* Mayor Emanuel’s City College revamp promised an intense focus on helping students pursue careers and much less emphasis on generalized degrees. So, what happened? As this new BGA investigation shows, tuition went up, enrollment plummeted and sketchy Associates degrees in General Studies skyrocketed…
Since 2010, City Colleges has watered down its curriculum, violated its own rules on what constitutes a degree, changed the way it counts statistics and bestowed thousands of degrees — sometimes in multiples to the same person — to current and former students who in many cases neither requested nor wanted them, the investigation found. […]
Critics of the system under Emanuel say much of this was done to create an appearance of success at a college system where enrollment this year hit a 25-year low. […]
There is no debate over whether graduation rates and completion numbers are up — they are. But the investigation found that largely the result of a systematic campaign to boost metrics that has given Emanuel ammunition to proclaim in frequent appearances across the nation that the City Colleges’ overhaul is a trend-bucking, higher-education success story.
What Emanuel doesn’t talk about is an enrollment freefall at the colleges. The 2017 count of students stood at about 83,000, down 35 percent since he took office in 2011. […]
Records show hundreds of degrees were awarded to students who hadn’t taken classes in years. Some said they were unaware of those degrees — even though the school is required to get recipient consent. […]
A second degree also came as a shock to Marquetta Martin, 26, a sales associate at an athletic apparel store. Martin said she earned an Associate in Arts degree in 2014, but was surprised to learn that college records reflect that in 2015 she was awarded an Associate in General Studies, or AGS.
“What?” Martin said in a September telephone interview. “I never got that degree. All I got was an AA…nobody ever called me. Nobody ever said anything to me. All I have is an AA framed on my wall, I swear.” […]
Of the 97 different degree programs listed as part of Emanuel’s College to Careers, only one offers an AGS, according to City Colleges’ website.
Still, the AGS degree is experiencing a boom under Reinvention, according to City Colleges records. In 2010, the college system reported handing out just 150 AGS degrees. At its height in 2014, the official count had soared to 1,417. […]
While City Colleges argues its campaign to promote the AGS falls within the best practices nationally among community colleges, records show the 41 other community colleges in Illinois did not share in the enthusiasm. In 2014, nearly one-third of all degrees awarded by City Colleges were AGS. By contrast, the AGS accounted for just 7.5 percent of degrees awarded by all other community colleges in Illinois, records show. […]
City Colleges reports it issued a total of 2,828 “retroactive” degrees to former students from 2010 through 2016 as part of what it calls an automated conferral program. It marks a massive increase from previous years. Almost half, 1,379, were AGS degrees, records show.
*** UPDATE *** From a representative of the City Colleges of Chicago..
Hi Rich: I noticed you posted about the BGA story on City Colleges. It is important that you include CCC’s side of the story because it is a completely distorted piece.
To begin with, on the numbers, if you were to remove all the degrees that BGA questions, the grad rate and the number of degrees awarded still doubled from before the launch of City Colleges reforms in 2010. The success is undeniable due to the multitude of reforms put in place - from more advisors to clear academic pathways to more relevant programs.
Also, importantly, City Colleges curricula is more relevant, not less, as CCC worked to bring its standards into alignment with state and regional accreditors and national best practices.
Attached is a response. Please let me know if you have any questions or expect to use this.
The full response is here.
- Retired Educator - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 12:29 pm:
The City Colleges have been used as a patronage dump. The last two chancellors were corrupt hacks. A series of lawsuits and wasted tax dollars is their legacy. Sixty percent of the classes are taught by adjunct lecturers who are poorly paid and have not had a contract or a pay raise since 2012.
- Last Bull Moose - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 12:31 pm:
This story creates doubt about CPS graduation rates as well.Are the graduates earning degrees or just getting a piece of paper.
- Michael Westen - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 12:32 pm:
This sounds like the educational equivalent of Wells Fargo opening up phony accounts in their customers name without their permission.
- cdog - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 12:32 pm:
That Rahm, he’s quite the executive. A man with a plan. /s
I found this anecdote in the article, from a 73yr old that got her degree in the 90’s, especially disturbing.
“I had no idea,” said 73-year-old Iaponira Barbosa-Lewand, a retired sales manager at Neiman Marcus. Records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show Barbosa-Lewand was retroactively awarded an Associate in General Studies degree in 2015 based largely on classes she took in the 1990s.
“I got an Associate of Arts Degree there in 1994, with honors, but nothing since,” she said. “It makes me sad that they would do such a thing, but this degree means nothing to me.”
Who does that that juice the numbers? Is there not a shred of a moral filter that would expose this as wrong?
- Responsa - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 12:38 pm:
All “associate” college degrees are not the same value. Many students and their parents unfortunately do not understand this and are led to think that a degree is a degree is a degree. Ask any hiring agent if a degree is a degree is a degree. Many associate degrees are specific and are a true curriculum building block leading to either a four year degree or a professional status and certification. Some associate degrees are as worthless as the piece of paper they are printed on. AGS is basically in the latter category and them being passed out like candy–even retroactively– makes it even more of a farce.
- Retired Educator - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 12:47 pm:
@LastBullMoose:Before community college districts were created, the City Colleges were an annex of the Chicago Public Schools. Many colleges operated within high schools and CPS grads were permitted to enroll without entrance exams on a diploma privilege. This is preposterous today. It also provides Mayor Emanuel with the window dressing to boast about the number of college bound CPS grads. Many of these students would be refused elsewhere.
- DuPage Saint - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 12:51 pm:
The whole educational system in Chicgo is suspect. I do believe CPS was granting diplomas to students who had died because they were close to graduating. Now Rahm wants CPS students to declare a profession before they can graduate? To what end? To get a phony college degree? It is literally criminal what the adults are doing to the average student.
- City Colleges of Chicago - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 1:03 pm:
The BGA story provides a false impression of the myriad reforms City Colleges put in place over the last several years, from more advisors to clearer academic pathways, to more relevant programs that align with employer and university demands, and the tangible success they led to.
The two central arguments in the piece are totally wrong.
On the data, even if one removes all of the AGS and retro degrees that the reporter questions - even though these are degrees the students indeed earned - the graduation rate and the number of degrees awarded still doubled. That success is clear.
Secondly, City Colleges did not “water down” anything and in fact its standards were brought into alignment with state and regional accreditors and national best practice.
This story has a misleading and splashy headline - that’s it.
The truth is City Colleges made significant reforms and student outcome progress.
Students go on to careers with Accenture, Aon, Rush and transfer to colleges like Northwestern (on full tuition scholarships), IIT, UIC and many more. Check it out here: www.ccc.edu/success
Any way you look at it — City Colleges is a launching pad for Chicagoans on the path to further college and careers. The success of City Colleges students is undeniable.
- TopHatMonocle - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 1:05 pm:
That’s a pretty good response.
If someone put in the work previously but came up short of the degree requirements, and then the degree requirements changed, it makes sense to re-assess whether they qualify for a degree under the new standards. Seems fair. They should probably restrict this to those that didn’t earn their degree previously, as awarding a second degree to someone doesn’t seem to make much sense.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 1:06 pm:
@CityCollegesofChicago:
Explain to the readers how many millions were wasted on the empty shuttle bus program instituted by Chancellor Hyman?
- Underpaid Educator - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 1:21 pm:
As a teacher at CCC, I am happy to work with the students and believe that the work I do alongside so many colleagues is a boon to the lives of students who would otherwise not gain access to the jobs and opportunities that studying here provides. It is not likely that Crain’s looked into the deeper aspect of the details, but instead, as a business newspaper, wrote from a business perspective, which, in education, has meant to lambast public schools on all levels for the last 15-20 years. Such a perspective does not help the students who work hard to study in underfunded classrooms under even more underfunded instructors. I have taught as an adjunct faculty member and chosen to do other, slightly better-paying work within CCC because of how appallingly low the pay is for adjuncts. Since students’ learning conditions are dictated by teachers’ working conditions, I would suggest that critiques of CCC be directed at the pay provided to hard-working, underpaid educators. If you think teaching and learning at CCC is so bad, I’d suggest an infusion of money into classroom pedagogues (more full-time positions, better pay for all positions) and student resources (lowering registration and ancillary fees and increasing scholarship and book purchasing funds for students. There is not reason a city as rich as Chicago cannot better fund education for all its residents–unless of course you believe you can better help others by keeping your money and not contributing to a larger tax base.
- S. Grobnik - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 1:31 pm:
This story is classic Kidwell. Poorly structured and sourced, agenda-driven work. What is more troubling is that Crain’s keeps lending its name to sub-par journalism like this.
- Annonin' - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 1:40 pm:
Another big blunder by HandoutAndy and the BGA
- Ryan - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 1:41 pm:
Why is CCC’s “official” response on Google Drive?
- Wumpus - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 1:43 pm:
Tuition Up, sketchy degrees? Sounds like Rahm is trying to make them into an online university.
- OneMan - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 1:50 pm:
So your complaint is that even though you added degrees you were not counting before (French Pastry school) you are doing better than before so pointing out the changes is a problem? How many people graduate from French Pastry in a year?
So hey city colleges, here is a question are your call center personnel either incentivized or evaluated by the number of people they got to accept degrees? Have they been in the past?
also since you are feeling the urge to defend CCC on CapFax
Why decline the chance to explain the purpose of the database?
- Chicago Cynic - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 1:51 pm:
Rich,
I completely agree that in the last few months BGA has really upped its game. It’s focus is on more important stories. It’s journalism is better (despite the complaints above). And it’s policy focus has improved dramatically (the gerrymandering story being a perfect example). As someone who has criticized the organization in recent years, I’m pleased to see these developments.
As to the story, the defense by City Colleges seems to be that even If you ignore the awarding of some of these weird post-graduate degrees (a new definition of that phrase to be sure), the City Colleges are still doing great. The problem is that the Mayor has a history of juicing metrics to create storylines - see CPD and the great work by Chicago Magazine and David Bernstein. So it’s hard to tell truth from fiction and the problems identified simply can’t be ignored.
- Robert the Bruce - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 1:58 pm:
===The problem is that the Mayor has a history of juicing metrics to create storylines===
It’s entirely possible that City Colleges is doing pretty well, but the measurements didn’t sound impressive enough to Rahm so he juiced them.
- James the Intolerant - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 2:01 pm:
CCC had a $70M hole for 2018, they laid off 100 management personnel, maybe save $14M. Why no action with union personnel? Are you really trying to address the problem or just get a headline.
As far as the article, CCC does not look good not giving or explaining the database.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 2:29 pm:
Under Emanuel, CCC is attempting to overcome years of mismanagement and ineptitude. Tuition needed to increase based on financial realities and the fact that taxpayers long ago lost their appetite for public higher education.
How CCC kept its accreditation during years of neglect is a mystery, and now that Emanuel put in a team to turn things around, BGA is suddenly interested. A little context would have turned this story around, but I guess BGA went for “gotcha” instead.
===There is no debate over whether graduation rates and completion numbers are up — they are.===
No good deed goes unpunished.
- Baffle Them With BS - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 2:36 pm:
An entry level adjunct with an M.A. degree at the City Colleges would be paid $691 per credit hour ($2,073 for a three credit class in a typical 16 week semester). The most an adjunct could earn for a similar class would $908 ($2,724), provided that the lecturer had a Ph.D. and seven years seniority. These pay scales have not been adjusted since 2012 when the last contract expired. The wages are lower than almost any other community college district in the region. The NLRB has cited the City Colleges for unfair labor practices such as not negotiating in good faith with its part-time faculty.
The City Colleges are good at issuing glowing press releases or cherry picking data to highlight
occasional student successes, but the college district does not value its adjuncts. Some suburban districts pay $1,500 per credit hour.
- Logical Fallacies? - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 2:44 pm:
I did not write the above comments about adjunct faculty - but I could have. Adjunct faculty teach the majority of classes at CCC and are grossly underpaid - earning less than half of what full time faculty are earning for teaching the same classes. My sense is that Reinvention involved a lot of publicity with not a lot of positive change. The school has made it harder for part time students - i.e. many of the students who choose community college - to afford to attend part time and harder for students to find the classes that they want within their communities. The school is continuing to underpay the majority of its faculty. The data may show success, but I question the data.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 2:55 pm:
===The school is continuing to underpay the majority of its faculty.===
You don’t think the laws of supply and demand affect the pay of faculty? Starbucks can afford to employ only so many liberal arts PhDs, the rest have to find work elsewhere.
Newsflash: the supply of potential college instructors in the greater Chicago area is vastly higher than the meager and slowing demand for them.
- Pot calling kettle - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 3:20 pm:
==You don’t think the laws of supply and demand affect the pay of faculty? Starbucks can afford to employ only so many liberal arts PhDs, the rest have to find work elsewhere.
Newsflash: the supply of potential college instructors in the greater Chicago area is vastly higher than the meager and slowing demand for them. ==
The issue is adjunct vs full-time. The CC’s in and around Chicago have created a system where, instead of hiring a few full-time faculty at a living wage, they hire a stable of adjuncts who piece together a course load at several colleges that adds up to a more-than-full teaching load at a barely-living wage. This is a disservice to faculty (who waste their time driving around the city and burbs), students (who have minimal access to these faculty who cannot spend time outside of class on campus), and the institution (which loses out on faculty service and the development of institutional continuity.
The solution would be to hire full-time faculty and cut the size of administration. The result might even be cost neutral and would certainly serve the students better.
- Baffle Them With BS - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 3:21 pm:
@47th Ward:
Explain how Elgin, Oakton Triton, and DuPage manage to pay their adjuncts more than Chicago? Property taxes account for a significant portion of City Colleges annual budget and it is not as if Chicago does not have a bigger tax base than other districts.
Carol Marin has highlighted numerous examples of waste, mismanagement, and the smoke and mirrors “Reinvention” public relations efforts to cover up weak academics at CCC. I am sure that you that her “Chicago Tonight” segments are available at the WTTW archives.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 3:32 pm:
If you have a PhD and are not employed doing research, your future job prospects are not good. Higher education is changing and adjunct instructors face a future similar to buggy whip makers.
Adjunct faculty are like “just-in-time” supply chain management nodes. Use them when you need them, don’t use them when you don’t.
How much tuition do you need to charge students to pay a part-time instructor a “living wage?” Who do you think is going to pay tuition and how elastic do you think CCC’s tuition is?
- Baffle Them With BS - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 3:37 pm:
@47th Ward:
“How much tuition do you need to charge students to pay a part-time instructor a “living wage?” Who do you think is going to pay tuition and how elastic do you think CCC’s tuition is?”
I wasn’t calling for CCC adjuncts to be paid a living wage. I think that their pay ought to be comparable to those adjuncts in other well funded college districts. CCC burns through lots of dollars, but not much of it finds its way to classroom resources, including part-time faculty. Much of this has occurred under Emanuel. The mayor prefers bricks and mortar projects over personnel.
If you removed the Scantron machines, no one at the CCC would receive test grades.
- RPLumber - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 3:53 pm:
Half truths, scrambled facts, typical BGA hogwash. Pity the poor kid who got a decent education and a valuable degree from CCC and has to find a job after this crappy reporting.
- Get Over it - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 3:58 pm:
I am impressed with the CCC response. The BGA story could be chalked up to administrative error on the part of CCC, at best, and there needs to be a response to the CCC’s view of the facts. That is, if degrees were conferred retroactively to former students, do those student qualify for the degrees conferred, etc?
Okay, now back to my cookie.
- OneMan - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 4:06 pm:
Why should CCC pay more than they need to for adjunct instructors? If you can get an instructor for X why pay Y. They may pay more in the burbs’ but using that same logic someone who works at Z (let’s say Meijer) should be paid the same regardless of location?
Full disclosure: I have done the adjunct instructor thing for both a CC (Waubonsee) and U of Phoenix online.
- For What Its Worth - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 4:08 pm:
The impressive City Colleges rapid response to Rich Miller was recycled from an email announcement sent to all of its employees by Chancellor Salgado.
The text is almost identical apart from a few revised sentences and the omission of Salgado’s name. The mass email did not refer to the Crain’s article.
These happy talk announcements are always salutary and never discuss problems.
It is worth noting that the typical approach to accreditation teams was to send the visitors to Wright College rather than the inner city campuses. Previous accreditation reports have raised questions about the district’s over reliance upon adjuncts.
- Shytown - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 4:35 pm:
I only put an ounce of stock in BGA’s reporting. They come to every issue with an agenda.
- Hontas Farmer with no fear - Wednesday, Nov 1, 17 @ 10:17 pm:
There is only one thing to take issue with here. The idea of reverse transfer is a good one. Every community college should get to count students that go on to get a Bachelors as part of their success rate.
CCC however DOES pressure faculty to pass people who do not deserve it. My favorite example, being told by one superior that I should be able to teach physics with nothing more than 3rd grade math because the course has no math pre-req. This is because CPS can’t be expected to only graduate people who’ve had the math level they purport that they have had.
Community colleges everywhere (and universities too actually) have to make up for the deterioration of most of our high schools which have failed to educate people in basic reading, writing, and arithmetic much less algebra, basic science and rhetoric.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Nov 2, 17 @ 4:49 pm:
Sorry I missed this yesterday so no one may be looking now but the state implemented a “performance-funding model” for higher education so an increase in degrees awarded results in higher levels of funding from the state. Hence an increase in “general studies” and retroactive degrees.