ACI's Center for Success in High-Need Schools seeks to close the achievement gap between low-income students and their more affluent peers by providing a key ingredient for success: an excellent and diverse teacher corps prepared for the challenges of K-12 schools serving our neediest children. ACI's Center has helped prepare thousands of highly qualified teachers for schools serving low-income students – and prompted sustainable and replicable transformations of teacher education curricula.

ACI's College Readiness Program helps underserved students complete high school and map the road to college. ACI's College Readiness Program has achieved consistent 99% high school graduation rates and 94% college entrance rates, and has been identified as a best practice by the National College Access Network.

ACI's College Success Network, established in 2006 to provide first-generation, low-income, and minority students with the academic and financial support they need to succeed in college, already has shown 89% fall-to-fall retention rates among at-risk students enrolled at participating ACI member campuses.

ACI's Scholarship Program helps ensure that the benefits of private higher education are available to all students, regardless of family circumstances. In fiscal 2007, alone, ACI's Scholarship Program, Illinois' largest, statewide, nongovernmental financial aid initiative, distributed more than $411,000 to 185 students enrolled at ACI's 23 member institutions.