Seven decades ago, in the fall of 1956, leaders of 12 of the nation’s largest urban school systems convened a meeting in Chicago to discuss how vocational education could improve to meet the needs of the nation’s manufacturing sector, then a rich source of jobs for high school graduates.

The meeting was no one-off. That loose coalition formed an executive committee, created bylaws, and offered membership to school leaders in cities with populations of 600,000 or more. The group wanted each city’s top school leaders, either its superintendent or a school board member, to be represented on the governing board of the fledgling organization. The group named itself the Great Cities Program for School Improvement.

At first, the focus was on retooling vocational education, and the group generated a number of “world of work” reports that informed passage of the federal Vocational Education Act in 1963. Within a few years, the group’s focus expanded to include demographic changes, fiscal constraints, curriculum needs, teacher recruitment, aging facilities, and urban economic development—issues that school leaders continue to grapple with today.

In the 1960s, the organization put the spotlight on the unique needs of disadvantaged urban students, with advocacy in the buildup to passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 1965. The group’s impactful role in federal legislation on education issues spurred the organization’s move from Chicago to Washington, D.C., in 1967.

 In 1970, the organization tweaked its name and became, at last, the Council of the Great City Schools. It adopted “advocacy” as its operational focus and underwent an internal reorganization to reflect three main objectives: information exchange, staff services to members, and advocacy and communication for the benefit of urban students.

And it expanded the number of districts eligible to join the Council.

On its 60^th anniversary a decade ago, the Council published a lengthy look-back at its history, highlighting the group’s legislative activity, its talented staff, and the ongoing debate among member districts about the role the Council should play in the national debate over education goals and standards. For a full account of the Council’s history, see the document, 1956-2016 – Celebrating 60 Years of Service to America’s Urban Public Schools.

 Among other achievements, the report took special note of the 1992 publication of the Council’s first-ever report card, National Urban Education Goals: Baseline Indicators 1990-91, on the quality of urban education in member districts. The report attracted widespread media attention as the first national report to publish disaggregated test scores.

 

And, it noted that the Council was among the first national education organizations to create a presence on the World Wide Web, in 1992, and the next year sponsored its first satellite teleconference.

In 1992, after a national search, Michael Casserly was named the Council’s executive director. Casserly had previously served for 15 years as head of the group’s legislative and research departments.

 

In the decades since, the Council has built on its reputation for advocacy and excellence.

 

Here are some highlights:   

 

1996 – The Council helped the U.S. Department of Education and the Federal Communications Commission create the E-Rate program out of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and target aid on urban schools to help narrow the digital divide.

 

2000 – Initiated the federal Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA), paving the way for the nation’s largest urban school systems to directly track the progress of their students on the rigorous test known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) against other cities, states, and the nation.

2002 – Released Foundations for Success, the nation’s first empirical study into why some major urban school systems improve faster than others.

 

2005 – Sent an  emergency facilities team into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to identify school buildings around which to rebuild the city.

 

2009 – Published Succeeding with English Language Learners: Lessons Learned from the Great City Schools, the first major study of why some school systems make more progress with English language learners than other systems.

 

2014 – Developed a Pledge for African American Males that was announced by President Barack Obama and became part of the My Brother’s Keeper initiative.

 

2017 – Released Supporting Excellence: A Framework for Developing, Implementing, and Sustaining a High-Quality District Curriculum—a practical guide to what a high-quality, standards-aligned curriculum should look like.

 

2018 – In the wake of the tragic shooting at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, a resolution passed by the Council’s Board of Directors urged immediate federal action against school shootings to protect schoolchildren from gun violence.

 

2019 – Designed a professional development program with the Harvard Business School for district school board members and superintendents.

 

2020 – Filed an amicus brief against the U.S. Department of Education diverting money from public to private schools during the Covid-19 pandemic.

2021 – After a national search, Ray Hart was selected to lead the Council as executive director. Hart previously served for nine years as the Council’s research director.

2023 – Launched the Michael Casserly Urban Executive Leadership Institute for Superintendents,  designed to equip current and aspiring superintendents with the skills they need to successfully lead large urban school systems. Since its inception, 38 individuals have completed the program, with seven of them becoming superintendents of a CGCS district.

 

2025 – Successfully lobbied against federal education funding cuts, withstanding threats that included strict budget spending caps and a House appropriations proposal to cut Title I by 25% and eliminate funding for teacher effectiveness and English learner programs.

 

“For 70 years, the Council has played an integral role in shaping federal education policy, authoring influential research, and elevating the voice of urban school systems nationwide,” said former Council Executive Director Casserly, who currently serves as an adviser to the organization. “The Council should be proud of its legacy of unifying big-city school districts around a vision for improvement and reform that has helped produce significant academic gains for urban schoolchildren over the years.”

 

“As the organization celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, we proudly reflect on our achievements, while continuing to play a leading role in reforming and improving urban education,” said Council Executive Director Hart. “We take great pride in our efforts to highlight urban educational issues and, more importantly, to demonstrate that urban students can succeed and that their schools can improve. Despite the challenges currently facing public education, the Council continues to focus on raising urban student achievement, improving school leadership and management, and increasing public confidence in big-city schools.”