- This topic has 131 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 12 hours, 23 minutes ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
Hello Team,
CPS is conducting the HSAT for CPS students today (10/8/2025). And Results (School offered) will be released on early Spring 2026. My question is: When will they release the Test Scores/marks/points ?
-
Last year they released scores on Nov. 8.
-
Thank you !
-
-
do you happen to remember where they posted a score? on the enrollwise or via email?
-
On enrollwise! I think we got an email saying the scores were posted.
-
Thanks so much!
-
wait, they were already posted?
-
Were they really already posted? I thought last year they were on November 8th.
-
Oh no was just explaining how it worked last year!
-
-
-
-
CPS HSAT results will be released in GoCPS Parent Portal on Thurs, Nov 6
-
So after the scores are in, we go back in and rank the schools based on the likelihood to get accepted, correct?
-
You rank based on preference, your scores will give you some idea of the likelihood to get in but you should rank based on preference. You don’t lose out by putting schools that generally have lower admissions scores further down.
-
-
Any word when retakes (the computer glitch that had many kids with accommodations retest) and non CPS students will get their scores?
-
I’d also like to know when nonCPS students get their scores. And.. what was the computer glitch? My daughter (a non CPS student, but with no accommodations) mentioned sometimes the computer “froze” during her exam.
-
Where in GoCPS would the scores be visible? Are they out yet? I haven’t seen my daughter’s scores yet, but she is a non-CPS student.
-
I just called the office of enrollment and asked. If your child took the test in October, the scores are supposed to be released today! They are supposed to be posted under the Grades & Scores section of the gocps website.
-
Been checking the site since 7am. No score yet – just grades and gpa.
-
-
-
Thank you for calling. I’ll be refreshing the portal all day… lol
-
No results as yet… any news by what time they got published last year 😉
-
I believe last year it was around 4pm. Getting closer!
-
Thanks for sharing that the scores were posted at 4pm last year. That is helpful.
-
not yet?
-
-
-
Is it still possible to switch school preference ranking, after the child took already the hsat
-
Math Percentile — 99
Math Standard Score — 322
HSAT Combo Percentile — 196
Reading Percentile — 97
Reading Standard Score — 315
is it good enough for Northside for tier 4?-
How do we calculate this for the total of 900 pnts + grades?
What does HSAT combo mean? Pnts ?
-
-
-
Reading percentile: 99
Reading score: 332Math percentile: 99
Math score: 338 -
Is that good for Payton? ☝🏽
-
Is total of 733.5/900 for Lane
Tier 2 readable ?
I saw score min for tier 2 was 780…. Any hope ? -
We can only go off of past years’ cut scores.
This was the latest. Somewhere someone has a couple years in a list.
https://cdn.bfldr.com/MXCD21SV/as/4pvfhm6h6w9zr7vcwg3nmj/OAE_GoCPS_626408_SEHSPointTotals_EN_V1Lane T2 = 780, so it does not seem likely.
ST – it depends on your tier and 7th grade grades. If you are tier 4 and have a B, it wouldn’t meet historical cutoff.
-
Tier 4 and all As from previous year grades. Sorry we are new to Chicago and trying to interpret this. Would you know what the highest score with the standard scores is? And how confident can we feel when it comes to tie breakers?I heard a lot of 900 scores still didn’t get into Payton?
-
No, for the past two years everyone with a perfect score has gotten into Payton. I would be surprised if that changes though I suppose you never know.
-
I think you have as strong a chance as possible.
The allocations work like this:
30% to rank (tier doesn’t matter, they simply take the absolute top scoring students who had that as their #1 choice).
17.5% to the top scoring students in each of the 4 tiersSo of approx 300 kids entering Payton freshman year:
90 had those perfect rank scores (900/900). I would be really interested to see the breakdown by tier of rank scores for each school but don’t have the energy to FOIA it.Then 52 kids would get offers from tier 4 – because they’ve already allocated seats to some of the tier 4, it gives the tiniest bit of wiggle room to accept the 898 score.
Like Lamom said, anything is possible – I suppose if you filled up your rank with 900s and all tier 4 were 900s, you could potentially lose a seat at the standard score level. after that they go to tiebreaker questions.
-
-
-
OK, so kids that took retakes got scores and are asking if these are the retake scores or were they accidently scored from the first test and released. anyone know?
-
Same question as above:
My daughter got the same score:
Reading percentile: 99
Reading score: 332Math percentile: 99
Math score: 338
Combo percentile 198Are these scores good enough for Payton?
-
Meant to add we are tier 4 and all As in 7th grade
-
The highest scores posted seem to be 338 math and 332 reading so far. I don’t know what the distribution of standard scores are however.
These scores should be easily sufficient for your first choice assuming A’s in 7th grade.
-
-
If you took the test in November and don’t have your score yet, how can they release scores from the test takers in October? Wouldn’percentiles be accounting for everyone?
-
It’s a nationally normed test.
-
-
99/99 in Tier 4. It looks like last year all 900s got into Payton but this is a few of us now with same scores. Crossing fingers!
-
Do we know the highest possible standard scores?
99/99 Math Standard 334, Reading 332
-
Do “choice” HS like Amundsen IB and Lincoln Park IB consider the Tiers? Or is that just for selective enrollment?
-
Reading percentile 85
Standard score 285Math percentile 99
Standard score 317Digging around I found an IB score calcuator. I don’t think they consider tier for IB, but they do give extra points for attendance boundary.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cUo68_cjE5AHAwHEHxArajMuFb4CgFsZtGpVWOik5ZA/edit?gid=0#gid=0
And for reference the CPS score doc from last year doesn’t mention tier.
https://cdn.bfldr.com/MXCD21SV/as/t3qk8gbff7fbfhkpkrhpg78q/OAE_GoCPS_626408_CHOICEPointTotals_EN_V1 -
For 8th grade on the gocps site, it says my child is in tier 2 but for applying to 9th grade it says tier 1. which one should i go on? I was not aware that it would change tiers
-
Math – 99th percentile
Reading – 90th percentile
Total Points – 880
Tier 4Should my son still list Payton as Rank 1 since it’s his first choice or would he be better off listing Whitney or Jones?
-
Have him rank the schools in the order he’d most like to attend. If he ranks Whitney or Jones higher and his scores are high enough for all three schools, he’ll get an offer from the one he ranked highest. Ranking a school lower won’t hurt his chances of getting in if his scores meet the cutoff, but he can’t get an offer from a lower-ranked school if he also qualifies for a higher-ranked one.
Hope this helps.
-
-
My son got a 1 and a 2 percentile, what does this mean? Did he get 1st place or second place or something else? Do we have a shot at Payton it’s his dream skcoll.
-
99th percentile is the highest score.
-
Skip Payton and go right to ivy league
-
-
pls I need to know.
-
I have a junior at Payton now, and in that admission class, there were kids who had perfect scores that did not get in with Payton as their first choice — they were all Tier 4, so at some point if there are too many tied scores than there are seats, they will go to tiebreakers (math score, then reading score, then random lottery selection — if perfect 900, then it will be done by random lottery between those 900s). Last year it looks like Payton admitted some tier 4 students with an 898, so I’m curious how the applicant pool will be this year (I have an 8th grader also applying).
-
Does Jones CTE program take kids outside of the boundary? Not sure if we should rank them. It apoears in the option.
-
No we stayed on the out of bounds waitlist 1 for jones CTE engineering 2 years age- we were out of boundaries with an 898. My son wanted the engineering program only that was his number one and not the regular program was told that there were no spaces in the engineering classes for the SEHS kids. He liked lane better as a SEHS with the alpha program. We ranked lane as number 1 in SEHS and jones CTE number 1 in choice. He got an offer from Von scholars (his second choice in choice) and an offer at lane.
-
-
Math – 99, 324
Reading 99, 322
Tier 4Hoping for Payton, no idea if good enough.
-
Math-99,327
Reading-97,315
Is this good enough for Tier 4 Northside? -
Math-99, 327
Reading 97, 315
Is this good enough for Whitney, Northside, Lane, and Jones? For Tier 4 Bt dubs -
Chi-Mom that should be enough for Payton but tiebreakers matter
-
who do Standard scores associated with the percentile differ? Math-99 334 but I see others have 338 or 327
-
???, it can matter in a tie breaker situation where a bunch of kids have the same percentile and number out of 900, so they move to the standardized score, looking at math first, then reading, to break any ties. And then if they still have twoo many it goes to a randomized lottery.
-
is 99 reading and 93 math and tier 3 possible for payton? according to the pdf for last year it should be but im not sure
-
@Chimom then why are not all 99 percentile math scores have same standardized score? I thought maybe difference in Tier but that doesn’t seem to be the case. So confusing
-
I’m not sure I understand your question. The standardized scores are different even in the 99th percentile, because the kids still got a few more questions right or wrong even within the percentile. So for example, you could have missed no questions and you would be in the 99th percentile or you could’ve missed maybe two or three questions and still be in the 99th percentile bc you still did better than 99% of the kids taking the test. The standard scores reflect that more precise score, and if a tiebreaker becomes necessary, they look at the standard scores second, first math and then reading and only after that would there be any form of lottery.
-
There are approximately 20,000 (not exact number) 8th grade students in CPS. So, top 1% got the 99 percentile (about 200 students). Their actual standard scores may vary and will be used in tie-breaker situations.
-
its also a score of 886??? please let me know
-
Does anyone know what percentage of kids from each tier are accepted into a SEHS – e.g. after 30% of seats are filled with RANK, are the remaining 70% seats divided equally among tier 1/2/3/4 or do tiers 1/2 get more % of seats allotted to them?
-
General (non-Tier): 30%
Tier 1: 17.5%
Tier 2: 17.5%
Tier 3: 17.5%
Tier 4: 17.5% -
The remaining 70% is divided equally amongst the 4 tiers.
-
-
Thank you! Is it also true that IEP/5O4 are allocated about 15% (?) of the seats before the remaining spots are distributed equally amongst the 4 tiers?
-
I would say it is not just purely looking at the current IEP % at Payton, Whitney, and Jones.
-
I thought that the only thing having 504/IEP did was allot you appropriate testing accommodations. Is anyone aware if actual seats are allocated ‘just because’ someone has 504/IEP?
-
Yes, 504 is just testing accommodations but IEPs have set aside slots.
-
Our school counselor told us that some seats are set aside for IEP, but not for 504. Her understanding is that the IEP scores are not included in the score summaries that CPS makes public. So if a Selective Enrollment school says that Tier 2 admissions had a minimum point total of 841, a maximum point total of 895, and an average of 866.6, those numbers do not include the students associated with IEP admissions (unless they were admitted based on their scores, outside of a specific allocation for IEP). She was not sure how many seats, just that it was not that many.
-
-
-
Payton, Whitney, Jones, and Northside all are less than 10% IEP students.
-
So is the 10% allocated for IEP students the overall allocation of the school or PER tier? For example, if Payton’s class size is 250 do they allocate 25 TOTAL seats for the IEP students, regardless of tier or are those 25 spots divided equally amongst the 4 tiers.
-
I don’t know and CPS hasn’t been transparent about the process. My guess is that the students with IEP’s that get in meet the cut scores within their Tier. Have you tried contacting the Office of Access and Enrollment.
-
For someone who has reached out for FOIA and can share on the forum will be greatly appreciated.
-
-
-
-
-
My son took the test on Nov 2 (non-CPS student), the score is still not out yet (checked both EnrollWise and email).
Is there anyone in the same situation? Wondering if it is just normal delay or something could be wrong?
Thanks!
-
I see a few perfect-score kids in this thread already — congrats to them! 🎉
I’m curious how this year’s HSAT felt compared to last year’s — did it seem about the same level of difficulty?
Also wondering what you’ve been hearing about high scores this year (like 898, 895, and above) and whether you think the cutoff scores for Tier 4 might end up similar to last year’s for schools like Northside, Whitney Young, or Lane.
-
im also wondering about realistic cutoffs for tier 3 payton? my daughter got a 886 and I’d like a second opinion
-
Parent, there is just no way to know. You are well above last year’s minimum cut off to apply but slightly below the average. So you should have a good chance this year too, but there’s no way to really predict.
-
I don’t think I did to well to get Payton as I got
Math 99 – 327
Reading 97 – 315
And Payton is usually a 900 or 898 and my standard score is not the best.
Does anyone think I can get into Payton (Tier 4) wiht this score?-
Unlikely unless something is different this year, but there is no harm in ranking it first.
-
-
Thanks
-
Hi, I got 99 and 90 for math and reading respectively so 880 total, but was really sick during the HSAT. Does anyone know if I have a chance at Payton or Northside with PD? I am a lane tech AC kid and have over 20 medals for cross country, math Team, and science Olympiad, am the best cellist in my orchestra class with Juniors and seniors, have a single mom, am tier 4, am in National Junior Honors Society and volunteer a lot, and am one of the 20 kids in my class of 90 in chemistry and geometry rather than environmental science and algebra or pre-algebra. Sorry for rambling, but can anybody answer my question? Thank you SO MUCH!
-
It sounds like you are good candidate for principal discretion. Good luck.
-
Btw I my English teacher can vouch for me for recommendation letters because I have one of the best grades in the class.
-
Oh thank you
-
But I feel like my score is MUCH too low for Northside or Payton to even consider me, because I’ve heard the scores have to be “in the ballpark”.
-
And I’m not sure whether to apply for PD to Northside or Payton.
-
That’s cool @Me! Yeah I feel like you need to be around the ballpark for Northside or Payton.I got a 895
Math 99 – 327
Reading 97 – 315 so I think if I get lucky I might get into Payton without Principal Discretion.
I am at the Taft AC and also in the National Junior Honor Society. But yeah I feel like maybe going for a lot of extracurriculars at Lane might’ve tired you out a bit and maybe if you focused on studying more as last year I was in a lot of extracurriculars and quit one during 8th grade and got a great score (That’s just my opinion.) -
Once again, sorry for rambling…😬
-
Yeah, I was just hoping for some feedback, thank you! Good luck!
-
Sorry, that sounded sarcastic mb
-
If you do Principal Discretion do you have to wait until the end of the offer phase
-
No, I think the window for PD opens a few days after offers are made
-
Still during the offer phase
-
Ahh okay thanks!
-
@Me, I think your teachers/principal could guide you on school selection. I heard about one kid who went from Lane to Payton with PD, I don’t know the specifics though. As a Lane student, can you tell us about your experience there?
-
If my student clearly did not get a high enough score for Northside, does it hurt her chances of getting into her number two choice (Lane) if she ranks her choices in her honestly preferred order (per all guidance)?
Ie: Northside then Lane then jones?
She has a better score for getting an offer from Lane so we want to know if it helps her chances of getting into Lane if she ranks it as her number one choice.-
As our school counselor explained it, you should rank in order of true preference (as you mentioned). They will rule out schools on your list until they arrive at one that offers you a place. Suppose you have two students in the same tier. Student A has a higher score and student B has a lower score. Student A lists Northside #1 and Lane #2, while student B lists Lane #1. Maybe student A gets into Northside. If they don’t get into Northside, they are now up for a spot at Lane. They have a better chance than student B, because they have a higher score. The fact that Student B ranked Lane higher does not factor in.
-
-
I’m not from the US and I’m familiar with this type of selection. The question is, does a student with lower score gets an offer because they rank the school higher. In this system, traditionally, the student ranking the school lower but having a higher score gets the offer.
In the past CPS wouldn’t release the scores early to give people the chance to update their application. They would end up with families scoring unexpectedly higher and wanting to change their application later. Now they stress you to rank in order you want, because if you don’t get into #1, they will try to put you in #2, then #3…
This is not a confirmed information, but this is how these placements work.
-
@Lynn, if your daughter wants to go to Northside, I would rank that #1 as she can’t apply for PD there if she does not rank it #1. She’s likely going to get into Lane regardless based on her score, its just that she won’t be able to apply for PD.
-
Thank you for the replies!
-
So is the 10% allocated for IEP students the overall allocation of the school or PER tier? For example, if Payton’s class size is 250 do they allocate 25 TOTAL seats for the IEP students, regardless of tier or are those 25 spots divided equally amongst the 4 tiers.
-
does anyone know of any one scoring 98th percentile this year like 99/98?
I haven’t and am wondering how is this possible?-
It’s funny you ask that! There should be plenty, but in my child’s class there’s one 99/99, a few 99/97, and so on. No 98s that I’ve heard of from their class / sports / other parents. I’m guessing it’s just coincidence, but it is odd!
Adding for reference:
99 / 317
97 / 315I think that math standard score is the lowest I’ve seen here in the 99th percentile, if anyone was curious what the floor is for 99.
-
My daughter scored 98% in math and 97% in reading. Tier 3, listing Northside as first choice.
-
-
@liz, Lane is really fun, and there are many extracurriculars. As you probably know, it is a big school. Lane has a lot of AP classes, as well as many teachers. The student to teacher ratio is higher than most schools, so you will not get as much individual attention compared to somewhere small like Northside. Lane did very well in the science Olympiad state competition last year, almost going to nationals. Overall, it is a great school. Do you have any specific questions?
-
Also, @L Sam, you still can still apply for PD even if you didn’t rank the school first. Your is not taken into account for admissions through PD either. If you rank something second, you can still apply, and the school being applied to will not see what rank they were put at unless you say so specifically on your essay.
-
@me lane is buns
-
@me I feel like lane tech is more extracurriclars than studies and its very overpopulated. but i feel like you should go to whitney with that score ngl(all of the forum replys are my opinion).
-
@Me, thank you! I don’t even know what to ask, I am so confused I feel like Lane, Jones and WY are very similar. My son did 99/99, he will apply to Payton, but he picked Lane as second choice. I hear students and families are happy there.
-
ok any one has or knows anyone with 99/98? 99 math and 98 reading?
-
I believe the other way also if someone has- 99 reading and 98 math? it’s funny I haven’t found anyone with 897 total as well in my sons class.
-
As someone who has been through this, there is a lot is misinformation out there. To answer the earlier question about Payton having spots become available—THEY DO—-my child had a 900 tier4 with mid 330s standard scores and RANKED into it and were non-CPS APPLICANTS. We accepted initially to lock in the spot, but gave it up down the road and stayed private. The chance that it ever made it to a wait list person is very unlikely, but would be interesting to know, and track. I would imagine it went to a PD spot. PD leaves room for a lot of mischief in an already severely flawed system, which is, at its root, CPS. They haven’t even hired a new full time CEO since last December. With so few places at Payton and only a handful of decent high schools in Chicago, I’m not sure why they would take any IEP with roughly 250 spots available. But they probably do—because it is CPS. IEP is game-able for some, too.
Is the worst private high school better than Payton or Northside or Lane? The majority of private school teachers have no pensions and really care about what they are doing, have smaller class sizes, know the kids, know the parents, have school support. Tight communities. What does the chicago teachers union care about as a whole?
Do you get what you pay for? In the case of Chicago you pay your property taxes and probably don’t—unless you get into the short list of decent high schools that are ‘ranked nationally’. For public. It is a high price for a discount product. Now of course everyone cannot afford a private high school, but will the majority of people that are driving luxury cars to drop their kids at CPS selective enrollment be dropping them off to a top college down the stretch with the tools they will need to compete with the best?-
-
There is a Rank category 900 and the applicant ranked it first
Then four locational tier categories.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14OPLKglIZGLVpYtIzIy_iJyDXEZDt5se/view
-
And I should clarify they had a Rank placement on the acceptance announcement date. Not to attain a PD. I meant that my child’s spot became available because we gave it up. And it most likely went to a PD.
-
-
No problem. The bottom line is that Cps should have more than 5-8 high schools people want to really attend. Yes my kid got into Payton, but did Rahm or Pritzker or Obama or Daley think the public schools they lauded were the best place for their kids because they went to Lab and Latin and Sidwell Friends and St Ignatius.
I guess Amy Carter went to public school because Jimmy was an idealist. But she flunked out of Brown as a sophomore in the 1980s.
Go private if you are able. It’s worth it and always has been -
-
-
-
-
-
@me i was joking lol my friend typed that in
-
Someone asked this question before, but no one knows what the maximum and minimum scores are for the 99th percentile in math. Last year, I saw someone claim that 350 was the maximum. Is that true?
This year, I’ve seen students with 99th percentile math scores who received the following scaled scores:338
334
327
324
317Based on this data, it appears that 317 is the lowest score for the 99th percentile in math so far. Has anyone seen scores higher than 338 or lower than 317 that still fall within the 99th percentile?
-
That was an answer (what the highest standard score could be) that we could never find after even trying to contact CPS’s test company administrators, Itasca-based Riverside LLC, a two years ago. No response. Just as they didn’t respond to Chalkbeat with the recent glitch problem. There was a similar test problem in the fall of 2023 with the non-cps test and it was delayed. CPS does not want you to know the top scores because they want selective enrollment to continue to be a wilderness of mirrors. I went back and looked and our child had 332 reading 327 math then and 99/99 and did receive 1st choice, Payton. Those 315s could be just fine to get in and I hope they are for you! Those are great scores. The examples they use in the ‘Tie-Breaker’ chart (also confusing for many) are all in the high 200s. But as an example my child had stanine 9s on ISEE and the same on the catholic school test. So I would say 350 is way too high, or was then. I would say it is somewhere in the 330s. My child said the CPS TEST was a ‘really, really simple’. To answer SLmom’s question why I am ‘hanging out in here’ is because we have a younger sibling and wanted to see if anything had changed or is changing. It really hasn’t. And her ‘bonus’ that the her cps parent friends are ‘likable’ is just a worthless dig because they don’t like facts, so they attack the person—they probably drive a Tesla with an ‘I hate Elon’ sticker. My position was only that it is okay to go to a religious or independent school for these young scholars, if they don’t get the school they want in a flawed system and school district. They will probably be better off, to be nice. The system is rigged and not in everyone’s favor. The tier system is simply, and very lightly disguised, affirmative action—which the Supreme Court ruled was unlawful in June 2023. I do understand the need for diversity, but the tier system that allows for a 796 tier 1 student into Payton is, well, truly unfair for the supposed brightest of this city. Michelle Obama just acknowledged she ‘wasn’t a good test taker’ and her SAT scores weren’t good enough to get into Princeton. She also went to Harvard Law then flunked the ILLINOIS bar. Right or wrong, the system worked for her.
Sorry if these facts aren’t, well. likable.-
-
damn. why bring Michelle Obama into it? Fact – 25% of all first time Bar Exam takers flunk the test.
there are good points about staying public and good points about going private. to each their own. I’m leary of anyone who doesn’t acknowledge their opinions and say they are fact!
-
-
thank you for the breakdown of math standard scores. is there a similar breakdown for Reading that you can think of based on what you know or have heard?
-
thank you for the breakdown of math standard scores. is there a similar breakdown for Reading that you can think of based on what you know or have heard?
-
-
@Anon, I was told schools have 1 or 2 extra spots for PD, not necessarily offered though. I don’t think they filled your child’s spot with PD. And I agree with @slmom, @#$! on CPS while bragging about private schools here doesn’t make sense. My neighbors who went to DePaul college prep would always say private schools are not worth it. Other friends from Latin and British would complain about bullying and school policy. See, you can find all sorts of anecdotes. Good for you you are able and willing to pay that fortune, good for you.
-
I agree with your statements about DePaul and Latin. I’m not looking for an echo chamber. We are still considering all options for 2nd child. The fact that this forum needs to even exist proves there are real issues with transparency and understanding.
-
I completely agree with that. As parents, we did not grow up in the US and we were not familiar with the education system when our kid first started school. We picked CPS without a question thinking they would be more transparent and trustworthy than privates. CPS needs to announce max and min scores in every percentage. They need to announce how these scores are obtained (do some questions weigh more? Is it linear? Is there some added value for something else?) They need to announce how many seats for IEP or PD per school.
I also heard that PD applies to “involved” families. That’s BS. They to know the kids, not base on volunteering/donating moms and dads. This system is flawed for sure.
-
-
-
Welcome to Chicago! Totally agree. I believe the IEP/504 are outside of the selection totals.
If enough people complain maybe they will be forced to tell people what the highest standardized score potential numbers even are or can be-it’s unbelievable.
Chicago public schools belong to ALL families in Chicago. Even the independent or catholic school families that also support them. Not the unions, or Brandon Johnson, the heads of schools, or the testing company administrator.
-
