Chicago Public School students have reached a record-high graduation rate, according to reports from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office and the Chicago Public School District.

An Aug. 26 mayoral release states that 69.4 percent of CPS seniors earned a diploma during the 2013–2014 academic year, surpassing the 65.4 percent that graduated in 2012–2013. In addition to the graduation rate, the ACT score averages are at an all-time high, and there is an increase in attendance rates, according to the reports.

Bronwyn McDaniel, communications and research manager for the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research, an organization that examines CPS’s figures to evaluate school district policies, said the city’s school system is now taking a closer look at the students during its freshman year to see if they are on track to graduate.

Freshmen are considered on track if they receive no more than one failing grade in a core course and have enough credits to move on to sophomore year, according to documents on the CCSR website.

“There does seem to be a relationship between a focus on freshman year course performance and an increase in graduation four years later,” McDaniel said.

CPS started focusing on freshman “on-track rates” during the 2008–2009 school year, and graduation numbers began vastly improving soon after, McDaniel said.

“[Former head of CPS Arne Duncan] was interested in this idea that you could look at what a student is doing in ninth grade and that’s going to be more predictive of their eventual graduation than race, class or any of the other things that often get looked at,” McDaniel said.

Approximately 82 percent of last year’s freshmen are on track, according to the press release. As for upcoming graduation rates, McDaniel said she cannot predict if they will continue to improve, but the CCSR will continue its research and see what the future holds.

After School Matters, a nonprofit organization that provides after-school activities for local teens in 75 public schools city-wide, has also been involved with the on-track initiative, according to spokesman Michael Crowley.

“This is an example of a data-driven approach informing smart policy,” Crowley said. “We’re certainly looking at the number of freshmen we are serving and making sure they have the tools to stay engaged with their school, their learning, and community.”

Crowley said he believes organizations like After School Matters played a role in CPS’s improvements. He added that keeping teens connected to their communities makes them less likely to drop out.

“These schools are the rocks of a lot of their neighborhoods, and we certainly are looking to do whatever we can to strengthen them further by providing additional resources and programming after the school bell rings,” Crowley said.

CPS is also aiming to better prepare younger students to be ontrack high school students earlier in their education, said Catherine Lasisi, a CPS middle-school teacher with 21 years of service and current teacher at the Galileo Scholastic Academy of Math and Science. She said there are new ways to test college readiness, including eliminating multiple-choice questions and adding difficult essays.

Lasisi said she hopes that CPS will have better relations between teachers and administrators, which will prove further improvement within the district.

“I believe CPS has a lot of things they have to work on as a collaborative [effort],” she said. “It takes everyone. One cannot solve all of the problems without others’ help. At least they can put a step forward to do the best they can, and that’s continuously changing things as they see problems.”

CPS did not return multiple requests for comment on this subject from The Chronicle.

Dylan Oakes, a sophomore journalism student who attended Whitney M. Young High School for three years, said graduation was often discussed with the students. He added that CPS teachers were committed to the students and spent time with those who struggled.

“They were very committed to making sure if someone started to struggle or if someone had an issue, they were very quick to try and remedy it and help,” Oakes said.

As a product of the city’s public school education, Oakes said these graduation rates are a step in the right direction.

“I think pushing people to graduate—getting them through the four years of high school—will benefit the community as a whole in terms of getting people off the streets and into jobs,” Oakes said.

While these statistics are encouraging, Crowley said the work is not over yet.

“We want to continue to see improvements, but on a broader scale, we want to make sure all Chicago teens have opportunities and also have easy access to these opportunities,” Crowley said.