Key Findings

• Attendance matters because it affects students’ academic skills, grades, and likelihood of high school and college graduation. 
• Grades are typically the best predictors of students’ learning and long-term outcomes, including college enrollment and college degree completion. 
• Standardized tests can help identify needed, extra supports for students. 
• “On-track” indicators help educators ask key questions and build stronger, more supportive relationships with students.

Playbooks para familias ofrecen información clave, datos e investigación para ayudar a los padres y cuidadores a tomar decisiones informadas y actuar en temas importantes.

Las investigaciones demuestran que las calificaciones y la asistencia del preescolar al 12o grado son los ingredientes más importantes para el éxito de los estudiantes durante y después de la escuela preparatoria.

Family playbooks offer key info, data and research to help parents and caregivers make informed decisions and take action on important topics.

Research shows that grades and attendance from pre-K—12th grade are the most important ingredients for students’ success in and after high school.

Parents and families can understand if and how their school is helping students have high attendance and grades—and can provide their own support, too.

It takes a village to help students achieve high attendance and grades. 

Key Takeaways

• In the remote/hybrid year, students’ reports of feeling supported by teachers and peers were higher than pre-pandemic. 
  • With all of the focus on test scores, it’s important to remember the human experience during and after peak COVID experiences. 
• A natural threshold surfaced for remote instructional time. 
  • Most students in grades 2–12 spent four hours in synchronous instruction with teachers—regardless of the specific requirements for their grade level. 

Key Findings

• Absence ra

Jared is currently a Research Scientist at the USC Price School of Public Policy and an affiliated researcher with the UChicago Consortium on School Research and the Los Angeles Education Research Institute. 

His research examines whether and how neighborhoods and schools mediate the intergenerational transmission of skills, health, and status. He draws on literature from urban sociology, inequality/stratification, sociology of education, and social policy, and use his hometown of LA as a theoretically strategic case. 

Everyone knows standardized tests paint an incomplete picture of schools’ impacts on students. Yet coming up with thoughtful alternatives to tests is easier said than done. 

After all, any truly informative indicator of school quality must satisfy at least five criteria...

Kimani Vines wanted to carry on her family’s legacy of joining the military. The Englewood STEM High School sophomore is enrolled in her school’s ROTC program and even poses like a cadet for photos – shoulders back, head up, hands clasped. 

But after touring colorful booths last month at Chicago Public Schools’ college and career fair for students with disabilities, Kimani grew unsure about her plan. What if, for example, she studied animation before joining the Navy?