UChicago Consortium is seeking a Research Analyst II with strong data manipulation, quantitative research, and programming skills, and a passion for doing meaningful work to help schools become more equitable. The successful candidate will provide on-going support across Consortium studies and be a part of one or two teams of Consortium researchers. The Research Analyst II will provide data and analytic support throughout the life cycle of projects, including cleaning and documenting data sources, creating large-scale data bases, and applying different statistical approaches.

Chicago Public Schools could change when elementary school students can be held back a grade and plans to stop using test scores as a factor. 

The district did not hold back any elementary students during the first two years of the pandemic in a nod to COVID’s academic and mental health toll. Last year, it revised the policy for promoting students to drop a test that schools were no longer required to give...

The recent release of the 2022 NAEP scores, which showed historic learning declines in math and reading two years following the onset of the pandemic, has brought renewed urgency to conversations around learning losses and recovery. Beliefs about these topics shape how policymakers, educators and parents act to support students moving forward. Yet our research shows that common assumptions about whose learning was affected the most and what it will take for students to catch up are, in fact, misconceptions.

When Kyla Jimenez’s older brother Isaaq would travel from their home in Chicago’s Belmont Cragin neighborhood to the University of Chicago’s campus to participate in the University’s college readiness and access programming, she often tagged along. Kyla would explore campus buildings or do homework in Hyde Park coffee shops with her mom while Isaaq attended classes and events for the Collegiate Scholars Program for Chicago Public School students.

Want to help students improve their academic outcomes?

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Cultivate supports educators in creating learning environments that can change what students believe and, thus, how they perform.

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During the last school year, when academic recovery remained elusive, Chicago schools continued to struggle with lagging attendance, new data show.

This fall, they are making a fresh push to boost student turnout...

The Senior Research Associate will conduct original research consistent with the Consortium model, applying rigorous methods to answer questions of policy and practice in collaboration with educational stakeholders. The SRA will also co-direct the work of the Equitable Learning and Development Group developing and leading a nationally focused research agenda that centers student and educator experiences in schools. The candidate will also provide guidance to other researchers at the Consortium on how to conduct rigorous research and engage with policymakers and school practitioners.

This episode features a conversation with Alex Usher and Alex Seeskin from the University of Chicago. Alex Usher is Associate Director for Data Research at the University of Chicago’s To&Through Project and Senior Research Analyst for the UChicago Consortium on School Research. Alex Seeskin is Director of The To&Through Project, which is housed at the UChicago Urban Education Institute.