Read the To&Through Project's latest op-eds, essays, and updates.
To&Through Project Blog
Communities in Chicago are working to solve the challenges they face. Are we giving them the right tools to do it?
Chicago has a rich ecosystem of community-based organizations striving to raise educational attainment rates for students from their community areas. The expansion of high school choices outside of students’ communities over the past two decades has complicated their work.
To&Through Project Winter 2022 Newsletter
Learn about the recently announced second cohort of the To&Through Middle Grades Network as well as new student activity resources for middle grades educators. We also overview our new research finding summaries, which provide learnings — and questions — from our reports via bite-sized reads, and we overview our annually published Data Insights and the To&Through Milestones Tool's recent data update.
The Downstream Impacts of School Choice on Chicago’s Black Communities
Over the past two decades, students from Chicago’s Black communities experienced more dispersion — students going to different high schools — and more charter school enrollment than majority White, Latinx, Asian-American/Pacific-Islander, and mixed-race communities. Read more about this new research finding and its implications.
Alex Seeskin: It's time to end legacy admissions at elite schools like the University of Chicago
Regardless of how you define legacy admissions or the particulars of how it works, one thing remains clear: it is an institutionalized form of unearned advantage for students who are already starting out way ahead of the game.
5 Data Insights on CPS Graduates’ College Success to Watch in 2022
If the most recent available rates of attainment for Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students were to hold constant over the next decade, only 27 out of every 100 current CPS ninth graders would complete a college credential within 10 years (by the time they are about 25 years old).
This number, also called the Post-secondary Attainment Index (PAI), does not have to be true. Read about the five Data Insights we’re watching in 2022 to understand whether the city is making meaningful progress towards creating the systems needed to ensure that the current PAI for CPS does not become reality.
CPS Has Reached Some Record-High Attainment Rates. How Equitably Were Outcomes Distributed Across Communities?
Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) mission is to provide high-quality education for every student, regardless of their zip code, that prepares them for college success. Yet it’s been difficult to determine the extent to which a CPS student’s zip code might still matter in whether they graduate from high school and college — until now.
The To&Through Project Winter 2021 Newsletter
Read our winter newsletter to learn about how we're connecting our research to student perspectives and practice, upcoming application deadlines for the second cohort of the To&Through Middle Grades Network, a new college match and scholarship search tool, and more.
Student Stories: Navigating the Post-Secondary Maze
Last spring, we released a study on Chicago Public Schools (CPS) graduates’ post-secondary pathways. The study revealed that the normative view of college — being continuously enrolled at one institution and graduating with a bachelor’s degree — is not typical for many CPS graduates. These findings inspired us at to seek out students who have made these transitions to understand more about their experiences.
Nancy’s Story of Navigating the Post-Secondary Maze
Nancy is a Latinx, first-generation college student from Brighton Park. She immediately enrolled in a four-year college after high school graduation, transferred to a two-year college, and is currently enrolled in another four-year college. Read her story.
Arthur’s Story of Navigating the Post-Secondary Maze
Arthur is a Black college student who attended a high school on the Southwest Side of Chicago. He immediately enrolled in a four-year college after high school graduation and has since transferred to two-year colleges as well as an online bachelor’s degree program. Read his story.