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
No Data Collaborative in July!
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.
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: UIC & Kids First on CPS Accountability Stakeholder Engagement
Natalie Neris and Matt Sweeney will present on the stakeholder engagement process for the CPS Accountability Redesign initiative at our December To&Through Data Collaborative.
Using Community-Based Data for Educational Equity
Join us on Wednesday, November 17 at 11:00 AM (CST) for a panel discussion with leaders from organizations collecting and using data on differences in investments, assets, and educational experiences between communities in Chicago. Leaders will discuss the implications of these data for cross-sector efforts to foster equitable investment in and educational experiences for Chicago Public Schools students.
To&Through Data Collaborative: To&Through on the Middle Grades Data Tool
Alex Seeskin and Thomas Massion will share a working prototype of the To&Through Online Tool that for the first time provides elementary schools with data on their graduates' Freshman OnTrack, high school graduation, and college enrollment rates. Alex is the Director of the To&Through Project and Thomas is a Research Analyst with the To&Through Project.
Community-Based Approaches to Educational Improvement
Join us on Tuesday, November 9 at 11:00 AM (CST) to put CBOs’ work in conversation with new research from the UChicago Consortium and the To&Through Project on differences in educational attainment between Chicago’s community areas. CBO leaders from the South and West Sides of Chicago will discuss the need for a whole-city approach to educational improvement and the collaborations that must be realized to advance educational equity.
Investigating Educational Attainment for CPS Students from a Community Perspective
Join us to investigate key attainment metrics for CPS students based on the community area in which they live rather than the school they attend. At the webinar, we will present key findings from new research that analyzes differences in patterns of high school enrollment as well as high school and college attainment between Chicago’s community areas. Attendees will also be among the first to explore the new, first-of-its-kind To&Through Community Milestones Tool.
Research Spotlight: Race, Advanced Math, and the Transition to High School
What are the academic and social factors that explain disparities in students’ likelihood of getting on (and staying on) the accelerated math track during the transition to high school? Join us at our Research Spotlight webinar on October 27 at noon (CST) to learn about Dr. Yasmiyn Irizarry’s recent study on advanced math course-taking in the ninth grade and its implications for practice and policy.
Research Spotlight: The Impact of COVID-19 and Racial Trauma on Emerging Adolescents
Experts in adolescent development and the creation of racial identities will discuss the impact of COVID-19 and incidents of racial trauma on emerging adolescents. The panel will include Dr. Rob Jagers from CASEL and Dr. Joanna Williams from Rutgers University. The panel will be moderated by Jenny Nagaoka of the University of Chicago with a welcome and introduction by Dr. Nancy Deutsch of the University of Virginia.
To&Through Data Collaborative: OneGoal on the "Fellow Journey Map"
Sam Koenig will present on the "Fellow Journey Map," an interactive student-facing data view for OneGoal fellows to understand what postsecondary milestones they have accomplished so far, and what they should work on next. Sam is the Senior Analyst at OneGoal.
To&Through Data Collaborative: Innovare & the Chicago Literacy Alliance
Nick Freeman of Innovare - Social Innovation Partners and Annie Rezac and Kaitlyn Childs of the Chicago Literacy Alliance will present on the LEI: Insights dashboard, which provides a shared map and a common set of data to empower the Chicago Literacy Alliance and its member organizations to make strategic, data-informed decisions to address the opportunity and access gaps facing Chicago communities.
To&Through Data Collaborative: CPS and To&Through on the College Match Framework
Brian Harris and Roy McKenzie will present on work to update Chicago Public Schools' College Match Framework, which uses high school students' GPA and SAT scores to help them put together an initial list of reach, match, and safety schools. Brian Harris is a GEAR UP College and Career Student Services Specialist at CPS and Roy McKenzie is a research analyst with the To&Through Project.