One of the most wide-ranging consequences of the COVID-19 crisis may be the demise of college admissions tests, a striking development that would help close the wide opportunity gaps in a key sector of American life.

While pressure to make the SAT and the ACT optional had been building before campuses closed early this spring due to the coronavirus crisis, the tests remained deeply embedded in the nation’s college-going culture, due in no small part to intensive lobbying by both ACT and the College Board, which sponsor the exams...

Three years after Superintendent Theresa Plascencia gutted the ranks of Waukegan High School’s administration in a redesign, Waukegan District 60′s school board is considering a request to add back two assistant principal positions.

With two more administrators being returned to the high school’s ranks, a handful of school board members questioned Tuesday why the district doesn’t return to the former structure...

At one high-poverty elementary school in Chicago’s South Side, almost 90% of students turned in at least one graded assignment during one week in mid-May. At a nearby elementary with similar demographics, about 10% did.

New data gauging how many Chicago students received graded schoolwork remotely this spring reveals a wide range of outcomes — a more nuanced picture than earlier districtwide numbers that showed about 85% of students across the city turned in at least one graded assignment a week...

Using Freshman OnTrack and more nuanced definitions of freshman success, sophomore educators can better target intervention and support from the beginning of sophomore year; and using similar sophomore success indicators, they can monitor and support students during sophomore year.

Before the coronavirus swept in, Samani Ford had a trusted system for achieving her goals: dream, plan, and execute.

A freshman at Rutgers University-Newark, her dream is to become a genetic counselor and help people navigate the health issues her extended family has faced, including cancer and bipolar disorder. Her plan to accomplish that dream is to excel at Rutgers, then earn a master’s degree and maybe a doctorate...

When the I-Team discovered that both Illinois and Chicago education officials were unable to provide any data showing whether students are actually logging in to online remote learning during the pandemic, they launched an investigation and found some nearly empty virtual classrooms.

"We're doing whatever we can to make sure that students are constantly learning but it is definitely heartbreaking and overwhelming to see the lack of participation, like do my students love me?" said CPS teacher Andrea Parker...

In the early weeks of remote learning at Chicago’s Senn High School, only counselors saw the weekly color-coded tally that tracked participation: students who completed assignments in green, those who kept in touch with teachers in yellow, and those who had not engaged at all in red.

But Principal Mary Beck recently heeded calls from teachers to share the data with them as well. That sparked productive conversations: Educators who were striking out with some students consulted colleagues who had successfully engaged them...

The Discovery Partners Institute has launched a new education and workforce research center, IWERC, with $3.9 million from some of the city’s most influential philanthropists and foundations.

IWERC stands for the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative. It will identify the questions most important to Illinois policy and education leaders, and then analyze appropriate data and share findings so that more students succeed...