Welcome to the Council of the Great City Schools' Research Department home page. The goal of the Research Department is to conduct, facilitate, and disseminate data that will provide concrete guidance and support to our member districts and other key stakeholders as they work to improve education outcomes and reduce achievement gaps in urban school districts.

Over the years, the Council has written a number of landmark reports on a variety of topics important to urban student achievement including Student Testing in America's Great CitySchools: An Inventory and Preliminary Analysis (2015), A Call for Change: The Social and Educational Factors Contributing to the Outcomes of Black Males in Urban Schools (2010), and A Call for Change: Providing Solutions for Black Male Achievement (2012) among others. These and a number of additional reports on a wide range of topics written by the Council’s research team and our partners to inform local education decisions and federal policy discussions can be found on this website. The site is organized into four main areas:

• Research Publications
• Research Presentations
• Data Sources
• District Research Studies

The Research Department’s staff is committed to monitoring achievement gaps in large urban school districts, and conducting research to expand the field’s knowledge of policies and practices that can be employed to spur achievement and reduce racial and economic achievement gaps.

Research Contacts:

Research Director
Akisha Osei Sarfo
asarfo@cgcs.org

Research Manager
Moses Palacios
mpalacios@cgcs.org

Research Manager
Eric Vignola
Programmer/Technology Specialist
evignola@cgcs.org