This report summarizes findings from a representative survey of 2,127 adult residents of Chicago, aged 18 years and older. The survey was designed by Public Agenda and fielded from December 28, 2023 to January 16, 2024 by NORC at the University of Chicago. This Public Agenda project is supported by the Joyce Foundation.

When referencing these findings, cite Public Agenda. 

Respondents were randomly sampled using NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak panel (339 completes), along with non-probability panels Dynata (868 completes), Lucid (549 completes), Prodege (365 completes), and Amplify AAPI (6 completes). Amplify AAPI is NORC’s custom panel of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders.

The survey was offered in English and Spanish and was administered online via the Web (2,117 completes) or over the telephone by a live interviewer (10 completes), depending on the preference the respondent provided during the panel recruitment. Respondents were offered a small monetary incentive (either $2 or $5) for completing the survey.

The sample includes 312 parents or guardians of a child or children currently enrolled in Kindergarten through 12th grade in any school in Chicago, including traditional public schools, charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling. Oversamples were collected for Chicagoans who identify as Asian, Black, and Latino; as well as K-12 parents who identify as Asian, Black, Latino, and white. The study also sought to meet quotas for adult residents in Chicago’s ten regions: Far North Side, Far South Side, Near North Side, Near South Side, North Side, Northwest Side, South Side, Southwest Side, the Loop, and West Side.

 All Chicago residents in the AmeriSpeak panel were invited to the survey. If a panel household had more than one active adult panel member, only one adult panel member was selected at random. For the non-probability sample, quota buckets for demographic strata were defined to reflect known population distributions and worked with the sample providers to slowly release sample over the field period to adequately fill each.

NORC applied cleaning rules to the survey data for quality control. In total, 86 cases were removed from the final set of completed interviews based on three cleaning rules:

• • Removing speeders (i.e., those who completed the survey in less than one-third of the median duration)
  • Removing respondents with high refusal rates (i.e., those who skipped or refused more than 50 percent of the eligible questions)
  • Removing straight-liners (i.e., those who straight-lined grid item questions)

An additional 12 cases were removed for suspicious use of their browser back button.

The final weights are developed through three stages. First, probability and non-probability sample weights are developed separately. Second, small area estimation is leveraged to model core response variables and generate raking benchmarks. Finally, the two samples are combined through TrueNorth calibration to create the final weights. These final two stages make up NORC’s TrueNorth® Calibration. To find more on the TrueNorth Calibration please visit: https://amerispeak.norc.org/us/en/amerispeak/our-capabilities/truenorth.html.

The final stage completion rate is 28.2 percent, the weighted household panel response rate is 21.4 percent, and the weighted household panel retention rate is 78.7 percent, for a cumulative response rate of 4.7 percent.

The oversamples of Chicagoans who identify as Asian, Black, and Latino; as well as K-12 parents who identify as Asian, Black, Latino, and white were weighted down to their proportions in the overall population in the final main study weights. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level for all Chicagoans. The margin of error for subpopulations are as follows:

• • +/- 5.68 percentage points at the 95% confidence level for parents
  • +/- 3.99 percentage point at the 95% confidence level for nonparents
  • +/- 13.37 percentage point at the 95% confidence level for Asian respondents
  • +/- 6.13 percentage point at the 95% confidence level for Black respondents
  • +/- 7.56 percentage point at the 95% confidence level for Latino respondents
  • +/- 5.68 percentage point at the 95% confidence level for white respondents

Sampling error is only one of many potential sources of error and there may be other unmeasured error in this or any other survey.

Selected questions in this survey are trended with a telephone survey conducted February 7 to 28, 2013 for the Joyce Foundation by NORC. The 2013 survey was based on a representative probability sample of the Chicago residents aged 18 years or older (N=1,010). The sampling frame was constructed from random-digit dial and cell phone residential telephone directories in Chicago. Oversampling of parents with children aged five to 17 years old was done to achieve a roughly 50 percent CPS adult proportion in the sample. Further information about the 2013 survey can be found here.

To inform the development of the current survey, Public Agenda conducted seven demographically diverse online focus groups with adult residents of Chicago. Five focus groups were conducted in English in July and August 2023 and two in Spanish in October 2023. Three of the English groups and both Spanish groups were conducted with parents of K-12 school children, including parents of children in traditional public schools, charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling. The remaining two English groups were conducted with nonparents. 

For a topline with full question wording and neighborhood definitions please follow this link. For other inquiries about the research, please email [email protected].