College Enrollment

The proportion of graduates who enrolled directly in college in the fall following spring or summer high school graduation. Data on college enrollment come from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), which houses enrollment and graduation records for colleges throughout the United States. This does not include students who delayed college entry. Enrollments from North Park University are missing from 2020 and 2021 rates. Students who received their high school diplomas from Options schools (sometimes called alternative schools) are included in high school graduation rates and in the denominators of college enrollment rates.

Two-year Enrollee

Students who enroll in a two-year college the fall after graduating from high school. [[MORE:inst_enroll]]

Four-year Enrollee

Students who enroll in a four-year college the fall after graduating from high school. [[MORE:inst_enroll]]

College Persistence

Enrolled continuously (no semesters off) for the four semesters after high school graduation in one or more two-year or four-year colleges, or completed a college degree or credential within two years. Summer semesters are not counted. Data on college enrollment and completion comes from National Student Clearinghouse (NSC).

Categories for immediate 4-year enrollees:

Remained in a 4-year college

Enrolled continuously (no semesters off) in four-year institutions during the fall and spring semesters of the first two years following high school graduation. [[MORE:inst_persist]]

Transferred to a 2-year college

Enrolled continuously (no semesters off) in a mix of four-year and two-year institutions or earned a credential during the fall and spring semesters of the first two years following high school graduation. [[MORE:inst_persist]]

Did not persist

Was not enrolled during at least one fall or spring semester of the first two years following high school graduation, and did not complete a credential within two years. [[MORE:inst_persist]]

Categories for immediate 2-year enrollees:

Remained in a 2-year college

Enrolled continuously (no semesters off) in two-year institutions or earned a credential during the fall and spring semesters of the first two years following high school graduation. [[MORE:inst_persist]]

Transferred to a 4-year college

Enrolled continuously (no semesters off) in a mix of two-year and four-year institutions during the fall and spring semesters of the first two years following high school graduation. [[MORE:inst_persist]]

Did not persist

Was not enrolled during at least one fall or spring semester of the first two years following high school graduation, and did not complete a credential within two years. [[MORE:inst_persist]]

College Types

2-year college

Institutions classified in the IPEDs data as having only programs that are less than four years.

4-year college

Institutions classified in the IPEDs data as having programs that are four years or higher.

Condensed Elementary OnTrack (EOT)

Similar to the elementary on-track categories used by CPS, Condensed EOT groups students into four categories based on their GPA and attendance. The four categories are: On-Track (above a 3.0 GPA and above 90 percent attendance), Academic Support (below a 3.0 GPA but above 90 percent attendance), Attendance Support (above a 3.0 GPA but below 90 percent attendance) and Intensive Support (below a 3.0 GPA and below 90 percent attendance).[[MORE:eot_groups]]

These groupings are intended to help educators strategize around school-wide trends, as well as identify students that may need targeted support in order to ensure they are prepared for success. Research using data from CPS students in 3rd-8th grade in school year 2018-19 showed a strong link between students' middle grades GPA and attendance and later outcomes.

For more information on the Condensed EOT categories and the research behind them, see this report.

On-Track

On-Track refers to greater than 3.0 GPA, greater than 90% attendance. More than 90% of students in this category went on to graduate from high school and over half earned a 3.0 at graduation; nearly 3 in 4 enrolled in college, with more than half enrolling in a four year college. For elementary and middle grades educators, the goal is to get more students in this category and, once there, to engage, challenge and support these students so that they stay on-track.[[MORE:eot_groups]]

Academic Support

Academic Support refers to less than a 3.0 GPA, greater than 90% attendance. Academic Support students come to school regularly yet still are not earning 3.0 GPAs, suggesting something about the curriculum, assessment, or classroom culture was not working for many of them. Only 17% earned a 3.0 at high school graduation and 20% enrolled in 4-year colleges. To support this group, educators may need to make whole-school and whole-classroom changes, including assessing and addressing student’s sense of engagement and belonging in their classes. In certain cases, particularly those where students are failing core classes, more specific, individual intervention may be necessary.[[MORE:eot_groups]]

Attendance Support

Attendance Support refers to greater than a 3.0 GPA, less than 90% attendance. Though they are able to maintain a relatively high GPA, Attendance Support students graduated high school below district average and fewer than half attended college. Since some of these students may be experiencing special circumstances like prolonged sickness or unstable housing, educators need to actively identify what is preventing them from regularly attending school and to provide some focused support to improve their attendance.[[MORE:eot_groups]]

Intensive Support

Intensive Support refers to less than a 3.0 GPA, less than 90% attendance. Since Intensive Support students struggle with both grades and attendance, they likely require more intensive interventions and personalized support. More than half of these students did not graduate high school, and more than 80% did not enroll directly in college. When a student’s GPA and attendance both fall below these thresholds, schools likely need to immediately work with the student and their family to identify the root cause and provide the necessary support to get them back on-track.[[MORE:eot_groups]]

Eighth Grade Success Categories

Grades and attendance categories were developed by the Network for College Success using 2014 research from the UChicago Consortium about the 8th grade academic characteristics that are predictive of students’ freshman outcomes. The framework breaks students into groups based on their eighth grade attendance and grades. These groups enable schools to strategically support students in the transition from 8th grade to high school. [[MORE:opp_groups]]

High Grades AND High Attendance Students

Students whose 8th grade attainment indicates that they have the capacity to be very successful during their freshman year. These students had at least a 95 percent attendance rate and a 3.0 GPA in eighth grade. [[MORE:opp_groups]]

High Grades OR High Attendance Students

Students whose 8th grade attainment indicates that they are likely to be successful during their freshman year. These students had at least a 98 percent attendance rate and a 2.0 – 3.0 GPA or a 95 percent to 98 percent attendance rate and at least a 3.0 GPA in eighth grade. [[MORE:opp_groups]]

Low Grades OR Low Attendance Students

Students whose 8th grade attainment indicates that they may need additional support to be successful during their freshman year. During eighth grade, these students fell into one of the following groups: At least a 3.0 GPA and an attendance rate of 80 percent to 90 percent; GPA of 2.0-3.0 and an attendance rate of 90 percent to 95 percent; GPA of 1.0-2.0 and an attendance rate of at least 95 percent. [[MORE:opp_groups]]

Low Grades AND Low Attendance Students

Students whose 8th grade attainment indicates that they are likely to need significant support to be on-track during their freshman year. During eighth grade, these students fell into one of the following groups: GPA of 2.0-3.0 and an attendance rate below 90 percent; GPA of 1.0-2.0 and an attendance rate of below 95 percent; A GPA of 0.0-1.0, regardless of their attendance rate. [[MORE:opp_groups]]

English Learners

While reporting data on active English Learners calls attention to students in need of the most support, excluding former English Learners obscures the success of students who do reach English proficiency. Therefore, we group students by whether they were ever classified as active English Learners, were classified as former English Learners, or were never classified as English Learners. We identify students as English Learners based on whether they took the ACCESS test (see “ACCESS test”: definition above) of English proficiency and whether they reached proficiency on the test—not whether they were actually receiving services. Because ACCESS is required by the state for all English Learners, this allows us to include both English Learners who received services and those who did not.

While some ACCESS test data was collected during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is incomplete and not externally available for the 2020-2021 school year. Therefore, we have held all students’ EL status constant from 2019-2020 (SY20) to 2020-2021 (SY21). This means that if a students’ score on the SY20 ACCESS test did not meet the proficiency level, we assumed that student continued to have an active EL status in SY21. While this may misrepresent a small number of students’ actual statuses in SY21, we believe it to be an accurate representation for the majority of students and a more useful data point than simply suppressing the SY21 English Learner data. According to CPS, EL supports provided during remote learning in the pandemic were as similar as possible to normal EL supports

Students who were classified as active English Learners

Students who took the ACCESS test of English proficiency during the school year, and/or whose prior-year ACCESS test score indicated they were eligible to receive English Learner services. [[MORE:ell_groups]]

Students who were classified as former English Learners

Students who were classified as active English Learners at one point during their time at CPS based on their score on the ACCESS test or screener test, but are not currently classified as active English Learners. [[MORE:ell_groups]]

Students who were never classified as English Learners

Students who were never eligible to receive EL services, either because their native language was English or because they scored high enough on the English proficiency screener test—which is different from the ACCESS test—when they entered CPS to be considered proficient in English. [[MORE:ell_groups]]

High School Types

Neighborhood School

CPS schools that have a defined attendance boundary. All CPS students have an assigned high school based on their residential address. If a student lives within a schools’ attendance boundary, it is known as their “assigned neighborhood school”. Some neighborhood schools also accept students who do not live within their attendance boundary.

Neighborhood — Assigned

Students who attend a neighborhood school and have a residential address within that school’s attendance boundaries.

Neighborhood — Other

Students who attend a neighborhood school and who have a residential address outside of that school’s attendance boundaries.

Charter School

CPS schools that are publicly funded but independently run. All CPS charter schools are open enrollment, meaning students from any neighborhood are eligible for enrollment via a lottery system.

Selective Enrollment School

CPS schools that admit students from across the city. Students must apply to gain admission; criteria for admission include students’ grades and scores on standardized tests and an entrance exam, and the majority of seats are allocated according to a tiered system based on socioeconomic status. No student is guaranteed a seat based on their home address.

Citywide School

CPS schools that do not have a defined attendance boundary. Some may offer preferential admittance to students from within a certain area.

Military Academy / Service Learning Academy School

Open enrollment CPS high schools that specialize in JROTC programming; students must meet a minimum standardized test score for admission.

Options Schools

Non-traditional CPS high schools that serve students outside of traditional school-day structures.

Specialty Schools

CPS schools that provide educational, therapeutic, and sometimes residential services to special education students with serious or complicated clinical needs.

Other Schools

Other CPS schools that do not have specified attendance boundaries. Some, such as magnet schools, may have a curriculum specialized in a particular area - for example, fine & performing arts, STEM, or language – while others do not have a particular curricular focus. Some may have test score and/or GPA requirements for admission, while others do not have any criteria for admission.

Students’ College Access Level Groups

Students’ college access levels are based on 2006 research from the UChicago Consortium about the academic qualifications of students that make them likely to be accepted to colleges with different levels of selectivity. The framework breaks students into different groups based on their graduating GPA and ACT scores (or converted SAT scores). Students with selective access are likely to be accepted to selective and very selective four-year colleges, students with somewhat selective access are likely to be accepted to somewhat selective and non-selective four-year colleges, and students with two-year access are likely to be accepted to two-year colleges. These groups enable students to understand where they may be most likely to gain admission, and help schools to understand the enrollment patterns for students with different college access levels. [[MORE:qual_groups]]

Students with Selective College Access

Students whose GPA and ACT scores (or converted SAT scores) suggest they have at least a 50 percent chance of being admitted to selective or very selective four-year colleges (based on Barron’s selectivity categories). [[MORE:qual_groups]]

Students with Somewhat Selective College Access

Students whose GPA and ACT scores (or converted SAT scores) suggest they have at least a 50 percent chance of being admitted to somewhat selective four-year colleges (based on Barron’s selectivity categories). [[MORE:qual_groups]]

Students with Two-Year College Access

Seniors whose GPA and ACT scores (or converted SAT scores) give them access to non-selective or two-year colleges. [[MORE:qual_groups]]

Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities are often treated as a single group. However, students’ disability or disabilities vary widely in type and extent. Students can also have multiple disabilities. As a result, their experiences in school and attainment rates are far from homogeneous.

We group students based on whether they have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) related to a disability. If a student is identified by the district as having one or more disabilities, we categorize the student based on the primary disability type designated by CPS (a student’s primary disability is designated by CPS during the services eligibility determination process, during which an IEP team determines whether a student is eligible for services under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)). We report rates for students with IEPs related to a specific learning disability, and students with IEPs related to another disability. After conversations with CPS’s Office of Diverse Learner Supports and Services, we decided to categorize the data in this way because students with learning disabilities represent a plurality of students with IEPs and because finer categorizations of IEPs have changed over time. The “students with other IEPs” category includes students with a wide range of disabilities, including physical, cognitive, and behavioral disabilities.

The specific definitions of each disability type can be found in the CPS Procedural Manual: Guidance on Providing Special Education and Related Services to Students with Disabilities Pursuant to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) published in August 2021.

Students with an IEP related to a learning disability

This group includes students whose primary disability for which they have an IEP is a Specific Learning Disability (SLD), which is defined as a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia and developmental aphasia. [[MORE:iep_groups]]

Students with an IEP related to any other disability

This group includes students with IEPs related to any disability other than Specific Learning Disability (SLD). These include: Autism, Deaf/Blindness, Deafness, Emotional Disability, Hearing Impairment, Intellectual Disability, Multiple Disabilities, Other Health Impairment, Physical (Orthopedic) Impairment, Speech or Language Impairment, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Visual Impairment. This does not include students who currently have a 504 plan but do not have an IEP. [[MORE:iep_groups]]