At a school once slated for closure, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Mayor Brandon Johnson joined Chicago Public Schools officials Tuesday to celebrate the highest graduation rate announced by the district to date.
With 84% of CPS students graduating in 2023, up from 82% the prior year, CPS is “raising the bar for education,” said Cardona, who spoke via video to the crowd of educators and students gathered at Dyett High School for the Arts in Washington Park.
The education secretary commended CPS for “thoughtfully mapping out” its use of now-dwindling federal emergency relief funds devoted to helping schools recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You’re proving time and again that you’re focusing on those things that really matter,” Cardona said, attributing gains in standardized test scores to a range of district investments — from hiring more academic interventionists, instructional coaches, counselors and social workers, to providing “well-rounded educational opportunities” in the arts and after-school programs.
“We’re not looking to push some shiny thing out of D.C. We’re looking to support, through the American Rescue Plan dollars, the things that work,” said Cardona.
Progress in CPS didn’t happen overnight, said Johnson, a former teacher who participated in a 34-day hunger strike at Dyett in 2015 that successfully pressured CPS to reverse its decision to close the Washington Park school.
“It happened with tremendous struggle and the partnerships and the collaboration that we are moving in that greater direction towards,” Johnson said of the Sustainable Community Schools model in place at Dyett, where community-based organizations provide wraparound services, mentorship and restorative justice programming.
Although it’s important to recognize how far the district has come, Johnson said, “We know that too many of our schools are still suffering from the effects of historic disinvestment and disempowerment. But we can do better, as Dyett has clearly proven.”
The long-term fate of initiatives that helped produce the gains announced Tuesday remains uncertain, however, with the one-time influx of federal funds expiring next school year. In the face of the funding cliff, for instance, dozens of after-school programs in low-income communities around the state have recently closed, according to advocates seeking $50 million annually from the state to keep remaining programs open, including ones in CPS.
After decades of lacking investment, “This is the first time that I feel like we have a fighting chance and we’re showing what can happen,” CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said of aligning district resources to students’ needs.
“We’re going to be very protective of these investments,” said Martinez, adding that the district will be partnering with labor unions and the city to ask state legislators for more funding.
“It’s not just statistics,” at stake he said, referring to the handful of CPS graduates who shared their stories at the event. “These are representatives of the tens of thousands of students that are having success across our district.”
The Chicago Teachers Union echoed Martinez in a statement, encouraging “adequate investments in our students, working families and their communities.”
“Students and educators have worked tirelessly to create a learning environment that supports the whole child, but these efforts require additional support and staff to make CPS into a sustainable community school district,” the CTU said.
In addition to rising graduation rates, CPS also marked increased engagement in its Early College Programs at the Tuesday event. Upon graduating in the spring, 49% of students had already earned college credits, an increase of 5% from the previous year, the district said in a news release that also estimated the total value of tuition expenses saved at $18.2 million. A quarter of students took college-level courses in the Advanced Placement program, according to CPS.
Dyett alumni and college junior Atrevius Hollins said taking classes at Harold Washington College through CPS’ dual enrollment program helped guide him to the degree he wanted to pursue. “When I got to Northern Illinois University, I didn’t have to worry about being an undecided major like most students are, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with a business management degree,” Hollins said.
For 2023 Goode STEM Academy graduate Zaid Orduño, CPS’ partnership with the City Colleges of Chicago made it possible to earn a high school diploma as well as an associate degree. “They really prepared me for a lot of courses I’m taking now,” said Orduño, who is studying civil engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology.
Early access to college-level courses also helped Curie High School graduate Orali Nicasio feel comfortable in the health science classes she’s taking as a freshman at DePaul University, she said. “I wouldn’t say my college work is a breeze, but it is definitely way more easy to handle,” said Nicasio, who was among an increased number of CPS students who graduated with a State Seal of Biliteracy during the last school year.
Along with expanding multilingual education, Cardona praised CPS for increasing funding for career and technical education.
Another 2023 graduate, Miriam Ibarra said the technical classes she took at Prosser Career Academy put her on a path to now working for Gurtz Electric Co. “I got to work with solar panels and wires and I learned about all the different types of pathways related to this trade,” Ibarra said.
“You might not exactly know what right career to pursue or the right path to take, but you shouldn’t be scared, because there’s always going to be opportunities,” she said, offering advice to current high school students. “I took advantage of opportunities that were given to me and I’m so happy about where I ended up.”
In the past year, CPS has seen “incredible growth” among Black and Latino students obtaining college credit, said Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova. “We are excited to see no real opportunity gaps,” she said of the students in CPS’ dual credit and dual enrollment programs.
But the district has a long way to go in achieving its equity goals, she said. “This is just a strong foundation that we’ll have the privilege and responsibility to keep building upon,” she said.
Graduation metrics in the district’s 2023 state report card, released by the Illinois State Board of Education Monday, vary slightly from the rates CPS announced Tuesday, given methodological differences, a district spokesperson said. CPS includes only students who were enrolled in the district in ninth grade for the first time in a cohort, while ISBE also includes students who entered CPS in later grades, the district said. ISBE’s four-year graduation for CPS is 82.9%, lower than CPS’ calculation of 84%. Conversely, the state board’s five-year graduation rate is higher at 86.2%, compared to CPS’ five-year rate of 85.6%.