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Managing Director and Senior Research Associate
University of Chicago Consortium on School Research
773-702-9846

Camille A. Farrington is a Managing Director and Senior Research Associate at the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research (UChicago Consortium). Her work focuses on policy and practice in urban high school reform, particularly classroom instruction and assessment, academic rigor, and academic failure. Dr. Farrington is a national expert on the role of "noncognitive" factors in academic performance.  She is the lead author of Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners: The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Shaping School Performance (2012), a comprehensive research review that illustrates how noncognitive factors interact with school and classroom contexts to affect students’ academic achievement. She is Principal Investigator on three studies, the national Becoming Effective Learners (BEL) Survey Development Project, the Chicago 8/9 Teacher Network, and the BEL Partner Project, all focused on better understanding the relationship between teacher practice, student noncognitive factors, and school success. The latter project involves deep work with school and district partners around the country in using surveys and other data to support teacher practice for noncognitive development and improve students’ opportunities for learning. Dr. Farrington is also Co-Principal Investigator and co-author of Foundations for Young Adult Success: A Developmental Framework (2015, UChicago Consortium) which draws on research and practice evidence to build a coherent framework of key factors for adult success, and investigates their development across school, out-of-school, and family/community settings from early childhood through young adulthood. Her work on “developmental experiences” is featured in the 2015 report.

Across projects, Dr. Farrington’s primary concern is improving the long-term educational and life outcomes of youth from marginalized communities. Reflective of this interest, her 2014 book, Failing at School: Lessons for Redesigning Urban High Schools (Teachers College Press), documents how high schools systematically construct widespread student failure for the most socially vulnerable students, and offers practical recommendations for restructuring secondary education to serve goals of equity and excellence rather than selection and stratification.

Throughout her work, Dr. Farrington draws on fifteen years' experience as a public high school teacher and National Board Certified Teacher Mentor. She received a BA from the University of California at Santa Cruz, teacher certification from Mills College, and a PhD in policy studies in urban education from the University of Illinois at Chicago.