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Partnership for College Completion and Ten Illinois Colleges Partner to Increase Latino Graduation Rates Partnership focused on accelerating efforts at higher education institutions toward “60 by 25 goal”
April 12, 2018, Chicago—The Partnership for College Completion (PCC) and presidents from 10 colleges and universities in northeastern Illinois today announced a series of interventions that they will be implementing or expanding in the Fall of 2018 to increase Latino college students’ graduation rates. The specific, coordinated steps led by PCC in collaboration with Presidents for Latino Student Success (PFLSS), an initiative of Excelencia in Education, is a major move to close achievement gaps between low-income, first generation Latino students and their white peers. Today’s announcement is the first step in a broad effort that PCC will launch in Fall 2018 with an expanded group of Illinois colleges and universities to close racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps.
As part of their initial commitment to the program, each participating college and university has committed to introducing a range of programs from financial and career planning to networking support and to share resources, data and best practices. Nine of ten participating two-year and four-year colleges and universities today presented their plans for the Fall. The participating institutions include: College of Lake County, Richard J. Daley College, Dominican University, Governors State University, Robert Morris University-Illinois, Northeastern Illinois University, Northern Illinois University, South Suburban College, University of Illinois Chicago, and Waubonsee Community College.
The collaboration comes amidst demographic changes and growing attention to the economic and equity imperatives to make college completion attainable for all students. In the latest data, four-year Illinois college completion rates of 49.3% for Latino students and 24.3% at two-year schools lag white rates of 66.4% and 37.5%, respectively. Graduation rates for African-American students are 33.7% and 17.3%. It is projected that by 2032, 45% of high school graduates in the state of Illinois will identify as a student of color. At the same time, the percentage of White graduates will decrease by 5%.
“Whether we’re a 2-year, 4-year, public or private institution, we all share the desire to see our students succeed,” said Lisa Freeman, acting president of Northern Illinois University. “Creating a community of practice to share ideas and data, to help each other find what works in our individual context, to serve students and society better through our collaboration, is a very powerful opportunity.”
The Partnership is the only organization in Illinois working with colleges and universities to promote practices, programs and systems-change to ensure that low-income, first generation students graduate from college. In collaboration with Excelencia in Education, a national non-profit organization focused on accelerating Latino student achievement in higher education, PCC is leading the Illinois cohort of Presidents for Latino Student Success to help bolster the State of Illinois’ progress toward its “60 by 25 goal” – 60% of all adults age 25-64 in the state have a college degree or credential by 2025.
“We are excited about the work of these colleges and universities,” said Partnership for College Completion founding Executive Director, Kyle Westbrook. “Through their hard work and collaboration they are demonstrating their commitment to ensuring that all students have the tools and supports to succeed in college.”
Presidents for Latino Student Success (PFLSS) is designed to engage leaders and their institutions to pursue strategic opportunities to advance educational achievement and degree completion for Latino students, including the following:
• A community of practice that is developing a shared repertoire of resources. • National experts and innovators, along with local leaders producing positive results for Latino students, and all students. • Excelencia in Education's resources on effective policies and practices for Latino student success. • Personalized technical support from the Partnership for College Completion.
As part of their initial commitment to the program, each participating institution agreed to implement or scale an evidence-based practice or program to serve Latino students on their campus in Fall 2018. What follows is a snapshot of these commitments, which for many institutions represent one or two practices within a much larger suite of initiatives aimed at improving student success.
College of Lake County: The college will work to increase transfer rates for Latino students by enhancing existing Guaranteed Transfer Agreements with Hispanic-Serving Institutions and encouraging university partners to align scholarship support for Latino students transferring from CLC. The college also hopes to devote more resources to scale up a pilot program for Latino Student Success. The Latino Student Success Program focuses on providing a seamless transition for students from Lake County high schools to CLC through personalized enrollment, advocacy and mentoring, and peer mentor support to promote a sense of belonging. Students receive targeted follow up, including emails and phone calls to promote financial aid, scholarships, Multicultural Student Center events, and other campus activities to improve engagement and retention.
Dominican University: Promising Pathways Initiative (PPI) is a research-based, equity-focused freshman seminar experience that includes intensified individual and small group advising, guided education and career pathways development, rigorous academic content, and psychosocial workshops. This initiative is
an effort to increase freshman to sophomore retention rates, particularly for African American, Latino, and first-generation college students, thereby decreasing equity-gaps in retention and completion. Year one of the PPI initiative revealed a nine-point gain in freshmen retention overall. Scale up efforts for the project will continue throughout 2018-19. University structural changes are also planned as a result of the success of the initiative with PPI included as a critical component both of the University’s new Student Success and Engagement Division and its federally funded Department of Education grant to improve Hispanic outcomes, strengthen our identity as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, and enhance diversity in teacher education.
Governors State University: The Governors State University Male Success Initiative (MSI) is designed to increase the retention and graduation rates of both Black and Latino males, as well as male identified students of other underrepresented populations. The MSI seeks to recognize and endorse practical interventions, reliable research, best practices, and measurable policy advances informed by interdisciplinary perspectives to improve the educational outcomes of men of color. The MSI, supported through a grant from The Kresge Foundation, is defined by the unique feature of having both a GSU campus-based initiative while also fostering MSI programs at our 17 Community College partners who participate in the nationally recognized Dual Degree Program. Initially launched in partnership with Prairie State College, GSU is expanding this program with South Suburban College and Moraine Valley Community College, and welcomes additional community college partners. This research-based initiative is demonstrating early success with all male identified participants, but particularly with Latino males. While overall active MSI participants earned a 2.7 GPA, Latino MSI participants recorded a 3.14 GPA.
Richard J. Daley College (City Colleges of Chicago): A multi-pronged enrollment strategy seeks to maximize resources including the Center for Advanced Manufacturing, a state-of-the-art $54 million building currently under construction and scheduled to open in January 2019. New curriculum, equipment, and state of the art hands-on learning lab facilities will give students the access to high quality and affordable education for in-demand industries. Daley also will expand exposure to STEM programs and career planning through a new partnership with Columbia College.
Daley plans to expand the Early College program to include additional area high schools, and expects Latino enrollment to increase to around 75%.
Robert Morris University-Illinois: Two projects focused on Latino student opportunities in Chicago and surrounding suburbs will get special attention: • RMU Access Program will increase access to college and success through strategic campus location, student-centered learning, financial support, and professional, career-focused programming;
• RMU will continue its unique partnership with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and the City of Chicago (Mayor's Office) in offering dual credit at high-minority high schools. As the only private not for profit institution offering dual credit at CPS, RMU will expand its commitment to a third high-Hispanic serving CPS high school in addition to the current CPS schools of Steinmetz (Hispanic 73.8%) and Wells (Hispanic 43.3%).
Northern Illinois University: The Latinx Oral History Digital Project (LOHDP) is a faculty and student undergraduate research opportunity through the Center for Latin American Studies (CLLAS) that engages students in the development of a one-of-a-kind archive chronicling the history of Latinx culture in the Midwest. The NIU LOHDP will produce a website that makes this collection, which will expand to include historical documents, photographs, maps, and scholarly narratives, available to the public including students, researchers and community members. It will stand out as a leader in experiential learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the recovery and dissemination of Latinx history, politics, and culture, resulting in the potential to attract future external funding from various private institutions and federal funding agencies.
Supporting Opportunities for Latinos (SoL), a NIU network of students, staff and faculty, is dedicated to ensuring Latino males on campus stay in school and graduate prepared for career success. SoL strives to help young men maximize their personal and professional development through academic assistance, mentorship, professional development, leadership training and community service.
South Suburban College: The College Recruitment Department will remain active in high schools, churches and community events to increase communication, awareness and enrollment among Latino students and engage in new community partnerships. The IT department is working to create a separate database for the Latino population to track data trends, identify at risk students and offer intervention, create a retention plan and identify completers and success rates. The Dean of Adult Education and the Dean of Student Development will focus on increasing the retention and transition of Latino students into college credit classes, building on a program that moves students with non-credit (ESL) classes into to college credit classes.
University of Illinois Chicago: A range of programs addresses the educational needs and opportunities for Latino students. The nationally recognized Latin American Recruitment and Educational Services program (LARES), founded in 1975, has grown to become the largest Latino support unit on the UIC campus. Also serving UIC’s Latino student population, Latin@s Gaining Access to Networks for Advancement (L@s GANAS), provides five research-based components: opportunities for undergraduate research with faculty mentors; holistic academic support and advising; support networks of faculty and peers; collaborative learning opportunities; and financial support. A particular focus of L@s GANAS is to increase enrollment and improve academic outcomes for Latinx and low-income students in STEM
majors. Another program focuses on high-school-to-college transition: UIC Summer College, a 6-week tuition-free set of college programs aimed at increasing incoming students’ opportunities for success.
Waubonsee Community College: As part of the Developing Hispanic Serving Institutions (Title V) grant from the US Department of Education, a student success coach model is using predictive analytics to prioritize student contact and communication. This initiative gives students a one-on-one advisor to help them through their college career, and aims to improve retention rates for Hispanic students through the use of software; improve first-year online student persistence; and, use prior learning assessment to positively impact completion.
### About: The Partnership for College Completion is a new nonprofit organization launched to catalyze and champion policies, systems and practices that ensure all students in and around Chicago - particularly low-income, first- generation students - graduate from college and achieve their career aspirations. Launching this regional organization is the culmination of a two-year planning process that was led by Forefront’s College and Career Access, Persistence and Success (CCAPS) group and involved hundreds of stakeholders from across Chicago, the region and the nation. For more information: partnershipfcc.org