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
March | City Colleges of Chicago
DATE CHANGE: Now Tuesday 3/10 at 2pm (changed from 3/17) 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.
April Data Collaborative | UChicago UTEP
The UChicago Urban Teacher Education Program (UTEP) will present on a current UTEP project. More details forthcoming. Tinishia Legaux Washington is the Director of UTEP and Kay Fujiyoshi is an Induction Coach and Instructor for UTEP.
May Data Collaborative | Chi-Rise
Erin Estrada and Kate Cronin will present on Chi-Rise's use of program level student data and counselor insights to drive a rigorous college list building process during the 2025-26 academic year. This process brings together multiple quantitative and qualitative data sources across the program's Finance, Fit, Finish trajectory. Erin Estrada is the Chi Rise Program Officer at Crown Family Philanthropies, and Kate Cronin is the Data and Strategy Analyst at Crown Family Philanthropies.
Upcoming Events
March | City Colleges of Chicago
DATE CHANGE: Now Tuesday 3/10 at 2pm (changed from 3/17) 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.
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?
April Data Collaborative | UChicago UTEP
The UChicago Urban Teacher Education Program (UTEP) will present on a current UTEP project. More details forthcoming. Tinishia Legaux Washington is the Director of UTEP and Kay Fujiyoshi is an Induction Coach and Instructor for UTEP.
May Data Collaborative | Chi-Rise
Erin Estrada and Kate Cronin will present on Chi-Rise's use of program level student data and counselor insights to drive a rigorous college list building process during the 2025-26 academic year. This process brings together multiple quantitative and qualitative data sources across the program's Finance, Fit, Finish trajectory. Erin Estrada is the Chi Rise Program Officer at Crown Family Philanthropies, and Kate Cronin is the Data and Strategy Analyst at Crown Family Philanthropies.
To&Through 2025-26 Data Collaborative In-Person Celebration
Come mix and mingle with our T&T Data Collaborative community and hear how folks have implemented feedback this year. In-Person!
Past Events
March | City Colleges of Chicago
DATE CHANGE: Now Tuesday 3/10 at 2pm (changed from 3/17) 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?