The State of Chicago Public Schools｜Spring 2026
Kids First Chicago’s second annual review explores how Chicago Public Schools students are doing academically and socially-emotionally. We examine key indicators—including on-track rates, standardized test proficiency and average scores, absenteeism, post-secondary outcomes, and parent engagement—to highlight what’s changed from 2018 to 2025.
What's New? This year, we’ve added national and peer district test data, advanced coursework enrollment, and additional social-emotional factors from the 5Essentials survey. Dive into our five-part interactive series to understand how CPS students and families are progressing, and where additional attention may be needed.
Data Sources & Acknowledgments
All descriptive statistics were generated from the following sources:
- Illinois Report Card data, 2018-2025. Of note is that we utilized the ISBE total number of schools within CPS, not the CPS-defined total.
- 5Essentials Survey data, 2022-2025.
- Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System survey data, Chicago, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023.
- NAEP data, 2000-2024.
- To&Through English Learner and Former English Learner data, 2019-2024.
This report is powered by analysis conducted by Mariam Raheem and Micaelan Valesky. Kids First Chicago also acknowledges the valuable insights of our external partners, who provided guidance throughout the development of this analysis.
Comments and Questions?
Please get in touch with Kids First Chicago's Data Science Manager Micaelan Valesky or Chief of Policy Hal Woods for more information. For media inquiries, please contact Kristin Pollock.
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