Chicago will suspend its controversial school ratings for the third year and give itself more time to design a new campus accountability system.
But the new approach likely will no longer involve a number or letter grade for each campus – a practice that educators, principals, and others have decried as reducing a school’s offerings and often complex challenges to a single designation.
Officials said Wednesday that the district’s leadership transition over the summer and the singular focus on safely reopening schools this fall delayed a push to redesign Chicago’s school accountability model, known as School Quality Rating System, or SQRP. So the district is extending an April deadline to unveil a new policy until spring of 2023 at the latest.
