools that should be first in line to receive resources (staff, time, and money). Offices, Departments, and external partners may consider using the Opportunity Index when making district-wide decisions. Networks may consider using the Opportunity Index when making decisions with a Network. The specific ways to use it depend on the situation. If you have questions about how your team can use it, please contact equity@cps.edu!
The Opportunity Index is one tool CPS uses to help decide how to share resources fairly, but it shouldn’t be the only one. Offices, Departments, Networks, and external partners using it should also consider other important information specific to their area and the resource they are trying to share equitably.
The Opportunity Index is not meant to measure how much individual students or groups in one school need help.

In Fiscal Year 2025 and Fiscal Year 2026, every school receives a guaranteed set of positions and resources that are centrally funded by the District. These include a slate of core administrative and instructional staff. Additional funding and supplemental positions are then provided to schools based on the CPS Opportunity Index, as well as other unique school factors. To learn more, please visit https://www.cps.edu/about/finance/budget/.

The Office of Early Childhood Education used the Opportunity Index to help decide where to put 25 Curiosity Classrooms in schools with Pre-K programs.
The Office of Transportation used the Opportunity Index to improve 35 bus routes through the Transportation Hub Project.
The Department of Arts Education used the Opportunity Index to decide which schools should get priority for grant money to improve arts education across the district.

External groups can use the Opportunity Index in similar ways that CPS Offices and Departments do. If they have resources to share, they can use the Opportunity Index to identify schools that should be prioritized across the district. They should also consider other important factors specific to the resource and their organization when sharing resources equitably.
The Opportunity Index should not be used for research, publishing, or commercial purposes without getting permission from Chicago Public Schools first. Researchers interested in using the Opportunity Index or related CPS data should contact the CPS Research Review Board at www.cps.edu/about/district-data/conduct-primary-research/.

Calculating the Opportunity Index

The CPS Opportunity Index scores are either the average or the sum of the scores of the 11 indicators (see Question 4 for a list of the indicators). Scores are calculated for traditional elementary and high schools, both district-managed and charter. Some types of schools (i.e., Options, Safe, Early Learning Centers, and Specialty) are not assigned Opportunity Index scores given that these types of schools do not fit into the traditional educational paradigm, and could affect index ratings of other schools.
For each of the 11 indicators, the values are distributed into five equal groups called quintiles, and each group gets a score between 1 and 5 where 1 = closest to equitable opportunity or lowest need and 5 = furthest from equitable opportunity or highest need. These quintiles are calculated separately for elementary and high schools because they are structured differently. Since charter schools might be missing information (such as teacher retention and budget information), their quintiles were assigned based on parameters (the five equal groups) determined by district-managed schools.
There are two ways to calculate an Opportunity Index score for schools: (1) Average of the quintile scores for all 11 indicators, or (2) Sum of the quintile scores for all 11 indicators. Both the average and the sum score work for the same purpose as long as you don’t compare average scores to sum scores.
- The Office of Equity suggests that most CPS Offices, Departments, Networks, and External Partners use the average score. With this method, schools can have a score from 1 (lowest need) to 5 (highest need).
- In some unique cases, using the sum score of all quintiles might be more useful. For example, the CPS School Budget formula uses the sum score, where schools can range from 11 (lowest need) to 55 (highest need).

The Opportunity Index is updated once a year, usually in December, to make sure all the information is as current as possible and ready to use.
- Information about students and teachers is updated every year based on enrollment and staff data.
- Community information is updated as new data becomes available. For example, the 2019-2023 Community Hardship Index data was released after the SY25 Opportunity Index was calculated, so the SY25 Opportunity Index uses 2018-2022 data and next year the SY26 Opportunity Index will use 2019-2023 data.
- Data about historical school funding is not updated because it looks at a specific time period. For example, the School Budget and Changes in School Budget indicator covers the years when student-based budgeting was used at CPS (2014-2024).
To learn more about how data for each Opportunity Index indicator is updated, please refer to the Metric Descriptions tab in the SY25 | CPS Opportunity Index Scores file.<?li>

For all community factor indicators, all students enrolled in CPS as of the 20th day of the school year are connected to specific census areas and community areas based on their home address. This is called geocoding. Geocoding helps us accurately link student information with community data based on where students live, not just where their school is.
- You can learn more about the differences between Chicago community areas and census tracts by clicking here.
The 200% Poverty Rate and the % Uninsured Rate indicators use information from census tracts, while the Community Hardship Index and Community Life Expectancy indicators use community area data.
These community factor indicator scores are calculated by taking an average that considers how many students at each school live in each census tract or community area. For example, if 25% of a school’s students live in a neighborhood with a Community Hardship Index score of 23 and 75% live in a community area with a score of 85, the school’s average Community Hardship Index score would be 69.5.
To learn more about how Opportunity Index data is put together based on students’ home addresses, check the “Metric Descriptions” tab in the SY25 | CPS Opportunity Index Scores file.

Equity Framework

Equity in CPS

Equity Lens

About the Framework

Equity Framework

Equity in CPS

Equity in CPS

Equity Lens

Equity Lens

About the Framework

About the Framework

What is the CPS Opportunity Index?

CPS Opportunity Index Individual School Scores

Sum Score

Resource equity at CPS

Developing and updating the
Opportunity Index

School Demographics

Community Factors

Historical School Funding

How the Opportunity Index should
(and should not) be used

Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

Creating and Updating the Opportunity Index

Using the Opportunity Index

Calculating the Opportunity Index

What is the CPS Opportunity Index?

CPS Opportunity Index Individual School Scores

Sum Score

Resource equity at CPS

Developing and updating the Opportunity Index

School Demographics

Community Factors

Historical School Funding

How the Opportunity Index should(and should not) be used

Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

Creating and Updating the Opportunity Index

Using the Opportunity Index

Calculating the Opportunity Index

CPS Opportunity Index Questions?

Developing and updating the
Opportunity Index

How the Opportunity Index should
(and should not) be used