Abstract
The Autonomous Management and Performance Schools Program (AMPS) in the Chicago Public Schools is designed to grant high-performing and/or promising schools certain academic, programmatic, and operational freedoms. The underlying premise is that such schools can benefit from autonomy from district programs and rules such that they have more flexibility to serve the needs of their students as they see best. This initiative is one piece of the district’s broader strategy to turn around the district’s high schools in order to reduce high dropout rates, promote student achievement, and prepare students so that they are ready to attend college. In theory, AMPS status is meant to confer a number of autonomies to schools that should enable them to better serve their students.