New research from the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research (UChicago Consortium) shows the learning environments educators create can have a strong influence on students’ Academic Mindsets and Learning Strategies, and, ultimately, performance. Based on this research, we at UChicago Impact partnered with the UChicago Consortium to develop Cultivate, a survey and framework designed to support educators in creating the kind of learning environments that can change what students believe and how they perform.

Key Findings:

What is the purpose of the 5Essentials (5E) Surveys for teachers and students?

Results from the 5E Survey provide a guide to help schools know what they can do to improve or strengthen their school. Research has shown that schools strong on three or more of the 5Es are actually 10 times more likely to improve than schools that are weak on three or more of the 5Es.

Educators in two Marion County districts are pushing lawmakers to let schools count as graduates certain students now labeled as dropouts. But some experts say that move would lower the bar for Indiana students.

Should lawmakers approve the measure, graduation counts in several districts would include students who pass a high school equivalency exam and take steps toward career training...

This study examines trends in CS education in Chicago over the last decade in CPS high schools. The longitudinal look utilizes data from 2008-09 through 2017-18. It looks specifically at the cohorts of students expected to graduate under the new CS graduation requirement in 2020 and 2021. Because our data sample ended in 2018, our analyses and findings do not include information for a full four years of enrollment for the 2020 and 2021 cohorts.

Students’ high school grade point averages are five times stronger than their ACT scores at predicting college graduation, according to a new study published today in Educational Researcher, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association.

Students’ high school grade point averages are five times stronger than their ACT scores at predicting college graduation, according to a study posted on the website of the University of Chicago (UChicago) Consortium on School Research.

The researchers examined 55,084 students who graduated from Chicago Public Schools of varying academic profiles between 2006 and 2009, and who then immediately enrolled in a four-year college. At the time of the study, all Illinois students took the ACT in the spring of 11th grade...

A new study has shown that high school GPAs predict college graduation better than ACT scores, the standardised test that high school students take for college admissions in the US.

According to the study by Elaine M Allensworth and Kallie Clark from the University of Chicago, the relationship between ACT scores and college graduation depends on which high school a student attends, as they did not find a connection between students’ ACT scores and college graduation at some schools...

Students’ high-school grade point averages are five times stronger than their ACT scores at predicting college graduation, according to a new study from the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research.

Andria Shyjka is a Research Analyst at the UChicago Consortium. In this position she works on a variety of research projects which examine how schools and teachers use data for improvement. She believes her decade of teaching experience provides a valuable background to research of teacher improvement via formal evaluation, professional development and student feedback, assessment of school culture and climate, and organizational change.