CPS announces its best-ever rate of freshmen on track to graduate

Chicago Public Schools announced Sunday a rate of freshmen on track to graduate that it says is its highest measure on record at 88.7 percent.

The metric, developed by the University of Chicago’s Consortium on School Research, considers whether students passed at least five course credits and failed no more than one course in a core subject during their freshman year. CPS says the measure is “highly predictive” of future graduation rates.

CPS says its freshmen on-track rate was 69 percent in 2011. It also said the gap between students of different races has narrowed dramatically during the same time period. Meanwhile, CPS said its graduation rate has also improved since 2011, rising to 73.5 percent in 2016.