This booklet tells the story of citizen organization and role in the school reform movement in the restructuring of the Chicago (Illinois) Public Schools.

Chapter 1, "People Were 'Mad As Hell,'" relates the events immediately surrounding the Chicago Teachers Union strike that transformed discontent into community action.

Chapter 2, "It Didn't Start With the Strike," outlines the documentation of the system's shortcomings by school advocacy groups, the history of organizing around school issues from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and the city's political context.

Chapter 3, "The Movement," describes events from the end of the strike in October 1987 through May 1988, tracing the public process and the organizing, strategy-making, coalition-building, and lobbying that brought community organizations and representatives of the business community together around a common agenda for legislative action.

Chapter 4, "Through the Legislature," describes the sometimes unusual processes that were used in the state legislature in Springfield (Illinois) that drafted and eventually passed the bill.

Chapter 5, "What Happened Next," outlines the first two years of implementation and describes a few indications of the beginnings of classroom-level change.

A final section offers conclusions and lessons learned. An appendix contains a summary of the legislation, a list of members of key organizations, and a list of sources for more information. (JB)