This agenda serves as a guide for our work over the next five years. Grounded in our core values and shaped by listening sessions with diverse stakeholders, this agenda reflects a sharpened sense of where the UChicago Consortium is best positioned to make a difference for Chicago’s students and schools and deepens our commitment to research that is collaborative, responsive, and rooted in the communities we serve. It lays out commitments about how we will continue to do our work, and five priority areas in which we will work. It is an ambitious research agenda.

The Illinois State Board of Education has recommended swapping out “chronic absenteeism,” a metric that tracks how many students miss 10% of school days, for “consistent attendance,” the percent of students who have been present for 90% or more of the school year.

It’s the flip side of the same coin, but it’s a tad Orwellian and it’s also paired with a change that matters far more: how much attendance actually counts...

This fall, Chicago voters will elect a fully representative school board for the first time in the city’s history — a long-awaited step toward greater community voice and, hopefully, accountability.

Key findings:

Study 1: The malleability of school climate: Lessons from the 5Essentials Survey in Chicago Public Schools

School leaders can use this guide to consider how to engage in conversations about Cultivate data with their school community, opening the door for thought partnership around ways to improve student experience. Understanding the data ensures school stakeholders can recognize the central role students' experiences play in school improvement, more effectively advocate for students, and make more informed governance decisions.

Our April 2026 newsletter features:

Student-athletes are less likely to skip school than other students, even in the offseason, new research finds, supporting an emerging consensus that connections to activities, teachers and peers are critical to combating the absenteeism crisis.

Interim Chicago Public Schools CEO Macquline King, who will become the district’s permanent leader in July, has major challenges ahead of her.

The district is facing a projected budget deficit of at least $520 million next school year. At the same time, enrollment is declining, and the chronic absenteeism rate — when kids miss at least 10% of school days — has remained around 40% for the past few years...