Chicago has a history of innovative school reform, and the opening of schools this fall began another wave.

Renaissance 2010, the movement to rejuvenate neighborhood public schools in Chicago by replacing 60 poorly performing schools over the next five years with 100 new, smaller schools (often in the same buildings), launched this fall. Harris School Assistant Professor Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach and Consortium on Chicago School Reform Executive Director John Easton will be among the first to evaluate the outcome of this newest reform effort.

Renaissance 2010 is part of the “small schools” movement, which is founded on the belief that smaller schools make for better learning. Each Renaissance high school, for example, will house no more than 600 students in grades 9–12, which is considerably smaller than the average high school in the public school system with over 1,300 students. Unlike other reform efforts, such as certain charter or magnet schools, Renaissance 2010 schools will be open to all neighborhood children. Each school will also have a high degree of autonomy from Chicago Public Schools administrative oversight, yet will be held accountable on academic and other terms. For example, if the schools fail to meet the goals in their original “performance agreement” within five years, they could be closed.

Schanzenbach and the evaluation team plan to use rigorous and novel methods to evaluate the effects of the small school movement in Chicago. The methods overcome several common stumbling blocks in untangling the true effect of an education intervention from the many other factors that influence a child’s school performance, like family income, family structure, or parents’ education.

“This project is exciting,” saysSchanzenbach. “Chicago Public Schools clearly cares about reform and is willing to put it to the test with objective methods. It’s also exciting because Chicago is at the forefront of reform trends, and the findings can inform the nationwide effort that’s underway.”

Much of the focus of Renaissance 2010 reflects concern that the existing high school model is broken. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has spearheaded this movement, contributing $11.2 million to the Renaissance 2010 initiative (and more money nationwide) in the belief that large urban high schools offer little opportunity for students to connect to one another, or to their teachers, in any meaningful way.

Related ongoing research at the consortium suggests that small schools can make a big difference for struggling students when several factors coalesce, according to Easton. These include the energy and optimism of teachers in the small schools, their willingness and ability to work together to develop strong programs for students, and a delicate balance between autonomy from “one size fits all” policies and access to the support needed to provide students with challenging instruction.

“This effort,” says Schanzenbach, “is a natural next step after Chicago Public Schools implemented accountability reforms a few years ago. There are still schools, however, that are persistently failing to thrive, so an important part of Renaissance 2010 is that they’re closing the failing schools and pushing the system to think outside the box a little more.”

Barbara Ray