UChicago News

LGBTQ young adults experience homelessness at more than twice the rate of their peers

Fri, 27 Apr 2018 15:00 -0500

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer young adults are more than twice as likely to experience homelessness as their non-LGBTQ peers. They are also at greater risk for experiencing high levels of hardship, including higher rates of assault, of exchanging sex for basic needs and of early death. These findings emerged from research by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, which provides new insights to the challenges faced by America’s youth who experience homelessness.

“Our study reveals the vulnerability of LGBTQ youth in our country today. They are at higher risk both before and during their experiences of homelessness,” said Bryan Samuels, executive director of Chapin Hall. “Given the evidence that our young people are in harm’s way, we have an obligation to act to protect them. Fortunately, our findings point to solutions, too.”

This is the second in a series of research briefs on youth experiencing homelessness. A paper published in the Journal of Adolescent Health was the basis for the first brief, which identified high levels of youth homelessness nationwide.

The report is among the first national assessments of the increased risks facing LGBTQ youth. It found:

LGBTQ youth are among the most at-risk sub populations for homelessness. Young adults (18-25) who identify as LGBTQ experienced homelessness at more than twice the rate of their non-LGBTQ peers. Black LGBTQ youth, especially young men, had the highest rates of homelessness.
Among youth experiencing homelessness, LGBTQ youth had twice the rate of early death as other youth. LGBTQ youth also experienced higher levels of adversity, including higher rates of assault and of exchanging sex for basic needs.
Youth made decisions about seeking services based on the reputation of the agency providing the services. Safe and affirming systems and services are important to LGBTQ youth.
The factors that led young LGBTQ people to experience homelessness stem from more than “coming out.” Their families faced broader issues of instability, including poverty, violence, addiction or mental health problems that contributed to their risk for homelessness and adversity.

In addition to revealing critical insights to LGBTQ youth homelessness, the report also details solutions that can help protect LGBTQ youth who are homeless now and that can prevent homelessness in the future. These solutions include:

Provide enhanced training across the provider community, including Medicaid providers, to identify and respond to the trauma and hardship faced by this population.
Engage LGBTQ youth as full partners in strengthening systems and services.
Encourage community organizations and systems working with runaway and homeless youth to institute more sensitive data collection about sexual orientation and gender identity.
Add or revise guidance in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Block Grant on how these resources can better support LGBTQ and minority LGBTQ youth.
Evaluate the most promising programs and interventions to determine their effectiveness for LGBTQ youth. The federal government can take the lead by providing evaluation funding for core interventions.

“One critical insight we’ve gained from this study is that LGBTQ youth won’t use services they don’t trust,” said Matthew Morton, research fellow at Chapin Hall, who oversaw the study. “The reputation of providers matters, and that reputation has to be earned. Safe and affirming systems and services are critical to helping LGBTQ youth. If we don’t take action on this, we run the risk of missing out on the talents, skills and contributions of many LGBTQ youth.”

The first Voices brief on National Estimates found that one in 10 young adults, and one in 30 teens ages 13-17, experienced homelessness over a year. Upcoming briefs will explore findings on other subpopulations of youth experiencing homelessness, including pregnant and parenting youth and rural youth.

Big Brains podcast examines truths and myths about U.S. health care system

Mon, 23 Apr 2018 12:00 -0500

Editor’s note: Big Brains is a new University of Chicago podcast in which some of the pioneering minds from across UChicago discuss their groundbreaking ideas and the stories behind them.

In 2008, when Oregon decided to expand its Medicaid program through a random lottery, Prof. Katherine Baicker struck research gold.

It presented the economic health care researcher with a unique opportunity to study the true costs and benefits of health care expansion through a system that provided a randomized trial. The project helped refute a number of myths surrounding health care expansion when its findings were published in 2013, amid renewed debates over health care in Washington.

“We could dispel the unduly optimistic view of the program, which is that Medicaid is such a wonderful program that it would make people healthier,” said Baicker, the Emmett Dedmond Professor at the University of Chicago. “We could also dispel the unduly pessimistic view of the program, which is Medicaid is such a badly run program, it doesn’t pay providers enough, it doesn’t really improve the health of enrollees. What we found, of course, was something in the gray area.”

Baicker is considered one of the foremost experts in U.S. health care policy. From 2005-2007 she was a Senate-confirmed member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, and in 2017 she was named dean of the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.

Baicker said that throughout her work, both as a researcher and alongside policymakers, she hopes she can be a “translator of evidence” and a trusted voice for this deeply contentious issue.

“Public policy is rarely easy—there are always tradeoffs involved,” Baicker said. “So when policymakers or reporters say, ‘So what does this tell us we should do about Medicaid?’ my answer is, it tells you you should weigh these costs against these benefits and decide what your priorities are and act accordingly.”

On this episode of Big Brains, Baicker shares what she and her team learned about the true costs and benefits of expanding health care, and provides insights into how to improve health care for all.

Subscribe to Big Brains on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Google Play. New episodes will be available Monday mornings through the Spring Quarter.

Amanda Woodward named dean of the Division of the Social Sciences

Wed, 04 Apr 2018 11:00 -0500

Amanda Woodward, the William S. Gray Distinguished Service Professor of Psychology, has been appointed dean of the Division of the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago.

Woodward, a leading scholar in the social development of infants and young children, has been serving as interim dean of the Division since July 2017. Her appointment as dean of the Division is effective April 4.

“Amanda has provided vital leadership, sustaining the momentum of the Division of the Social Sciences. We are confident that she will be an excellent leader for the Division in the years to come,” wrote President Robert J. Zimmer and Provost Daniel Diermeier in announcing her appointment.

Woodward in her research has pioneered the development of experimental methods to investigate social cognition in infants and young children. Her work has produced fundamental insights into infants’ social understanding and the processes that support conceptual development early in life. Her current research includes investigating the effects of culture and community in shaping children’s social learning strategies and the neural processes involved in early social-cognitive development.

“It is an honor to lead such an extraordinary community of scholars. I look forward to working together in many areas of research and an array of educational endeavors with faculty, students and staff to advance the social sciences at the University,” Woodward said.

Woodward has been a member of the University faculty since 1993. She was a founding member of the Center for Early Childhood Research and has served as director of the Infant Learning and Development Laboratory as well as chair of the Department of Psychology and deputy dean of faculty affairs for the Division.

Woodward was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014. Her research has been recognized by such awards as the Ann L. Brown Award for Excellence in Developmental Research, the American Psychological Association Boyd McCandless Award for an Early Career Contribution to Developmental Psychology and the John Merck Scholars Award. Woodward received her undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College and her doctoral degree from Stanford University.

Woodward succeeds David Nirenberg, the Deborah R. and Edgar D. Jannotta Distinguished Service Professor of Social Thought, History, and Romance Languages, who serves as executive vice provost at the University.

The selection of the new dean by Zimmer and Diermeier was informed by the recommendations of an elected faculty committee chaired by Kenneth Pomeranz, University Professor in the Department of History and the College.

New textbook takes narrative approach to history

Fri, 16 Feb 2018 15:00 -0600

When Jane Dailey set out to write a new history of the United States, she envisioned something more than the standard textbook.

“Textbooks are written by teams of people without any narrative line beyond chronology,” said Dailey, an associate professor in history at the University of Chicago. “I wanted a consistent voice, and a narrative that has characters and plot and suspense as well as argument and interpretation.”

The result of a decade of work with co-author Harry L. Watson of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Dailey and Watson’s two-volume Building the American Republic (University of Chicago Press) comes at a time when civic discourse is a topic of great debate.

“Building the American Republic is a political history,” said Dailey, a scholar of American political history since the Civil War. “When we began, we had civics in mind, and what things you really need to know to be an informed citizen. We wanted people to understand the origin and development of democratic government and the Republic.”

“Now more than ever, we need an American history that combines a fundamental commitment to inclusion with a clear understanding of public choices and public power,” Watson said.

In a departure from traditional textbooks, Building the American Republic is one of the first American history textbooks published by a university press that is completely free in digital form.

“Offering Building the American Republic free to all students aligns perfectly with the mission of the University of Chicago Press,” said Garrett Kiely, director of the Press. “We always seek new ways of extending the availability and accessibility of knowledge. At a time when textbook prices continue to rise, we are honored and pleased to make these outstanding, peer-reviewed volumes freely available in digital form.”

Dailey stressed the need for affordable, scholarly introductions to American history, and that the free digital version can provide an alternative to the typical textbook which can be financially prohibitive for many students.

“The largest number of Americans in college today go to community college,” Dailey said. “When I was writing I had this kind of student in my mind—a little older, holding down a job, maybe with some kids. A lot are veterans, immigrants, older people who have come back to school—adults who are really motivated to learn. Both books emphasize what individuals and groups of individuals can accomplish, whether it’s the American Revolution or the civil rights movement.”

Even an online book has word limits, and while not everything could fit in the narrative political history, Dailey said there was room in Building the American Republic for creative entries to fit alongside more traditional moments.

“Things that had to be in it were elections and Supreme Court decisions, wars, social movements, large-scale demographic change, big economic events,” Dailey said. “But important shifts can be illustrated with colorful examples. I use comic books, for example, to talk about the consumer power of teenagers in the 1950s, which was really new and meaningful. Teenagers didn’t have money in the 1930s and 1940s, during the Great Depression and World War II, but they did in the 1950s, and they spent it on comic books and record albums, and jumpstarted an industry and pop culture.”

Building the American Republic is available for download here.

UChicago names recipients of Diversity Leadership Awards

Tue, 09 Jan 2018 10:55 -0600

Advocating for the concerns of those whose voices aren't heard is a hallmark of diversity leadership. The University of Chicago’s 2018 Diversity Leadership Award recipients have dedicated their lives to helping support underrepresented communities: Faculty member Randolph N. Stone, alumna Sunny Fischer and staff member Scott Cook have their own areas of public service interests, but are united in their passion for equality and justice.

Regina Dixon-Reeves, assistant vice provost for diversity and inclusion, praised the commitment of this year’s awardees, who will be honored Jan. 16 during the University’s annual MLK commemoration. “We are extremely proud of this year’s recipients as their collective years of work and sustained engagement in support of marginalized populations demonstrates the inclusive excellence valued by the University of Chicago.”

Defending all communities

A lifelong advocate for the underrepresented, Clinical Professor of Law Randolph N. Stone is dedicated to supporting and representing disadvantaged individuals and groups in the Chicago area. As founder of the Criminal Juvenile Justice Project, he works with law and social work students to defend children and young adults who have been charged with criminal behavior, reform juvenile and criminal law policies, and improve the criminal justice system. He continues his child advocacy as a board member of the Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. and the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice.

“We started the CJP because we wanted to help stop the movement to criminalize African-American children,” Stone said. “Illinois was a leader in transferring children out of juvenile court to the adult criminal court by curtailing judicial discretion, lowering the age of transfer, and increasing the number and types of crimes for transfer. Moving forward, we want to continue to help children and young adults be treated with compassion and fairness.”

In addition to working on programs devoted to fair child sentencing policies, Stone also serves on the advisory board of the Federal Defender Program and served on Chicago’s Police Accountability Task Force. Throughout his career Stone has mentored hundreds of minority students, chaired the American Bar Association’s criminal justice section and served as the public defender of Cook County, where he helped increase the number of minority and women lawyers hired to the office while improving the quality of representation.

Confronting stereotypes

Sunny Fischer, AM’82, has worked as a teacher, social worker and executive in philanthropy. After earning her master’s degree at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, she went on to work with abused women in the community. Learning how women-focused organizations were under-resourced, she helped start the women’s funding movement, serving as executive director of The Sophia Fund, the first private women’s foundation solely devoted to women’s issues. She also co-founded the Chicago Foundation for Women, and had leadership roles in the Women’s Funding Network and Chicago Women in Philanthropy.

Later in her career, Fischer served as executive director of the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, where she focused on historic preservation, the arts, and architecture and design, especially in low-income neighborhoods. While at the foundation, Fischer helped start a public housing museum in Chicago. Fischer was enthusiastic about this opportunity, as it combines her commitment to social justice and the arts, and it challenges stereotypes of public housing residents and the role of public housing.

After 10 years of exhibits and programs as a “museum in the streets,” the National Public Housing Museum is expected to open in 2019 in its own building in Chicago. A former resident of public housing, Fischer knows how damaging stereotypes can be, and she hopes that the museum will raise important questions about race and poverty, and the true meaning of “home.”

Fischer reflects on her perseverance: “These years of labor have been worth it,” she said. “If you believe in social justice and that art and culture can bring deeper understanding and can be a call to action, then the belief is motivation enough.”

Bridging political and social gaps

A clinical psychologist who spent much of his life working to improve health care services for minority populations, Scott Cook works at the University of Chicago Medical Center and Biological Sciences Division to help achieve culturally competent health care and reducing health care disparities across all communities.

“Health care disparities are immediate for me because the physical and emotional suffering that they create harm the people that I love the most in this world—my family, community and friends,” said Cook, who is a quality improvement and clinical transformation strategist. “I try to use the power afforded to me by my privileged identities to address these problems and the problems of others in groups that I may not belong to.”

Cook also serves as the deputy director of Finding Answers: Solving Disparities Through Payment and Delivery System Reform, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation geared toward identifying and reducing health care inequities. Throughout his career, Cook has worked with underrepresented communities in rural Missouri, as an intern at Chicago Cook County Stroger Hospital and at the Howard Brown Health Center. At Howard Brown, Cook worked directly with the LGBTQ community to create health care programs and interventions, including a smoking cessation public health campaign.

At these organizations Cook said he “learned so much about how bias, discrimination and oppression play out in people’s lives and damage their health and well-being.” Cook uses this knowledge along with personal experiences to continue working toward health care equality.

Fourth-year student, alumna named Marshall Scholars

Mon, 04 Dec 2017 11:00 -0600

Fourth-year Pradnya Narkhede and Valerie Gutmann, AB’17, have won Marshall Scholarships to pursue graduate studies in the United Kingdom next fall. The highly competitive scholarships, announced Dec. 4, will enable 43 American students to study at the graduate level in any field of their choosing.

Narkhede will use her Marshall Scholarship to combine two one-year degrees: the first, at the University of Edinburgh in science and technology in society, and the second at Imperial College London in plant chemical biology.

“This award provides me with an unrivaled opportunity to probe the relationship between science and sustainable development,” said Narkhede, who is particularly interested in the role of agriculture. “Equipped with the tools I hope to gain from my studies in the U.K., I aim to become a globally engaged scientist, contributing innovative discoveries that shape intelligent policy and improve people’s lives worldwide.”

Gutmann plans to pursue a two-year MPhil in comparative social policy at the University of Oxford. She hopes to eventually attend law school and study how social welfare policy can be most effectively designed to help the most vulnerable populations.

“I’m interested in the ways to use a legal degree and a policy perspective to design and implement social welfare policy—in ways that effectively augment human dignity, which is what underlies everything I care about,” Gutmann said. “This is an opportunity to comparatively study welfare systems, not just in the U.S. or the U.K. but in international societies more broadly.”

Narkhede and Gutmann are the 24th and 25th people affiliated with the University of Chicago to win Marshall Scholarships since 1986. It’s the first time since 2010 that the University has had two Marshall Scholars in a single year; it had three winners in 1999.

“We are thrilled for Pradnya and Valerie’s accomplishments,” said John W. Boyer, dean of the College. “Marshall Scholarships are awarded to students anticipated to be their country’s future intellectual leaders. Pradnya and Valerie’s rigorous pursuit of knowledge in global sustainability and social welfare policy epitomizes the scholarly leadership the University strives to foster. We are very proud of these students.”

The pursuit of global sustainability

Born and raised in rural India, Narkhede grew up visiting her family’s sugar cane farm—an experience that “beckoned an early fascination with the natural world,” she said. Years later that led to work that directly affects the lives of Indian farmers: Since May, Narkhede has served as a senior consultant at the Indian National Commission on Farmers, where she analyzes and designs initiatives to improve both environmental sustainability and agricultural productivity for smallholder growers. She also works to promote the use of science and appropriate technologies in attaining sustainable crop production.

In 2015, she founded and now directs Sustainable Soils, an initiative to serve remote Indian agricultural villages by providing soil testing for smallholder farmers and advice on crop rotation and fertilizer recommendations, while also engaging in the pilot installation of small-scale biogas and water-delivery systems. The award-winning program has garnered a $50,000 United Nations Development Programme sponsorship.

Narkhede also has received numerous research-related awards and fellowships. This past year, she spent several months as a research scholar at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, which allowed her to conduct water research as part of an international collaboration between Blaustein, the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory. As part of that fellowship, she oversaw fieldwork in Uganda piloting an irrigation implementation project. Earlier this year she also won a Barry Goldwater Scholarship, an award that honors undergraduates in the natural sciences, mathematics, computer science and engineering.

Previously, Narkhede worked as a virtual research intern at the U.S. Department of Defense and was a 2016 Institute of Biophysical Dynamics Scholar with UChicago’s Department of Chemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, researching single-cell epigenetics. She plans to graduate in June with honors in chemistry and biological chemistry.

During her time at UChicago, Narkhede has taken part in numerous clubs and activities, including serving as president of the group Out in STEM, treasurer and co-director of Women in Science—both committed to the inclusion of women and other underrepresented groups in the sciences—and as a teaching assistant in the Biological Sciences Division. She has participated as a varsity rower/coxswain with UChicago Crew and currently volunteers as manager of a local community garden that provides nutritional education and produce to low-income families in the Hyde Park and Woodlawn neighborhoods. She is also an award-winning pianist.

Chief among her activism, though, is her commitment to science: “In examining and engineering plant, microbial and other living systems, I hope to advance the prospects for food and energy security as well as human health by developing more stress-tolerant crops, robust sources of renewable biofuels and living factories for life-saving medicines,” Narkhede said. “There is incredible power in harnessing the tenets of biochemistry to promote sustainable development, and I hope to be at the forefront of this movement.”

Working to address housing issues

Gutmann became interested in social welfare issues, particularly housing, while a first-year student in the College. As a caseworker with Health Leads, a nonprofit that aims to address the social determinants of health, Gutmann volunteered at federally qualified health centers on Chicago’s South and West sides. She connected medical patients to social service agencies and charitable organizations in the city. “The most common problem patients faced was housing insecurity, and there was nothing I could do for them on that front,” said Gutmann.

“I grew up in a household that had a strong emphasis on what it meant to be physically together in a space, what it meant to understand home as a place of security and refuge and understanding and support,” said Gutmann, who was raised in suburban Long Grove, Ill. “That sense of home seemed really contrary to the kind of housing situations people were facing when they came to Health Leads for help.”

At UChicago, Gutmann took a class on housing, earned a grant from the Pozen Center for Human Rights and eventually decided to major in sociology with a focus on urban inequality. Gutmann wrote her BA thesis on the landmark 1966 case Gautreaux et al. v. Chicago Housing Authority, in which the courts ruled that the CHA was perpetuating racial segregation through its building practices. She examined the contemporary implications of the case, interviewing dozens of attorneys, housing advocates, residents and CHA employees.

Gutmann currently works as a reporting analyst for a private contractor of the CHA that administers 27,000 subsidized housing vouchers in Chicago. She said the job allows her to understand how the private and public sectors work together to serve the public—issues raised in the aftermath of the Gautreaux case.

“When they filed Gautreaux, the ACLU thought that the result would be the building of public housing developments in predominantly white neighborhoods. That didn’t happen. The CHA’s solution to desegregating wasn’t creating concentrations of poverty in more affluent places, it was de-concentrating poverty, which I think has a lot of really interesting sociological complications,” Gutmann said. “I wouldn’t have an appreciation for the work I’m doing now if I hadn’t studied the shift toward subsidized housing vouchers through the course of my thesis.”

While a UChicago student, Gutmann was a research assistant for two School of Social Service Administration scholars. Along with Assoc. Prof. Evelyn Brodkin, Gutmann examined legislative issues in Sweden and Denmark during the European refugee crisis. She also researched Puerto Rican musicians in Woodlawn during the mid-20th century as part of Assoc. Prof. Bill Sites’ upcoming book on music and community building.

The summer after her first year, Gutmann co-founded the nonprofit South Side in Focus, which aims to amplify the voices of South Side community members through public art exhibits. “With every opportunity my goal has been to listen and to learn, instead of assuming that I know what is best for people in situations I have never had to face,” Gutmann said.

Both scholars secured university nomination and application support through the College Center for Scholarly Advancement, which guides undergraduates and College alumni through rigorous application processes for nationally competitive fellowships. Additional support is provided by the British Awards faculty nomination committee; their ongoing service is a critical part of our students’ success at the national level.

One in ten young adults experience homelessness during one year, Chapin Hall finds

Wed, 15 Nov 2017 14:24 -0600

A groundbreaking study released Nov. 15 by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago reveals one in 10 young adults between the ages of 18 and 25, and at least one in 30 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17, experience some form of homelessness over the course of a year.

This study captures youth homelessness broadly, including situations such as sleeping on the streets, in shelters, running away and couch surfing. “Missed Opportunities: Youth Homelessness in America” demonstrates the diverse circumstances of young people who experience homelessness, identifies who is most at risk and illuminates a nationwide problem cutting across rural and urban areas alike.

“We have a collective obligation to ensure all young people have a chance to succeed, starting from a young age,” said Bryan Samuels, executive director of Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. “Intervening and building stability during adolescence and young adulthood for those at highest risk will have lifelong effects. As a country, we can look for the missed opportunities in schools, communities and public services to prevent youth homelessness.”

Chapin Hall’s national survey of 26,161 people offers new insight into the scope and urgency of youth homelessness in America, providing data to inform policy. The study found that that certain populations—specifically, African-American and Hispanic youths; young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender; young parents; and those who have not completed high school—are statistically more likely to experience homelessness than their peers. The study also shows that young people living in rural and urban communities experience homelessness at similar rates.

Missed Opportunities found:

Youth homelessness is a broad and hidden challenge. Overall, of households with 13- to 17-year-olds, the survey found a 4.3 percent prevalence rate for homelessness; a minimum of 700,000 adolescent minors, or 1 in 30 of the total population of 13- to 17-year-olds. Of these reports, three percent included explicitly reported homelessness (meaning, that the respondent identified the adolescent’s experience as homelessness, running away, or being kicked out) and 1.3 percent represented the more hidden homelessness experience of couch surfing (couch surfing is moving from one temporary place to another without another safe and stable place to live.) Among 18- to 25-year-olds the prevalence climbs higher to 9.7 percent, or one in 10 (3.5 million) young adults. About half of the young adults reported explicitly-reported homelessness (self-identified as homelessness), and half couch surfing only.
Youth homelessness involves diverse experiences and circumstances. While the concept of homelessness might seem straightforward, it takes many forms in terms of situations, needs and duration. Different circumstances require different solutions.
Prevention and early intervention are essential. The national survey revealed that about half of the young people ages 13 to 25, who were homeless during the 12-month period studied experienced homelessness for the first time. Youth homelessness must be prevented to be solved.
Youth homelessness affects rural youth at similar levels. Before now, little was known about the degree of youth homelessness in rural areas compared to urban areas. The study indicates that, apart from more visible homelessness such as youth asking for help on city corners, youth in rural, suburban, and urban counties experience very similar prevalence rates of homelessness. In predominantly rural counties, 9.2 percent of young adults reported any homelessness while, in predominantly urban counties, the prevalence rate was 9.6 percent. Household prevalence of any homelessness among adolescents ages 13-17 was 4.4 percent in predominantly rural counties and 4.2 percent in mainly urban counties.
Some young people are at greater risk of experiencing homelessness. Certain groups of young people are more likely to experience homelessness. The study prompts Congress to consider targeted strategies for these groups.

The report recommends that Congress:

Fund conducting national estimates of youth homelessness biennially to track our progress in ending youth homelessness.
Fund housing interventions, services and prevention efforts in accordance with the scale of youth homelessness, accounting for different needs.
Encourage assessment and service delivery decisions that are responsive to the diversity and fluidity of circumstances among youth experiencing homelessness.
Build prevention efforts in systems where youth likely to experience homelessness are in our care: child welfare, juvenile justice and education.
Acknowledge unique developmental and housing needs for a young population, and adapt services to meet those needs.
Tailor supports for rural youth experiencing homelessness to account for more limited service infrastructure over a larger terrain.
Develop strategies to address the disproportionate risk for homelessness among specific subpopulations, including pregnant and parenting, LGBT, African American and Hispanic youth and young people without high school diplomas.

“Our survey looked to give the nation—for the first time—a fuller view of youth homelessness by finding young people who don’t always get counted through systems and community-based efforts,” said Matthew Morton, research fellow at Chapin Hall, who oversaw the study. “We know that if we stop youth homelessness early, this prevents deeper homelessness and reduces public costs in the future. With new evidence in hand, Congress can support action.”

View the full report at the Voices of Youth Count website.

UChicago Consortium studies differences between CPS charter, non-charter schools

Tue, 14 Nov 2017 10:02 -0600

In its first in-depth look at charter high schools, the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research looked beyond test scores to examine the differences between charter and non-charter high schools in Chicago Public Schools.

The study, released Nov. 14, found that, on average, charter high schools in Chicago look similar to non-charter schools on some dimensions of organizational capacity and some measures of student performance. Yet, on average, charter high school students had higher attendance, test scores and rates of college enrollment than similar students in non-charter high schools. The study also found considerable variation among charter high schools on key outcomes, including test scores and college enrollment and selectivity.

The study found:

Once enrolled, students in charter high schools reported more challenging instruction, had higher attendance and had higher test scores, on average, compared to students in non-charter high schools with similar attendance and test scores in the middle grades
Rates of four-year college enrollment and enrollment in more selective colleges were higher, on average, for students at charter schools than similar students at non-charter high schools
Charter high school students were more likely to transfer schools between ninth and 12th grades than similar students in non-charter high schools
Charter high schools in Chicago enroll students with higher eighth-grade attendance but similar or lower eighth-grade test scores than non-charter high schools

The UChicago Consortium study comes following a decade of rapid growth of CPS charter schools. As of 2016, 22 percent of CPS students in grades 9–12 were enrolled in a charter high school, compared to only 4 percent a decade earlier. In its study, the UChicago Consortium examined four key dimensions of charter high schools in CPS: school organization and policies; incoming skills and characteristics of charter high school enrollees; school transfers; and student performance. It expands the existing research base on charter schools by moving beyond test scores to look at a range of outcomes, and by examining variation among charter high schools.

“The research base on charter schools relies heavily on test scores as a student outcome, despite the fact that grades and attendance have been shown to be more predictive for students’ later outcomes,” said the report’s lead author Julia A. Gwynne, managing director and senior research scientist at the UChicago Consortium. “We thought it was important to look beyond test scores to have a more comprehensive understanding of charter schools in Chicago. In fact, this study is one of the first studies to look at attendance and measures of school climate in charters.”

The study finds, on average, CPS charter high schools looked similar to non-charter, non-selective schools on some dimensions of organizational capacity, such as leadership, but looked quite different on other dimensions, such as preparation for post-secondary. Charter school students were more likely than similar students in non-charter high schools to describe their schools as more academically demanding and report that their school engaged in helping them plan for the future. Charter school teachers also reported that their schools were more likely to expect students to go to college and to promote college readiness.

The study also found charter high school students transferred out of their schools at higher rates, compared to similar students in non-charter high schools. By the beginning of the fourth year of high school, 24.2 percent of students who began high school in a charter school transferred to another school in the district, compared to 17.2 percent of non-charter students. The majority of students who transferred by the beginning of their second year in high school transferred to a CPS non-charter high school. Transfer rates were highest in low-performing or recently opened charter high schools. The study did not look at the reasons students transferred.

The study also found considerable variation across charter high schools on some student outcomes, including test scores and college enrollment, compared to non-charter high schools. After controlling for differences in students’ incoming skills, experience and background characteristics, there was far more variation among charter schools on these outcomes than among non-charter schools.

“This study raises some important questions. In particular, why do students transfer out of charter schools at higher rates than other schools, and what are the implications of this for their long-term educational attainment?” said Gwynne. “We hope that this work will expand how charter schools are studied overall—especially looking beyond test scores—and that it will provide additional insights for understanding charter high schools in Chicago.”

Funding supports new UChicago-based computer science education initiative

Thu, 26 Oct 2017 15:09 -0500

Diana Franklin, research associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, has received $2.5 million from the National Science Foundation in support of a new computer science education initiative.

All three projects under the initiative, the CANON (Computing for ANyONe) lab, have the same goal: teaching more children the basics of computer science earlier in their school careers.

“Our goal is to give everyone an equal chance,” said Franklin, also the director of Computer Science Education at UChicago STEM Education. “The digital divide is real and growing, and we want to provide educators with easy, inclusive and tested tools to integrate these concepts into their classrooms.”

In order to be most helpful to schools, the CANON lab specifically aims to create content that doesn’t rely on teachers to have previous experience with coding and programming, she said. In accordance with current educational thought, they’re designed to build answers to tasks that kids might already encounter in everyday life.

The Comprehending Code program focuses on reading and comprehending code from an early age—not just creating it from scratch. Successful programmers need to read code often, Franklin said, and so they are leveraging what is already known about reading comprehension strategies to develop strategies specific to programming.

The Learning Trajectories for Everyday Computing project tackles computational and mathematical thinking for third- to fifth-graders studying fractions. Designed to be integrated into existing mathematics instruction, it will evaluate the relationship between math and computation—and how teaching one subject might benefit the other. “By creating projects that integrate computing instruction with mathematics, we hope to take advantage of the synergy between the subjects to allow students to grow in both areas simultaneously,” Franklin said.

Finally, the Scratch Encore program, a collaboration between Chicago Public Schools and the UChicago STEM Education center, specifically addresses grades four to six.

“While there are solid introductory computer science curriculums for these grades, the higher levels are often either expensive or require teachers to have a lot of computer science experience,” Franklin explained. “This disproportionately hurts learners in under-resourced schools, which often serve underrepresented minority students.”

Their materials are designed with modules that can be customized to speak to particular cultural populations, such as units that use programming to “write” a speech modeled after those of Martin Luther King Jr.

“As science gets more and more data-oriented, we’ll need to set more and more kids on the path of learning computer science concepts earlier and earlier,” Franklin said.

Alumnus and activist Rami Nashashibi wins MacArthur grant

Wed, 11 Oct 2017 15:00 -0500

Chicago social justice activist Rami Nashashibi, AM’98, PhD’11, was announced on Oct. 11 as one of the 24 winners of a prestigious MacArthur Foundation grant.

In its citation, the foundation honored Nashashibi for “confronting the challenges of poverty and disinvestment in urban communities through a Muslim-led civic engagement effort that bridges race, class and religion.”

Nashashibi is the founder and executive director of Inner-City Muslim Action Network, a nonprofit agency working across religious, ethnic, generational, income and other boundaries for social justice and human dignity on Chicago’s Southwest Side. IMAN was incorporated in 1997 and now has a $3 million annual budget. It operates a free community holistic health clinic, provides job training and transitional housing for formerly incarcerated men, develops youth leadership and civic engagement skills, and incorporates arts and cultural programming to inspire growth and change.

Unlike most winners who receive a phone call, Nashashibi was actually invited to the MacArthur Foundation offices under the pretense of a meeting on criminal justice. MacArthur President Julia Stasch then informed him he had won the award.

“I think then I went into a fog,” Nashashibi said. “It was very surreal disbelief that it was really happening. But I had a range of emotions—from not quite understanding the extent of it, to feeling profoundly grateful and humbled to be even considered.”

Nashashibi said he will use the $625,000 prize for a number of projects, including increasing national awareness of IMAN as well as expanding the nonprofit to other urban centers. In the coming year, Nashashibi also is committed to making the Hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, as well as completing a longstanding project to write a book about the work he has been doing for the last 20 years.

“IMAN is very deliberate in its own ability to both be rooted in this large, broader American Muslin experience, but also broadly informed and inclusive of the many different traditions that we interact with every single day,” Nashashibi told the MacArthur Foundation. “We believe we have the possibility of being a catalytic force of igniting that passion to do this type of work in urban centers across the country.”

Graduate experience shapes community-driven approach

Nashashibi said his graduate studies at UChicago “forever shaped” his approach to community outreach, allowing him to step away from the day-to-day duties of running a nonprofit to think more critically about the “layers of community life” and to gain “a better understanding of the failures” of communities.

“It’s where I learned to embrace the discomfort that comes sometimes with social change,” he said.

Nashashibi said he enjoys engaging with leading experts and researchers at the University.

“I’ve always kept one foot in academia,” he said, frequently teaching as an adjunct at several Chicago institutions. Currently he is a visiting professor of sociology and theology at the Chicago Theological Seminary.

Omar McRoberts, UChicago associate professor of sociology and a faculty member on Nashashibi’s dissertation committee, recalled Nashashibi’s academic and community work.

“Rami Nashashibi was a brilliant graduate student who produced a remarkable dissertation on ‘ghetto cosmopolitanism,’ which explains how poor urban communities participate in broader metropolitan and global cultural currents,” McRoberts said.

“What is more remarkable is that during his time as a doctoral student,” McRoberts added, “Rami was emerging as one of the most important community organizers of his generation. Through his work with the Inner City Muslim Action Network, Rami has brought his sociological learning about urban inequality, religion and inter-group conflict and cooperation into the realm of active social change, and has made a tremendous impact.”

Nashashibi acknowledged the indelible mark his time as a UChicago graduate student made on his career.

“There are people and institutions along the last 20 years that have a had profound impact,” he said. “My time in sociology at UChicago profoundly impacted every part of my life and how I do this work.”

—This story is adapted from a 2016 UChicago News article.

Researchers find sharp decline in poverty in U.S. despite census report

Tue, 12 Sep 2017 11:57 -0500

Contrary to numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Sept. 12, researchers at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the University of Notre Dame find that poverty has fallen sharply in the U.S. in recent decades. The U.S. Census Bureau’s annual income-based poverty report provides data that inform a range of policies and issues affecting Americans from taxes to immigration to trade policy.

This year’s report estimates poverty in the U.S. to be 12.7 percent for 2016, which is very close to the rate in 1980, suggesting little progress or change in the fight against poverty.

However, the official poverty measure is flawed, according to Bruce Meyer, the McCormick Foundation Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and James Sullivan, the Rev. Thomas J. McDonagh, C.S.C. Associate Professor of Economics at Notre Dame. According to Meyer, income statistics have become increasingly inaccurate over time and consumption more accurately reflects well-being.

Based on years of research, Meyer and Sullivan on Tuesday published alternative, consumption-based estimates in the inaugural University of Chicago/University of Notre Dame Consumption Poverty Report. The report shows that between 1960 and 2016, consumption poverty fell by 27 percentage points. Changes in tax policy, the researchers said, contributed to the decline in poverty, along with Social Security and other transfer programs.

“Many factors that are critical components of well-being, such as home ownership, car ownership, and the ability to borrow and save, are much better captured by consumption than income,” Meyer said. “Our research has shown that consumption-based poverty is more highly associated with other measures of family deprivation.”

Meyer and Sullivan analyzed more than 50 years of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure Survey for their report. Looking at poverty patterns in the U.S. from the early 1960s to 2016, the researchers found contradictory results to studies that have shown little improvement in poverty over time or that antipoverty measures have been ineffective.

“Relying on the official poverty rate, many have concluded that we have lost the ‘War on Poverty,’ but improved measures of poverty show that we have actually made tremendous progress,” Sullivan said.

Meyer and Sullivan plan to release an updated Consumption-Based Poverty report on an annual basis to coincide with the Census Bureau’s report. They are in the process of setting up an online tool to make this information readily available.

Article was adapted from a story first published by the University of Notre Dame.

UChicago Health Lab and community partners open center for individuals exiting jail

Wed, 26 Jul 2017 16:30 -0500

The University of Chicago Health Lab, in partnership with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities and Heartland Health Outreach, has opened the Supportive Release Center to provide short-term, critical services to individuals with mental health issues who are exiting jail.

The new center, located adjacent to the Cook County Jail in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, provides assistance for those who suffer from mental illness and are discharged from the system—sometimes late at night—without clean clothes, a shower, a meal or a place to go. Up to one-third of people exiting the jail suffer from mental illness.

The center began serving released individuals on June 5 and so far has served about 70 people. The partners marked the opening of the center at 2755 S. Rockwell Ave. in Chicago during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on July 26.

The Supportive Release Center was the recipient of a 2015 Innovation Challenge Grant of $1 million from UChicago Health Lab and the Pritzker Foundation. The grant supports the center as well as a two-year study led by Profs. David Meltzer and Harold Pollack, faculty directors of the Health Lab. The study will measure and compare the health and criminal justice outcomes of participants and non-participants using a randomized, controlled trial method to assess instances of re-arrest, homelessness and hospitalizations.

“The opening of the Supportive Release Center marks another important step in the University of Chicago’s commitment to urban scholarship,” said University Provost Daniel Diermeier. “As a partner in the effort, the Health Lab will not only evaluate the effectiveness of the center’s approach, but will also help inform future efforts that will continue to build urban knowledge and improve lives for individuals and communities.”

In addition to providing a safe place to rest for the evening, wash clothes and make phone calls, the center connects individuals to a case manager and an advanced practice nurse who can provide general health assessments, order needed prescriptions, and make appointments with and referrals to service providers for mental health counseling, housing placement assistance or other supports.

“People are often released with little notice and limited resources, which can lead to a return to an environment that is not conducive to making positive life changes,” Meltzer said. “The center is a place for individuals to pause and connect to social services and other resources that can help prevent re-incarceration and protect against the addiction or mental health problems that make them vulnerable after jail discharge.”

Pollack added that the project with the center is especially promising because of its interface with poverty, public health and criminal justice. “It is conducive to a rigorous, scientific study on an intervention that, if found to be successful, is economical and scalable enough to have a broad impact.”

Should the results of the trial show evidence that the center is effective, Meltzer and Pollack hope it will serve as a national model for a low-cost, scalable program that improves the outcomes of vulnerable populations, decreases prison rates and homelessness, and stems crime and violence within communities.

“We believe this type of partnership—between a university, the government and nonprofit service providers—can really be essential, especially in cities like Chicago where people are concerned about community violence, but are also concerned about the mass incarceration problem,” said Pollack. “There is a real hunger across the political spectrum to see these issues dealt with effectively. This is one of the interventions that we hope will speak to that and give people evidence-based optimism.”

The center project partners, Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities, Heartland Health Outreach and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, originally submitted three separate applications. All three applications were promising, and it was clear that the applicants had shared goals that could be better tackled together. The Urban Labs staff encouraged a “more-heads-are-better-than-one” approach, recommending a joint application that resulted in the Supportive Release Center.

“We’ve long sought to fill the vacuum of care left by the city closing many of its mental health institutions, which has directly affected the high population of those suffering from mental illness in our custody—who often get released after low-level crimes,” Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart said. “In addition to providing the essentials of a safe place to stay, the Supportive Release Center will serve as an extension of our Enhanced Discharged Planning program, in which counselors craft long-term treatment plans aimed at keeping the detainees on proper medication and in treatment upon discharge. We’re hopeful this continued support will help to slow the revolving door of incarceration for this high-risk population.”

The Health Lab is part of UChicago Urban Labs, five labs working to address challenges across key dimensions of urban life: crime, education, health, poverty, and energy & environment. The Urban Labs are a cornerstone of the new Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation, which will provide a hub for the University's urban research and engagement work when it launches in 2018.

Chicago jobs program reduces youth violence, Urban Labs study shows

Thu, 29 Jun 2017 12:30 -0500

Researchers at the University of Chicago Urban Labs announced new results from their study of One Summer Chicago Plus, a jobs program designed to reduce violence and prepare youth living in some of the city’s highest-violence neighborhoods for the labor market.

The study was carried out over the summer of 2013 in partnership with the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services. It found that the program, which provided a six-week, minimum-wage job for 25 hours a week, reduced the number of violent-crime arrests for participants by 33 percent over the subsequent year.

The study by Sara Heller at the University of Michigan and Jonathan Davis at the University of Chicago is a follow up to 2012 research on One Summer Chicago Plus by Heller that saw a 43 percent drop in violent-crime arrests of participants. Unlike 2012, the 2013 program focused solely on young men and drew from criminal justice agencies in addition to the regular pool of One Summer Chicago applicants.

The 2013 programming also included social-emotional learning training for all participants. Although the percentage reduction in violent-crime arrests in 2013 was smaller at 43 percent in 2012 versus 33 percent in 2013, the average reduction in arrests was greater at 4.2 fewer violent-crime arrests per 100 participants in 2012 versus 7.9 fewer violent-crime arrests per 100 in 2013.

The One Summer Chicago Plus 2013 study—accompanied by a long-term follow-up of the 2012 program—closely examines the two to three years following the six-week program and finds that the reduction in violent-crime arrests is not driven simply by keeping participants off the streets during the summer. In fact, the decline in violence remains significant when the summer is ignored entirely.

Researchers did find, however, that the program had no significant impacts on schooling outcomes or engagement, nor did it have a positive impact on formal labor sector employment for all of the participants after the fact. The authors do note that it is possible that significant labor market effects will develop past the three-year window examined in the study.

“While the group as a whole did not see significant gains in employment or school persistence, we did see positive gains among some subgroups of participants,” said Heller, PhD’13, assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s Economics Department and research affiliate of Urban Labs’ Crime Lab.

“Although everyone seems to benefit in terms of violence reduction, our study finds that younger, more school-engaged youth saw about a 40 percent increase in formal employment rates,” said Davis, a postdoctoral scholar in UChicago’s Department of Economics. “These results change how we think about what summer employment programs do, and for whom.”

Youth violence and unemployment remain major challenges in Chicago, especially for minority and low-income young men. These youth often face significant disadvantages in terms of criminal justice involvement and socioeconomic outcomes: 47 percent of black male residents between the ages of 20 and 24 are currently out of school and out of work, while one in three black men will spend time in prison during their lifetimes, compared to just one in 17 white men. Conducted as the most rigorous type of study available to social science—a randomized controlled trial—the 2013 results suggest that despite the challenges that these young people face, One Summer Chicago Plus can have a positive impact on violence.

“Since the beginning of One Summer Chicago, we’ve been working to create a valuable opportunity for young people in the summertime,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said. “Through job placements, mentorship connections, and skill-building experiences, we have more youth than ever making the most of that opportunity and staying safe in the process.”

Following the release of Heller’s study of the 2012 program, One Summer Chicago drew significant national attention and philanthropic dollars. In 2015, philanthropists Mark Walter and Earvin “Magic” Johnson donated $10 million over two years for the program and in May of this year, Barack and Michelle Obama pledged $1 million toward the program. Since its inception, the number of youth served by One Summer Chicago has more than doubled, with over 31,000 expected to participate in the program this summer.

“While there is no silver bullet solution to reducing youth violence, One Summer expands the portfolio of programs that can make a difference and underscores the importance of investing in youth from our city’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods,” said Roseanna Ander, executive director of UChicago Crime Lab.

‘Master’s of disaster’ program expands its focus

Mon, 19 Jun 2017 13:30 -0500

When the University of Chicago Graham School began its master’s program in threat and response management a decade ago, in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy, the anthrax attacks of 2001 and Hurricane Katrina, it focused on the public sector’s response to catastrophic events. But since then, emergency management has evolved, with professionals in the field increasingly being called upon to plan and act.

“To put it simply, there are more events, and more complex events than ever,” said Marsha Hawk, who has directed the program since its inception. “Storms are more violent. Active shooter events occur more frequently. Businesses must ensure continuity of operations in the wake of a disaster. Geographic boundaries are blurred. Cyber attacks are increasingly disruptive. And schools must be secured.”

In response, the Master of Science in Threat and Response Management program, or “master's of disaster,” is hitting the refresh button: The goals are to enlarge the program; focus more on the private sector—corporations, churches, retailers, not-for-profits, etc.—and public/private partnerships; and ensure that the program reflects the diversity of people working in the relatively new and rapidly evolving field of emergency management.

Society needs highly trained emergency managers to respond to these growing threats, Hawk said. “They must be creative, flexible and agile, with the academic grounding, practical skills and leadership capabilities needed to guide organizations and communities through crisis.”

Mastering and managing technology

Instructors in the program are at the forefront of the field and have years of real-world experience. Donald Zoufal, who has been teaching “Evolving Technologies in Emergency Management” for six years, emphasizes that threat and risk management tools change continually and dramatically. Recently, drones, miniaturization, social media and virtual reality have been hot topics.

Another emerging technology involves using aggregators to pool information from a variety of public and private sources, including cameras, monitors, databases and social media platforms.

“There are a wide variety of tools to help deal with complex problems,” said Zoufal, president of CrowZnest Consulting. “But you have to understand these tools so you can decide how to use them with proper governance. In addition, you have to think about the unintended consequences and challenges to privacy that the use of these tools will spark.”

Chicago police officer Cheryl Brown-Talley, MScTRM’15, found Zoufal’s class applicable to her new job. Partly due to the program, she was promoted to the Information Services Division, which early this year enhanced the use of ShotSpotter. This technology relies on strategically placed sensors and analytic software to determine almost immediately where a gun has been fired.

“Before I took the class, I didn’t know about all of the available technologies and how they could impact the community,” she said. “Then I went from being a police officer in a squad car to one on the inside, where these new technologies are selected and implemented.”

Students prepare for the future

Most of the 43 students currently enrolled in the two-year master’s program are employed in a variety of jobs, such as first responders, policymakers, medical professionals, public health officials and security personnel. Some of them travel from the West and East coasts to attend. To accommodate these students, the program holds three days of intensive classes downtown Chicago over three weekends each quarter.

First-year students take required courses; second-year students have to complete a capstone highlighting a particular problem and proposing a comprehensive solution. Some recent capstones reflect the broad and expanding range of areas with which emergency management personnel must deal. They called for use of crowd-sourcing data to characterize a threat or disaster, standards of care and a fair triage system that consider the needs of the disabled, a trauma response kit and training regimen for teachers and school staff, and a program to prepare civilians to deal with an active shooter incident.

After Jill Ramaker, MScTRM’11, graduated she became executive director of the Northeastern Illinois Public Safety Training Academy and led its conversion from a small organization that trained firefighters to a large multidisciplinary center that trains a variety of first responders.

“The educational benefit of the program is that it exposes students to a wide range of possibilities. That leads to more robust planning for the organizations that the graduates serve,” she said. “The ability to write policies and educate staff is 95 percent of the effort. Having a complete program in place, along with ensuring that personnel know what to do when something actually does happen, is a never-ending cycle.

“The program has stuck with me and given me the knowledge and confidence I need to keep moving forward,” Ramaker added.

David Gervino, MScTRM’13, an external affairs officer with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, agreed. “I was able to learn firsthand from top-notch faculty and guest speakers that were not only instrumental in conducting disaster response and recovery operations, but who had also been heavily-involved with crafting many of the policies and procedures that are now considered best practices throughout the field. Today, that knowledge continues to benefit me in my role as I deploy to disasters of all types and sizes throughout the U.S.”

University of Chicago to renovate, reopen historic CTA Green Line station

Wed, 14 Jun 2017 11:55 -0500

The University of Chicago will renovate the interior of the shuttered, 125-year-old Chicago Transit Authority Green Line stationhouse in Washington Park as part of an ongoing effort to establish a major arts and culture corridor, called the Arts Block, along East Garfield Boulevard.

The Chicago Transit Authority announced today that its board approved a contract for the University, through its Lake Park Associates subsidiary, to lease the historic station, following a competitive bidding process. The station, which the CTA said is one of the oldest rapid transit stations in the United States, has been closed since a new station opened across the street in 2001.

The University will invest $219,000 toward renovating the station, which will be re-opened as a welcome center for the Arts Block and for the Washington Park neighborhood. The welcome center is expected to open in 2018 and will include space for community-focused programming, such as an incubator for small, local businesses.

“Leasing the station to expand its use underscores the University’s commitment to supporting vibrant mid-South Side neighborhoods and to finding new ways to engage with local residents and visitors to the South Side,” said Derek R.B. Douglas, vice president for civic engagement and external affairs. “We look forward to engaging the community to consider future uses for the space.”

The University announced in June 2016 that it is working with community partners to develop the Arts Block. In addition to the welcome center, plans include the Green Line Arts Center, which will be an interdisciplinary hub for music, dance, theater and film production, and an outdoor, public green space that will feature an open-air pavilion. Proposed projects on the block are dependent on donor support.

The Arts Block efforts build on the success of the University’s community-focused Arts Incubator and Place Lab, and on retail enterprises along the block, including the Currency Exchange Café and BING Art Books.

Theaster Gates, professor in the Department of Visual Arts and director of Arts + Public Life, who is leading the vision for the Arts Block, said the historic CTA station is well situated as a place to provide way-finding for visitors to the neighborhood and is an important addition to the corridor.

“Arts and culture can transform communities by helping people to visualize new possibilities,” said Gates. “The Garfield Green Line CTA station is a historic cultural asset and physical space that will become a new place for creativity and opportunities for the community.”

Tanika Island Childress named CEO of the UChicago Charter School

Wed, 31 May 2017 16:04 -0500

Tanika Island Childress, a nationally distinguished educator and veteran leader at the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute, has been named CEO of the University of Chicago Charter School.

Island Childress will apply her wide-ranging expertise from more than two decades of teaching and leading to continuing the development of UChicago Charter as a model for fostering greater equity and excellence in urban education.

The appointment builds on Island Childress’s 16-year career at the Urban Education Institute, where she most recently served as director of the UChicago Urban Teacher Education Program. Earlier in her career, Island Childress served as the UChicago Charter School’s chief academic officer and director of the UChicago Charter North Kenwood/Oakland Campus, one of the highest-performing non-selective elementary schools in the city of Chicago.

During her tenure as director of the North Kenwood/Oakland Campus, Island Childress was recognized with a Community School Leadership Award in 2012 from the Federation of Community Schools and a Principal Achievement Award from the city of Chicago in 2013. She also has been recognized as a national leader in non-cognitive and academic development, serving as a member of the Aspen Institute’s Council of Distinguished Educators on Social, Emotional and Academic Development.

“I have big ambitions for UChicago Charter School students, which begin and end with my belief in their ability to learn, grow and succeed,” Island Childress said. “I hope to change the lives of many Chicago students by building on the UChicago Charter School’s strong culture of belief in students’ capabilities, and tradition of teacher learning and accountability grounded in research and data.”

Prior to joining UEI, Island Childress was an adjunct faculty member at Northwestern University’s Teaching Practicum and Field Experience Seminar. From 1997 to 2001, Island Childress was also the fourth-grade team leader for the Martin L. King Experimental Laboratory School in Evanston, Ill., where she took on the roles of Language Arts District Representative, School Literacy Committee member, Teachers as Readers Committee member and Sisterhood Project mentor.

“We are so fortunate to have Tanika’s depth of expertise at the helm of UChicago Charter School,” said Sian Beilock, executive vice provost of the University of Chicago and UChicago Charter School interim governing board chair. “Her vision, commitment and compassion will ensure we continue to help students across the South Side of Chicago realize their potential and achieve their goals, in school and in life.”

Island Childress’s appointment is part of UEI’s ambitious plan to improve schooling nationwide by conducting rigorous applied research, training exemplary teachers, operating a high-achieving public school, and designing school improvement tools and training for thousands of schools and classrooms across the United States.

The PreK-12 UChicago Charter School is designed to cultivate culturally aware critical thinkers and leaders, and prepare all of its students for college acceptance and graduation.

Its elementary model was recently the subject of a multi-year study that showed UChicago Charter is effectively addressing educational inequality and closing the achievement gap that has persisted between students of different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. The study’s findings were published this year in the book The Ambitious Elementary School. UChicago Charter’s Woodlawn campus received a Level 1 school quality rating from the Chicago Public Schools district last year and will open a new high school facility next year with state-of-the-art engineering science labs, a media arts space and a college resource center.

Island Childress has been serving as the interim CEO of the UChicago Charter School since February and will continue developing UChicago Charter as a model of excellence in fostering high school achievement, college attainment and young adult success.

“Tanika brings a unique lens and extremely rare combination of experiences to her new role,” said Sara Ray Stoelinga, the Sara Liston Spurlark Director of UEI. “As the former director of UChicago’s Urban Teacher Education Program, she has deep expertise in what it takes to train and retain high quality teachers within some of the nation’s most distressed communities and challenging classroom environments. She also has a wealth of experience in working directly with UChicago Charter School leaders, teachers, students and families. She is a highly respected and visionary leader who has changed—and will continue to change—students’ educational and life trajectories for the better.”

Island Childress received her bachelor’s degree in education with a concentration in psychology from National Louis University in Chicago. She also earned a master’s degree in literacy education from Loyola University and received a leadership fellowship through the Urban Education Institute.

South Side mom expands after-school program with UChicago's support

Sat, 13 May 2017 20:10 -0500

Jennifer Maddox didn’t plan to start a nonprofit in the Parkway Gardens Homes on Chicago’s South Side. The Chicago police officer, who was working a second job as a security officer in the low-income housing complex 10 years ago, was just looking for a room where kids could go after school to be safe and have fun.

When Maddox sees an opportunity to do more, though, she grabs it. That drive kept her expanding and improving her organization, Future Ties, as a resource against the endemic violence and poverty at Parkway Gardens. And it made her a perfect match for two programs led by the University of Chicago’s Office of Civic Engagement: the Civic Leadership Academy and the Community Programs Accelerator.

As a police officer and the founder of a nonprofit, Maddox is the first academy fellow in the program’s three cohorts who works in both the government and nonprofit realms.

“She has a pragmatic sensibility—she’s interested in hearing about what really works,” said William Howell, the Sydney Stein Professor in American Politics at the Harris School of Public Policy. Howell also is the faculty director for the Civic Leadership Academy, the University’s interdisciplinary certificate program for emerging leaders at nonprofits and public agencies in the city of Chicago.

Her strong commitment to the community has helped her gain national attention. In March she was featured as a CNN Hero, and this week she appeared on the “Steve Harvey Show” as part of a Mother’s Day week special on “supermoms.” Maddox has two adult sons.

Maddox does not see herself as a hero—just as someone who saw the need for a safe place for the 1,200 kids living in the complex without a playground or a park.

“The issue is a lot of kids in after-school hours just don’t have anything to do, so they’re creating something to do and it’s trouble,” said Maddox, who asked the management at Parkway Gardens if she could use an empty room in the basement to set up board games for kids after school.

When daily attendance went from a few dozen kids each afternoon to more than a hundred, Maddox asked parents to volunteer. Soon after, she partnered with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to employ local mothers who needed work experience to receive benefits.

By 2011—spurred in part by fire inspectors who told her that the program’s runaway popularity meant the basement room was crowded past capacity—Maddox turned Future Ties into an official 501(c)3 nonprofit and began focusing on academic after-school programming for elementary school students, supported by local teen volunteer tutors.

“The issue is a lot of kids in after-school hours just don’t have anything to do, so they’re creating something to do and it’s trouble.”Jennifer Maddox

When Parkway Gardens’ new management company offered the nonprofit a contract for after-school services, Maddox hired six of the parent volunteers as staff. Future Ties began working with the Greater Food Depository to replace the chips Maddox was buying in bulk with hot food. Now more than 100 kids participate in a new summer program at a local school, attending field trips to roller skating rinks and the beach.

As Future Ties became larger and more complex, Maddox looked for support and found it in UChicago’s Community Programs Accelerator, which provides technical assistance to strengthen community-based organizations on the mid-South Side.

“At first I said, ‘Why do I need to put together a budget to show funders? I’m just buying snacks. I’ve got the receipts for it all—can’t I just show them that?’” said Maddox with a laugh. “[But] it was the best thing. The accelerator has helped us grow and sustain the organization so much.”

Over the last three years, the Community Programs Accelerator has helped Future Ties create a budget and other materials for grant proposals, build its nonprofit board, write a strategic plan, revamp its website and start social media. Last summer, UChicago students even helped out by working with kids at the nonprofit’s camp.

“Jennifer is a joy to work with,” said Ryan Priester, associate director for community programs at the Office of Civic Engagement. “We like to think that our help has made a difference.”

It was Priester who suggested Maddox apply for the Civic Leadership Academy. Leadership also plays an important role in Maddox’s other job in the CPD’s Office of Community Affairs, where she works to help officers on community engagement—breaking down the distrust and lack of communication that is a factor in the challenging relations between police and residents in low-income neighborhoods.

A big goal of the academy is to build a network among the fellows, so they can advise each other and provide connections in their work. For example, Laura Markin, the strategy implementation manager for the University of Chicago Medicine and a fellow in Maddox’s CLA cohort, has brought colleagues to Parkway Gardens to launch a recovery program this spring for families after experiencing or witnessing violence. “A lot of shootings take place in Parkway. We want to do more with those who are still living with the trauma,” Maddox said.

Maddox and her colleagues at Future Ties said they can see changes in her leadership style since she joined the academy. For one, Maddox said she thinks about how to give her nonprofit staff more autonomy. That’s important because the organization works to develop parents as well as kids and to break the cycle of generational poverty.

“She takes our perspective, and she teaches us whatever she learns,” said Shaquita Wells, a mother from Parkway Gardens who has been with the organization for more than five years and is now a supervisor and a college student. “Jennifer is the definition of extraordinary. I’ve never met someone like her before.”

Prof. David Nirenberg awarded Laing Prize from UChicago Press

Thu, 11 May 2017 10:10 -0500

The University of Chicago Press has awarded the Gordon J. Laing Prize to Prof. David Nirenberg for Neighboring Faiths, his examination of the interactions of Muslims, Christians and Jews in the Middle Ages that provides new insight into how the faiths relate today.

The Laing Prize is the Press’s top honor, awarded annually to the UChicago faculty author, editor or translator of a book published in the previous three years that brings the Press the greatest distinction. Nirenberg, dean of the Division of the Social Sciences and the Deborah R. and Edgar D. Jannotta Distinguished Service Professor in History, Social Thought, Romance Languages and Literatures, is the 54th recipient of the award.

“Neighboring Faiths: Christianity, Islam and Judaism in the Middle Ages and Today is the rare historical work that, in looking backward, can help point a way forward,” said Garrett Kiely, director of the UChicago Press. “Now, more than ever, we need scholars like David to remind us of our shared religious past and of our shared future. I am very pleased that the Board of University Publications conferred the Laing Prize on this outstanding work of scholarship.”

In his research, Nirenberg explores how the interactions of the three religions help shape how they define themselves and each other. He describes his work as getting closer to an understanding of what it meant for a Muslim in Christian Spain to convert to Judaism in the 14th century, or how Muslim and Christian readings of Hegel in the 20th century have shaped how members of these faiths perceive the other.

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2017 Laing Prize ceremony

In Neighboring Faiths, Nirenberg examines how the three religions interact by focusing on medieval Spain, but finding overlaps in more recent times from Pope Benedict XVI to the leaders of Hamas.

“How these three faiths interact with each other—and take shape through each other—is crucial to our current world and animates a huge amount of our geopolitical energy,” Nirenberg said. “Although the book is largely medieval, it begins with and ends with meditations on how this process of co-production among the three faiths is still going on.”

Writing in the London Review of Books, Carlos Fraenkel described Neighboring Faiths not as a “feel-good story” about the faiths getting along, but instead an argument for why ideas matter and how they can harden over time, requiring a study of the past to inform future relations.

What inspired Nirenberg to write Neighboring Faiths was a curiosity that emerged from his own background as a Latin American immigrant to the U.S. of Jewish descent. Further impetus came more recently when he taught an undergraduate course in Jerusalem.

“It was there, discussing the scriptures of Islam, Judaism and Christianity with a class evenly divided between all three faiths, that I first began to perceive the possibility, and perhaps even the importance, of such a project,” Nirenberg said.

Nirenberg is also author of Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages; Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition; and Aesthetic Theology and Its Enemies: Judaism in Christian Painting, Poetry and Politics. His honors include receiving the Historikerpreis der Stadt Münster this year, awarded for outstanding works in historical sciences.

Students, teachers craft software to make astronomy accessible to the blind

Mon, 01 May 2017 14:50 -0500

Today’s astronomers don’t really look at stars or galaxies so much as images produced from data generated by light. If that same data were used to produce 3-D printouts, tactile displays or sound, would it open the study and pursuit of astronomy to the blind and visually impaired?

That’s the kind of question the University of Chicago’s Yerkes Observatory and its partners will try to answer with the help of a $2.5 million National Science Foundation grant. Over the next three years, they will develop Afterglow Access—new software that will make astronomy more accessible to the blind and visually impaired.

“Amazing pictures of stars start as numbers on a spreadsheet, and those numbers can be manipulated and presented in myriad ways,” said Kate Meredith, director of education outreach at the Yerkes Observatory and the education lead of Innovators Developing Accessible Tools for Astronomy, a new research initiative from the observatory. “We won’t consider ourselves successful unless within three years we have developed new computer tools with and for the blind and visually impaired that can be used in real applications, learning situations and scholarly research.”

The National Federation of the Blind estimates that more than seven million Americans are visually disabled. Unequal access to quantitative information and the lack of vision-neutral tools presents them with barriers to study and master astronomy and other STEM subjects, Meredith said.

To overcome this, the Yerkes research initiative will engage blind and visually impaired students as well as sighted students and their teachers from mainstream and specialized schools for the blind. Twenty teachers and 200 eighth- through 12th-grade students are expected to participate annually. Recruiting teachers and students began this spring. While half of the participating schools will be located in southern Wisconsin and the Chicago area, the remaining schools will be selected from across the United States and its territories.

Students and teachers will participate in user-centered design and universal design processes to develop and test software and learning modules and to improve accessibility aspects of astronomy tools for educational and professional purposes. The project builds upon the success of prior National Science Foundation-supported research projects, including the development of Afterglow; Quorum, an accessible programming language; and the Skynet Junior Scholars, a program that supports collaborative astronomy investigations by young explorers using Skynet’s international network of telescopes.

The research will advance knowledge about student learning related to computational thinking, the role of computation in astronomy and software design. In addition, it will help determine how participation influences student attitudes and beliefs about who can engage in computing and STEM subjects.

“Teaming up blind and visually impaired students with sighted students, teachers and professionals in the design and development of astronomy software and instructional modules will create powerful educational experiences, encourage STEM learning, and lower the barrier-to-entry for blind and visually impaired individuals interested in astronomy and related careers,” Meredith said.

Investigators in the program include employees at the University of Chicago; Yerkes Observatory; Associated Universities Inc.; the Technical Education Research Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; and Skynet at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

UChicago program prepares students for careers in public policy, service

Fri, 28 Apr 2017 14:05 -0500

When Riley Paul, AB’16, was searching for a career that would allow him to make a difference in underserved communities, he turned to the Fried Public Policy and Service Program.

Launched in 2010 as UChicago Careers in Public Policy and Service, the program prepares students for careers in the public sector, including government, nonprofits, public policy and social service agencies. It is one of eight industry pre-professional programs offered through the Office of Career Advancement. The program provides advising with experienced professionals, internships across the world, professional development workshops, alumni networking and on-campus recruiting. It also offers “career treks,” trips in which students visit leading employers in their field. Such treks have taken students to organizations in cities including New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Paul engaged extensively with program advisers, seeking help crafting his resume, writing cover letters, preparing for interviews and discussing his career goals. He earned a job as liaison to the CEO at Chicago United, an organization designed to promote economic opportunity for people of color, through the UChicago Public Interest Program, which places recent graduates in yearlong, paid fellowships.

“I focused my studies on race and the ways policy can disparately affect marginalized communities, so Chicago United’s advocacy of people of color really resonated with me and was a clear progression from work I had already been doing in college,” Paul said. “I was excited once the Public Interest Program matched me with Chicago United, and I appreciate how they worked with me to secure the position there.”

According to Career Advancement, about one-quarter of UChicago graduates entering the workforce since 2010 have gone on to public interest careers in government, education, nonprofits, economic development and public policy.

“University of Chicago students are incredibly passionate and engaged with public policy and service, and it’s our privilege to help them bring their talent and energy to careers in which they are making a difference in the lives of countless people throughout our city, nation and world,” said Sylvia Atsalis, program director of the Fried Public Policy and Service Program.

Thanks to the support of UChicago alumni and generous donors, the number of internships and other opportunities available to students has grown rapidly. Career Advancement has collaborated with campus partners such as the Institute of Politics to increase the number of public sector employers hiring UChicago students. In the summer of 2011, 58 UChicago undergraduates secured an internship in public policy or service. By last summer, that number had climbed to more than 350.

Intensive, personalized career support

In addition to offering internships and other experiential learning opportunities, the Fried Public Policy and Service Program supports students at every stage of their job search process through programs such as the Rosenzweig Scholars Program, which provides intensive, structured support for fourth-year students seeking positions in public policy and service. The program is named in memory of Pat Rosenzweig, AB’61, an alumna who mentored countless students as a volunteer career adviser at Career Advancement.

One of this year’s Rosenzweig Scholars is Gabrielle Mendy, a fourth-year studying international studies. She enjoys the program’s workshops, speakers and counseling. “It’s especially interesting to be part of a cohort of about 50 fellow scholars and to see their motivations and what’s working for them, job-wise and career-wise,” she said.

Following graduation, Mendy plans to attend graduate school in a discipline related to public policy, after taking a gap year working in the field. After working closely with her adviser, she was accepted into the UChicago Public Interest Program. Accepted students are matched with various public policy or service organizations in Washington, D.C., New York and Chicago and are guaranteed an interview with at least one of them.

Additionally, Mendy has attended a “trek” in Chicago, where she had the opportunity to engage with professionals of leading nonprofits such as the Illinois Coalition for Immigration and Refugee Rights, Youth Guidance, and Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago.

“One thing I like a lot about the Fried Public Policy and Service Program is that what I’m learning through them will be helpful throughout my entire professional career—not just during my immediate search for an internship or job,” Mendy said. “They go the extra mile in focusing on personal and professional development.”

Her advice to fellow undergraduates? “Take advantage of programs like this right away. With events, one–on-one counseling, treks and programs, the Fried Public Policy and Service Program is accessible to everyone.”

UChicago charts future of ethnographic research

Mon, 10 Apr 2017 14:10 -0500

In the early 20th century, the University of Chicago was known as the epicenter of ethnography, a method of study in which researchers immerse themselves in a social setting to observe its inner workings. Many of sociology’s landmark works emerged from such research, positioning ethnography as an essential tool for understanding individuals and communities.

A series of projects by faculty members in the UChicago’s Department of Sociology are bringing new attention to the method, putting a spotlight on the University as a leading proponent of ethnography. Those efforts now include the Chicago Ethnography Incubator, a two-day, annual symposium bringing together scholars and graduate students from around the country to advance ethnographic methods, provide hands-on mentoring and further build an interdisciplinary community of ethnographers.

“We really want Chicago in the center of the ethnographic conversation, but do that in a way that reflects where the discipline and the world has gone in the last 40 years or so,” said Forrest Stuart, assistant professor of sociology.

Stuart, Asst. Prof. Kimberly Hoang and Assoc. Prof. Kristen Schilt held the incubator’s first symposium in March, which included a forum titled “Ethnographic Reflections” and a workshop that brought together the first class of faculty and graduate fellows. The event was sponsored by UChicago Urban, as part of its university-wide effort to bolster urban research.

Stuart is one of several UChicago faculty who place ethnographic methods at the core of their work. His first book, Down, Out and Under Arrest: Policing and Everyday Life in Skid Row, was drawn from ethnographic research, as is his current work investigating how digital social media are transforming gang violence on Chicago’s South Side.

Hoang, another young ethnographer whose work takes an in-depth and often personal look at sex workers and their clients, is author of Dealing in Desire: Asian Ascendancy, Western Decline and the Hidden Currencies of Global Sex Work. She was especially gratified by the mix of student and faculty fellows at the incubator who showcased evolving issues within ethnography, such as increasingly global and technology-driven issues, and infused them with the UChicago’s rich multidisciplinary tradition.

The incubator’s inaugural class of graduate fellows came from UChicago and other universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Their research tackles topics ranging from social work providers and undocumented immigrants to the ways mobile devices and social media affects how people make and respond to emergency 911 calls.

“These are cutting-edge projects that have urban sociology in conversation with medical sociology in conversation with digital innovation,” Hoang said. “And ethnographers on the ground to take it all in.”

The 2017 faculty fellows at the incubator are involved in equally diverse research areas. Ching Kwan Lee, a sociology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, has used ethnography to study China’s transition from state socialism to the workshop of the world and then as a major global investor in Africa, as well as the gendered factory regimes in Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

"The U.S. presidential election reminds ethnographers that we need to study communities which are ideologically and socially distant from us, and not just those we politically and personally identify with,” Lee said. “The rise of Trump amid a global advance of right-wing populism also challenges ethnographers to do comparative ethnography, to provincialize the American experience.”

As ethnography’s academic reach and direction evolves, its most important function remains: giving a voice to those most directly impacted by the social issues studied, said Carla Shedd, an assistant professor of sociology and African-American studies at Columbia University whose research on Chicago’s neighborhoods and public high schools formed the basis of her 2015 book, Unequal City: Race, Schools and Perceptions of Injustice.

“Our policies are often implemented without any insight from those most affected by them,” Shedd said. “Ethnography can help us think about the consequences of these high-level policies as they’re experienced and felt on the ground. It’s these young people in schools who have had the greatest insight into what is working and what is not working.”

UChicago launches new scholarship program for Chicago teachers

Fri, 17 Mar 2017 09:00 -0500

In recognition of the important work of educators and in honor of their service to the city of Chicago, the University of Chicago is launching the Chicago Public Schools Educators Award Scholarship, a full-tuition scholarship to attend UChicago for the children of educators in the Chicago Public Schools.

The CPS Educators Award Scholarship is an expansion of UChicago Promise, a multi-pronged initiative designed to help students and families throughout the city of Chicago gain admission to, pay for and thrive in college. UChicago Promise currently provides full-tuition scholarships for the children of Chicago firefighters, Chicago police officers and UChicago police officers. The program also offers full-tuition scholarships each year to select students attending Chicago Public Schools. UChicago Promise is part of the University’s far-reaching commitment to help Chicago students prepare for and attend the nation’s top colleges and universities.

“This new initiative will help the families of Chicago educators in our own backyard, building on our efforts to enhance preparation and expand opportunities for all Chicago high school students,” said John W. Boyer, dean of the College. “Teachers, police officers and firefighters help make this city work for everyone, and this is an important way to honor their service.”

The new scholarship builds upon the success of UChicago Promise, which in addition to providing scholarships for Chicago students, offers free programming for students, educators and counselors in Chicago across a variety of platforms to tackle the barriers to higher education faced by students and families. Started in 2012, UChicago Promise offers Chicago high schools free enrichment programs and free workshops to help students navigate the college admissions and financial aid processes. As a whole, these programs are designed to help Chicago high school students attain access to an excellent college education anywhere.

“Teachers, police officers and firefighters help make this city work for everyone, and this is an important way to honor their service.” Dean John W. Boyer

“I applaud the University of Chicago for recognizing Chicago’s dedicated teachers, firefighters and police officers by helping their children achieve their dreams of a higher education,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “Chicago’s students continue to break high school graduation and college enrollment records, and UChicago Promise scholarships put a world-class education in reach for more Chicago students and families.”

“This new scholarship recognizes the vital role that Chicago Public Schools educators play in the lives of our city’s students, while building on the University’s longtime partnerships with local schools,” said Derek Douglas, vice president for civic engagement. “UChicago Promise programs help prepare hundreds of Chicago students for college each year, giving them essential tools for both academic and career success.”

UChicago Promise includes:

Admissions Academy: Workshops led by UChicago staff members to provide professional development for educators as well as guidance to students and families navigating college admissions and financial aid.
The Jeff Metcalf Internship Program: A program that provides 2,000 paid and substantive internships to undergraduates each year, including UChicago Promise Metcalf internships. Promise Metcalf interns are current UChicago students who are trained to aid teachers and school counselors in the Chicago Public Schools in preparing students for the college admissions and application processes. The interns help educators in additional areas where needed throughout the school year.
Upward Bound: A federally funded program, managed by the University’s Office of Special Programs, that offers after-school tutoring, Saturday and summer programming, and college tours to prepare Chicago high school students for college.
The Neighborhood Schools Program: A program that connects hundreds of UChicago students with South Side pre-K to 12th schools each year as tutors, teaching assistants and general support staff.
Collegiate Scholars: A program to prepare talented Chicago Public Schools students in grades 10-12 for admission and success at the nation’s top colleges and universities.

In addition to the front-line teachers in the classroom, the new scholarship will include and recognize the vital role of key related service providers such as school counselors, speech pathologists and nurses, as well as support personnel who support and care for students each day such as teaching assistants, lunchroom workers, school clerks and custodians.

“This scholarship recognizes the contribution and sacrifice of our faculty who educate, inspire and help mentor Chicago's youth,” said Janice K. Jackson, chief education officer of Chicago Public Schools. “UChicago Promise and the University of Chicago have been essential partners in helping cultivate the next generation of Chicago’s leaders, and we’re thrilled our students and their families have this critical opportunity.”

The University of Chicago is deeply committed to serving under-resourced and under-served students in the city of Chicago and across the country. UChicago Promise focuses on eliminating barriers to higher education in the University’s home city. UChicago also has recently expanded its efforts to ensure access to higher education for all students across the country through the Odyssey Scholarship Program, which provides financial support and career development opportunities for low-income and first-generation students. As part of the expansion of Odyssey, UChicago has eliminated student loans from need-based financial aid packages for all students who are eligible to receive need-based aid and removed the application fees for students applying for financial aid. Odyssey Scholars also are offered a guaranteed funded internship the summer after their first year and lifelong career professional development opportunities.

UChicago is a founding member of the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success, a group of colleges and universities dedicated to improving college access for students of all backgrounds by offering a free platform of online tools to assist students in their college search and admissions process.

For more information on UChicago Promise and for college admissions resources, visit promise.uchicago.edu. Candidates for the Chicago Public Schools Educators Award must be accepted to the University of Chicago and be the child of a full-time Chicago Public Schools teacher or school-based staff member.

Arne Duncan appointed distinguished senior fellow at Harris School of Public Policy

Fri, 03 Mar 2017 11:00 -0600

Arne Duncan, who served as U.S. Secretary of Education and chief executive of the Chicago Public Schools, has joined the University of Chicago as a distinguished senior fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy.

Duncan will participate in seminars, conferences and student-led initiatives at Harris Public Policy, bringing to the University his significant experience in education policy. His longstanding dedication to students and their families adds an important voice to work across the University to improve education through research, engagement with education practice and policy, and helping to train the next generation of education leaders.

“The University of Chicago is committed to bringing together scholars and practitioners to confront the challenges faced by educators in Chicago and cities around the world,” President Robert J. Zimmer said. “Arne Duncan, with his wealth of experience, brings important insights into the nation’s educational challenges, with a perspective informed by his understanding of Chicago’s South Side.”

Duncan also will serve as special advisor to the dean of Harris, helping to design, organize and host two events a year at the public policy school. In addition, he will provide advice to the dean in areas of public policy related to his expertise. The three-year appointment as a distinguished senior fellow took effect Jan. 1.

“The University of Chicago and Harris are internationally recognized leaders in education and outcomes-focused research, which are passion points for me,” Duncan said. “I am pleased to join the UChicago community, with its outstanding reputation for debate and inquiry—it certainly played an important role in shaping my education as a child.”

Duncan has deep ties to Chicago and the University. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and his father, Starkey Duncan Jr., was a professor of psychology at the University. His mother, Sue Duncan, founded an after-school tutoring program on the South Side, which Arne Duncan credited with helping to inspire his career in education.

Before being appointed Secretary of Education in 2008, Duncan served for more than seven years as chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools.

Duncan stepped down as education secretary at the end of 2015. He serves as managing partner of Emerson Collective, leading a comprehensive effort to develop job skills and opportunities for young people in Chicago.

The appointment of Duncan complements the University’s ongoing work in education-related research areas across campus. These efforts include the work of the Urban Education Institute, Urban Labs, the Thirty Million Words Initiative and many more.

At Harris, scholars have focused since the school’s founding on improving the lives of children and their educational achievements, including the multiple factors that can affect a child’s educational outcomes, from parenting interventions and access to sanitation to student loan debt and early childhood programs.

“Education policy has been an area of longstanding interest to Harris. The breadth and importance of his various activities in this policy sphere ensure that Arne’s addition to our community will help make Harris a preeminent place in the world for engagement with the various issues that make education at once among the most important and the most challenging of all policy areas,” said Kerwin Charles, interim dean at Harris and the Edwin and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor.

Teachers in schools with strong organizational capacity feel more prepared to teach Common Core standards

Wed, 01 Mar 2017 09:00 -0600

As schools across the country begin implementing the Common Core State Standards, a new study from the UChicago Consortium on School Research shows that teachers in Chicago Public Schools with high levels of organizational capacity, such as teacher collaboration, instructional leadership and teacher influence, are more likely to report feeling prepared to teach the new standards.

In addition, researchers find elementary school teachers feel more prepared than high school teachers. In 2015, 56 percent of elementary school teachers and 41 percent of high school teachers in Chicago Public Schools reported feeling “very” prepared to teach the new standards, while only one percent of elementary and five percent of high school teachers reported feeling "not at all" prepared. Chicago Public Schools began implementing the Common Core standards—one of the most significant national education initiatives of the last decade—in K-12 classrooms in 2013-2014 for English language arts and 2014-2015 for math.

“Common Core is a state-led, nationwide effort to define clear expectations for student learning and mastery,” said report co-author Jennifer R. Cowhy, research analyst at the UChicago Consortium on School Research. “The standards establish guidelines for what students should learn each year in math and English language arts in order to be college- and career-ready, although the standards do not dictate how these expectations should be met.”

The study used responses to the annual My Voice, My School survey from spring 2014 and spring 2015 to explore teacher and administrator experiences preparing for the Common Core standards and their perceptions of how the new standards would affect teaching and learning. The two years of data included in this study occurred during the implementation of Chicago Public Schools’ multi-year professional development strategy to prepare teachers and administrators to implement the new standards. The Common Core standards represent a considerable change in the expectations for teaching and learning across all grades.

“Two questions that matter for whether or not CPS can successfully implement the Common Core standards are: Have there been adequate professional development opportunities to equip CPS schools with the skills and resources to be successful in the first years of implementation and how do teachers and administrators view the new standards—to what extent do they believe the standards will affect teaching and learning?” Cowhy said.

Additional findings

The study found that in 2015, more than two-thirds of elementary school teachers felt that the Common Core standards would have a great deal of impact on what they would teach and on how they would teach it, while less than half of high school teachers felt this way. Teachers at all levels felt the new standards would impact their teaching more than they would impact student achievement.

Some teachers reported receiving much more Common Core standards-related professional development than others. On average, elementary teachers reported participating in more sessions than high school teachers, but about 15 percent of elementary teachers and 25 percent of high school teachers reported having no formal Common Core standards-related professional development in 2014 or 2015.

Many teachers also met regularly outside of formal professional development to talk with their colleagues about the Common Core standards, with two-thirds of elementary teachers and just over 40 percent of high school teachers meeting at least monthly to do so.

Administrators did not report feeling as prepared as teachers in their ability to support implementation of the new standards, particularly in their ability to evaluate teachers’ implementation of the Common Core standards.

Overall, teachers in schools with high levels of general organizational capacity reported receiving more extensive Common Core standards professional development. Even after taking into account more extensive professional development, teachers in these schools reported feeling more prepared to teach the standards, suggesting that the schools may have employed additional strategies to ensure teachers were prepared.

“It stands to reason that teachers in schools with stronger organizational capacity feel more prepared for a new initiative,” said study co-author Julia A. Gwynne, managing director and senior research scientist at the UChicago Consortium on School Research. “What we can learn from this is the critical role organizational capacity can play in school success.”

Luis Bettencourt named inaugural director of Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation

Thu, 23 Feb 2017 10:00 -0600

Luis M. Bettencourt, a leading researcher in urban science and complex systems, has been appointed the inaugural Pritzker Director of the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation at the University of Chicago.

Under Bettencourt’s leadership, the Mansueto Institute, which launched last year with the support of a $35 million gift from alumni Joe and Rika Mansueto, will enhance the University’s strengths in urban scholarship and education and accelerate work across campus on the processes that drive and shape cities. It was founded to foster innovative and interdisciplinary scholarship, develop new educational programs, and provide leadership on the local, national and international levels to meet the challenges that cities face.

“The University of Chicago is in an exceptional position to increase understanding and develop effective practices around the most complex questions facing cities,” said President Robert J. Zimmer. “Luis’s intellectual leadership will help build the Mansueto Institute into a hub for the University’s rich array of urban research, education and impact.”

The Mansueto Institute will work closely with urban-focused efforts across campus in the divisions and schools as well as entities such as UChicago Urban Labs, which develops and tests evidence-based urban policy; the Office of Civic Engagement, which collaborates with community partners in Chicago and beyond; and the Global Engagement Office, which works through University centers in China, Europe and India.

“Luis is incredibly curious and can convene people from across the sciences in ways that produce new and innovative understandings of cities and urbanization,” said Kathleen Cagney, professor of sociology and chair of the selection committee. “He thinks carefully about the fundamental principles of urban scholarship and how they can be applied in different contexts, particularly in cities across the globe.”

Bettencourt, whose appointment is effective July 1, 2017, also will be a professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolution and the College. He comes to the University from the Santa Fe Institute, a leading multidisciplinary research and education institute, where he is a professor of complex systems.

In his research, Bettencourt uses the growing availability of data worldwide on topics ranging from transportation to housing to understand cities in quantitative and predictive ways. He is dedicated to creating new urban theory to explain how cities thrive and the challenges they face, based on the integration of ideas from urban disciplines such as geography, economics and sociology with methodologies from the natural and computational sciences. He also focuses on understanding the role of innovation and technological change as a driver of economic growth and human development in cities, across the world and throughout history. One of his most influential research projects has helped explain the systematic association between the size of urban areas and higher rates of economic productivity and innovation, as well as higher costs of living and violent crime.

“The Mansueto Institute provides a truly novel opportunity to bring together researchers from an array of fields to understand not just the fundamentals of cities—in terms of concept and data—but also how such fundamentals can lead to new, innovative solutions to improve the lives and opportunities of their residents,” Bettencourt said. “The University of Chicago’s longstanding dedication to urban scholarship, and the sciences more broadly, provides an unmatched foundation for the institute.”

Bettencourt will lead the Mansueto Institute in supporting innovative urban research projects while providing rigorous training for the next generation of urban scholars and practitioners. His role will include making the institute a destination on campus for students, scholars and policymakers, with data and analytic tools that can be accessed virtually by researchers from around the world.

The Mansueto Institute will play a key role in the University’s comprehensive and integrative efforts to bridge urban scholarship, practice and engagement—an institutional commitment known as UChicago Urban.

Bettencourt holds a doctorate in theoretical physics from Imperial College London and held postdoctoral positions at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the University of Heidelberg and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He served on the 2015 President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology working group on technology and the future of cities, and was a Kavli Fellow for the National Academy of Sciences’ Frontiers in Science Symposium. His work has received extensive coverage in the media, including The New York Times, Scientific American, Wired and New Scientist.