CLC-high school alliance completes startup

The College of Lake County and its high school partners are wrapping up the school year by celebrating the successful launch of an alliance to improve student success in college. Two goals adopted by the alliance will be to improve the college readiness of high school graduates and to increase opportunities for students to earn college credit while still in high school.

"This is the start of what will believe will be the first comprehensive partnership between area high schools and the College of Lake County," said CLC President Jerry Weber. "We will be looking at coordinated professional development, aligning our curricula, especially in math and English, and we will share data and expertise together to increase the future academic success of students."

"We want our students to have a seamless transition from high school to college and all of us working together will make both the high school and college experience better," said Dr. Chris Clark, Zion-Benton High School superintendent and co-chair of the partnership.

In February, CLC and superintendents of 12 high schools formally launched a partnership to work together on issues ranging from increasing the college readiness of their graduates to creating more opportunities for college credit in the high schools, often referred to as "dual credit."

High school superintendents on the steering committee of the alliance are Dr. Mary Bates (Warren Township High School), Dr. Donaldo Batiste (Waukegan High School), Dr. Chris Clark (Zion-Benton High School and New Tech High at Zion-Benton East), Dr. Daniel Coles (Wauconda High School), Dr. Connie Collins (Round Lake High School), Dr. Mike Egan (Lake Zurich High School), Dr. Catherine Finger (Grayslake Central and North High Schools), Jim McKay (Antioch and Lakes High Schools), Dr. Kevin Myers (Mundelein High School) and Dr. Christy Sefcik (Grant High School).

"Although all Lake County high school districts are important to us, working more closely with the 12 partnership schools will help us make real progress on better preparing the students who enroll at CLC for college work and ensuring they complete a degree," said CLC President Jerry Weber. The high schools led by these superintendents send CLC more than 80 percent of its incoming freshmen each year.