Each Learning Condition Guide:
Who are these resources for?
Morning after morning in her junior year, Carmelia McKeehan thought about making the short walk to Farragut High School on Chicago’s Southwest Side, only to retreat to her bedroom, twiddling away hours on YouTube still in her pajamas.
She didn’t realize just how many days she was absent last school year — until a worried school counselor printed out her attendance record to share with her mother...
"Using the Freshman On-Track Indicator to Improve High Schools in Chicago" is Chapter 5 of Measuring to Improve: Practical Measurement to Support Continuous Improvement in Education (Continuous Improvement in Education Series) edited by Paul G. LeMahieu, Paul Cobb, and Anthony S. Bryk. The full book is available from Harvard Education Press.
Does student–teacher match quality exist? While prior research documents disparities in teachers’ impacts across student types, it has not distinguished between sorting and causal effects as the drivers of these disparities. I develop a flexible disparate value-added model (DVA) and introduce a novel measure of teacher quality—revealed comparative advantage (CA)—that captures the degree to which teachers affect student outcome gaps.
In spring 2025, benchmarks were updated for 5Essentials Survey scores and ratings in Illinois and CPS.
Survey benchmarks…
Members of the Maasai tribe of Kenya traditionally greet each other with “Kasserian Ingera,” which translates to “And how are the children?” The customary response, “Sepati Ingera,” means “The children are well!” This exchange reflects a deeply held belief that children’s well-being is the best indicator of their society’s future health and prosperity.
By this measure, America is struggling...
Chicago Public Schools serves over 320,00 students, who represent a higher proportion of students with greater needs compared to other districts in Illinois. Nearly 9 out of 10 Chicago Public Schools students are non-White — 47% are Latino, and 35% are Black.
Despite the academic growth in ELA proficiency, Kids First Chicago Data Scientist Micaelan Gasperich points out that equity gaps are evident when these rates are broken up by demographics...
When Laura Link works with districts to review their grading policies, she starts by asking a simple question: What are grades for?
Are grades meant to motivate students? To help teachers determine who needs more support? To inform parents of their children’s progress?
Chicago Public Schools officials are back at the bargaining table — this time, with the district’s principals.
In February, CPS and the Chicago Principals & Administrators Association, the union representing school leaders, restarted contract talks after putting them on hold in the fall amid time-consuming and often contentious negotiations between the district and the Chicago Teachers Union. The district reached a tentative agreement with the CTU last week...
Save The Music’s old tagline was “Music Equals Brainpower.” But how does music improve the mind? How does playing music affect the brain? Is it actually true that playing an instrument makes you smarter?
Among musicians, teachers, and parents, there is a strong intuitive sense that music education and academic performance are linked. But what do the research studies in music education say? How does music help the brain? How does music help you learn?