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[email protected] 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.