Editor’s note: This story is part of Meet a UChicagoan, a regular series focusing on the people who make UChicago a distinct intellectual community.
In the early 2000s, around half of students enrolled in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) graduated from high school. While investigating the problem, University of Chicago Prof. Melissa Roderick discovered a key insight: Ninth grade is a pivotal intervention year to prevent school dropout.
This finding catalyzed two decades of research by Roderick and her colleagues at the UChicago Consortium of School Research. Using their research, CPS launched a Freshman On-Track system to monitor 9th graders in danger of slipping through the cracks. It paid off.
In 2023, the school district hit a historic high graduation rate of 85%.
Roderick, the Hermon Dunlap Smith Professor at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, has spent a career devoted to urban school reform. Her research on CPS led to new interventions, strategies, and partnerships that have improved graduation rates and helped create a pathway to college—making a profound and sustained impact in the lives of thousands of young people.
Now, on the eve of her retirement, Roderick leaves behind a legacy that has reshaped how Chicago educates its most vulnerable students.
“Melissa wants educational systems to work for all students. Her research was instrumental in improving CPS attendance and graduation rates,” said Crown colleague Prof. Julia Henly. “This is a key legacy that should make her—and all of us at the Crown Family School—extremely proud.”
‘What does the research say?’
Growing up in Fall River, Massachusetts, one of the poorest cities in the state, Roderick recalls entering high school with five neighborhood friends. By 11th grade, she was the only one left.
“Basically, I’ve been working on this problem since I was 14,” she said.
Roderick’s research on 9th grade formally began as a young researcher on a national dropout prevention program. Staff were debating when the best time was to catch kids before they dropped out. One administrator turned to her and asked: “You’re the hotshot Harvard researcher. What does the research say?”
The question seemed simple enough. Answering it was difficult. National data sets didn’t start early enough and school systems like Boston had no pre-high school electronic grades.
So, she decided to go home.
As part of her dissertation research, Roderick spent weeks in the records building basement back in Fall River. She identified a 4th-grade cohort of 757 students from homeroom registers and hand copied their transcripts.
The results were extraordinary. Grade declines were so dramatic in the transition to high school that she initially thought she must have made a mistake merging the files.
She hadn’t.
After publishing her dissertation in 1991, Roderick came to Chicago to join the faculty of the Crown Family School, then the School of Social Service Administration. With start-up support from Crown and a team of doctoral students, she was determined to understand the story behind the numbers.
Roderick’s research team followed 100 students from three elementary schools as they moved from 8th grade into CPS high schools, interviewing them regularly—something she had never done as a quantitative researcher.
“Melissa taught me that you have to be on the ground,” said former student Susan Stone, now the dean of the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley, “with students, their parents, teachers, principals and district leaders, to fully see opportunities and hazards.”
A familiar pattern emerged. When the seemingly stable cohort of 8th graders entered high school, things took a turn.
“They went into 9th grade, and they all fell apart quickly,” said Roderick, who now had the evidence she needed. “Ultimately, the graduation rate of students in my qualitative sample matched the graduation rate of their larger cohort. If we were going to do something about the dropout problem, we had to focus on 9th grade.”
From research to practice
Roderick’s unique qualitative and quantitative blend became a hallmark of her research, leading to her directorship at the Consortium on Chicago School Research and two decades of research on the 9th grade transition.
In 2006, CPS leadership began a new initiative focused on increasing the number of 9th graders “on track” for graduation—an indicator developed by the Consortium. Freshmen are considered “on track” if they have enough credits to move on to the tenth grade and have earned no more than one F.
The centerpiece of the initiative was a new tracking tool that allowed high schools to monitor freshman grades and attendance—and intervene quickly when students began to have difficulty.
That same year, Roderick cofounded the Network for College Success with high school principals Mary Ann Pitcher and Sarah Duncan. The network helps school leaders use data and create effective systems to monitor and support students around freshman-on-track and college enrollment.
The results were immediate.
Between 2007 and 2017, the 9th-grade OnTrack rate increased by 28%. Roderick and Consortium researchers also found that increased on-track rates led to increased graduation rates.
“Melissa is this force of nature,” said Arne Duncan, former CEO of CPS. “She’s passionate about fighting for kids and really trying to do the right thing. Unequivocally, she made me better—she made my team better. I’m forever grateful for her contributions.”
‘Do it for the kids’
Colleagues praise Roderick’s sharp insights delivered with her characteristic directness.
Her passion to conduct research with real-world impact—to “do it for the kids”—has inspired generations of students and educators.
“What has always distinguished Melissa’s work is her unwavering commitment to ensuring that research makes a difference where it matters most—in the lives of young people,” said Prof. Deborah Gorman-Smith, dean of the Crown Family School. “She didn’t just identify the importance of the ninth-grade transition; she translated that insight into tools and practices that schools could use, changing how they support students and, in turn, changing trajectories for thousands of young people. That is the mark of a truly extraordinary scholar.”
Roderick’s work—and her emphasis on building systems—continues at the Kersten Institute for Urban Education, the To & Through Initiative, the Network for College Success and research at the Consortium.
“Melissa pushed us all to think not only about the quality of the analysis, but about what responsibility we had to educators,” said Shanette Porter, Learning and Development Group director at the Consortium. “She asked questions like: What will this help educators see that they couldn’t see before? How will this move the system forward?”
Through it all, Roderick says her time at Crown was instrumental to her career path.
“At the Crown Family School, they care about solving problems. It enabled me to be who I was,” she said. “If someone were to write a sentence about me 20 years from now, it would be: She was a Crown School faculty member.”
