The Chicago Public Education Fund

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What The Fund Is Achieving

The Chicago Public Education Fund not only recognizes a collective sense of impatience with the pace of change in our schools. We use it to our advantage. Our investors demand results, and fast. With each four-year investment fund, The Fund lays out specific, often quantifiable goals, holding ourselves and the school system to account for achieving them. Our goals are narrowly defined but ambitious, keeping us focused on what we do best – human capital – and excelling at it.

In eight years The Fund has begun to revolutionize the way Chicago Public Schools recruits, prepares and supports top talent. We first worked to establish the bar of quality for principals and teachers, then embed quality talent across the portfolio of schools in Chicago, traditional and charter schools. The results: some of the highest standards for school leadership and accomplished teaching in the country, and a new, critical mass of highly talented individuals impacting more than 80 percent of Chicago’s schools.

What’s more, we’ve catalyzed a broad set of human capital improvements throughout the system with a relatively small amount of capital, in part by leveraging exponential dollars to scale and sustain our innovations. In our first two investment funds, The Fund committed $25 million, but leveraged an additional $130 million in private and redirected public dollars toward our efforts. It is a powerful financial model that is maximizing the partnership of private and public dollars to have a positive impact on Chicago’s school system.

Establishing the Bar of Quality

April 20, 2009
Each of The Fund’s initiatives in establishing a new bar of quality for talent has been adopted and is financially supported by Chicago Public Schools. More Info

Embedding Quality Talent Within the System

The Fund has rapidly grown the ranks of quality talent and ensured that all public schools in Chicago, including traditional and charter schools, have access to these human capital pipelines. More Info
Results The Fund is Achieving

NBC Teachers in 2009

309 Chicago teachers achieved National Board Certification in 2009, the largest class of new NBCTs in the nation
More Results
The Chicago Public Education Fund
200 West Adams Street, Suite 2150
Chicago, IL 60606
Phone: 312.558.4500
Fax: 312.558.4506
E-mail: info@thefundchicago.org
About The Fund
As a venture capital fund for public education, The Chicago Public Education Fund invests in well-managed, high-impact programs that improve school leadership and student achievement system wide.
Recent News
Can Talent Really Move the Needle on Student Achievement?
The Chicago Public Education Fund to host human capital leaders from Chicago, D.C., Denver, Long Beach and San Diego for a panel focused on human capital as the way to drive better outcomes for students. Panelists will join keynote speakers Ron Huberman, CEO of Chicago Public Schools, and Penny Pritzker, Fund Chairman, and Moderator, Janet Knupp, Fund Founding President and CEO, as we explore what human capital leaders in the nation's leading-edge urban school systems are doing to promote excellence at all levels.