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Research

Research remains central to the work of the Council. The Council’s Research Department provides customized research, evaluation, and data analytics support that helps district leaders make strategic decisions, strengthen policies and practices, and ultimately improve outcomes for students in large urban school systems.

The mission of the Research Department is to support and produce research with and about our member districts as they work to improve student learning and reduce inequities in schools. The work of the department is also designed to benchmark member district performance against non-urban districts and performance nationally, as well as to create tools and resources that allow member districts to compare their own performance with that of their peer districts. Our work is grounded in establishing spaces for engagement among research, accountability, evaluation, and assessment directors, and includes data collection and analysis, research reports and peer-reviewed articles, presentations, and data visualization tools.

We focus on:

  • Expanding the field’s understanding of what works, and what’s not working, in large urban districts
  • Identifying policies and practices that accelerate achievement
  • Reducing racial and economic achievement gaps across our member districts

Our work is grounded in rigorous research methods and a deep understanding of the unique challenges and strengths of urban school systems.

Research Reports

Over the years, the Council’s research team has written or contributed to a number of critical reports that have shaped local and national conversations about urban education, including:

These and many other publications, produced by the Council’s research team and our partners, inform district-level decision making and contribute to national policy discussions about urban education. Many of these reports are available for download on this website.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI): Measuring What Matters

The Council’s research team leads the annual collection, analysis, and reporting of Academic and Operational Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) across member districts.

These data:

  • Provide a clear picture of how districts are performing on critical academic and operational measures
  • Allow districts to benchmark their progress against peers and CGCS member districts as a whole
  • Track performance and improvement over time

Annual KPI results are featured in:

To deepen this work and enhance district leaders ability to use and analyze these results, the Research Department has developed a suite of interactive dashboards that allow users to:

  • Explore Academic KPIs by student group
  • Examine trends over time
  • Compare districts with similar demographic characteristics

The dashboards introduce the ability to parse the indicators by student group, over time, and between districts with similar demographics. These tools help leaders move beyond the static reports and engage in more nuanced, data-informed decision making. Our Academic, English Learner and Student with Disability dashboards are available to member district leaders at our online community site. 

Tools and Resources

Our Commitment

The Research Department is deeply committed to monitoring achievement in large urban school districts and conducting research that identifies promising practices and policies, strengthens teaching and learning, and supports scalable improvements across our member districts. We strive to ensure that research is not just produced, but actively used to drive meaningful and measurable change for students.

 Contacts:

Akisha Osei Sarfo, PhD
Research Director

Brian Garcia
Research Manager

Chester Holland, PhD
Research Manager