This project will identify student, school, family, and neighborhood factors associated with absenteeism in grades 6-12 in the Chicago Public Schools, clarifying the role of in-school vs. out-of-school factors, and the influence of school policies and practices.
This two-phase study, co-led by the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Center (IWERC), will first investigate the range of Career and Technical Education Pathways and work-based learning opportunities for middle grades and high school students in CPS. This exploratory work will then inform the focus and design of the second phase, a rigorous causal study.
This Learning & Development Group pilot study is a validation of the Catalyze Survey, which measures the school conditions that support educators to engage in equitable and supportive practice, such as Collective Vision, Inclusive Leadership, Effective Systems, and Trust Community. The study assesses the survey's predictive validity for teacher practices and retention.
In service of systems transformation toward equity at scale, the Learning & Development Group is partnering with district and school support organization partners to advance research and practice on fostering educational environments that 1) center student experience, 2) elevate student voice, and 3) engage students as co-constructors of their learning environments.
High school EL students graduate at far lower rates than their English-proficient peers and are less likely to enroll in college. This has negative implications for their economic mobility. This study examines active ELs, former ELs and never-ELs academic trajectories and experiences during the high school years.
This mixed-methods study examines the experiences CPS students have in Early College (dual credit and dual enrollment) and Advanced Placement (AP) courses and investigates how they shape their post-secondary outcomes.
Grades and standardized test scores provide information about whether students are prepared for their future goals, but misperceptions and uncertainties can lead people to use them in ways that are counterproductive. This project provides evidence about these measures of student achievement.
This Learning & Development Group study is a multidistrict revalidation of the Cultivate Survey Instrument that 1) assesses the causal impacts of schools on students’ learning conditions, learning beliefs, and trajectories, and 2) examines the relationship between school climate (5Essentials Survey) and classroom learning condition measures (Cultivate Survey).
To support learning acceleration post-pandemic, and ensure all teachers have access to high-quality instructional materials, Chicago Public Schools developed an all-inclusive system of online curricular resources, called Skyline, as well as related professional learning (PL). The Consortium is conducting a three-year mixed-methods study examining the ongoing implementation of Skyline+PL.
This mixed-methods Learning & Development Group study addresses the racialized narratives and/or deficit assumptions that many students face in mathematics by building knowledge on teaching practices that enhance student experiences, and support positive self-beliefs and learning in math.
To address the teacher shortage, CPS developed Teach Chicago, a collection of targeted strategies to develop, recruit, and retain teachers in high-need schools. The Consortium is leading a two-year, mixed method study of these strategies, their efficacy, and the conditions that support successful implementation.
This study examines the trends in teacher retention in Chicago Public Schools before, during and post-pandemic years. This work will also explore what teacher, students and school characteristics are related to teacher retention.
Our new 5Essentials study looks at how school climate has changed in CPS schools over time. We’ll also examine how subgroup differences in the experience of school climate can affect student performance and school improvement.
In partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago, the UChicago Consortium is using available administrative datasets and data from surveys of college alumni to understand what the college-to-career transition looks like for graduates of Chicago area two-year and four-year institutions, particularly for first-generation, Pell eligible college students.
This study examines differences across teachers in the course grades they assign to students, discerning the degree to which there are short- and long-term effects of teacher grading practices on student outcomes, and whether teachers’ grading practices become more consistent with others in their school over time.
In partnership with Chicago Public Schools, the University of Illinois, Lurie Children's Center for Childhood Resilience, and four community-based organizations, we are working to understand how school communities implement CPS's Whole School Safety process and the impacts of removing school resource officers on students and schools.
Read our 2020-25 Research Agenda to learn more about the big-picture questions we seek to answer through our research.