Ten years ago, states across the country began to embrace a new set of tougher learning standards in public schools. This new model, called Common Core, was meant to transform how students are taught and what they learn. The goal was to raise the bar and level the playing field for schools across the country.

Today, Common Core is well-established across classrooms in Illinois — and many teachers say it has indeed transformed the way they teach and given students the critical thinking skills they need for the modern world...

The Illinois campus welcomed Dr. Camille A. Farrington in November as a keynote speaker of the two-day seminar "Creating Social Impact: Enhancing Skills for Educators and School-Based Community Service Personnel."

The event was jointly sponsored by the School of Social Work, the Bureau of Educational Research in the College of Education, the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute, and the Center for Prevention Research and Development...

The UChicago Consortium and the To&Through Project's annual analysis of CPS students' progress on key attainment milestones gives Chicago's education stakeholders a high-level view of how the district performed on these milestones in 2018, compared to rates from the past decade.

The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Teachers College Record, 121(090303), September 2019 by Teachers College Record. All rights reserved. © 2019

In an effort to keep students who fail early in their high school careers from falling completely out of school, ninth-grade teachers at Madison’s West High School are planning to give classroom grades of no lower than 40%, eliminate extra credit and allow up to 90% credit for late work in required classes.

First, the good news: Students at once-mired Chicago Public Schools are graduating and heading to college at a record clip. After a decade of steady gains, research shows the results for CPS are now in line with peer school districts around the country and within arm's length of national averages.

The same isn't true once the students reach college. Far too few make it through to graduation...

Chicago has rightly received praise for its nation-leading gains. Students in Chicago Public Schools grew academically at a faster rate than 96 percent of districts nationwide in recent years. High school graduation rates are higher than they've ever been. And more CPS graduates enroll in college and earn a sheepskin than ever before—all of this anchored by a strong district leader.

That's worth celebrating. But there's worrisome news to tamp the confetti...