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
Research Spotlight: Helping Homeless Students “Beat the Odds”
What strategies or practices can schools implement to better support homeless students? Join us on Tuesday, May 10 at 12 PM (CST) when researchers Dr. Shantá Robinson and Dr. Kelly Hallberg will share findings from a recent qualitative and quantitative study that highlights service gaps and suggests potential interventions for students and their families who are experiencing homelessness.
Research Spotlight: Using Incentives to Boost Attendance
Do awards motivate student attendance? Do different types of awards have different impacts? Join us on Tuesday, May 3 at 2 PM (CST) to learn about recent research on attendance incentives and the implications for practice. Study author Dr. Carly Robinson, who is now a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Brown University, will present astonishing findings that were featured in NPR, The Hechinger Report, and more.
To&Through Data Collaborative: The MAAFA Redemption Project
Marshall Hatch, Jr. will present the MAAFA Redemption Project's efforts to reimagine the language used to describe BIPOC youth and young adults (e.g., “at-risk”, “high-risk” and “highest risk” ) and evaluate violence prevention efforts on the West Side of Chicago. Marshall Hatch, Jr. is the Executive Director of the MAAFA Redemption Project.
To&Through Data Collaborative: A Better Chicago, Thrive Chicago, & the Chicago Public Education Fund
Presenters on behalf of A Better Chicago, Thrive Chicago, and the Chicago Public Education Fund will share an in-progress Youth Opportunity Index that aims to track and report a set of cradle-to-careers and resource-access metrics. The metrics map across the city of Chicago and are disaggregated by demographic and socioeconomic factors.
Data Spotlight: Are Colleges Creating Socioeconomic Mobility?
A new data tool from the Postsecondary Value Commission provides vital insights into whether colleges are generating the economic outcomes we care about for students. Join us for a presentation and Q&A with two of the researchers behind the Equitable Postsecondary Value Explorer. They will share key findings from analyses of the data and demonstrate how to use the tool to interrogate whether colleges are opening the doors of socioeconomic mobility for graduates.
Research Spotlight: The Impact of Ninth-Grade Ethnic Studies on Educational Attainment
How did one ninth-grade class curriculum increase students’ overall engagement in school, probability of graduating, and likelihood of enrolling in college? Join us to learn about new research on how offering an ethnic studies course to ninth-graders in the San Francisco Unified School District fostered these outcomes.
To&Through Data Collaborative: The To&Through Middle Grades Network
Ashley Leonard and Jen Ciok will present on reflection tools being used to help support and codify educator learning through the To&Through Middle Grades Network. Ashley is the Director and Jen is the Lead Coach for the To&Through Middle Grades Network.
Research Spotlight: Student Debt's Disparate Impact on Black Borrowers
Could higher education be exacerbating the racial wealth gap? Join us to learn about Dr. Louise Seamster’s research on how student loans are disparately impacting Black students' lives and how the findings can help reframe who we, as a nation, owe. Dr. Seamster will also present findings from her recent research on the implications of student loan forgiveness options for racial equity.
To&Through Data Collaborative: Northern Illinois University
Alan Clemens will present on the addition of Equity Profiles to the Illinois Postsecondary Profiles (IPP) tool. The IPP provides statewide postsecondary data directly from agency sources designed to support a variety of use cases. Alan is the Director of Illinois Interactive Report Cards at Northern Illinois University and will be joined by other members of the management and development team for IPP.
Annual Update on the Educational Attainment of Chicago Public Schools Students
The To&Through Project and UChicago Consortium will share our newest report on the 2020 Educational Attainment of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Students. Researchers will provide a picture of educational attainment during the onset of the pandemic (which comprises the most recent available data) for students of different race/ethnicity groups, students who began as English Learners, students with disabilities, and Options students.