New Study: One Million Degrees-City Colleges of Chicago Partnership Model Boosts Student Success at Scale

Evaluation finds One Million Degrees and City Colleges partnership—forecasted to serve over 3,000 scholars in 2026—is improving persistence of community college students system-wide

CHICAGO, Nov. 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- One Million Degrees (OMD) and City Colleges of Chicago today announced results from a multi-year study by the University of Chicago Inclusive Economy Lab (IEL) showing that participation in the expanded model comprehensive student support program has led to significant gains in enrollment, retention, and course completion across City Colleges of Chicago.

"The students who come to City Colleges of Chicago bring incredible skills and determination — often balancing work, family, and other responsibilities while pursuing education – and we meet their needs with academic excellence and unparalleled student support," said Chancellor Juan Salgado, City Colleges of Chicago. "OMD is a key student support partner whose model of coaching, financial assistance, and strong career connections is demonstrating impressive results. OMD's impact is evidence for why we are scaling this work to reach thousands more students across Chicago."

In 2022, One Million Degrees and City Colleges announced plans to scale their long-standing partnership to make the holistic student support program automatically available to every eligible enrolled student, targeting the system's 20,000 full-time credit students. Since then, participation has quadrupled, growing the expansion pilot from a single campus pilot to four colleges with the goal of serving scholars across all seven colleges in the coming years.

According to the Inclusive Economy Lab's multi-year, multi-campus analysis, students participating in the program showed remarkable gains compared to the control group made up of similar peers who were eligible but did not participate in the program. On average, participating students:

• Attempted 2.3x more credits than the control group
• Earned 3.2x more credits than the control group
• Were 2.6x more likely to persist from Fall to Spring than the control group

The evaluation also found suggestive evidence that participating students are 1.2xmore likely to persist from Fall to Fall, and maintained higher rates of full-time enrollment and course completion while the per-student cost of the program decreased as participation expanded.

The OMD-City Colleges partnership model — which combines personalized coaching, financial scholarships, academic advising, career development and internships, and other wraparound support — is helping close that gap. By addressing both academic and non-academic barriers, the program empowers students to persist, complete their programs, and transition successfully into the workforce or further education. Many City Colleges students face significant barriers to accessing and completing college — from food, transportation costs, and housing insecurity to the competing demands of work, family, and financial responsibilities.

The program has helped increase City Colleges' completion/transfer rate to 41%, the highest on record, and moves the system closer to the ambitious goal of reaching 55% of new students complete or transfer within four years of entry at City Colleges.

"For too long, community college students have been defined by their barriers rather than their potential," said Dr. Aarti Dhupelia, CEO of One Million Degrees. "These results show that when we design support systems that recognize students' strengths and aspirations, they achieve extraordinary outcomes. By continuing to not only expand, but also improve our core program, we're demonstrating what's possible when community colleges invest in the whole student to help them fulfill their education and career goals."

"Scaling promising, evidence-based practices has long been one of the hardest challenges in higher education. Yet the early results from this study tell a different story. City Colleges of Chicago was able to extend holistic, wraparound supports to many more students—while maintaining, and even improving, the effectiveness of those efforts," said Kelly Hallberg, scientific director for the Inclusive Economy Lab at the University of Chicago. "It's a powerful reminder that scale and quality don't have to be at odds when implementation stays grounded in evidence and student need."

View the full working paper here, or visit the University of Chicago Inclusive Economy Lab for more information.

About One Million Degrees: One Million Degrees accelerates community college students' progress on career pathways to economic mobility by providing wrap-around support to highly motivated community college students to help them succeed in school, in work, and in life. From tutors and coaches to financial assistance and professional development, OMD offers the support that empowers scholars to transform their lives and those around them for generations.

Currently, OMD serves over 2,000 scholars in all 7 of the City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) and is scaling to reach over 3,000 community college scholars in 2026 through a city-wide partnership with CCC. In addition to direct services, OMD partners with employers across industries to build on-ramps to in-demand jobs through internships and apprenticeships, and supports institutions nationwide to design and implement models of holistic student support. Nationally, OMD works to build the capacity of community colleges to embed and scale our comprehensive student support model on their own campuses. Learn more at www.onemilliondegrees.org.

About City Colleges of Chicago: City Colleges of Chicago is the city's most accessible higher education engine of socioeconomic mobility, empowering all Chicagoans to take part in building a stronger Chicago. Learn more about City Colleges of Chicago by visiting www.ccc.edu or click here.

About the University of Chicago Inclusive Economy Lab: The Inclusive Economy Lab studies programs and policies that aim to expand economic opportunity and create greater financial stability in order to understand how well they work. Its research on education, workforce, and community development informs policy and practice to improve outcomes for students and families across Chicago and beyond.

SOURCE One Million Degrees