There is tremendous concern across the country about students’ attendance and learning. Absence rates remain much higher than they were before the Covid-19 pandemic: Nationally, 23% of students still miss more than 10% of school days. That adds up to missing over three weeks of school.

So much has changed in the last few years, and we’ve heard questions about whether the old standards for attendance are still relevant and reasonable. Do young people still need to go to school every day? Can schools have much influence on attendance when so many barriers exist outside of school?

The Research Analyst I will support the work of Consortium research teams as they design and implement studies. The successful candidate will contribute to the organization’s capacity to conduct highly-rigorous quantitative research on the Chicago Public Schools.

Attendance rates improve when a school develops meaningful family engagement, and when students feel safe and have positive relationships with peers and teachers. According to new research from the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, these positive factors of school climate have become especially impactful since the pandemic.

Findings from the first year of a multi-year study examine the causes, consequences and impacts of absenteeism in Chicago schools in post-pandemic years relative to pre-pandemic years among students in grades 6-11...

How can educators use data strategically to support teaching, learning, and continuous improvement? 

UChicago Consortium Lewis-Sebring Director, Dr. Elaine Allensworth shared a clear framework for using data that matters most for student achievement, from her new book, Using Data to Improve Schools. 

The school closures and consolidations proposal for Philadelphia schools that were announced in January were not surprising. The district, like many districts across the country, has signaled that it is grappling with declining enrollment, underutilized buildings, and tight budgets. The issue is so pervasive that the consulting firm Bellwether published a full report about it last fall called “Systems Under Strain: Warning Signs Pointing Toward a Rise in School Closures,” warning that many districts would soon face similar decisions.

Melody Zhou is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of Chicago, majoring in Data Science and Economics.

Even in the freezing air, Romian Crockett stood outside Chalmers STEAM Elementary with a boombox blaring ’90s music. Swaying to the beat, the principal hugged or high-fived each student who walked through the door. He knows all 218 by name. 

“Terrence, good morning,” Crockett told a young boy bundled in layers...

"My dream would be that we, as a board, come up with a statement of clear, shared vision," says school board member Ellen Rosenfeld...

We spend tens of billions of dollars each year on K-12 public education in Illinois. We argue endlessly about how best to invest that money to improve student outcomes, and we despair when those investments don’t produce an adequately literate and numerate student population. But our fixation on budgets and balance sheets may be obscuring something just as essential to learning — and far harder to buy. 

Trust...

Marisa de la Torre, Managing Director and Senior Research Associate at the UChicago Consortium, joins John Williams to talk about a study she co-authored that breaks down how students’ absence rates have changed since the pandemic...