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
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.
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.
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! Join us for a highlight of the impact of our Data Collaboratives over time AND join Alex Ritson and Dominique McKoy from the To&Through Project to provide input on the rollout of our new Milestones Tool lens showing outcomes for CPSChicago Public Schools students filtered by Higher Ed institutions.
Upcoming Events
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.
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.
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! Join us for a highlight of the impact of our Data Collaboratives over time AND join Alex Ritson and Dominique McKoy from the To&Through Project to provide input on the rollout of our new Milestones Tool lens showing outcomes for CPSChicago Public Schools students filtered by Higher Ed institutions.
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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
Past Events
Practice Spotlight: How Meaningful Work Can Improve Middle Grades Outcomes
The To&Through Middle Grades Network (MGN) works to create educational environments where middle schools thrive. Join us to learn about how our MGN partner schools Brighton Park Elementary and Columbia Explorers Academy used a focus on meaningful work to create learning conditions that better meet the needs of their students.
Research & Tool Release: Elementary On-Track
What are the long-term impacts of being on-track in elementary school? Join us for the release of our forthcoming research with the UChicago Consortium and an accompanying, publicly accessible data tool. The research can help elementary educators identify and support students early in their educational journeys by organizing their efforts to improve students’ outcomes.
To&Through Data Collaborative: City Colleges of Chicago
Leaders from City Colleges of Chicago will present on the implementation of population health management strategy to create a predictive analytics algorithm. This algorithm has led to intentional, proactive, and integrative retention student support practices across the City Colleges of Chicago district.
Research Spotlight: College Coaching & the Transition to College
What might be some of the unintended consequences and/or possibilities of college coaching for larger structural change in equitable college access and success? Join us as we update our understanding of the issues impacting recent CPS graduates’ post-secondary outcomes with Dr. Bridgette Davis. Dr. Davis is an Assistant Professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Public Policy.
15 Years and Counting: Lessons from the Network for College Success
Chicago has seen amazing increases in our high school graduation rates through ninth-grade success systems. How did this happen? What can we leverage from that work in districts nationally? Join this conversation to hear how we can spread and scale education innovations in Chicago across the country. The discussion will feature leaders from the Network for College Success.
To&Through Data Collaborative: Hope Chicago
Dr. Janice K. Jackson and Michele Howard will present and seek feedback on Hope Chicago's two-generation, debt-free college scholarship and support program for Chicago Public Schools students. Dr. Jackson is the CEO of Hope Chicago and Michele Howard is the Chief Program Officer.
To&Through Data Collaborative: Project OneTen
On August 23 at 2 PM (CST), Dirrick Butler will present on how Project OneTen is working to measure relationship development and student growth for ninth-grade young men in their program. Dirrick Butler is the founder and executive director of Project OneTen, a mentorship and academic coaching program for Black and Brown boys in Chicago.
To&Through Data Collaborative: Teach Plus
Josh Kaufmann, Kristen Ciciora, and Teach Plus teacher leaders will present on their work to codify best practices for improving teacher diversity at all parts of the teacher pipeline, from what it takes for students of color to consider education as a career to how schools need to change in order to better support their educators of color. Josh is the Executive Director and Kristen is the Senior Director of Instructional Programs at Teach Plus Illinois.
To&Through Data Collaborative: The Network for College Success
The Postsecondary Team at Network for College Success will present on the Developmental Relationships Survey tool as a first step in identifying what support and guidance young people receive from all adults at the high school level as young people discover who they are, develop abilities to shape their own lives, and learn how to engage with and contribute to the world around them on their postsecondary journey.
Research Spotlight: Chicago's Enrollment Crisis
How are equity issues in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) exacerbated by the reality of declining student enrollment? Join us on Thursday, June 9 at 2 PM (CST) to learn about Kids First Chicago's latest report exploring the root causes of CPS's enrollment decline. Kids First Chicago's (K1C) Chief of Policy Hal Woods will review the key drivers behind the decline and share how K1C is engaging parents and communities in identifying potential solutions to keep more families in Chicago and enrolled in CPS.