Over the next five years, the UChicago Consortium has chosen to pursue an agenda that centers equity and student experience at its core.

Elaine Allensworth discusses how high school GPAs (HSGPAs) are often perceived to represent inconsistent levels of readiness for college across high schools, whereas test scores are seen as comparable...

For students and colleges alike, the changes wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic have affected virtually every facet of the educational process. It’s tougher to teach. It’s certainly tougher to learn. Many campuses have sat largely empty. And the idea of extracurricular activity has, for all intents, dried up.

As part of Bellwether’s new series of briefs, From Pandemic to Progress, Allison Crean Davis makes the case to establish a national Institute for Education Improvement (an IEI), stating the need for continuous improvement across the American education system. Davis says, “If the U.S. education sector is to dramatically improve outcomes for students, it needs large-scale, consistent, and sustained organizational support for continuous improvement.”

David Paunesku is the Executive Director of PERTS, a center he co-founded at Stanford University. PERTS helps educators apply insights from the psychological sciences to improve students’ educational experiences and outcomes. He coauthored “A Brief Intervention to Encourage Empathic Discipline Cuts Suspension Rates in Half Among Adolescents” (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).

Laura Wentworth is the Director of Research Practice Partnerships at California Education Partners. Since 2009, she has directed the partnership between Stanford University and San Francisco Unified School District. Her research interests focus on school district reform and research–practice partnership effectiveness.

Until my recent appointment to the Illinois Senate, I was the secretary of the Illinois State Board of Education. That means I was a member of the board at the time we adopted the Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards. You may have heard about these standards in the news.

The General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, or JCAR, is expected to take up the issue Tuesday...