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Chicago’s graduation rate improved under the administration of Arne Duncan, but high school test scores did not. Elementary school test scores soared, but much of the gain was due to changes in testing procedures.

Chicago’s scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress rose, but for the most part, Chicago’s standing among the 11 urban districts participating in a national comparison did not. The NAEP rankings below are for low-income students in the districts.

Penny Bender Sebring is a founding co-director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) at the Urban Education Institute, University of Chicago. CCSR is dedicated to informing and assessing policy and practice in the Chicago Public Schools. Dr. Sebring is the lead author of "The Essential Supports for School Improvement," published by CCSR, and co-author of "Charting Chicago School Reform: Democratic Localism as a Lever for Change."

In the past four years, three new elementary schools and three small high schools have opened in Austin. But the new schools have barely made a dent in that community’s need for better schools.

In 2004, a study by the Illinois Facilities Fund found that Austin had the largest gap in the city between the number of seats available in good schools and the number of children who needed them: 20,000. Austin ranked second among Chicago communities in its need for better high schools, and third in the need for better elementaries.