Chicago’s sustainable community high schools: Lower outcomes, higher costs
The Chicago Teachers Union’s preferred model fails in academic proficiency, absenteeism and cost.
The Chicago Teachers Union continues to push a schooling model that produces poor student outcomes and costs taxpayers more.
The union’s most recent contract with Chicago Public Schools includes the addition of 50 “sustainable community schools.” CTU wanted to add 180 of these schools, which the union envisions as community hubs that offer wraparound services for students and families. Right now there are 36 such schools, 15 of which are high schools.
CTU leadership and other proponents of the sustainable community schools model argue that they will uplift neighborhoods and provide students needed support services.
But at the eight CPS high schools that have used the model since 2018, proficiency is lower while absenteeism and spending is higher. Those eight schools also are seeing enrollment fall as families flee them.
Chicago’s sustainable community high schools spend more for poorer outcomes
Seven high schools transitioned to the sustainable community school model in the just-ended school year. The original eight illustrate the poor student outcomes at CTU’s favored education model.
Proficiency rates at those eight high schools lag well behind the district, with reading 22 percentage points lower and math proficiency 18 points lower in 2025.
Accounting for the number of students at each school, just 18% of 11th graders at Chicago’s original eight sustainable community high schools were proficient in reading, and just 8% in math. That compares to 40% of 11th graders proficient in reading districtwide and 25% in math.
Those are the results even though spending per student at those eight sustainable community high schools is 15% higher than the districtwide average.
Students are less engaged at the eight schools, with 71% missing 10% or more of the school year. That is significantly higher than the district rate of 40%, the numbers calculated using the enrollment at each school.
No amount of additional programming promised by sustainable community schools can compensate for such a large share of students missing so many days.
To be fair, enrollment at those eight high schools is overwhelmingly low-income, with that percentage higher than the already-high average at CPS high schools. These are the students for whom education matters the most, because education offers a pathway out of poverty.
Enrollment declines show parents don’t want sustainable community schools
The eight original sustainable community high schools have seen notable declines in enrollment. Their combined enrollment dropped by 25% from 2018 to 2026, according to CPS 20th-day enrollment data. That compares to an 8% drop in high schoolers districtwide over the same period.
The sustainable community schools model is expanding even as fewer families choose the schools. That should raise serious concerns about whether these schools are meeting community needs.
If CTU were acting in the best interest of students, it wouldn’t push to expand an education model that has failed abysmally.