High School Bridge

Notre Dame Partnership

HSB Partner Schools

Community Partnerships

High School Bridge

High School Choice in Chicago is Complicated. We Help Families Find Solutions.

The high school landscape in Chicago is confusing, and the pressure for families to make the right choice is high. We believe every child has the right to a quality education, and exist to support families in finding, enrolling, and persisting at best-fit high schools. Our research has shown that students who enroll in high schools researched and recommended by High School Bridge (HSB) are up to six times more likely to earn a college degree than students enrolled in their neighborhood CPS schools.

High School Bridge Basics

Our program works with students attending elementary schools in communities impacted by systemic disinvestment to identify, enroll and persist at best-fit high schools. The program is open to all students at these partner schools, beginning in 7th grade and continuing through 10th grade.


Our team of counselors, hired and employed by CJA, work with students and families on-site at our partner schools. They help families evaluate high school options and assess best-fit factors like academic rigor, support services, and commute times. After students choose and enroll in a high school, counselors continue to support them on-site throughout 9th, 10th, and 11th grade. This continued support helps enable students to have a strong academic and social-emotional start to high school.  


In addition to on-campus support, our counselors connect students with summer opportunities including work placement and summer camps.


At the end of 11th grade, our counselors support a transition to either a school-based college counselor or a community based provider that can help students decide their best next steps including college, certificate or technical programs or direct to career pathways.

Why We Felt Called to Create this Program

After supporting over ten graduating classes of CJA students as they transitioned to high school, we learned how complicated the high school selection process is in Chicago and what the positive impact of getting it right can be.


We spent two years examining over 75 community organizations and the post-high school outcomes of over 10,000 students in Chicago.  We found that access to a well-resourced high school education is steep, especially for students who:  attend elementary schools in historically disinvested and under-resourced communities; will be among the first in their family to earn a college degree; and have GPAs below 3.0 coming out of 7th and 8th grade.


Many organizations support students in the transition from high school to college, but few support the middle school to high school transition.  Without additional support, students in communities impacted by systemic disinvestment risk fewer high school choices, lower high school graduation rates and reduced opportunities for continued education or training post high school

Expansion Plans

High School Bridge began in 2018 with a pilot that served three partner schools: St Ann, St. Catherine-St. Lucy and St. Malachy.  In 2020, we entered into a partnership with the University of Notre Dame’s Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) to decide how to best scale our program to serve more students across Chicago and to quantify the impact of our work.

We are adding new partner schools each year to end with a total of 19 partner schools in school year 2027-2028. These schools include both private and public and were chosen using two criteria: (1) Neighborhood demographics, including median family income and racial make-up, and (2) School stability, including teacher retention rates and overall school stability.

Expected Outcomes

Freshman year GPA is nearly twice as predictive of college retention as standardized test scores. We focus on getting students to enroll in high schools that will meet their academic and social-emotional needs. We then walk with them in the first two years to facilitate connections to counselors, teachers and peers. In doing this, we support students as they earn grades that will open doors to more potential long-term options.

With support from our partner, University of Notre Dame Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO), we are quantifying the short and long-term impact of our work including outcomes such as: college enrollment, degree attainment, post high-school job earnings and academic performance.

High School and College Graduation Rates: Sample Neighborhood Schools vs. Best-Fit High Schools

Students enrolled in a best-fit high school like those recommended by HSB have a 2.4-6.7 times greater chance of earning a college degree than students enrolled in their neighborhood CPS schools.

HSB At a Glance

At A Glance Brochure

Frequently Asked Questions

Each of our counselors work with 1 to 3 partner schools, depending on each school’s size. They typically spend one full day or two half days a week at their schools meeting with students and families and assisting with High School Bridge class. Counselors also spend a lot of their time visiting the high schools our partner school students choose to attend, providing on-site support as needed.

At the inception of our program, we found that many organizations existed to partner with students on the high school to post-high school transition, though many of these organizations exist to support academically high-achieving students. We gladly partner with these organizations to “hand-off” our juniors for the transition to post secondary. We want to focus on the transition from middle-to-high school, and remain accessible to all students regardless of academic profile. 

High School Bridge is funded by CJA and services are provided free of charge to our partner schools and partner school students. We started High School Bridge because we believe it’s the right thing to do. We saw a need in our community, and we wanted to make sure these students had the support they deserve. We are thankful for the many donors who help make this possible.

Yes! We collaborate on high school admissions and school visits, and strengthen relationships with our other partners (e.g., summer camp providers, certificate programs, etc.) by offering opportunities to both groups of students. It is a wonderful way for CJA to scale the use of the generous resources of our donor community.