The Background
The University of Chicago Consortium investigates progress and challenges in Chicago Public Schools, identifies how programs and policies are working, and illuminates what really matters for schools and student success.
The Challenge
The UChicago Consortium had an abundance of data on what makes at-risk kids thrive, yet they felt they were unable to make their data actionable within Chicago Public Schools.
The Process
Desklight partnered with the Consortium to come up with two innovative ideas on how to make what they do everyday more actionable while also empowering and capacity building with academic researchers who work at the Consortium to do design research.
Our contributions included:
- Contextual inquiry
- Insights synthesis
- Capacity building
- Workshop facilitation
- Strategy development
The Solution
As part of the design initiative, we recommended strategies such as the development of a reflection tool app for teachers. This app sits outside of any performance metrics, allowing teachers to swap best practices while also learning from the Consortium through bite-sized chunks of content that are more accessible to busy and overrun public school teachers.
