In 1980, Lincoln Park High School within Chicago Public Schools (CPS) was one of the first schools in the country to offer the IB. Partly based on the success of that program, the IB was extended to more neighborhood schools in the late 1990s as a high-quality alternative to the city's selective enrollment schools. The program expanded to 14 high schools across the city, including Amundsen, Bogan, Clark, Curie, Hubbard, Hyde Park, Kelly, Lincoln Park, Morgan Park, Ogden, Prosser, Senn, Steinmetz, Taft and Washington.
Although the programs were typically small, they attracted students from predominantly low-income and first-generation families, as well as students of color. And as data from the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research showed, these students made significant educational gains. In March 2012, the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research released "Working to My Potential: The Postsecondary Experiences of CPS Students in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme," which detailed the academic and behavioral skills demonstrated by IB students in the city and the impact the program was having on college access and success.
Shortly after the release of the consortium's report, the mayor of Chicago announced a major expansion of IB in CPS. Chicago already had the largest concentration of IB offerings of any urban school district — now the number of Diploma program schools in Chicago is projected to grow to 22.
The IB presence in the Chicago area extends beyond CPS. Trinity College Preparatory High School in River Forest established an IB program in 1994 and other schools offering the IB include the British School, Hales Franciscan High School, Homewood-Flossmoor High School, and DePaul College Prep.