Small number of City College students moving on
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter/fspielman@suntimes.comOnly 16 percent of Chicago�s 120,000 City Colleges students transfer to four-year colleges. Fewer than five percent earn bachelor�s degrees. Half of all students seeking degrees leave the system before completing their first 15 credit hours.
Before the seven City Colleges can follow Mayor Daley�s directive to �reinvent� themselves, the nearly century-old system has to admit what it�s doing wrong.
That�s what happened Thursday at Richard J. Daley College, 7500 S. Pulaski.
Daley came clean on what�s wrong with City Colleges and demanded �performance measures for every program � not just a few� that go beyond using �enrollment numbers as a measure of job readiness.�
�[Officials brag and say] �We have 10,000 [students in a program].� It doesn�t matter. You want to know the program completion. That�s what you want to know. I don�t care how many students you enroll. What is the outcome?� Daley said.
�These are facts we�re putting out there. No one is trying to hide it. � Now, how can we help these students? We don�t want to lose anyone who comes here. But, they have to come here fairly prepared. If they�re not prepared, why aren�t they? We will take every necessary step. Those who are falling between the cracks, we can help. But, it shouldn�t be the percentages getting bigger and bigger every year. That�s unfair to the community colleges.�
City Colleges Chancellor Cheryl Hyman said the system is reaching out for the first time to 15,000 students identified as �at risk� � after failing one or more classes this semester.
�We are working with them to develop a personal plan to help them complete or modify their course,� said Hyman, a former Orr High School dropout who left home to escape drug-addicted parents and got her start at Olive-Harvey College.
�We have launched many technology upgrades that the system has lacked for decades. � We are systematically identifying students who may be eligible for graduation and proactively offering transfer and job placement assistance. These efforts are just the beginning of what we aim to do for students through reinvention.�
The chancellor also announced that she has identified �eight priority areas� for improvement � ranging from adult education, student support and faculty development to remediation and modernizing facilities � and appointed advisory councils to focus on each. They�re comprised of academics, developers, business, civic and philanthropic leaders.
The capital planning group that hopes to forge ahead with Daley�s dream of duplicating at all seven City Colleges the $254 million �campus� he built at Kennedy-King will be co-chaired by developer Elzie Higginbottom, who once served as Daley�s chief fund-raiser in the black community.
Earlier this year, Daley and Hyman talked about closing the �open-door� admissions policy at Chicago City Colleges, arguing that remedial classes for students who can�t cut it carry a price tag the system cannot afford.
On Thursday, Hyman changed her tune.
�Open access will always be here. � We�re not trying to turn away or deny anybody. We are trying to look for solutions to ensure that they succeed,� she said.
The success of the City Colleges and CPS are as important to the future of the region, as anything else. The lack of progress on aligning incentives in these systems with the needs of students, communities and
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