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
Annual Middle Grades Network Celebration of Learning
Join us to celebrate the remarkable work of our partner schools in the To&Through Middle Grades Network (MGN) at our annual celebration of learning. This virtual session will feature reflections from current partner schools on the process of testing change ideas and the impact of co-creating these ideas with their MGN Student Fellowship.
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
Based on feedback from our brilliant Data Collaborative community, we want to create one opportunity during the year to bring our data community together in person. Whether you’ve been an active Data Collaborative member, presented or attended a session this year, or are simply curious about the work we’re doing, we’d love for you to join us for a collaborative gathering where you can:
Upcoming Events
Annual Middle Grades Network Celebration of Learning
Join us to celebrate the remarkable work of our partner schools in the To&Through Middle Grades Network (MGN) at our annual celebration of learning. This virtual session will feature reflections from current partner schools on the process of testing change ideas and the impact of co-creating these ideas with their MGN Student Fellowship.
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
Based on feedback from our brilliant Data Collaborative community, we want to create one opportunity during the year to bring our data community together in person. Whether you’ve been an active Data Collaborative member, presented or attended a session this year, or are simply curious about the work we’re doing, we’d love for you to join us for a collaborative gathering where you can:
Past Events
February Data Collaborative - Enlace Chicago
Valerie Coffman from Enlace Chicago will present on a report centered on undocumented students. The presentation will also contextualize immigration within the context of Trump administration and change in landscape.
English Learners in Chicago Public High Schools
The UChicago Consortium on School Research recently published a report examining high school and college outcomes for English Learners in Chicago Public Schools. Join study author Marisa de la Torre (Consortium on School Research), Rebecca Vonderlack-Navarro (Latino Policy Forum) and Jorge Macias (Latino Policy Forum) to learnkey takeaways from the study.
To&Through Milestones Tool Workshop: Higher Ed Lens
This 90-minute in-person workshop will offer a guided exploration of the To&Through Milestones Tool's new Higher Ed lens. Participants will connect data to their efforts to support CPS students who matriculate to City Colleges of Chicago, using CCC as an example of what's possible with this data.
January Data Collaborative - The To&Through Project
Peyton Cunningham will present theoretical frameworks which provide grounding and research support for the most central initiatives at To&Through. Peyton is a Ph.D. Candidate in University of Chicago’s Sociology department and an Institute for Education Sciences Fellow at To&Through.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.