Events

COP: Actionable Data: OneGoal’s Postsecondary Leadership Network
Jan. 11, 2023

OneGoal has a motto, “Many paths. One goal: Graduation. Period.” OneGoal works to close the degree divide.

In this session, we learned more about OneGoal’s work with Postsecondary Leadership Network. John Boumgarden, Postsecondary Leadership Coach, and Andy Schmitz, Managing Director of Secondary Partnerships at OneGoal, shared some of the innovative ways that they are using data and evidence to broaden access to postsecondary pathways.

Resources from COP:

~ Jamboard
~ Postsecondary Data & Root Cause Analysis

COP: GRAD Partnership Definition of High Quality Student Success Systems
Dec. 14, 2022

What kinds of indicators and early warning systems do we need today to help us restore, revitalize and deliver on the promise of public education?

In this session, Robert Balfanz, Research Professor at the Center for the Social Organization of Schools and Johns Hopkins University and Director of the Everyone Graduates Center, Taylor McCabe-Juhnke, Executive Director of Rural Schools Collaborative, and Susan Schroth, Interim Program Director Shasta College, shared the GRAD Partnership’s definition of Student Success Systems that will be instrumental in making sure schools meet today’s needs while empowering educators and helping students seize success in school and beyond.

COP: How a City Learned to Graduate More Students: Looking at the Case of Chicago Public Schools
Nov. 30, 2022

In 1987, Secretary of Education William Bennet called Chicago public schools the worst in the nation due to dismal graduation rates. Over the next twenty years, the city used research and evidence to transform and change student outcomes.

In this session, Janice Jackson, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools and current CEO of Hope Chicago, and Tony Bryk, President Emeritus of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and founder of the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago, will share the lessons from Chicago’s on-track journey.

COP: Integrating the measurement and monitoring of students’ perspectives in on-track work
Oct. 26, 2022

We need research innovations that offer practical solutions, especially today when we know we need to pay attention to students’ experiences and avoid creating extra work for teachers.

The Project for Education that Scales (PERTS) has been working to create evidence-based measures that center students’ classroom experiences in order to catalyze engagement and learning – while being easy for educators to use such measures. During the session we heard from Sarah Gripsolver, Director of Research at PERTS.

COP: Fostering Systemic Resiliency for Students, Staff, and Schools
Sept. 21, 2022

During the 75-minute community meeting we heard from Megan Reder-Schopp, Director of Research, and Dr. Anu Sharma, Senior Research Scientist, for the BARR Center on how student success systems provide schools with a shared lens, belief system, and vocabulary to prioritize relationships and use of data to empower all individuals within the system and help cultivate a positive school climate, which provides the environment for all children and adults to develop resilience.

COP: Seeing & Understanding Students with Data
Aug. 31, 2022

The focus of this session was understanding the importance of not looking just at one data point to evaluate students, but being able to see a 360-degree view of students by looking at a variety of data points.

During the 75-minute community meeting we heard from Elizabeth Kirby, Superintendent Cleveland Height-University Heights City School District, on how they use data to understand student experiences, which includes broadening our understanding of data and the value of drawing from multiple sources.

COP: School Connectedness & Student Success
July 27, 2022

This meeting of the Community of Practice was focused on  school connectedness and student success.

We heard from Bob Balfanz, director of the Everyone Graduates Center and research professor at Johns Hopkins School of Education, who shared research on the effects of the pandemic on school connectedness, and invited attendees to engage with others to surface expertise, strategies, and best practices.

COP: Centering Students in Student Success Systems
June 22, 2022

This meeting of the Community of Practice was focused on centering students. We heard from educators who have been using student input to improve on-track systems in schools. As we seek to transform or re-imagine how we build the classrooms and schools students need, drawing on student data is one way to tap into students’ brilliance, cultural wealth, and intellectual potential to inform what becomes our new normal.

Speakers included Sarah Howard, Senior Director of the Partner Network at The Network for College Success at the University of Chicago, and Gina Pascual, Senior Improvement Coach for CORE Districts.

Panelists Carla Gay, Executive Director, Innovation and Partnership, Gresham-Barlow School District, Portland, Oregon, Elizabeth Kirby, Superintendent, Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District, University Heights, Ohio, and Robert Balfanz, Director, Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins School of Education hosted an enriching discussion about the successful use of student success systems to help students graduate ready for their next steps.