Using Data to Improve Schools

Elaine Allensworth is the Lewis-Sebring Director of the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research and a research professor at the Crown School of Social Work, where she has conducted research on educational policy and practice for over 25 years. Her research examines factors influencing students' educational attainment, school leadership, and school improvement. She works with policymakers and practitioners to bridge research and practice, serving on panels, policy commissions, and working groups at the local, state and national levels. Her research on the factors that predict whether students will drop out of high school has shifted the conversation from factors that schools cannot control to factors that schools can influence; school districts across the country have adopted early warning indicator systems based on her research. Her work on school leadership has documented the ways in which organizational structures in schools influence improvements in student achievement. Dr. Allensworth has been the principal investigator on research grants from funders such as the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She has received a number of awards from the American Educational Research Association for outstanding publications. She holds a doctorate in sociology from Michigan State University and was once a high school teacher.