Academy for Urban School Leadership

Today, it manages 31 Chicago Public Schools serving more than 16,000 students.

[1] Former Chicago Public Schools (CPS) President Arne Duncan met with financier Martin Koldyke and CPS educator Dr. Donald Feinstein and developed the idea of creating a specialized training program for teachers in urban schools.

The 12-month, full-time, paid training program combines teacher preparation, licensure, and a master's degree.

[4] The University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research and American Institutes for Research in 2012 released a summary from their independent research evaluating the effect of reform including AUSL schools[9] The study concluded the following: A Chicago Tribune article on AUSL from February 2012 entitled "School reform organization gets average grades" [10] stated that, Most of AUSL turnarounds score below CPS averages on the percentage of students meeting or exceeding state benchmarks on standardized testing.

Those schools that beat district averages have been accused of pushing out their lowest-performing students or those with discipline problems to artificially inflate their test scores.