It is not surprising, given CPS gradu- ates’ low ACT scores and GPAs, that they are concentrated in two-year and nonselective colleges. CPS graduates with ACT scores above 8 and with GPAs above .5 are much more likely to attend four-year colleges. Graduates with ACT scores above 4 and those with GPAs above .5 had significant- ly higher probabilities of attending a selective or very selective college. But few CPS graduates have these higher ACT scores or GPAs, and male, Afri- can-American, and Latino graduates are particularly unlikely to fall into these categories. We can summarize these results by combining students’ GPA and ACT performance into a measure of the qualifications need- ed by CPS graduates to gain access to four-year colleges categorized by Barron’s selectivity ratings (see Table -). Our rubric indicates the mini- mum GPAs and ACT scores that CPS graduates would need in order to have a good chance of being accepted to and enrolling in these types of schools based on the college-going patterns of their classmates with similar ACT scores and GPAs.0 Because all high school graduates have the option of attending a two-year college, we cat- egorized graduates with ACT scores and GPAs that fall below the level necessary for likely admittance to a nonselective four-year college as being limited to attending two-year colleges.
The GPAs and ACT scores we used are generally lower than the definitions used in college ratings such as Barron’s
and other existing rubrics to measure qualifications. This is largely because we are basing the rubric on the actual college-going patterns of CPS gradu- ates and their GPAs and ACT scores, and our definition of “qualifications” does not encompass all of the criteria that colleges use in their acceptance decisions. For example, college admis- sions decisions often rely on class rank, and in low-performing high schools, graduates may have low GPAs, but relatively high class ranks, and still be admitted.
Figure -9 shows the percentage of CPS graduates whose ACT scores and GPAs suggest that they would have access to at least a four-year college, a somewhat selective college, a selec- tive college, or a very selective college. Students with GPAs below .0 and ACT scores below 8 were coded as having access only to two-year colleges, because they would have difficulty gaining access to many nonselective four-year colleges. As seen in Figure -9, this first category of students who only have access to two-year colleges accounts for percent of CPS gradu- ates. Indeed, fully 5 percent of CPS students graduate with ACT scores and GPAs that would only qualify them for admittance to a two-year or non- selective four-year college. At the high end, only 0 percent of CPS graduates have GPAs and ACT scores that would qualify them for admittance to a selec- tive or very selective college.
Few African-American and Latino high school graduates have ACT scores and GPAs that give them access to selective colleges such as the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) or DePaul
Figure 2-9
About 20 percent of CPS graduates had GPAs and ACT scores that gave them access to selective or very selective colleges
CPS graduates’ access to two-year and four-year colleges of varying selectivity
50 40 30 20 10 0 Percent Access only to two-year colleges 3 16 4 31 21 28 Access to nonselective four-year colleges Access to somewhat selective colleges Access to selective colleges Access to very selective colleges Note: Graduates without transcript data, including graduates of charter schools, are not included. Table 2-2: Access to college types based on CPS graduates’
ACT scores and GPA patterns of college enrollment
2.0 or less 2.1-2.5 2.6-3.0 3.1-3.5 3.6-4.0
Note: Graduates without transcript data, including graduates of charter schools, are not included. Missing
ACT Access to colleges2-year nonselective Access to 4-year colleges Access to somewhat selective colleges Access to selective colleges Access to selective colleges <18 Access to 2-year
colleges nonselective Access to 4-year colleges Access to somewhat selective colleges Access to somewhat selective colleges Access to somewhat selective colleges Access to somewhat selective colleges Access to nonselective 4-year colleges Access to somewhat selective colleges 18-20 21-23 24+ Access to somewhat selective colleges Access to selective colleges Access to selective colleges Access to selective colleges Access to selective colleges Access to selective colleges Access to selective colleges Access to somewhat selective colleges Access to selective colleges Access to selective colleges Access to very selective colleges Access to very selective colleges
University. Only 4 percent of female African-American gradu- ates, 0 percent of female Latino graduates, 8 percent of male African-American graduates, and percent of male Latino graduates have qualifications that would give them access to a selec- tive or very selective college (see Figure -0). White graduates are more than three times as likely as African-American graduates, and twice as likely as Latino gradu- ates, to have the ACT scores and GPAs that would qualify them to attend colleges such as UIC and DePaul. We also see gender differences within racial/ethnic groups. These gaps are largely the result of significantly lower GPAs of male CPS graduates, not their ACT scores. Indeed, nearly three- quarters of African-American male students graduated from CPS with such low ACT scores and GPAs that they would only be likely to be admitted to a two-year or non- selective four-year college.