Spotlight with Chicago Public Schools: Supporting College Success for Black Graduates
Tuesday, February 24 | 2:00 - 3:30pm | Virtual
In 2024, 57% of Black CPS graduates successfully enrolled in college in the fall immediately after high school graduation. When we look at college completion for the most recently available 6 year graduation cohort however, we see that for the class of 2018, 40% of those Black young women and 27% of Black young men who enrolled have actually walked across the stage with their college diploma or certificate. This data from our annual Educational Attainment of CPS Students report represents an important finding that while Black student success in college IS happening in our city, there continues to be a need for unique and innovative strategies to ensure that all students have the resources, information, and support they need to make college completion a viable and successful option.
On February 24, 2026, join us for a virtual discussion that will center the success of Black college graduates in Chicago Public Schools and explore current initiatives underway to help strengthen college pathways and outcomes for Black CPS graduates. Following a presentation of data and existing research by Dominique McKoy of the To&Through Project, we will be joined by leaders and experts from Chicago Public Schools and a panel of CPS alumni to help deepen our understanding how Black CPS students are navigating college in this current moment and opportunities to improve our collective support of Black CPS students and alumni.
RSVP for the webinar here.
 students from middle grades to college completion. Join us for our events this winter and be part of our community that is collaborating around data-driven impact.Read more about each event and RSVP below!***A note for our event regulars: we are switching our RSVPs to Zoom events to improve your signup experience.***To&Through Milestones Tool 101 Workshop Tuesday, January 13 | 3:00 - 4:00pm | VirtualLearn how to use our online tool! In this 90-minute introductory, 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 the Milestones Tool can be helpful in your work of strengthening student pathways to and through college. Alongside To&Through staff, you'll explore trends in a specific school or community you're interested in and find connections to your own work and story. RSVP here.Spotlight with the Partnership for College Completion: Beyond Income: How Wealth Can Better Target State Funding for Higher Education Tuesday, February 3 | 12:00 - 1:00pm | VirtualState post-secondary aid systems assess a student’s ability to pay for college by focusing on their household income, but overlook household wealth. This approach obscures the significant challenges faced by dually disadvantaged students—those who are both low-income and low-wealth.Learn about a new report Beyond Income: How Wealth Can Better Target State Funding for Higher Education published by the Partnership for College Completion in partnership with the Here Lab and the Institute for College Access & Success. The report finds that:Students disadvantaged by wealth and income face the greatest enrollment and completion gaps, even relative to their peers who are singly disadvantaged by incomeIllinois colleges could see 1,000 more students graduate every year if the state used data to identify students who are low wealth, instead of relying solely on income.Join us to hear authors share key findings of the report and discuss possible courses of action to improve funding models.RSVP here.Spotlight with Chicago Public Schools: Supporting College Success for Black Graduates Tuesday, February 24 | 2:00 - 3:30pm | VirtualIn 2024, 57% of Black CPS graduates successfully enrolled in college in the fall immediately after high school graduation. When we look at college completion for the most recently available 6 year graduation cohort however, we see that for the class of 2018, 40% of those Black young women and 27% of Black young men who enrolled have actually walked across the stage with their college diploma or certificate. This data from our annual Educational Attainment of CPS Students report represents an important finding that while Black student success in college IS happening in our city, there continues to be a need for unique and innovative strategies to ensure that all students have the resources, information, and support they need to make college completion a viable and successful option.On February 24, 2026, join us for a virtual discussion that will center the success of Black college graduates in Chicago Public Schools and explore current initiatives underway to help strengthen college pathways and outcomes for Black CPS graduates. Following a presentation of data and existing research by Dominique McKoy of the To&Through Project, we will be joined by leaders and experts from Chicago Public Schools and a panel of CPS alumni to help deepen our understanding how Black CPS students are navigating college in this current moment and opportunities to improve our collective support of Black CPS students and alumni.RSVP for the webinar here.To&Through Milestones Tool Superuser Workshop Wednesday, March 18 | 1:00-2:00pm | VirtualCalling all To&Through Milestones Tool fans! 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?Anyone who has attended a previous Milestones Tool workshop AND/ORAnyone is a user of the Milestones Tool and wants to unlock the next level of features and collaborate with others around tool usage!RSVP here. The To&Through Data Collaborative is a virtual community for the presentation and discussion of new work in education data in Chicago. The group meets to learn about and give feedback on an organization’s current project or problem of practice.RSVP for our Data Collaboratives below. If you want to be added to our Data Collaborative listserv or to explore hosting a future data collaborative, please email Alex Ritson at aritson@uchicago.edu.January Data Collaborative | The To&Through ProjectTuesday, January 20 | 2:00 - 3:00pm | VirtualYessica Guadalupe Vargas and Alex Usher from the To&Through Project will present the newest edition of our iconic Myth & Facts. The new resource, Numbers & Narratives, blends both quantitative and qualitative data into an interactive webpage, highlighting important educational facts starting from the middle grades, all the way to college graduation. In this session, we’ll explore the latest draft of the webpage and present new content we’ve developed and seek feedback on use cases and facilitation ideas. Yessica Guadalupe Vargas is the Qualitative Data Strategist and Alex Usher is is the Director of Data and Research a the To&Through Project.RSVP here.February Data Collaborative | Hope ChicagoTuesday, February 17 | 2:00 - 3:00pm | VirtualMegan Lane Conklin and Deanna Stewart will present on Hope Chicago's effectiveness at increasing college enrollment and retention for over 2,600 students from underserved Chicago Public High Schools. Specifically, they will discuss the role student engagement plays in success and what types of student engagement are correlated with higher outcomes. Megan is the Director of Data and Deanna is a Program Manager at Hope Chicago.RSVP here.March Data Collaborative | City Colleges of ChicagoTuesday, March 17 | 2:00 - 3:00pm | VirtualIn FY25, in response to both rising student need and looming federal program cuts, the City Colleges of Chicago launched the Thrive Strategy: an ambitious system-wide commitment to making basic needs support—spanning food security, housing, mental health, emergency grants, and technology—an integral part of the CCC experience. Thrive is rooted in the belief that when students’ basic needs are met, they are empowered to persist, complete their programs, and graduate into upwardly mobile, family-sustaining careers. Umama Zullur will be sharing early insights from the Food Security for Life pilot, which focuses specifically on campus hunger and explores the impact of accessible food on student retention, levels of food insecurity, and overall well-being. Umama Zillur is Senior Data Strategist & BNI Evaluation Specialist at the City Colleges of Chicago. RSVP here.&source=https://goldenapple.360alumni.com/media/cache/resolve/media_slide_16x9/cdn/images/69417b1e0f3ae.png "LinkedIn")
 students from middle grades to college completion. Join us for our events this winter and be part of our community that is collaborating around data-driven impact.Read more about each event and RSVP below!***A note for our event regulars: we are switching our RSVPs to Zoom events to improve your signup experience.***To&Through Milestones Tool 101 Workshop Tuesday, January 13 | 3:00 - 4:00pm | VirtualLearn how to use our online tool! In this 90-minute introductory, 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 the Milestones Tool can be helpful in your work of strengthening student pathways to and through college. Alongside To&Through staff, you'll explore trends in a specific school or community you're interested in and find connections to your own work and story. RSVP here.Spotlight with the Partnership for College Completion: Beyond Income: How Wealth Can Better Target State Funding for Higher Education Tuesday, February 3 | 12:00 - 1:00pm | VirtualState post-secondary aid systems assess a student’s ability to pay for college by focusing on their household income, but overlook household wealth. This approach obscures the significant challenges faced by dually disadvantaged students—those who are both low-income and low-wealth.Learn about a new report Beyond Income: How Wealth Can Better Target State Funding for Higher Education published by the Partnership for College Completion in partnership with the Here Lab and the Institute for College Access & Success. The report finds that:Students disadvantaged by wealth and income face the greatest enrollment and completion gaps, even relative to their peers who are singly disadvantaged by incomeIllinois colleges could see 1,000 more students graduate every year if the state used data to identify students who are low wealth, instead of relying solely on income.Join us to hear authors share key findings of the report and discuss possible courses of action to improve funding models.RSVP here.Spotlight with Chicago Public Schools: Supporting College Success for Black Graduates Tuesday, February 24 | 2:00 - 3:30pm | VirtualIn 2024, 57% of Black CPS graduates successfully enrolled in college in the fall immediately after high school graduation. When we look at college completion for the most recently available 6 year graduation cohort however, we see that for the class of 2018, 40% of those Black young women and 27% of Black young men who enrolled have actually walked across the stage with their college diploma or certificate. This data from our annual Educational Attainment of CPS Students report represents an important finding that while Black student success in college IS happening in our city, there continues to be a need for unique and innovative strategies to ensure that all students have the resources, information, and support they need to make college completion a viable and successful option.On February 24, 2026, join us for a virtual discussion that will center the success of Black college graduates in Chicago Public Schools and explore current initiatives underway to help strengthen college pathways and outcomes for Black CPS graduates. Following a presentation of data and existing research by Dominique McKoy of the To&Through Project, we will be joined by leaders and experts from Chicago Public Schools and a panel of CPS alumni to help deepen our understanding how Black CPS students are navigating college in this current moment and opportunities to improve our collective support of Black CPS students and alumni.RSVP for the webinar here.To&Through Milestones Tool Superuser Workshop Wednesday, March 18 | 1:00-2:00pm | VirtualCalling all To&Through Milestones Tool fans! 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?Anyone who has attended a previous Milestones Tool workshop AND/ORAnyone is a user of the Milestones Tool and wants to unlock the next level of features and collaborate with others around tool usage!RSVP here. The To&Through Data Collaborative is a virtual community for the presentation and discussion of new work in education data in Chicago. The group meets to learn about and give feedback on an organization’s current project or problem of practice.RSVP for our Data Collaboratives below. If you want to be added to our Data Collaborative listserv or to explore hosting a future data collaborative, please email Alex Ritson at aritson@uchicago.edu.January Data Collaborative | The To&Through ProjectTuesday, January 20 | 2:00 - 3:00pm | VirtualYessica Guadalupe Vargas and Alex Usher from the To&Through Project will present the newest edition of our iconic Myth & Facts. The new resource, Numbers & Narratives, blends both quantitative and qualitative data into an interactive webpage, highlighting important educational facts starting from the middle grades, all the way to college graduation. In this session, we’ll explore the latest draft of the webpage and present new content we’ve developed and seek feedback on use cases and facilitation ideas. Yessica Guadalupe Vargas is the Qualitative Data Strategist and Alex Usher is is the Director of Data and Research a the To&Through Project.RSVP here.February Data Collaborative | Hope ChicagoTuesday, February 17 | 2:00 - 3:00pm | VirtualMegan Lane Conklin and Deanna Stewart will present on Hope Chicago's effectiveness at increasing college enrollment and retention for over 2,600 students from underserved Chicago Public High Schools. Specifically, they will discuss the role student engagement plays in success and what types of student engagement are correlated with higher outcomes. Megan is the Director of Data and Deanna is a Program Manager at Hope Chicago.RSVP here.March Data Collaborative | City Colleges of ChicagoTuesday, March 17 | 2:00 - 3:00pm | VirtualIn FY25, in response to both rising student need and looming federal program cuts, the City Colleges of Chicago launched the Thrive Strategy: an ambitious system-wide commitment to making basic needs support—spanning food security, housing, mental health, emergency grants, and technology—an integral part of the CCC experience. Thrive is rooted in the belief that when students’ basic needs are met, they are empowered to persist, complete their programs, and graduate into upwardly mobile, family-sustaining careers. Umama Zullur will be sharing early insights from the Food Security for Life pilot, which focuses specifically on campus hunger and explores the impact of accessible food on student retention, levels of food insecurity, and overall well-being. Umama Zillur is Senior Data Strategist & BNI Evaluation Specialist at the City Colleges of Chicago. RSVP here. "Facebook")