New CPS application didn't improve access for Black students in first year

A new centralized high school application process was intended to expose Chicago students to more options, but low-income and black students continued to be more likely than others to attend poor-performing high schools, according to a study released on Thursday.

The analysis of data from the first year of the application process, called GoCPS, offers insight into what is preventing low-income black students from accessing highly rated schools...

Straight Up Conversation

Emily Krone Phillips is the author of the new book The Make-or-Break Year, which chronicles how Chicago Public Schools used the metric Freshman OnTrack to boost graduation rates. Now at the Spencer Foundation, she was previously at the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, where the Freshman OnTrack research originated. I recently talked with Emily about dropouts and efforts to help students stay on track. Here's what she had to say...

Closing the achievement gap at Signal Hill Elementary

For decades, policymakers have been working to address the large differences in test scores between students from different income brackets and racial backgrounds – an issue known as the achievement gap. A 2018 report studying national data found that on average, Black and Latino 12th grade students perform at similar reading levels to White 8th grade students. Further, the income-based achievement gap is twice the size of the racial achievement gap and has increased exponentially in recent decades.

Lisa Sall

Lisa Sall wasthe Director of Outreach and Communications at the UChicago Consortium. She collaborated with researchers and the communications team to engage stakeholders and help the UChicago Consortium amplify its research findings to inform education policy and practice. Lisa has worked in marketing communications for 25 years on both the agency and client sides with the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

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