CPS has enrolled more than 325,300 students this school year, officials announced Wednesday, marking the second consecutive year that the district marginally reversed a long-term trend of declining enrollment, common among public schools across the country.
As of the fourth week of school, CPS said more than 2,000 students were attending the district than at the same time last school year, an increase of .64%.
Increases this year have occurred among most grade levels and demographics, with growth in elementary and Latino students being most notable, according to CPS. Sara Kempner, executive director of enterprise data & analytics, said in a media briefing Wednesday morning that the district is still analyzing the data to understand why enrollment among Black students hasn’t similarly grown.
CPS began implementing a “Black Student Success” plan this fall, as part of a five-year strategic plan that the Board of Education approved in September. The plan aims to improve learning experiences for Black students and eliminate persistent opportunity gaps.
CPS uses the enrollment data snapshot, taken when enrollment begins to plateau on the 20th day of school, for planning and refining funding allocations to schools. Enrollment continues to fluctuate throughout the year, with around 200 more students joining the district since the 20th day of school, Kempner said at the briefing.
Enrollment has not been the only key metric to increase this year, officials announced Wednesday. Attendance rates rose nearly across the board, CPS said in a news release. Research shows attendance is a crucial factor in student achievement, with chronic lost days of school associated with poor outcomes, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
CPS also noted “exponential” staffing increases and launched a new dashboard Wednesday, showing staffing changes by school over the last five years with far more locations appearing to have a net increase than decrease. According to the district’s news release, the number of school-based staff has increased by 7,000 since 2019.
“What’s important for the average family and the average community member and the average Chicagoan to know is that we have more licensed teachers and educators in our schools than ever before,” Ben Felton, chief talent officer, said at the briefing.
“I hear a lot of discussion about staffing in CPS and how we’re understaffed,” he said, alluding to CTU’s Underfunded and Understaffed tracker, which displays vacancies. “Schools are riddled with chronic staffing issues and certainly we have progress to make on vacancies, although I would note that our vacancy rate is down for the third year in a row,” he said.
Felton noted increased diversity among new hires and said that, amid ongoing growth among English learner students, bilingual teacher vacancy rates are lower than that of general education teachers, through intensive recruitment efforts. In collective bargaining negotiations underway with the CTU, Felton said CPS has committed to fully subsidizing the cost of bilingual certification for new teachers, of whom about 50% are Black or Latino.
At the next board meeting on Oct. 24, Kempner said a presentation on the enrollment data will include an analysis of whether new students have remained in CPS.
