The To&Through Project’s events are intended for a diverse cross-section of education leaders and partners from the K-12, higher education, nonprofit, and civic communities. Presenters and panelists come together to share new research findings as well as share ideas and strategies for helping Chicago’s under-resourced students succeed in high school and college. The To&Through Project also hosts monthly Data Collaboratives designed to elevate and promote dialogue around new and emerging work focused on applying data to youth development efforts. You can watch recordings of our previous events on YouTube.
Events
Featured Events
December | Kids First Chicago: The State of Chicago Public Schools
Kids First Chicago (K1C) will present its latest State of Chicago Public Schools report—an annual data-driven review of how CPS students are doing both academically and socioemotionally. The report highlights key indicators such as student proficiency, growth, on-track rates, chronic absenteeism, post-secondary outcomes, and parent engagement.
To&Through Milestones Tool 101
Learn how to use our online tool! In this 90-minute introductory, interactive workshop, participants will dive into the To&Through's online public data tool, which shows CPS students' outcomes on key academic metrics from the sixth grade through college.
January | The To&Through Project
The To&Through Project, will present the newest edition of our iconic Myth & Facts. The new resource is titled Numbers & Narratives. It blends both quantitative and qualitative data into an interactive website, highlighting important educational facts starting from the middle grades, all the way to college graduation.
Upcoming Events
December | Kids First Chicago: The State of Chicago Public Schools
Kids First Chicago (K1C) will present its latest State of Chicago Public Schools report—an annual data-driven review of how CPS students are doing both academically and socioemotionally. The report highlights key indicators such as student proficiency, growth, on-track rates, chronic absenteeism, post-secondary outcomes, and parent engagement.
To&Through Milestones Tool 101
Learn how to use our online tool! In this 90-minute introductory, interactive workshop, participants will dive into the To&Through's online public data tool, which shows CPS students' outcomes on key academic metrics from the sixth grade through college.
January | The To&Through Project
The To&Through Project, will present the newest edition of our iconic Myth & Facts. The new resource is titled Numbers & Narratives. It blends both quantitative and qualitative data into an interactive website, highlighting important educational facts starting from the middle grades, all the way to college graduation.
Beyond Income: How Wealth Can Better Target State Funding for Higher Education
State post-secondary aid systems assess a student’s ability to pay for college by focusing on their household income, but overlook household wealth. This approach obscures the significant challenges faced by dually disadvantaged students—those who are both low-income and low-wealth.
February | Hope Chicago
Megan Lane Conklin and Deanna Stewart will present on Hope Chicago's effectiveness at increasing college enrollment and retention for over 2,600 students from underserved Chicago Public High Schools. Specifically, they will discuss the role student engagement plays in success and what types of student engagement are correlated with higher outcomes. Megan is the Director of Data and Deanna is a Program Manager at Hope Chicago.
Supporting College Success for Black Graduates of Chicago Public Schools
In 2024, 57% of Black CPS graduates successfully enrolled in college in the fall immediately after high school graduation. When we look at college completion for the most recently available 6 year graduation cohort however, we see that for the class of 2018, 40.% of those Black young women and 27% of Black young men who enrolled have actually walked across the stage with their college diploma or certificate.
March | City Colleges of Chicago
In FY25, in response to both rising student need and looming federal program cuts, the City Colleges of Chicago launched the Thrive Strategy: an ambitious system-wide commitment to making basic needs support—spanning food security, housing, mental health, emergency grants, and technology—an integral part of the CCC experience. Thrive is rooted in the belief that when students’ basic needs are met, they are empowered to persist, complete their programs, and graduate into upwardly mobile, family-sustaining careers.
To&Through Milestones Tool Superuser Workshop
Calling all To&Through Milestones Tool fans! Want to delve deeper into the hidden features of the Tool that only superusers know about, and collaborate around use cases for the Tool and the CPS student outcomes data found there? Join us in this virtual workshop to practice finding and communicating insights from the Milestones Tool and share potential actions we want to take with that data.
Who should attend?
Past Events
Annual Update on the Educational Attainment of CPS Students
Join us virtually on Tuesday, December 2 as the UChicago To&Through Project and UChicago Consortium on School Research share our annual report, The Educational Attainment of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Students: 2024. Our eleventh annual release, this year's report highlights the successes of CPS students pursuing degrees and the opportunities that still exist to make college an accessible option for all CPS students.
November Data Collaborative | Chicago Youth Boxing Club
Noah Pickens and Adrian Guzman, from the Chicago Youth Boxing Club (CYBC), will present on their efforts to develop a competency-based evaluation protocol that captures the holistic impact of their year-round boxing and mentorship programs. Their approach centers youth and community transformation, and they are seeking ways to improve our ability to capture a blend of quantitative, demographic, and developmental data to measure change over time.
To&Through Milestones Tool Superuser Workshop
Calling all To&Through Milestones Tool fans! We want to delve deeper into the hidden features of the Tool that only superusers know about, and collaborate around use cases for the Tool and the CPS student outcomes data found there. Join us in this virtual workshop to practice finding and communicating insights from the Milestones Tool and share potential actions we want to take with that data.
Who should attend?
Exploring Pathways From High School to Career and Their Payoffs in Illinois
Does higher education still pay off for students? How have students from low-income families in Illinois fared after high school, and how do their education and earnings outcomes compare to more economically advantaged students? What education and employment opportunities best support upward economic mobility for Illinois students?
October Data Collaborative | CPS Academic Progress Indicator
Peter Leonard and Kevin Shallcross will share how Chicago Public Schools has developed and is implementing the Academic Progress Indicator (API), the "Student Growth to Proficiency" measure in the Continuous Improvement and Data Transparency Policy (CIDT). The API uses shifts in standardized achievement to provide an understanding of student progress over time. Peter Leonard is the Executive Director of Student Assessment & MTSS and Kevin Shallcross is the Manager of Data Quality in the Department of School Quality Measurement & Research.
To&Through Spotlight: Sparking Engagement in the Middle Grades
Adolescence is one of the most critical periods for brain development and learning. Research also indicates that student engagement drops dramatically during this time. This is why the middle grades are a period of vulnerability but also of tremendous opportunity. This is a cornerstone of the work of our To&Through Middle Grades Network.
To&Through Milestones Tool 101 Workshop
In this 90-minute introductory and interactive workshop, participants will dive into the To&Through's online public data tool, which shows CPS students' outcomes on key academic metrics from the sixth grade through college. You'll understand our specific philosophy on data use, learn about the different “lenses” of available CPS outcomes data, and how this Milestones Tool can (and can't) be helpful in your work of strengthening student pathways to and through college.
September Data Collaborative | To&Through’s 100th Data Collaborative
Come celebrate our 100th To&Through Data Collaborative! We’ve been hosting these data-centered collaborative spaces since 2017 and we are reaching the milestone of hosting our 100th Data Collaborative! If you've been a part of Data Collaboratives in years past, we would love to see you there.
Join us as we highlight some of the data story and the impact of our Data Collaboratives over time and provide us with essential feedback to shape what the future Data Collaborative should hold.
August Data Collaborative | Project OneTen
Adrian Villarreal from Project OneTen will walk through their Student Engagement Dashboard, powered by Airtable, and show how we use real-time data to track participation, growth, and retention. We’ll highlight our Flag System, a key tool to ensure students receive timely support and stay on track, activating staff and partners as needed. Adrian Villarreal is the Director of Operations & Impact at Project OneTen.
The To&Through Project: Kegs & Cases
Join the To&Through Project for our third annual Kegs & Cases at Cruz Blanca Taproom. We will share our latest Learning Case– a qualitative look at the experiences of Diverse Learner students as they navigate decision making, enrollment, and persistence at their chosen post-secondary pathways. Come participate in a facilitated case learning experience, meet & collaborate with stakeholders supporting CPS students, and network with our To&Through community over beers and snacks!