Key Findings

• Learning conditions are important leading indicators of B or better math grades for middle and high school students.
• Learning conditions matter for students across racial and socioeconomic lines, and that when learning conditions improve, so does students’ likelihood of earning a B or better in math.
• Learning conditions tend to get worse over time in the absence of intentional efforts on the part of schools to improve them.

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?

Improving how students experience their classrooms is a key step.

Cultivate supports educators in creating learning environments that can positively shape students' beliefs—ultimately contributing to their learning and well-being.

WHY use Cultivate?

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...