Learning disruptions can require school leaders to make changes quickly. In the wake of the pandemic, the Chicago Skyline Early Literacy project channeled this sense of urgency into a drive to innovate. The project team is a research-practice partnership (RPP) between Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research (Consortium). 

Chronic absenteeism—defined as missing 10 percent or more of the school year—has emerged as one of the most pressing challenges facing schools today. During the COVID-19 pandemic, national rates of chronic absenteeism nearly doubled, rising from 15 percent in 2019 to 28.5 percent in 2022. Two years later, those numbers still haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, with 23.5 percent of students considered chronically absent in 2024.

As the national education research and policy landscape continues to shift, the UChicago Consortium remains committed to conducting high-quality education research to support stronger and more equitable outcomes for students, and inform policy and practice in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). 

Our September 2025 newsletter features updates on: 

Schools across Illinois and the country will soon be resuming classes for the 2025-2026 school year and while many families and children are savoring the last days of summer break or eagerly anticipating new classes and experiences, many immigrant families are also safety planning in the event they are swept up in an ICE raid or are questioning whether it’s safe to send their kids to school at all out of fear of immigration enforcement activity in or near schools. Community members, advocates, and legislators at the Safe Schools for All press conference on 8/19/2025. 

What’s the most reliable way for young people today to land a job with a salary that can support them and a family? The evidence is clear: Get a college degree...

El costo de la universidad en EEUU suele ser elevado, tanto que muchas familias se preguntan si vale la pena, considerando su impacto en el futuro económico de los estudiantes. Un estudio de la organización Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative (IWERC) aborda esta cuestión. La Dra. Mariana Barragán Torres, especialista en investigaciones, analiza los hallazgos y destaca, entre otros puntos, las diferencias entre quienes cuentan con título universitario y quienes no lo tienen...

For generations, America has been thought of as the land of opportunity, a place where anyone who worked and studied hard could grow up to achieve any goal they set for themselves. 

That idea has had especially strong roots in Illinois, the “Land of Lincoln,” where a young man born in a log cabin on America’s frontier rose from rail-splitter to self-taught lawyer and president of the United States...

Illinois high school students who went on to obtain a college degree earn more money than their peers with only a high school diploma, but those from low-income households, students of color, and women who graduate from college are likely to be paid less than affluent, white male counterparts, according to a new report. 

Key Findings

• GPAs were the most predictive of high school graduation, college enrollment, and degree completion for all English Learner groups, followed by attendance and course failure rates. These were more predictive than level of English proficiency, standardized test scores, suspensions, and background characteristics.
• Combining GPA and attendance data, or course failure rates and attendance data, provided the best prediction of high school graduation for most English Learner groups.