Skip to main content

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.

Upcoming Events

August Data Collaborative - Ingenuity

Angela Lin and Christine Ng will present on Ingenuity’s continuum of data products tailored for different stakeholders, informing strategy and driving change within arts education in CPS. Their focus will be on the latest annual State of the Arts Report and new interactive dashboard. Ingenuity’s mission is to ensure that every student, in every grade, in every CPS school, has access to the arts as part of a well-rounded education.

September Data Collaborative - BUILD Chicago

Community-based organizations can greatly benefit from logic models, but often struggle to develop and maintain logic models that are well aligned with evolving on-the-ground program realities. Dave Koch will present on two games recently implemented with program staff at BUILD, a violence prevention organization working with young people on Chicago’s west side, which helped center the perspective and gain the buy-in of program staff while developing and implementing a new logic model.

October Data Collaborative - City Colleges of Chicago

City Colleges of Chicago’s Decision Support team will share how they’re supporting data-informed decision-making for continuous improvement. City Colleges of Chicago is Illinois’ largest community college system, serving more than 60,000 students annually. It is comprised of seven independently-accredited colleges: Harold Washington College, Harry S Truman College, Kennedy-King College, Malcolm X College, Olive-Harvey College, Richard J. Daley College, and Wilbur Wright College.

November Data Collaborative - Career Village

Eric Reyes and Abby Lupi will present their journey and two-year plan for measuring Career Readiness at CareerVillage.org, an organization that aims to democratize access to career information and advice. Historically, they did this through their Q&A forum and have since released Coach, their AI career coach. Eric is the Director of Data, and Abby is the Senior Data Analyst at CareerVillage.

December Data Collaborative - CPS Metric Redesign

Jeff Broom, Augusta Smith, Jonathan Harper, and Jake Brekelbaum will present how Chicago Public Schools is implementing the new Continuous Improvement and Data Transparency policy. The new policy shifts away from summative school rating and towards a holistic view of schools that includes student outcome metrics, measures of the conditions present at schools, and the district provided resources and supports aligned to those metrics and conditions.

Past Events

To&Through Data Collaborative: Monica Bhatt

Monica Bhatt presented the methodology CPS and the Urban Ed Lab recently used to set realistic, data-driven goals across the district, networks, and schools, employing an equity-focused approach to improvement. Monica is the Research Director with the Crime and Ed Labs. 

To&Through Data Collaborative: Steven Shewfelt and Emily Cibelli

Steven Shewfelt and Emily Cibelli presented new developments to Ingenuity’s artlook platform. Steve is the Director of Research and Data, Tom is the Manager of Data Strategy and Products, and Emily is a Senior Data Analyst. 

To&Through Data Collaborative: Matt Niksch

Matt Niksch presented Noble Charter School’s data systems for college access and success, including the use of Python, Jupyter Notebooks, Google Docs, Github, AWS, and JIRA. Matt is the Chief College Officer at Noble Charter School. See Matt's blog.

To&Through Data Collaborative: Jeff Broom and Bridget Lee

Jeff Broom and Bridget Lee presented a working draft of Chicago Public Schools’ new School Quality Rating Policy (SQRP). Jeff is the Director of School Quality Measurement and Research and Bridgette is the Manager of Performance Policy for CPS. 

To&Through Data Collaborative: Blenda Chiu

Blenda Chiu presented Bottom Line Chicago’s use of financial aid data to improve student supports. Blenda is the Director of Programs for Bottom Line Chicago.

2018 To&Through Convening

The To&Through Project's 2018 Convening brought together more than 220 K-12 and higher education, nonprofit, and civic leaders for a rich series of discussions centered on research and data on what fosters students' high school and post-secondary attainment and featured a keynote address from former U.S. Secretary of Education and Education Trust President and CEO, John B. King, Jr.