Last year, my colleague LaShawn Routé Chatmon and I wrote this piece in EdWeek — “5 Steps for Liberating Public Education From Its Deep Racial Bias.” We made the case that in order to support the social and emotional well being of our students, we need to acknowledge and confront the legacy of racism and exclusion in our schools and communities — and its continued impact on all of our students.

Alexandra is an Associate Director of the To&Through Project and a Senior Research Analyst at the Consortium on School Research. Alexandra leads the research and data processes that inform the To&Through Project, which aims to increase the percentage of Chicago Public School students who graduate from high school and earn a college degree, and to share the learning from Chicago with education stakeholders across the country.

After spending four weeks of his summer at Freshman Connection, a support program for Chicago ninth graders, Jacob says he’s ready to start high school at Roberto Clemente Community Academy.

Acquiring that drive and energy is especially important for students like Jacob — at 15 and having failed eighth grade, he can’t go back to elementary school. Now he’s got to make it through high school...

This is a multi-method study of the school leadership pipeline in Chicago Public Schools and the State of Tennessee. The study examines how leaders are identified and recruited; critical pre-service experiences; preparation and development; and aspects of the hiring process. The researchers study expect to identify processes that lead to stronger school leadership and improved student outcomes.

This study explores the relationship between access to Pre-K enrollment sites, actual enrollment in Pre-K, and later academic outcomes. It describes Pre-K enrollment by student and neighborhood characteristics in great detail. Finally, it explores whether changes in CPS enrollment policies have helped achieve the goal of providing Pre-K opportunities to more students who are most likely to benefit from them.

The UChicago Consortium is conducting a multi-year, mixed methods research project exploring the work of educators and schools serving students who live in Chicago communities experiencing high levels of violent crime.  The project combines administrative data from the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), publicly available crime data from the Chicago Police Department (CPD), student and teacher survey data from CPS elementary and high schools, and qualitative data from a selected sample of six CPS high schools in order to explore and understand the challenges and highlight the successes of educat

As thousands of incoming high school freshmen fret about the start of a new chapter, some California schools are relying on summer bridge programs to help students adjust to the new academic environment.

Researchers have found that freshman year can be one of the most critical in a student’s academic journey...

This is a working paper. Working papers are preliminary versions that are shared in a timely manner, with the aim of contributing to ongoing conversations in research and practice. They have not undergone the UChicago Consortium’s full internal review process, nor have they received external peer review. Views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect those of the UChicago Consortium or the University of Chicago. Any errors are the authors’ own.

While there is a growing recognition that the arts are central to a well-rounded education, schools have been slow to incorporating that into curriculum. Though the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) listed the arts and music as tenants of a “well-rounded” education, few state plans have formally included the arts in their accountability plans. 

Raising a child in 2019 is tough for a variety of reasons, but keeping them motivated at school when they’d rather be on their phone or tablet 24/7 can seem downright impossible. 

That doesn’t mean all hope is lost. In fact, there are a few things parents can do to help guarantee motivated and successful kids...