Post-secondary Attainment Index (PAI)¶
Product or Programme · All products and programmes
Evidence · 8 claims (8 for) · 5 studies (5 associational),q2· 0 of 5 report an effect size · 8 claims rest on one study
Description¶
The University of Chicago Consortium on School Research's Post-secondary Attainment Index is a district-level indicator combining high-school graduation, college enrollment, and college-completion rates to estimate post-secondary attainment for CPS students.
Components¶
Claims¶
- The 2023 Post-secondary Attainment Index for CPS ninth-graders is 31%, up 0.4 percentage points from 2022 [+M]
- CPS class of 2024 students reached near-record highs in high school graduation (84%) and immediate college enrollment (66%), on par with national averages [+M]
- CPS alumni college completion (48%) remains below the national average (64%), with 56% of immediate four-year and 32% of immediate two-year enrollees completing within six years [+M]
- If current rates hold, 27 percent of current CPS ninth-graders will complete any college credential within 10 years (2019 PAI) [+W]
- The 2020 Post-Secondary Attainment Index is 27 percent, and no race/ethnicity and gender group reaches the 75 percent aspiration benchmark [+W]
- The 2021 PAI ranges widely by race/ethnicity and gender, from 11.6% for Black young men to 67.3% for Asian/Pacific Islander young women, and no group reaches the 75% aspiration level [+W]
- Attainment indices vary sharply by race/ethnicity and gender: Black young men face a projected PAI of 12.6 percent versus 62.0 percent for Asian/Pacific Islander young women [+W]
- The 2021 Post-secondary Attainment Index for CPS ninth-graders is 27.0%, essentially unchanged from 2020 [+W]
Related Products and Programmes¶
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Key Sources¶
- Mahaffie, S., Usher, A., Nagaoka, J., & McKoy, D. (2024). The educational attainment of Chicago Public Schools students: 2023. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. https://toandthrough.uchicago.edu/tool/cps/
- Mahaffie, S., Usher, A., Nagaoka, J., & McKoy, D. (2025). The Educational Attainment of Chicago Public Schools Students: 2024. To&Through Project and UChicago Consortium on School Research. https://toandthrough.uchicago.edu/
- Usher, A., Mahaffie, S., & Nagaoka, J. (2023). The educational attainment of Chicago Public Schools students: 2022. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. https://toandthrough.uchicago.edu/tool/cps/
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
product |
id |
post-secondary-attainment-index-pai |
aliases |
post-secondary-attainment-index |
title |
Post-secondary Attainment Index (PAI) |
description |
The University of Chicago Consortium on School Research's Post-secondary Attainment Index is a district-level indicator combining high-school graduation, college enrollment, and college-completion rates to estimate post-secondary attainment for CPS students. |
status |
review |
moved_from |
element/post-secondary-attainment-index-pai |
product_kind |
assessment |
generated |
by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-09 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — usher-2023 |
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