CASE STUDY
2014
21 S. Clark St.
Suite 4301
Chicago, IL 60603
(312) 853-9160
www.ccachicago.org

The Reinvention of City Colleges of Chicago
The last five years at City Colleges

Challenge

of Chicago is widely recognized as

For many low-income Chicagoans, education
and training is the path to a better life. But
by the middle part of the last decade, the
City’s community colleges had lost a step.
Enrollment had fallen from 200,000 to 115,000
in less than 10 years. Barely seven percent of
first-time students attending full time were
completing a certificate or degree, just a
third of the national average. Eighty percent
of programs were graduating fewer than 45
people per entering class and too many of
these programs weren’t tied to actual regional
economic need. Fifty four percent of degreeseeking students were quitting in their first
six months. While City Colleges was meeting
its goal of providing access, the Colleges were
not, by objective standards, putting students
on the road to success.

one of the most profound and rapid
transformations of a community college
system anywhere. Today, the City
Colleges of Chicago is achieving the
kind of performance that was thought
impossible just a short time ago. This
is a story of graduation rates doubled,
advisors per student increased twofold,
and $51 million in operational efficiencies
redirected to the classroom.
The turnaround has been supported by
dedicated partners from across the city
and led by Cheryl Hyman, Chancellor of
City Colleges. Civic Consulting Alliance
has played a part by helping mobilize
the civic infrastructure to call for change
and then linking world class private
sector resources to some of the toughest
challenges the City Colleges faced.

Action
The origins of the turnaround can be traced
to 2007, when Civic Consulting Alliance, at the
behest of then Mayor Daley and in partnership
with the Boston Consulting Group and the
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, convened
a panel of civic, educational, non-profit, and
business leaders across the city. The group
was charged with answering one fundamental

question: what role should the City Colleges
play in the future of Chicago?
In 2010, Cheryl Hyman was appointed as
Chancellor and quickly established herself as
the kind of client that Civic Consulting Alliance
looks for: visionary, collaborative, committed
to change and willing to make the tough
decisions. The process of “Reinvention,” as
this initiative was now called, took shape.
Everything from the student registration
process to the student program portfolio was
overhauled.
Over the next few years, Civic Consulting
Alliance recruited and deployed a range of
world-class expertise. McKinsey & Company
helped develop the detailed strategic
blueprint for Reinvention; Accenture redefined technology needs and strategies;
KPMG designed new procurement processes
and reengineered other operational functions;
Lantern Partners provided key recruiting
services; and R. Kent Carson contributed
important human resources services. All
this work was done in collaboration with
Chancellor Hyman’s new leadership team and
dozens of faculty, staff, and students, who
came from all corners of Chicago to be part of
Reinvention.

Over

 Results
One step at a time, results began to emerge.
The total number of awards (degrees and
certificates) topped 10,000 for the first time.
Graduation rates doubled. Operations began
running more effectively. Last year, City
Colleges met or exceeded at 20 out of 24 key
metrics of performance and reinvention.
Reinvention is not complete. There is more
to do. But City Colleges of Chicago is on an
extraordinary path of renewal and reinvention
which has an incalculable benefit.

Partners
Accenture

The Boston Consulting Group
McKinsey & Company
KPMG LLP

Lantern Partners
Monitor Group
R. Kent Carson

Towers Watson

21 S. Clark St.
Suite 4301
Chicago, IL 60603
(312) 853-9160
www.ccachicago.org