Program Information
The 2019 program was our largest program thus far and marked the fifth consecutive year of growth. Participation in the program has grown from twelve students and four tutors in 2014 to sixty seven students and thirty four tutors in 2019. Students from ten different schools participated in the program this year. Four of this year’s participating schools were Chicago Public High Schools: Curie, Prosser Career Academy, Taft and Noble Academy. Josephinum Academy and St. Ignatius College Prep, parochial schools on the north side of Chicago, also participated.
In addition, we affiliated with LINKS Unlimited Scholars, a mentoring program for college-bound students. Seven students for their program received tutoring from our program. Students met with their tutor on Saturday mornings at DePaul University for eleven weeks from late January until early April to prepare for the April ACT exam.
Students who participated in the 2018 Prep To Succeed program launched their college careers this Fall and are attending many outstanding universities including, Northwestern University, University of Illinois-Urbana, University of Illinois-Chicago, Knox College, DePaul University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Depauw University, University of Iowa, Illinois Wesleyan, Coe College, and Augustana College. Our students were awarded over $2.7 million dollars’ worth of scholarships this year. Thanks to the generosity of our donors we were able to again award four $1,000 scholarships to students selected from that program.
Results
- Our students’ average composite scores increased by 13.5 % or just less than 3 points from 20.6 on their January baseline exams to 23.4 on their actual exams. This compares very favorably to an average actual ACT score of 19 for all Chicago Public School students. Over 80% of the students improved their score by two points or more, with twelve students gaining four points or more.
- Over 58% of our students improved their scores by three or more points, 38% improved by 4 points, and 20% improved by 5 points or more including one student that improved by 7 points.
- Twenty students scored 25 or higher including 2 students that scored over 30.
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