Really?   What makes you think that?   Was everyone last year 99/99/99 in ELA?

Tiers in order are Math, Reading, Vocab and Lang Arts

Are you T4 with a 900?  If so, Northside would be an admit.  T4 med score was 898 last year.  Not sure about Payton.  No one seems to know much about the subscore cut offs.

It means you got the highest possible score and ranked in the 99th percentile in each of the three sub-sections.  It does not mean that you answered all the questions correctly, necessarily.

if this year is similar to last year e.g. you need near-perfect or perfect 900 to get into Payton and 891 (min point total for T4) to get into Jones, you should have no problem of getting into Jones. For Payton, you would be no.2 (tied) out of six known scores from this discussion thread. but nobody knows how representative this thread is because of the small sample size.

Hi Maisie –

Your score (on the 900 point scale) will also depend on your 7th grade grades.  If you have A’s in the four main subjects you will have a total score of 450(grades)+195(math)+225 (ELA) = 870.   Last year, Tier 4 students needed 871 points to get into Lane, however that was based on how students last year scored on the test, their grades, and how they ranked Lane (and other schools).  So, I’d say there IS a chance that this year the cut-off will shift and you could be offered a spot at Lane.  But it’s a small chance.  If you’re very eager to go to Lane and aren’t offered a seat, you can consider applying for “Principal’s Discretion”.

If you have one or more “B” or “C” grades from 7th grade, I don’t think you’re likely to get into Lane.

Maisie – I would think your chances are pretty good. Last year my daughter score 99 Ela and 88 math in Tier 4 and got into Lane. Your score is very similar. Good luck!!

@Privileged Wail — Do you have anything official supporting your explanation about how they use tiebreakers (i.e. using the raw scores?).  Or some insider knowledge? Or are you just guessing based on logic?

Others have explained here (quite confidently!) that raw scores are not used at all, and that just the math percentile and the ELA sub-scores are used… I have not seen anything official to support either case.

My understanding from our school guidance counselor is that raw scores are not ever released to anyone — just the percentages.  I also understood from her that these percentages are what are used for ranking students in the event of a tie, not the underlying raw scores…. but I’m not sure if she knew that with certainty, or if she was guessing.

Yes, I’ve seen this before (but thank you for sharing it here).  Unfortunately, the CPS material is vague on whether the “score” used for the tiebreaker is the percentile or the raw score.  So, if two 8th graders have 900 points (so, 99/99 test scores), and the first tiebreaker is math, it’s not clear whether they call it a tie and move on to the ELA subscores, or look at whether one student had a higher raw test score on math than the other.  I’ve heard a lot of opinions on this question, but not sure CPS has given any kind of official answer.

The minimum score a student will need for Payton will depend on how the students performed on the test this year, and how many students of them ranked Payton first.  The minimum scores for SEHS are only known after the fact, once all the students have been allocated to each school (starting with the top-scoring student and going down the list).  So, all the information will come out all at once.

The way you asked your question suggests your child is in Tier 4 and has a 900 score… you may be aware that there is some ambiguity in how they break the tie for those students (whether they use raw scores or just the rounded percentile numbers) and in past years they have not released any information about what the sub-score cut-offs were or how the tie-breaking process went.

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