The Exoskeleton Spawns Innovative Institutions

• In Event: How a City Learned to Improve Its Schools: Chicago's Story

Abstract

Over time a distinctive civic architecture emerged in support of school improvement in Chicago. We adopted the imagery of an exoskeleton to characterize it. In biology an exoskeleton, like the shell of a turtle, is part of a living organism. As the organism grows, it develops alongside and offers protection and support depending on need. Chicago’s exoskeleton expanded and specialized in response to district needs and was deeply embedded in the on-the-ground work of improving the city’s schools, while it also maintained connections to traditional sources of central power. The exoskeleton came to encompass the city’s foundation and business communities, community-based and advocacy organizations, cultural institutions, the area’s colleges of education, and several new organizations that developed along the way.
In addition, the city benefited from two new and innovative institutions that helped to sustain attention on core problems. The analytic capacity of the Consortium, and Catalyst Chicago, which was an innovative new media source, combined to create a robust infrastructure that informed the city about the progress of reform. Consortium studies, and the convenings organized around them, advanced an evolving line of data, argument, and pragmatic guidance about what was needed to advance reform every step of the way. It exemplifies how an applied research enterprise can democratically engage efforts to improve policy and practice.

Author

• Timothy Knowles, Urban Education Institute, University of Chicago
  Presenting Author