The City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) won national attention in recent years for a quick improvement of its graduation rates and a redesign of academic offerings at the system’s seven campuses.
In 2009, full-time students graduated from the college at a rate of 7 percent, according to federal data. The college says that the overall graduation rate has since increased to 17 percent.
The improvement was brought about, the college administration says, by a recalibration of the college’s academic and advising structures, in an initiative called the “Reinvention,” which was ushered in under Chancellor Cheryl Hyman in 2010.
Under the auspices of the Reinvention, campuses narrowed their course offerings, linking their focuses to specific industries. The system also created guided pathways for majors, which map out the classes that students have to take in order to graduate.
”It’s fair to say that the completion [agenda was not] a top priority at the City Colleges of Chicago prior to the current administration coming in,” said Joshua Wyner, vice president and executive director of the College Excellence Program at the Aspen Institute. “They provided a broad access to higher education, but frankly their completion rates were very low.”
Last year, the Aspen Institute awarded its first-ever “Rising Star” award to Kennedy-King College, one of the seven CCC campuses. According to the Aspen Institute, Kennedy-King tripled its graduation rates and improved overall graduation and transfer rates to 42 percent for minority students.
The college serves a student population that is 94 percent minority, according to the Aspen Institute. Kennedy-King’s turnaround is all the more impressive in light of its location in the heart of Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, one of the city’s poorest and most violent.
