Dear friends of CRSM,
Beyond Expectations is the theme for this year’s Annual Report because CRSM students are defying the odds and finding success at rates far beyond what statistics for their demographic would predict.
At North Chicago and Waukegan High Schools, fewer than 15% of graduates ever enroll in a 4-year college. At CRSM, 100% are accepted each year and over 90% matriculate
each year. CRSM students account for 10% of the high school population in Waukegan and North Chicago but 71% of all bachelor’s degrees earned by Pell-Eligible students in the same area!
While family income levels for nearly all CRSM students fall in the lowest quartile for the U.S., our alumni are graduating bachelor’s programs at the same rate as
students coming from the highest quartile of income. There is very little difference in the average academic profile of incoming 9th graders at North Chicago or Waukegan public high schools compared to CRSM’s 9th graders, yet the results after four years are dramatically different. It is quite a contrast!
Our students’ successes in attending and graduating from college put them on par with students from high performing schools like Lake Forest High School and
Glenbrook North. In a speech before the NAACP twenty years ago (2006), President George W. Bush famously referred to the “soft bigotry of low expectations.” At its core, CRSM’s mission
is about high expectations, believing in our students, and giving them opportunities to prove just how good they are.
Your generosity supports our mission: you open doors so that students can engage in transformational classroom and workplace experiences that change their lives!
Thank you so much!
Sincerely,
Preston Kendall
President of CRSM