CORE at SMU

10/14/2026

CORE listened in on a Brookings webinar; "Beyond the school walls: How community partnerships strengthen learning ecosystems." The topic is relevant for many of our partners.

On October 13, the Center for Universal Education at Brookings will explore how community partnerships can strengthen trust and build more connected learning ecosystems.

10/13/2026

Project REACT works with "stopped-out" students, many of whom are a few courses away from attaining a degree.

An intervention called REACT was designed to help colleges reengage “stopped-out” students. An MDRC evaluation finds that it significantly increased reenrollment rates and helped students earn associate’s degrees.

10/05/2026

SMU CORE joined Uplift Pinnacle Primary for their Hispanic Heritage Community Celebration, bringing Active Playful Learning into the festivities and celebrating culture, community, and joyful learning together.

10/01/2026

Dr. Celeste Fernandez, CORE’s Lead Analyst, and Dr. LaChelle Cunningham, Director of College Access Programs at SMU, collaborated to present at the Council for Opportunity in Education Annual Conference in San Diego.
In their session, Beyond the APR: Transforming the Use of TRIO Data Through an Evaluation Partnership, they shared the story of this longstanding evaluation partnership and highlighted how building evaluation capacity can help programs ask deeper questions, strengthen learning and decision-making, and turn data into meaningful evidence of long-term impact.

09/22/2026

Congratulations to Mike Pettie on 10 years at CORE! After retiring from 33 years of service as an educator and administrator, he began working for CLASS, CORE's early childhood research model. Mike currently serves as a project manager for CLASS.

09/18/2026

CORE was delighted to attend the Dallas County Economic Mobility Summit hosted by The Commit Partnership. Jim Shelton, CEO of Blue Meridian Partners, shared insights into the progress toward Opportunity 2040, and the event celebrated the school systems and community partners working to expand economic mobility across Dallas County. We left inspired by the collective commitment to creating greater opportunities for individuals and families across our region. The Commit Partnership

09/16/2026

APL in Action: Learning Through Play with Uplift Pinnacle

Great day with our Uplift Pinnacle teachers! ❤️💙 Bringing APL practices to life through collaboration, connection, and lots of joyful learning!

09/08/2026

Meet team member Harvey Luna, Operations Manager at CORE.

09/02/2026

Trellis Foundation provides context to consider when examining trends in postsecondary enrollment and persistence.