Chicago Public School system is an extremely large school district. It manages over 600 public elementary and high schools in Chicago, Illinois. The Chicago Public School system is the third largest school district in the US. Currently, the school district schools more than 400,000 children. Chicago Public Schools has its headquarters in the 125 South Clark Street building held within the Chicago Loop.

Chicago schools have a history of high dropout rates. The average dropout rate is about 50 for the past 30 years. However, throughout the 90′s the drop out ratio actually improved slightly. The rates started at around 48 in 1991 and have risen to nearly 59 by 2009. The education offered, and the teachers commitment to their students is marked by these rising figures.

Chicago public schools offer many options. There are eleven regional gifted schools on the elementary level. They also have what they call classical elementary schools. These five classical schools take a liberal arts way of teaching, unlike the regional gifted centers. At the high school level, CPS has 9 selective enrollment high schools. These schools run on a point system out of 900. Competition is highly intense. Along with the points system, the students are asked to rank their high school choices in an order of 6 with the number 1 position being their favorite. The higher the school is ranked, the higher chance the school will accept the student. There are other public high school choices. These choices include public military academies, public career academies, and public charter schools.

There are many choices to make when moving into Chicago. With the efforts of the Chicago Public School System, the worry of educational needs of children should not be one of them. The Chicago Public School system is working hard to provide the choices parents have asked for. The dropout rate is declining, and the rankings are improving.