UChicago Impact Partners with the UChicago Consortium and PERTS to Support Educators in Creating Positive Learning Environments for Students

Over the past few years, UChicago Impact and the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research (UChicago Consortium) have partnered with PERTS (Project for Education Research That Scales) to support educators in better understanding how the conditions of learning environments can influence students’ academic performance. During the past year, the partnership has focused on developing tools and resources educators can use to foster more positive learning experiences for students—specifically aligning an expanded version of UChicago Impact’s Cultivate Survey with PERTS’ quick, progress monitoring survey of learning conditions, Elevate. 

Cultivate is a survey and framework that illuminates how teaching practices—from how quickly assignments are graded and returned to how students are greeted—influence students’ Learning Mindsets and Learning Strategies (Mindsets & Strategies), and, in turn, their grades. It provides educators with insight into how such practices may be influencing how students see themselves as learners, how they approach their work in that classroom, and, ultimately, how they perform academically.

The alignment of Cultivate and Elevate, formally known as “Cultivate + Elevate,” is designed to provide educators with a suite of comprehensive resources that will promote the creation of learning environments that research shows promote positive student outcomes. Together, they provide educators with a diagnostic survey paired with an ongoing progress monitoring tool that gives teachers actionable data about the conditions students are experiencing in their classrooms. Cultivate + Elevate supports educators in:

Implementing a reliable system for gathering student feedback and incorporating student voice into improvement planning.
Using actionable, diagnostic survey data to inform shifts in instructional practices and inform school-wide improvement plans that enhance students’ learning experiences.
Establishing a cycle of continuous improvement through short progress monitoring surveys that provide regular insight into the effectiveness of instructional shifts. 

Learn more about Cultivate and the research behind it here.