Between Vision and Reality: Safety Strategies and Implementation Challenges in Chicago Schools

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Leadership in Transition: Navigating Context, Community Engagement, and Equity Challenges

Abstract

This study analyzes how Chicago Public Schools high schools interpreted and enacted the district’s Whole School Safety (WSS) initiative—a policy reform aimed at increasing physical safety, emotional safety, and relational trust within schools. Using qualitative content analysis of 53 school-authored safety plans, we explore the strategies schools proposed and the challenges they faced in translating equity-focused policy into practice. Findings highlight common tensions—between relational goals and control-based infrastructure, between community voice and procedural mandates—and reveal capacity gaps in implementation planning. For school and district leaders, the study offers insight into how local planning processes both reflect and constrain broader efforts toward justice-oriented safety reform. It underscores the importance of coherent supports, inclusive engagement, and structural alignment in leading community-responsive change.

Authors

• Christina Scanlon, University of Chicago

• David Wilson Johnson, Northwestern University

• Rebecca Hinze-Pifer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Clarice Robinson, University of Chicago