Chicago students got more failing and incomplete grades during the pandemic, though that increase was much steeper at elementary schools than high schools, a new report out today finds.

But researchers with the University of Chicago’s Consortium on School Research say COVID-era grading data also offers some bright spots — and clues about how to steer recovery dollars to the schools that need them the most...

The titles of J.S. Puller’s first two books intrigued me so much that I immediately checked them out of the library.

It turns out The Lost Things Club is about a young boy who has stopped talking. His family, cousin, and friends are beside themselves. What will help TJ? Surprisingly, a laundromat, the things that are lost in said laundromat, and inventive friends who create a puppet video series about “The Land of Lost Things.” It’s a book based on today’s headlines, offering comfort and hope...

Jackson Overton-Clark was a Research Assistant for the UChicago Consortium. Jackson's passion toward building equitable learning environment stems from his previous tutoring work with Chicago Youth Programs and the creation of his own documentary.

Chen An is the Managing Director of Statistics and Analysis at the UChicago Consortium on School Research. She provides research and technical support to projects and facilitates the research findings review process. She believes in the power of using rigorous research to drive key decision-making in education to ensure that every student thrives.

Karina Kling is a PhD student and Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Fellow in the Department of Psychology working with Susan Levine in the Cognitive Development Lab. Her research interests occupy the intersection between math, psychology, and education, specifically centered upon student learning processes and instructional strategies; with focused investigations that study the acquisition of specific mathematical concepts combined with contextualization of the learning environment, her research aims to inform practical, equitable, and effective education practices.

Yunzhen (Amy) Liang is a doctoral student in the Quantitative Methods program in the Department of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University.

Key Findings

• High school students earned more As (by 8-10 percentage points) during remote and hybrid learning than in pre-pandemic years.
• Most of the improvement was among students who had been earning Bs before the pandemic started.
• Failure rates were fairly comparable to pre-pandemic years.,
• More students in grades 4-8 failed classes than pre-pandemic (21 percent in 2021 vs.

Before the pandemic, Michelle Yarbrough says her son, Josiah, was a straight-A student at Charles H. Wacker Elementary School in the Washington Heights neighborhood. But once Chicago Public Schools went remote in spring 2020, she saw his grades begin to slip.

"I didn't think it would affect the progress report the way that it did," Yarbrough says. But when she saw that he had a D, she knew she had to do something. "He never had a D or F."

It’s 85 degrees on a recent morning on Chicago’s West Side. Gabriela Tenorio and her team of parent ambassadors gather on the corner of Madison and Central Park in the Garfield Park neighborhood with a mission: They’re looking for 3- and 4-year-olds to recruit for preschool.

The moms are doing street outreach on behalf of the parent advocacy group COFI, or Community Organizing and Family Issues. Armed with pamphlets and clipboards, they plan to knock on every door in sight to spread the word about universal preschool at Chicago Public Schools...