This document is a history of the Strategic Support Teams provided by the Council of the Great City Schools to urban public school districts over the last 20 years.

The Council was asked to provide a high-level review of Jackson Public School's instructional program and assess the district’s instructional program for its ability to improve academic outcomes for students and develop recommendations that would help the Jackson Public Schools improve student outcomes.

The Council was asked to provide a high-level review of the Kansas City Missouri Public School District's instructional program, financial operations, human resource operations, transportation services, and food services and develop recommendations that would help the district improve student outcomes and optimize its operations to achieve greater efficiencies and effectiveness.

This report exams many elements of the Metropolitan Nashville Public School District's broad efforts around student achievement, and presents its findings and observations in four main areas: academic performance; vision, goals, and leadership; instructional programming; and assessments and accountability.

This report focuses on the data collection and analysis of the following Academic KPIs: Pre-K enrollment relative to Kindergarten enrollment; Percent of 4th and 8th graders proficient in reading and math on NAEP; Algebra I completion rates for credit by grade 9; Ninth grade course failure rates — at least one core course; Ninth graders with B average (GPA) or better; Absentee rates by grade level; Suspension rates; Instructional days missed per student due to suspensions; AP participation rates; AP-equivalent participation rates; AP exam pass rates; Early college enrollment and Four-year graduation rate.

This 400-page report, which includes a 10-page Executive Summary, is part of a series of reports that show urban schools and school districts have made significant progress in reading and mathematics on the National Assessment of Educational Progress since 2003.

This 200-page report is a series of reports that show urban schools and school districts have made significant progress in reading and mathematics on the National Assessment of Educational Progress since 2003.