CCRI’s graduation numbers have been good under the Hughes administration. Perhaps a little too good. Some people have even suggested that the numbers are too good to be possible. I’m not aware of any audit that has been conducted but I am aware of a few supporting facts.

• CCRI’s previous director of Institutional Research was forced into retirement and the entire staff was “encouraged” to pursue other opportunities shortly after the Hughes administration began.
• The department of Institutional Research was moved within the organization to report to Academic Affairs.
• CCRI hired a new director of Institutional Research who subsequently left apparently due to a discomfort with the college’s new reporting methodologies.
• The department of Institutional Research was moved within the organization once again to report to Student Affairs, staffed by junior researchers and led by a spin doctor whose major directive is to make the numbers look good.
• Even the state legislature’s subcommittee on finance for education doesn’t believe the numbers coming from the school.

Recently, an investigation into a Chicago community college system was begun. “City Colleges has watered down its curriculum, violated its own rules on what constitutes a degree, changed the way it counts statistics and bestowed thousands of degrees — sometimes in multiples to the same person — to current and former students who in many cases neither requested nor wanted them.” See https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/chicago-community-college-accused-of-inflating-graduation-rates and https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20151017/ISSUE01/310179995/how-city-colleges-of-chicago-inflates-graduation-rates

Is an investigation in CCRI’s future?