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The Chicago Public Faculties graduating class of 2023 earned greater than $2 billion in faculty scholarships — a document quantity, district leaders and the town’s mayor introduced in a Wednesday press convention on the town’s West Aspect.

That’s in contrast with about $1.5 billion that graduates pulled in final 12 months. Officers stated 9,945 of roughly 22,000 seniors have landed scholarships; about 76% have gotten at the least one faculty acceptance letter.

In a primary for the district, each highschool reported incomes scholarship {dollars}, in accordance with a district spokesperson.

The 2023 graduates started their highschool careers the college 12 months the pandemic struck and have weathered the abrupt shift to distant studying and an eventual return to in-person instruction disrupted by COVID surges, staffing shortages, and different upheaval.

At Orr Academy Excessive College on the final college day of the 12 months, Mayor Brandon Johnson additionally nodded to the mass campus closures on the West Aspect in 2013 that performed out as a number of the college students gathered Wednesday had been beginning elementary college.

“To the category of 2023, you’re making a distinction already,” Johnson stated. “You might be why we can have a greater, safer, stronger Chicago.”

Amid a “faculty for all” push within the 2010s, the district noticed marked will increase within the portion of scholars who graduate and go on to larger schooling establishments. However the district has not too long ago targeted its efforts on boosting the portion who really earn faculty levels, which has not budged considerably at the same time as faculty enrollment spiked.

In keeping with the latest evaluation by the College of Chicago’s To & Via Undertaking primarily based on 2021 information, 82 of each 100 district freshmen graduate from highschool on time. Of these graduates, 37 enroll in a four-year faculty instantly and 13 enroll in a two-year faculty. Six years later, solely 27 of these 100 freshmen earn any faculty credential.

Important faculty completion disparities by race and gender have persevered. Whereas 67% of Asian American feminine college students — the district’s highest-performing group — will go on to earn a school diploma, about 12% of their Black male friends will do the identical.

District graduates are headed to Harvard, Stanford, the College of Michigan, and campuses all over the world. Some will as a substitute go on to coaching and apprenticeship packages in expert trades from culinary arts to building, amid a district shift towards rebuilding and strengthening its profession and technical schooling choices.

“They closed out their freshman 12 months when this entire nation was shut down,” Martinez stated. “And but, they by no means misplaced a beat.”

He argued that college students are graduating higher ready than ever, pointing to a document quantity who took college-credit programs.

The district credited the scholarship enhance to higher outreach to college students. Its Workplace of Faculty and Profession Success held stay data periods on Instagram, gave colleges further coaching on serving to college students navigate the applying course of, and despatched seniors weekly emails with scholarship leads.

The precise variety of college students who graduated this spring might be obtainable within the fall, the district stated. Final 12 months, roughly 21,200 college students graduated, with the four-year commencement fee ticking as much as a document 82.9%.

5 members of this 12 months’s graduating class — Paul Adekola of Air Drive Academy Excessive College, Alanah Martin of Kenwood Academy, Kevin Reyes Vega of Chicago Army Academy, and Jaylen Brown and Sammi Yee of Whitney Younger Excessive College — received the celebrated Gates Scholarship, which is able to cowl their tuition in full at top-ranked universities.

Orr additionally doubled its complete scholarship quantity from final 12 months to roughly $2.2 million.

Dmariya Haggard, a newly minted graduate who spoke on the press convention, stated he struggled in highschool as the town grappled with the pandemic and an increase in gun violence.

However he’s heading to Northern Illinois College within the fall, with plans to review biology and $192,000 in scholarships.

“I wished to do higher for myself and have a greater future,” he stated.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter masking Chicago Public Faculties. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

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