Three City Colleges of Chicago Receive $8.5 Million to Enhance Predominantly Black Institutions
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Three City Colleges of Chicago – Kennedy-King College, Malcolm X College, and Olive-Harvey College – will receive approximately $8.5 million for up to five years from the U.S. Department of Education to enhance the colleges’ capacity to better serve low and middle income African-American students. The three city colleges are among 62 colleges across the country to receive a share of a $24.6 million award.
“These awards translate into tremendous opportunities for our students,” says City Colleges of Chicago chancellor Cheryl L. Hyman. “This funding will assist us in meeting our Reinvention goals to ensure more students earn college credentials of economic value, and leave us ready to transfer into bachelor’s degree programs or successfully move into the workforce.
City Colleges of Chicago received both formula and competitive grants through the award as follows:
Kennedy-King College (KKC)
KKC received a formula grant of $250,000 per year for five years ($1.25 million total). With this funding, KKC will focus primarily on academic and student enrichment services by:
- increasing the number of high school graduates enrolling at the college level;
- increasing capacity of the math, reading, and writing tutorial labs;
- establishing embedded tutors during class periods, and
- expanding the Level UP program to support high school juniors and seniors to prepare for college level work.
KKC also received a competitive grant of $599,000 per year for four years ($2.4 million total). Through this award, KKC plans include:
- developing a Transfer Academy to provide students with the skills needed to make the transition from the two-year college to four-year colleges, as well as into the workforce;
- increasing its tutoring, mentoring, and advising capacity through the establishment of a First-Year Academy.
KKC also proposes to implement Project GEMS (Grooming Educated Men for Success). This project is designed to address the overarching need to increase African-American male enrollment at the college and to increase those students’ success in college courses and retention from semester-to-semester, ultimately leading to degree and certificate completion.
Malcolm X College (MXC)
MXC received a formula grant of $250,000 per year for five years ($1.25 million total). Plans for the grant award include:
- Enriching the academic experiences of African-American students by implementing a Saturday Academy for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) to increase the retention rates of African-American students who enroll in remedial and post-remedial math classes;
- Increasing the success of students who scored below college level on the placement test by implementing the Level Up program, and
- Establishing a program of embedded tutors designed to focus on academic achievement and social integration.
Olive-Harvey College (OHC)
OHC received a formula grant of $250,000 per year for five years ($1.25 million total).
The college plans to utilize the funding received from the formula grant to serve students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines through the development and enhancement of professional instruction and student-led learning communities, problem-based learning, science lab experiences, experiential learning opportunities, supplemental instruction, and curricular improvements that, in part, develop programs for reading and writing across the curriculum, specifically science fields. The project will establish supplemental instruction programs that will utilize student leaders to serve as “learning mentors” to students enrolled in STEM courses.
OHC also received a competitive grant of $599,000 per year for four years ($2.4 million total). Complimenting its formula grant STEM goals, the competitive grant plans include establishing the STEM Student Learning and Effective Teaching Program(STEMSL/ET). The strategic goals of this project are to improve student learning and teacher effectiveness in STEM- related disciplines through two strategies – learning communities and a center for teaching and learning.
For a full list of Predominantly Black Institutions receiving U.S. Department of Education awards, go to:http://www.ed.gov/news/press-
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