Community-Based Approaches to Educational Improvement

Community-based organizations (CBOs) across Chicago are among those leading the city in examining issues of educational inequity beyond school buildings, recognizing the role that housing, transportation, and other sectors not traditionally associated with education play in students’ lives.

Join To&Through and the Crown School 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.

Leaders include Jessica Cañas, Assistant Director of Education at Enlace Chicago; Avanii Hazzard, Youth Services Program Manager at Teamwork Englewood; and Andres Alvear, Chief Program Officer at BUILD Chicago. Leaders will also discuss how they put community-specific educational attainment data into practice through the use of data tools like the To&Through Community Milestones Tool. This is the first online data resource that enables the public to interact with key metrics of high school and college attainment for Chicago Public Schools students based on the community area in which they live rather than the school they attend.