Chicago Public Schools is overhauling how it measures success this fall, replacing its old school rankings with a new system that tracks what students experience each day — from academics to well-being — to help schools improve rather than compete.
What is changing and why it matters
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is rolling out a new accountability system called Continuous Improvement and Data Transparency (CIDT). It replaces the School Quality Rating Policy and ends the district-created school rankings.
Under the new CPS accountability system, rather than judging a school with a single score, district leaders say they will look at the full experience your child has every day — academics, well-being and the support adults and communities provide, according to CPS’ Continuous Improvement and Data Transparency overview.
District leaders say the change follows years of planning and thousands of conversations with families, educators and students. CPS began the redesign in 2019 and formally adopted the new policy in April 2023 after engaging more than 20,000 stakeholders, according to CPS’ engagement process page. The goal is simple: use data to help schools improve, not to penalize them.
No more rankings, more support instead
Under CIDT, CPS will not publish district-created school rankings. The district acknowledges that prior reliance on rankings “raised fairness concerns,” and said the new model centers equity and aims to direct help where it is needed most, according to CPS’ CIDT approach page.
That help will be tangible. CPS lists four buckets it will use to support schools: funds for budgets, supplies and products like curriculum and ed-tech tools, services such as data systems and professional development and personnel for staffing needs. The idea is to pair honest information about what is happening in classrooms with resources to make that experience better.
What the district will look at day to day
CIDT organizes school quality around the whole child. Families can expect the district to track and report on four big areas:
- Daily learning experiences: what your child experiences in class each day and the practices that build success over time.
- Adult capacity and continuous learning: how the school supports teachers and staff with ongoing professional development and whether the culture is inclusive and positive so students feel known and supported.
- Inclusive and collaborative school and community: how schools partner with families and community to create welcoming spaces and improve practice.
- Evidence of student learning and well-being: how students are doing and the supports schools use to help them grow, including academic and non-academic indicators.
CPS says these measures will be used to understand conditions, resources and outcomes together rather than in isolation. The district calls this a shift from punitive accountability to continuous improvement, according to the CIDT overview.
In prior years, many families used to look at simple school ratings like those under the district’s earlier system of Chicago Public Schools rankings, but the new approach aims to give richer context and show how the school is improving rather than just where it stood.
When families will start to see changes
CPS is phasing in the new system through Fall 2025 to give schools time to learn the measures and receive training and tools. Starting this fall, families will begin to see new data alongside familiar school information. That will include details about each school’s curriculum selections, balanced assessment plans and out-of-school time programming, according to CPS’ implementation plan.
The district is also updating online school profiles so families can find clearer, more holistic information in one place. An interactive dashboard is in development to make the data easier to explore.
How the work is being guided
To carry the policy from paper to practice, CPS has three advisory groups focused on implementation. An Executive Committee oversees the rollout and coherence across the district. A Technical Committee reviews and validates proposed metrics. A Transparency Committee checks whether the reporting is accessible, usable and actionable for families, according to CPS’ process and development documentation.
CPS says it will continue to post meeting materials as they become available and will label school-profile indicators by review status: not reviewed yet, reviewed, or endorsed by the Transparency Committee after feedback is addressed, according to CPS’ process page.
Families can observe or comment during Transparency Committee meetings by requesting access at least 24 hours in advance of a scheduled session.
All information in this story was gathered from and verified using materials published on the Chicago Public Schools website (cps.edu).
Updated October 2025.
