Back to the main Media page West Side Students Beat the Odds - Second $4 Million Gift Recognizes San Miguel Student Achievement Press Release, 06.30.06 CHICAGO, IL – Today’s inaugural graduation of San Miguel’s Gary Comer Campus in the Austin neighborhood will celebrate something extraordinary: all 26 of the graduating 8th graders have been accepted into private high schools. Fifty-eight percent of the students have also been awarded scholarships from various foundations, such as the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, HighSight, and LINK Unlimited. The ceremony will culminate a four-year journey during which this first class increased their grade level by more than 6 grade levels in just 3.5 years, according to the latest standardized testing results. Their test scores in reading and math were at the second grade level when they entered San Miguel four years ago in the fifth grade; now, they are performing at an eighth grade level. Gary Comer, founder of the Lands’ End clothing catalog company, has contributed an additional $4 million to San Miguel’s Gary Comer Campus, bringing his financial contribution total to $8 million since 2001. This second contribution signifies Mr. Comer’s admiration for the first graduating class from the West Side school. Comer said, “I am proud of these kids, and I am proud to be part of this effort.” The success of both San Miguel Schools – the original in the Back of the Yards neighborhood at 48th & Damen and the Gary Comer Campus in Austin – led Arne Duncan, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, to invite the creators of San Miguel to apply for a Renaissance 2010 school in order to replicate its model as a charter school. “This is a new endeavor that will challenge us to think in new kinds of ways,” said Ed Siderewicz, President of San Miguel. “It has the potential to challenge the way we imagine and conceptualize the way the basic educational package is delivered today in society.” Catalyst Charter School – Howland Campus, the first school, is set to open August 28, 2006 in the North Lawndale community. The second will be a contract school, also under the name of Catalyst, and will be located in the West Side Austin community. This school is scheduled to open in the fall of 2007. Another success is that the very first class of San Miguel students graduated from college this year. San Miguel alumni are beating the odds in their neighborhood by pursuing continued education after completing high school. More than 50% of San Miguel’s graduates go on to four-year universities, two-year colleges, or trade schools. San Miguel attributes its success to implementing what educational research suggests is necessary for top-performing schools: small class size, longer school day, longer school year, significant parental involvement, academic focus on reading and math, and teachers who have high expectations and refuse to let kids fail.