Home › Forums › Chicago Public Schools (CPS) › Do you think CPS Tiers are accurate?
- This topic has 7 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 8 months ago by ES.
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MaraParticipant
The new tiers in my neighborhood do not seem accurate. It makes me lose more faith in this already controversial process. I know tiers are CPS’s attempt to make the process more equitable, but that is not happening in my neighborhood. I’m not concerned about this for my own family, but for any child who is unfairly affected by an inaccurate tier system.
My neighborhood expanded south in the 90’s and 00’s, and the newer houses are double (or more) the value of the older ones.
My neighborhood has seven sections:
– one Tier 1
– four Tier 2
– two Tier 3
The majority of my neighborhood’s newer, highest value homes ($250-350k) are Tier 2. My only explanation is that they unfairly benefit from being lumped in with significantly lower value homes.
One section of lower value homes ($100-150k) is Tier 3. The “Estimated Median Family Income” for this tier seems significantly overstated. It’s 59% (vs 49% for the Tier 2 highest value homes). This area also has a lower education attainment score and significantly higher number of single family households than the area with the highest value homes. Being familiar with this area, there is no reason it should be in a higher tier than the rest of the neighborhood.
What this all means is that a kid, in a $380k home with both parents, is Tier 2, while a kid, in an $85k home with one parent, is Tier 3.
These are the CPS stats (sorry it’s hard to format them here):
HIGH LOW
VALUE VALUE
HOUSES HOUSES
Tier: 2 3
Estimated Median Family Income:49% 59%
Educational Attainment Score:21% 16%
Single Parent Households:31% 73%
Owner Occupied Homes:95% 96%
Speak a Language other than English:13% 11%
IAR Performance:51% 51%
6 Factor Socioeconomic Score:43% 51%
*I’m differentiating using home values because that is a clear and simple way to express the difference in these households.
- This topic was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by Mara. Reason: table didn't format correctly
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MaraParticipant
I am not able to edit my post, but wanted to clarify that in the table, “HIGH VALUE HOUSES” are Tier 2 and “LOW VALUE HOUSES” are Tier 3.
Also, these houses are not outliers, all the surrounding houses are similar. The Tier 2 section is safer and more well off than the Tier 3 section. The Tier 3 section has less favorable socioeconomic stats aside from the “estimated median family income,” which I do not believe is accurate.
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CPSMommmGuest
But if you look at the numbers closely, tier 2 has significantly lower homeownership % and lower 6 factor socioeconomic score and higher single parent household score. Sucks but it seems like tiers were correctly calculated.
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Here’s how it all works: Chicago Public Schools places every part of the city into one of four socio-economic ‘tiers’. They do this by looking at each area’s median income, education level, home-ownership rates, single-parent family rates, rates of English-speaking, and neighborhood school performance.<sup>[3]</sup> A quarter of students are supposed to live in each tier.<sup>[4]</sup>
On average, people from Tier 1 areas make less money and have less education, and people from Tier 4 areas make more money and have more education.
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MaraParticipant
Sorry, the table formatted badly, and when I try to fix it, the website is telling me my message is spam lol. The stats are below the words, not above them.
Owner occupied % is basically the same for each (95 and 96). And there is no way that people living in $250-350k+ houses make less than people living in 100-150k houses (as the stats indicate). The “Tier 2” high value homes have 31% single family households while the “Tier 3” low value homes have 73% single family households.
- This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by Mara.
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MaraParticipant
Tier 2 is the high value homes and Tier 3 is the low value homes. I do not believe that the 59% estimated median family income is correct.
Tier: 2 3
Estimated Median Family Income: 49% 59%
Educational Attainment Score: 21% 16%
Single Parent Households: 31% 73%
Owner Occupied Homes: 95% 96%
Speak a Language other than English: 13% 11%
IAR Performance: 51% 51%
6 Factor Socioeconomic Score: 43% 51%Another attempt 😭
- This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by Mara.
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cps_lifeParticipant
forget it.
CPS and Tier system are not going to change. CPS uses census data and a formula to come up with Tier levels. It is an approximation. The best bet is to encourage your child to study hard and don’t count on Tiers.
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Cpsdad125Guest
I think the Tier system is flawed by design.
1: why would they change/update it on a calendar year instead of a school year?
2: what does the cost of your home have to do with your level or access to education?
I can buy a house for $150k or $700k and still have access to the same school/level of education. Why aren’t the Tiers based off the school/level of education you have access to ( school districts) ?
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ESGuest
OP, in addition to higher income for tier 3, tier 3 from your data has a higher socioeconomic score. I believe factor 6 has a higher weight among the factors because it includes access to a better neighborhood school which is very important and makes it more equitable for the two kids from your tiers 2 and 3 seeking an alternative to a school better than what they have in their neighborhood.
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