{"id":3194,"date":"2015-01-21T20:30:57","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T02:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/justus\/?p=258"},"modified":"2015-01-26T15:19:46","modified_gmt":"2015-01-26T21:19:46","slug":"rahms-free-college-offer-get-closer-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rahms-free-college-offer-get-closer-look\/","title":{"rendered":"Rahm’s free college offer gets closer look"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Phoebe Tollefson<\/p>\n

With an average City Colleges of Chicago graduation rate of just 13 percent and student complaints of expensive enrollment mistakes that delay graduation, Mayor Rahm Emanuel still touts his plan<\/a> to make community college education free for qualifying applicants.<\/p>\n

Lesley-Anne Camilotes is a good example of what can go wrong. Under her adviser\u2019s guidance, the radiology student at Truman College completed the coursework and paid approximately $475 for a higher level math class she did not need to graduate, simply because she tested into it. She is now paying for and completing the required course, a semester behind schedule.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Roberto Montesinos, a student at Richard Daley College, has dealt with his own share of communication lapses and scheduling mistakes. He said he and his peers don\u2019t always get the help they need from advisers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just try to rush us out of their office as fast as they can,\u201d Montesinos said. \u201cThey don\u2019t get into depth of what we actually need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Johnson, a college counselor at Chicago Academy, a public high school in Portage Park, is well-versed in these struggles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spend a fair amount of my time trying to expose students to other two-year options just outside the city,\u201d he said. \u201cI shouldn\u2019t have to do that. Wright College is literally a mile from my school, and it should be a viable option for my students and it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with college preparation programs that begin freshman year and regular check-ins with his former students now at City Colleges, Johnson said the dropout rate is still high. While some factors are beyond the schools\u2019 ability to correct, Johnson said a lack of institutional capacity is a big reason students fall through the cracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if you have Mother Teresa working there as an academic adviser, they\u2019re just going to be stretched really, really thin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Graph<\/a>
City College graduation rates have lagged behind state and national rates for years. (Chronicle of Higher Education, City of Chicago, Phoebe Tollefson\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Johnson also pointed out that the STAR scholarship \u2013which is the mayor\u2019s plan for free tuition at City Colleges for any Chicago Public Schools graduate with a 3.0 grade point average and an ACT test score of 21 or higher \u2013 only covers whatever costs federal financial aid does not. For the mostly low-income student body, this isn\u2019t much. Johnson said many students at the City Colleges already qualify for full aid.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople just talk about how it\u2019s going to be free, as if that\u2019s a new thing,\u201d he said. \u201cFor so many students, that would not be a new thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew Holsapple, a senior research analyst at the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research<\/a>, agrees that the City Colleges may need more resources for the mayor\u2019s plans to work.<\/p>\n

A combination of summer classes, individual education plans for each student and more job training is intended to help boost the graduation rate 8 percentage points over the next three years, according to a position paper<\/a> by the mayor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a lot of work,\u201d Holsapple said. \u201cSo, making sure that the colleges have the support they need, the personnel and professional expertise to do that would be important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holsapple said his research debunks the myth that students who perform well in high school will enjoy \u201cpreordained success\u201d in college.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not true at all,\u201d Holsapple said. \u201cHigh-achieving students absolutely have trouble graduating at some colleges. It\u2019s not automatic by any stretch of the imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

The City Colleges declined to comment on students\u2019 stories or say if additional staff or programming was planned for the fall.<\/p>\n

President Obama discussed a similar proposal<\/a> to waive tuition at community colleges nationwide in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. Emanuel said Chicago\u2019s STAR scholarship served as a model for the president\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n

\nPhoto at top: Students walk outside Harold Washington College. (Phoebe Tollefson\/Medill)\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Phoebe Tollefson With an average City Colleges of Chicago graduation rate of just 13 percent and student complaints of expensive enrollment mistakes that delay graduation, Mayor Rahm Emanuel still touts his plan to make community college education free for qualifying applicants. Lesley-Anne Camilotes is a good example of what can go wrong. Under her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public-affairs"],"yoast_head":"\nRahm's free college offer gets closer look - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/rahms-free-college-offer-get-closer-look\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rahm's free college offer gets closer look - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Phoebe Tollefson With an average City Colleges of Chicago graduation rate of just 13 percent and student complaints of expensive enrollment mistakes that delay graduation, Mayor Rahm Emanuel still touts his plan to make community college education free for qualifying applicants. 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