1. What is the current state of the educational attainment of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students?
2. How have CPS students performed on key attainment milestones over time?
This annual report looks closely at how CPS students are progressing on the path to and through high school and college. In particular, we examine three key milestones: high school graduation, college enrollment, and college completion, and track how rates on these milestones have changed across time. These rates are then used to calculate an updated Post-secondary Attainment Index (PAI) which represents the proportion of current CPS ninth-graders who would complete any degree or certificate from a two-year or four-year college within 10 years, if current rates of attainment were to hold constant over the next decade.
Read this year’s interactive report and explore more of the data through the To&Through Project’s online data tool.
Key Findings
- A near-record high number of CPS students from the class of 2024 graduated from high school (84%) and immediately enrolled in college (66%).
- The 2024 high school graduation rate is approaching the national average of 87%.
- CPS out-performs the most recent national college enrollment rate by 5 percentage points (66% vs. 61%, respectively).
- For college completion, this year’s report notes a record high in the number of CPS alumni who graduated from college with a degree or certificate: 7,368 students from the class of 2018 (the most recent cohort for which authors have six years of post-secondary data). This increase is notable, given that CPS students face greater challenges than most students nationally.
- At the same time, overall college completion rates for CPS alumni (48%) are below national averages (64%).
- Broken down by college type:
- 56% of CPS graduates who immediately enrolled in a four-year college completed a degree or certificate within six-years.
- 32% of CPS graduates who immediately enrolled in a two-year college completed a degree or certificate within six-years.
Taken together, these current rates create what authors call a “Post-secondary Attainment Index:”a projection that models if 100 students started CPS in ninth grade today, and if rates on the milestones did not change, 84 would graduate high school, 58 would enroll immediately in college, and 30 would complete a college credential within 10 years. This is a projection, and, therefore, not deterministic. Some past cohorts have surpassed these projections; demonstrating how Chicago has worked to improve policy and practice.
Students in the classes of 2018 and 2024, whose rates are represented in this data, faced notable challenges, including:
- The COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the class of 2024 to start ninth grade with remote learning in the fall of 2020, and the class of 2018 to move to remote learning their second year in college.
- FAFSA redesign delays and other challenges, which affected the class of 2024 in their financial aid applications.
- The Supreme Court’s Students for Fair Admissions Ruling in June 2023, which created uncharted territory for the class of 2024’s college application process.
Where possible, researchers disaggregated data by race/ethnicity and gender, disability status, and English Learner (EL) status to understand which students face more barriers to educational attainment and where different strategies and supports are needed.
