Office of New Schools
The Office of New Schools (ONS) in the Chicago Public Schools is committed to creating new and innovative schools that will provide high quality educational options to serve the diverse needs of Chicago’s public school students. ONS works to recruit, develop, and support new schools and ultimately, hold them accountable to high performance measures. These schools include "new starts" and "turnaround" schools which seek to transform struggling schools into quality educational options for Chicago students. ONS manages a portfolio of 86 schools that consist of all charter and contract schools developed through Renaissance 2010 and all charter schools created before Renaissance 2010.
Renaissance 2010 Background and History
In 1997, the Illinois General Assembly approved 45 charter schools for the state of Illinois, including 15 for Chicago. In 2003, 15 additional charters were approved for Chicago. These innovative schools produced gains in student achievement, increased demand, and strong parent satisfaction. This set the stage for Renaissance 2010, an initiative designed to create more high quality educational options across Chicago.
In June 2004, Mayor Richard Daley launched Renaissance 2010, a bold initiative whose goal is to increase the number of high quality educational options in communities across Chicago by 2010. New schools are created through a competitive, community-based selection process which establishes a set of high standards to which every new school will be held accountable. In 2005, Chicago Public Schools opened the first "cohort" of Renaissance 2010 schools.
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