Stories by Matt Masterson

Despite ongoing funding issues and declining enrollment, students at Chicago Public Schools graduated last year at the district’s highest rate on record, with more students earning a diploma than in each of the past six years.

The Chicago-born recording artist said money raised through the New Chance Arts & Literature Fund will be split among nearly two dozen Chicago schools to help boost arts programming and facilities.

Days after state legislators approved a historic education funding reform bill, Illinois has now received a green light to begin implementing another new system to keep school districts accountable.

What role should the state have in private school education? A look at Illinois’ plan and how other states run the controversial program.

The head of the Chicago Board of Education on Monday put his full support behind the state education funding reform deal on the table in Springfield, saying it represents a big step toward putting Chicago Public Schools on solid fiscal ground.

A controversial plan to convert a high-performing Near South Side elementary school into a neighborhood high school will move forward, Chicago Public Schools announced Friday.

After days of meetings and months of debate, an agreement has been reached on education funding reform in Springfield. What we know about the deal.

One of Chicago’s largest charter school networks is rebranding itself for the coming school year and rolling out new names for five of its campuses as it awaits approval for the changes from Chicago Public Schools.

Speakers at a CPS-led public hearing Wednesday repeatedly called on board members to vote down the district’s budget proposal, and instead advocate more strongly for sustainable funding.

Chicago Public Schools says its English language learners have significantly trimmed the achievement gap compared to native English speaking students – a data point Mayor Rahm Emanuel and district officials want to use in their ongoing fight for adequate funding from Springfield.

In the wake of widespread protests, Chicago Public Schools officials are hoping educators can use the events of Charlottesville, Virginia, as a teaching moment when classes resume next month.

School districts across the state already track how prepared students are to enter high school, but beginning this fall they’ll also start measuring their development before they enter elementary school.

In its initial feedback on the state’s Every Student Succeeds Act proposal, the U.S. Department of Education has raised concerns over how the plan deals with graduation rates and tracks English-language learner progress.

Chicago Public Schools has five hearings scheduled on various aspects of its latest spending plan this month, beginning Monday with meetings on its capital budget. Get complete details.

Illinois parents faced with the expulsion of a preschool-age child are often put in a difficult situation, but a new state law seeks to end that practice and get schools thinking about alternative solutions.

Chicago Public Schools on Friday finally issued the framework of its operating budget for the 2017-18 school year, but the source of some of its revenue remains unclear.

Public school students set up dozens of desks and seats Thursday morning along the 606 trail in protest of Chicago Public Schools’ latest staffing cuts and Gov. Bruce Rauner’s amendatory veto of Senate Bill 1.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel says Chicago Public Schools is prepared for the long term, but he’s not willing to put the city in a “weakened position” by discussing education financing options outside of Senate Bill 1.

Chicago students may be dreading the rapidly approaching first day of school, but at least they won’t have to worry about how to get there.

The education funding model Gov. Bruce Rauner hopes will replace a new formula he sees as a Chicago Public Schools' bailout contains a “significant error” in how it calculates the value of TIF districts, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

As districts across the state await an answer on school funding, Chicago Public Schools announced Monday it’s laying off more than 950 teachers and support staff.

Students within the City Colleges of Chicago won’t see any tuition hike this fall as the state’s largest community college district works through its first full budget in more than two years.

Citing principal feedback, CPS says it will no longer withhold 4 percent of schools’ special education funding and will instead using central contingency funds to grant appeals for both general and special education resources.

Just before Gov. Bruce Rauner issued a long-anticipated amendatory veto of an education funding reform bill in Springfield, top political fact-checkers cast doubt on one of the governor’s biggest criticisms of the legislation.

Illinois was praised for the clarity of its four-tier school ranking system and its focus on student growth, which makes up half of the weight behind a school’s annual rating in the proposed system.

A trio of town halls wasn’t enough for National Teachers Academy parents and South Loop-area residents, who filled a Board of Education meeting Wednesday to continue talks over a controversial plan for a new high school.