Of all 191 schools on the State's School Improvement List.

The WEST side has a total of 69 failing schools, accounting for 36% of the School Improvement List, the most throughout any geographic region in Chicago.  As identified in the grid, the highest concentrations of low-performing schools are in many West side communities like West Town, Humboldt Park, East and West Garfield Park, and Austin which has 14 failing schools!  Even more telling is that 7 of the 12 high schools on the school improvement list are on the West side.  In this geographic region, 4 elementary schools are overcrowded, where 1 of these are severely overcrowded.  However, 46 elementary schools are underutilized.  10 schools are considered "just right" and 2 schools percent capacities are unknown. 

With this many schools concentrated in specific neighborhoods on the West side, we must ask questions about the quality of resources, teachers, facility investments, and very important, but often forgotten, what is happening in the neighborhood to influence the school performances and enrollment rates.  Are we spreading our resources fairly enough to address the true student needs on the West side?

The SOUTHWEST side has a total of 52 failing schools (or 27% of the total list).  Looking only at elementary schools, 15 are overcrowded, where 9 of these are severely overcrowded-the highest numbers of overcrowding in all the geographic regions.  This isn't surprising, considering the Southwest side takes the record for having the most overcrowded schools in all of Chicago.  15 elementary schools are underutilized, 15 appear "just right," and 2 are unknown.  Interestingly and similar to the neighborhoods that the combined 191 schools are in, most of the failing schools in this geographic region are predominantly African-American. 

The SOUTH side has a total of 38 failing schools (20% of the failing schools list).  Of the elementary schools, 6 are overcrowded, where 1 of the 6 is severely overcrowded.   18 elementary schools are underutilized, 12 are "just right," and 1 school's percent capacity is unknown.  Most of these struggling schools are scattered among communities that make up what is considered the Bronzeville community, otherwise known as the historic "Black Belt" of Chicago.  Bronzeville is predicted and is proving to become one of the newly desirable communities to live in.  The South side community is also home to a great deal of planned new development and new market rate housing (notably on the Near South Side), middle class long-time residents, and many long-time residents living in the Chicago Housing Authority's public housing developments, which are currently experiencing building demolition resulting in the displacement of families.  Many of these South side struggling schools serve the families who live in proximity to the public housing developments.  As these developments come down and populations dwindle, so do the school enrollments. 

More important, however, is whether or not there has truly been an equal distribution of school capital investments to help anchor these schools in their neighborhoods, and whether schools are able to provide a 21^st Century, technology-inclusive education.  A strategy is needed from the Chicago Public Schools for adequately improving school educational resources and supports to turn these chronically poor-performing South side schools around.

The FAR SOUTH side has a total of 20 failing schools, making up nearly 11% of the School Improvement List.  Of the elementary schools, 5 are overcrowded, 6 are underutilized, 7 are "just right" and one elementary school's percent capacity is unknown.  The Far South side comprises of a diversity of neighborhoods and demographics.  However, several failing schools are in pockets of the same neighborhoods, including Roseland (5), Washington Heights (5), and Riverdale (3).  While residents are nearly all African-American in all the communities, the income levels vary from the City's median household income to the low $18,000's.  Again, are quality resources for creating high performing schools distributed equally across communities of color and lower-income neighborhoods?

The NORTHWEST and NORTH sides have a total of 6 failing schools each.  Both geographic regions maintain a mix of races, ethnicities, and languages, which may explain a more deliberate means and sensitivity for addressing the diverse needs of the students, and thereby education as a whole.  Of these failing elementary schools, neither geographic regions' schools are overcrowded.  The North side has 4 underutilized elementary schools, and 2 considered to be "just right."  

Not surprisingly, the trend we find here is that the 3 underutilized schools are located in and serve students from the Cabrini Green public housing development situated in the Near North Side community.  The Near North Side neighborhood has changed drastically over the past decade with new market rate housing, retail, and infrastructure investment occurring rapidly with the help of the City's redevelopment plans.  While the Near North Side received a new school several years ago, we know this is only one key ingredient for improving education in our schools.  Once students finally have adequate facilities, we must ensure that there are enough resources to help these students and teachers learn and teach.  The 4^th underutilized school is in Uptown, where schools are also de-populating.  Again, similar to many other underutilized schools, the question is how to maintain a competitive and challenging program that meets the needs of the students, when resources decline with student enrollments?

On the Northwest side, the struggling elementary schools have 3 underutilized schools and 3 adequately sized.  Logan Square has half of the struggling schools in this Northwest region, another diverse neighborhood. 

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As the above analysis provides, there are many ways to interpret and identify factors that influence low-performance; students and schools should not be judged solely by test scores alone.  Moreover, we need to understand these factors so that we, as an involved community along with the Chicago Public Schools, can better intervene and truly provide these schools with equitable and adequate resources to help them improve.  By looking at similar communities that are performing well, we can also help to identify things CPS could be doing better to assist these schools.  And finally, it is widely known that parental involvement is an integral piece of influencing school performance.  In addition to the need for parental involvement, school environments should be open, engaging, and parent-friendly in order to further develop stronger and more positive relationships with the parents and community.