The University of Illinois Chicago is partnering with Chicago Public Schools and City Colleges of Chicago to try to help lower the barriers city high school students face on their path to and through college.
Officials say the launch of “Chicago Roadmap 2.0” will build on the first phase of the program, which offered student access to City Colleges material in high school and helped ease the way into community college. The next phase will continue that work and open up the path to transfer to or enroll directly in UIC and earn a four-year degree.
In a pitch to philanthropists on Tuesday, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said the goal of the program was to lower the number of remedial classes students need to take once they get to college and to get as many students to earn degrees or certifications as possible.
“Our two largest recipients of CPS students are the community college system and UIC,” Martinez said. “So, to have our students be able to navigate that either directly through UIC or through the community colleges and then UIC is priceless.”
“What we’re doing is we’re giving students a head start,” he said.
The program initially launched in 2020 between CPS and City Colleges. Officials say it has more than doubled the enrollment of CPS students in college-level classes. Since the launch, CPS has also increased its number of navigators assisting students with career planning from seven to 18 and has expanded its reach from 16 to 91 schools.
Increased academic advising is a cornerstone of the updated version of the program, which officials say will provide students with coordinated career guidance and student support across CPS, CCC and UIC. It will also offer personalized degree-planning through an AI tool that is meant to help students map out their degree and avoid taking college-level classes in high school that won’t count toward their eventual major or lose credits when transferring. The tool is expected to launch in fall 2026.
Another barrier that program leaders are trying to reduce is the cost of college.
City Colleges Chancellor Juan Salgado highlighted the Chicago Star Scholarship, which offers free tuition for a two-year degree at City Colleges for any CPS graduate with a 3.0 GPA or higher.
UIC Chancellor Marie Lynn Miranda said the UIC Aspire program, which covers all tuition and fees, will be available as of this fall for any student from a family that makes less than $75,000.
Although Martinez said they raised more than $10 million in philanthropic funding to start the first version of the program, he did not say how much it costs to expand it. CPS described the Vivo Foundation as a “seed funder.”
Miranda said the cost of the expansion was built into the university budget, though they don’t have a long-term funding plan.
“It’s our job to figure out how to sustain it,” Miranda said.
Anna Savchenko is a reporter for WBEZ. You can reach her at asavchenko@wbez.org.