Home >> About DMK >> Statistics

Statistics

The Daniel M. Kerrane, Jr. Foundation takes on one of the greatest challenges facing Chicago students today, funding and support in reaching higher educational goals.

The gap between educational opportunities afforded to the rich and the poor continues to grow. Only 28 % of American adults have a college degree. College graduates earn twice as much as high school graduates, and people with professional degrees earn twice as much as those with college degrees. But college degrees mean more than just income potential — divorce rates are 50% less for college graduates than high school graduates, college graduates are 50% less likely to smoke, and twice as likely to vote and do volunteer work. For those children whose families have income less than $35,000, there is only a 5% chance of getting a college degree.

Here are some more staggering statistics on the state of education:

• 78 percent of twelfth-graders in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) stated that they hoped to complete a bachelor's degree or higher, and an additional 14 percent hoped to attain a two-year or vocational degree.
• Meanwhile, only 6 percent of all CPS students graduated with a bachelor's within six years of completing high school.
• More than half of all CPS graduates leave CPS qualified for only two year schools or non-selective four year schools. This statistic increases to 75 percent for African American males.
• Only 32 percent of all United States high school graduates finish high school ready for college. For African-American and Hispanic students, fewer than 20 percent graduate with skills and coursework ready for college.
• For CPS students, 69 percent tested below college level in reading and 95 percent tested below college level in math.

Why Community College as a First Step

• At the most selective schools in the U.S. 3 percent of the students come from the poorest economic quarter of families, while 74 percent of students come from the richest. Many colleges are now developing programs to encourage community college graduates to apply in the hopes of narrowing this chasm and supplying diversity on campus.
• Michigan, the University of California, and UNC have announced a program to add 1100 new community college transfers to their undergraduate ranks over the next four years. USC, Amherst, Bucknell, Cornell, and USC also announced plans to expand their number of junior college transfers.