Chicago Annenberg Challenge¶
Product or Programme · All products and programmes
Evidence · 12 claims (6 for, 3 mixed, 3 against) · 5 studies (3 qualitative, 2 associational),q2· 0 of 5 report an effect size · 12 claims rest on one study
Description¶
A school-improvement initiative that organized schools into networks supported by external partner organizations and was run by the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.
Components¶
- The Chicago Annenberg Challenge's network-plus-external-partner strategy for school improvement: The Chicago Annenberg Challenge organized school improvement around networks of schools, each required to have an external partner to help promote local improvement. The premise was that "schools that worked together and with an external partner would find greater support for local improvement and be more successful than if they worked alone." Partners served as fiduciary agents, brought resources, catalyzed improvement, and developed local leadership. The Challenge deliberately embraced pluralism rather than privileging one reform strategy. (Karin Sconzert et al. (2004))
- The Chicago Challenge's theory of action: improving student achievement by addressing three structural problems of schools — time, size, and isolation — through school-partner networks: The Chicago Annenberg Challenge's guiding framework holds that student achievement improves when schools restructure education, reconnect to their communities, and improve classroom practice. The report states the Challenge "encourages networks to create coherent, rigorous, and supportive teaching and learning environments by addressing three major structural problems of schools: (a) time, (b) size, and (c) isolation." Time concerns teachers' time to plan, reflect, and study; size concerns breaking oversized schools into smaller, more personal learning communities; isolation concerns disconnected working relationships among schools, communities, and educators. Networks of at least three scho (Initial Accomplishments of Implementation Networks: A Baseline Technical Report of the Chicago Annenberg Research Project (1998))
- Network structure: clusters of at least three like-minded schools aided by an external partner, restructuring time, size, and isolation: The Chicago Annenberg Challenge's core design pattern required schools to apply not individually but in networks—clusters of at least three like-minded schools aided by an external partner—to enhance collaboration and community support. Grantees were asked to focus on how they might "alter the basic elements of time, size, and isolation": reorganizing the school day, creating smaller personalized environments, and connecting educators to the communities they serve. External partners were intended to provide community resources, develop the pool of assisting organizations, and build adult leadership at schools. (Dorothy Shipps et al. (1999))
- Chicago Annenberg External Partner model for school improvement: The external partner model links intermediary organizations (university- or community-based) to networks of schools to provide outside expertise for improvement efforts. Partners sponsor activities including network meetings, instructional materials, school-based literacy coordinators, demonstration teachers, leadership teams, and parent assistants. The model emerged from Chicago's decentralization movement and the 1995 Annenberg Challenge, which provided $49.2 million to fund 45 networks of schools with external partners focused on goals such as improving literacy instruction and developing school leadership. (Fred M. Newmann (2000))
Claims¶
- Annenberg external partners accumulated substantial experience working with schools but were not particularly successful in promoting improvement across the large number of schools they served [+M]
- Annenberg external partners were organizationally diverse, and a majority focused their work on curriculum and instruction [~W]
- Most Annenberg partners found the Challenge's twice-yearly written reporting requirements burdensome and detrimental to their work with schools [-W]
- Many Annenberg schools had weak human and social resources, including low trust among teachers, limiting their capacity for school development [~W]
- High-stakes testing pushed some Chicago schools toward test preparation and away from partners' long-term instructional improvement efforts [-W]
- Initial improvements in Annenberg schools' organizational capacity by 1999 largely disappeared by 2001, leaving little net change [-W]
- Principals in implementation networks reported moderate school improvement from working with external partners and other network schools, attributed largely to teacher collaboration [+M]
- Most principals in implementation networks reported moderate reductions in school-community isolation as a result of network participation [+M]
- External partners played the central role in forming and running implementation networks, with most principal interaction directed at partners rather than other schools [+W]
- Network participation faced challenges of teacher time, resources, and fragmentation, with about 40 percent of principals reporting few useful resources [~W]
- First-year (1995) Challenge grantmaking concentrated on networks with higher-education and community-based partners, which received most grants and dollars [+W]
- In selected Chicago schools, external partners sparked documented improvements in instruction, parent involvement, or school climate [+M]
Related Products and Programmes¶
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Key Sources¶
- Karin Sconzert, Mark A. Smylie, & Stacy A. Wenzel. (2004). Working for School Improvement: Reflections of Chicago Annenberg External Partners. Consortium on Chicago School Research. https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/working-school-improvement-reflections-chicago-annenberg-external-partners
- Initial Accomplishments of Implementation Networks: A Baseline Technical Report of the Chicago Annenberg Research Project. (1998). https://consortium.uchicago.edu
- Dorothy Shipps, Karin Sconzert, with Holly Swyers. (1999). The Chicago Annenberg Challenge: The First Three Years. Consortium on Chicago School Research. https://consortium.uchicago.edu
- Fred M. Newmann, Karin Sconzert. (2000). School Improvement with External Partners. Consortium on Chicago School Research. https://ccsr.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/publications/ExternalPartners.pdf
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
product |
id |
chicago-annenberg-challenge |
title |
Chicago Annenberg Challenge |
description |
A school-improvement initiative that organized schools into networks supported by external partner organizations and was run by the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. |
status |
review |
moved_from |
design/annenberg-school-networks-time-size-isolation, design/chicago-annenberg-external-partner-model, theory/annenberg-network-external-partner-strategy, theory/annenberg-three-structural-problems-theory |
product_kind |
programme |
generated |
by process:sweep-kinds on 2026-10-10 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
4 — karin-sconzert-2004, initial-accomplishments-of-implementation-networks-a-baseline-technical-report-of-the-chicago-annenberg-research-project-1998, dorothy-shipps-1999, fred-m-newmann-2000 |
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