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More than 83% of Chicago Public Schools students graduated on time last school year, an increase of almost 1 percentage point from the class of 2025, officials announced Wednesday.
The new graduation rate of 83.4% represents the second consecutive year in which CPS’ four-year graduation rate has increased after a decrease for the class of 2024. Last year’s rate was 82.5%.
CPS CEO Macquline King, flanked by members of her top leadership team, touted the new figures to an audience of cheering students and educators at Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center, a high school in North Park on the Northwest Side.
King also touted college enrollment figures — about seven out of 10 CPS graduates enrolled — for the class of 2025, the most recent available data. That enrollment rate bucks a nationwide average of about five in 10 students for high poverty schools and is a few percentage points lower than the rate for low-poverty schools, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
“In our district, the question used to be, ‘Are you going to college?’” King said. “These days, the question tends to have another word attached. More and more people are asking, ‘Where are you going to college?’”
Upon hearing that, a student in the audience nodded her head and smiled at her friends.
CPS officials also highlighted sharp increases in recent years among students who graduate from high school with college credit. That push from CPS, which began before King’s tenure, hasn’t always gone smoothly. At some schools, more participation in dual credit hasn’t led to more college enrollment or persistence among students, Chalkbeat found last year.
The district highlighted several CPS alums, including Laila Mendez, a 2020 Von Steuben graduate who earned an associate’s degree before getting a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in engineering management from the Illinois Institute of Technology. She now works for a Los Angeles-based firm where she’s working on a project for the CTA’s Red Line. When she mentioned her six-figure salary, a student in the audience gasped.
Another alumnus, Gedeon Mawutodji, who graduated from Kenwood Academy in 2025, credited a helpful counselor and the school’s principal for getting him through a tough senior year and on to the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he’s studying to become a therapist. Kathy Saldana, who graduated this spring from Steinmetz College Prep, said she’s now studying psychology at Dominican University in hopes of creating a job that combines psychology with theater and creative writing. She credited her teachers with pushing her to earn a seal of biliteracy and explore classes such as AP art and English.
CPS had not released school-by-school graduation rates by the time of publication.
CPS’s latest graduation rate has increased by almost 10 percentage points since 2018, with some dips in between, particularly after the pandemic. The district’s chronic absenteeism rate — when students miss more than 10% of school days — increased after the pandemic and has hovered around 40%. A Chalkbeat and WBEZ investigation last year found that in recent years, district officials are giving students more chances to make up missed work or classes.
At Von Steuben, while the chronic absenteeism rate has matched the district’s rate in recent years, the graduation rate is much higher than schools citywide. In 2025, more than 96% of Von Steuben students graduated on time, which CPS said dipped to 93.7% for the class of 2026.
Von Steuben staff focuses on using good attendance as an incentive for students to participate in activities or courses, said the school’s principal, Jennifer Sutton. For example, in order to take a dual credit course, students must have a 90% attendance rate, she said. They must also have good attendance if they want to attend homecoming or prom.
Sutton also said the staff work closely with students to make post-graduation plans, including ensuring seniors meet with college counselors at least three times a year.
“We’re constantly working with students on their next steps,” she said.
Sutton could not be reached for a follow-up interview about why she thinks the graduation rate dropped from last year, and CPS did not make her available after Wednesday’s event.
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.