Elaine Allensworth

Lewis Sebring Director

University of Chicago Consortium on School Research

Bio

Elaine Allensworth is the Lewis-Sebring Director of the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, a research-practice partnership within the Urban Education Institute that supports improvements in Chicago’s public schools. Dr. Allensworth is nationally recognized as an expert in the areas of students’ educational attainment, school leadership and school improvement. Her research on the factors that predict whether students will drop out of high school has shifted the conversation on school improvement by focusing efforts on factors over which schools have the most ability to exercise control. School districts across the country have adopted early warning indicator systems based on her research into ‘on-track’ rates among freshmen. 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, including the Palmer O. Johnson Award for outstanding publications. Dr. Allensworth is a coauthor of the book Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago, a work that documents the ways in which organizational structures in schools influence improvements in student achievement. 

Selected Publications

Allensworth, E., S. Cashdollar, J. Gwynne. 2021. Improvements in Math Instruction and Student Achievement Through Professional Learning Around the Common Core State Standards in Chicago. AERAOpen, 7(1): 1–19. 

Allensworth, E. M., & Clark, K. 2020. High School GPAs and ACT Scores as Predictors of College Completion: Examining Assumptions About Consistency Across High Schools. Educational Researcher, 49, 3. 

Sebastian, James and Elaine Allensworth. Scheduled for publication in 2019. Linking Principal Leadership to Organizational Growth and Student Achievement: A Moderated Mediation Analysis. Teachers College Record, 121(10).

Rickles, Jordan, Jessica B. Heppen, Elaine Allensworth, Nicholas Sorensen, and Kirk Walters. 2018. Online Credit Recovery and the Path to On-Time High School Graduation. Educational Researcher, 0013189X18788054.

Ehrlich, Stacy, Julia Gwynne and Elaine Allensworth. 2018. Pre-kindergarten Attendance Matters: Early Chronic Absence Patterns and Relationships to Learning Outcomes, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 44(3): 136-151.

Allensworth, Elaine M., Paul T. Moore, Lauren Sartain, & Marisa de la Torre. 2017. The Educational Benefits of Attending Higher-Performing Schools: Evidence from Chicago High Schools. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 39(2): 175-197.

Heppen, Jessica B., Nicholas Sorensen, Elaine Allensworth, Kirk Walters, Jordan Rickles, Suzanne Stachel Taylor & Valerie Michelman 2016. The Struggle to Pass Algebra: Online vs. Face-to-Face Credit Recovery for At-Risk Urban Students, Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 10 (2): 272-296.

Sebastian, James and Elaine Allensworth. 2012. The Influence of Principal Leadership on Classroom Instruction and Student Learning: A Study of Mediated Pathways to Learning. Educational Administration Quarterly, 48 (4): 626-663.

Nomi, Takako and Elaine Allensworth. 2009. “Double-Dose” Algebra as an Alternative Strategy to Remediation: Effects on Students’ Academic Outcomes. Journal of Research on Educational
Effectiveness, 2 (2): 111–148.

CV

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