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Now that the cut off scores for both high school and academic center are out, we can talk about the potential impact of the new CPS quota.
For the SEHS, it already bad enough that for school like Payton, perfect score is no guarantee for admission. A student needs perfect score in sub-categories as well. After the new quota where each tier gets 25% (1 of the 2 possible outcomes), I expect a new tie breaker is needed for Payton and Northside, maybe Jones too. May I suggest free throw or 100 yard dash?
For academic centers, the min score for Tier 4 for Whitney is 579 while min score for ranked admission is 597. The min for Lane is 573 while the min for ranked is 579. Assuming students got all As in their classes, this means that the min score for the entrance exam should be 143 for Whitney while 141 for Lane.
With the new quota, the min score for Whitney for Tier 4 should be higher than the current ranked score, which is 597 or maybe 600 with tie-breakers. This means all students need to get 150 in their entrance exam. The same will be true for Lane as well due to the spillover effect.
If you don’t care about this now, you will care about this in a few years when it is your turn.
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Academic Centers at Lane/WY have always required near perfection for Tier 4 kids. For context: my 8th grader missed LTAC by 12 points two years ago and WY by even more. This year she got a perfect 900 and is headed to Payton. She is as smart and as good a test-taker now as she was then. It’s just a numbers game. “They” say 2,000 kids apply for 120 spots.
I think we need to be concerned about the change for high school for certain. My estimation is a net loss of 8 percent of seats for Tier 4 if they drop the rank. God willing my current 6th grader will test well enough to get into WY (where her eldest sibling attends). It’s going to be insane. I’m throwing out that they will have to score 895 or better for WY in two years in Tier 4. It’s bananas.
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Academic center requires near perfect score but still not the full mark. This is quite important in my opinion. This gives students a target to shoot for. That is, if one scores full mark (150) in the test, the student will be sure of admission to one of the ACs.
Now with this change, it is quite likely that tie breakers will be extensively used for ACs as well. It was almost depressing to think that students who got 900 probably won’t be enough. If I didn’t preach the necessity of obsessive preparation to my son everyday, he won’t be lucky enough to get 99% for all subcategories so he can go to Payton. However, this won’t be enough next year. What will be the tie breaker then?
CPS puts a laughable disclaimer on its website saying that test preparation doesn’t work without a shred of evidence. This is coming from an organization that gives hundreds of millions of contracts to develop curriculum. They can’t even spend a few thousand dollars to study the impact of test preparation. CPS doesn’t even explain how the scores are derived. How do they ensure that with the new quota, the existing tie-breakers is enough.
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One thing I have not seen are any population stats to coincide with the tiers? E.g., do all four tiers contain the same population of school aged children? Also, to anyone who lives in tier 3 or 4 and would like their child to have a fighting chance to attend a SEHS in your neighborhood, please voice your opinion to keep rank! Either that, or consider the current rank numbers to be the future tier 4 and maybe even tier 3 requirements for entrance.
By all means, we should give kids an even playing field, but the proposed changes take a system that already puts way too much pressure on kids – and makes it worse to the point where kids who do everything asked of them (including attaining straight As and near perfect test scores under a ton of pressure) may not be admitted to their first choice of HS.
Change needs to start at the elementary level if we truly want to prepare students for rigorous high school academics. And those students who have demonstrated that they are prepared should be given the opportunities they deserve. If we need to move the goalposts a little bit in fairness, that is understandable, but let’s be fair to all – and that means there needs to be room for merit in the conversation. And merit should not mean perfection.
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Have you looked into your neighborhood high school? If your kids are younger and you are living somewhere you plan to stay, it might be worth your time to work with community groups to advocate for better funding, do some volunteering, and get to know folks at the school. There are not enough SE spots for everyone who wants them or feels they deserve them. Working on improving neighborhood schools could have more impact.
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Not sure whether your comment was satirical but if you are serious, you should consider how much an impact an individual can have on a high school, which is not much, even if you a filthy rich.
A high school doesn’t become good unless it has resource and a good management. For the sehs we have in Chicago, only 5 of them are good. The others have good facilities but for whatever reasons, don’t attract good students.
In an ideal condition, resources should be evenly distributed to each high school and let them flourish on their own merit. But the current system was set up in a way that only a few of these schools get to be really good. So we must learn to live with the system and try to make the best out of it.
The proposed tier quota makes an already unfair system even more unfair. Those who can afford multiple addresses will take advantage of the tier system while others with less resources will be forced to compete in a much more crowded field.
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For the sehs we have in Chicago, only 5 of them are good. The others have good facilities but for whatever reasons, don’t attract good students.
Please define the terms “good” and “good students”. I would also love to know about all of the in-person experience you have with schools like Westinghouse, King, Brooks, Hancock, etc. You must have plenty to be able to make such a sweeping and confident assertion!
Also, for what it’s worth, both Hancock and Lindblom admitted at least one student with a “perfect” 900 score this year. Are you implying that these students aren’t “good”?
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Thank You my son was in AC at Lindbolm tier 3 qualified for WY for high school but CHOSE to stay at Lindbolm for High School he is currently in 8th grade taking Algebra 2/ trig , Arabic, and etc., already earning HS credits with biology . 9th grade year starts precalculus and physics and 2 other AP classes also Lindbolm Robotics and Engineering is 2nd to none in SEHS. It cool for people to only think that there are only 5 SEHS that are quality. Smaller classes and greater parent, teacher and administration dynamics.
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I don’t mean to offend anyone here. By 5 ‘good’ SEHS, I meant 5 ‘higher-ranked” SEHS. The fact that a school is higher-ranked means little if the student doesn’t work hard. A school being higher ranked doesn’t guarantee the quality of education either — a student can go to a great college if the student works hard enough and the school has the right support system.
However, I believe that some students perform better in a competitive environment where they driven by their peers in the pursuit of academic excellence.
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I would say the parents have to push and be involved and work with teachers and staff. Look at whats being offered at other schools and demand that those classes are offered. a lot of times its the teachers and parents that are afraid to ask their children to reach higher. These children are able to do more than we think that they can achieve.
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And for elementary went to McDade Classical outstanding teachers and parental involvement. I know its not necessary to travel far Northside or through downtown traffic to get a fantastic education for my child. Its not necessary for me to send my child far distances to validate if my child is being strongly educated and well prepared to excel in his/her future.
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It was meant seriously. I definitely hear your frustration. And I agree that there isn’t much you can do on your own. But it is clear from this site that a lot of parents want public schools to be better. There are groups in many communities and citywide advocating for local schools to get more support.
There is also not much we can do as individuals to affect the admissions process for SEHS, so it seems like the energy could also be channeled toward improving neighborhood schools (all of which have good students.)-
There is also not much we can do as individuals to affect the admissions process for SEHS
I wholeheartedly disagree.
I think every parent can and should do something to change this. The tier policy is being changed in the most undemocratic way — by decree of the CPS CEO without consultation of the parents. This is a very big change that received very little attention and it is on purpose.
The mayor’s election is coming up and we can make it an election issue. I will not vote for any mayor candidate who is in favor of this change.
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I might be misunderstanding, but I feel like you are making my point. You are encouraging other parents to speak up/vote based on this issue so that you collectively can impact SE admissions. A change that would (maybe) benefit at most hundreds of students.
I’m saying, I agree collective action is needed and I think it would be better targeted toward improving neighborhood schools for the hundreds of thousands of wonderful kids who attend them. There are also a lot more parents to work with if we include all those students.
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I know this is an older post but you are very on the money…in an ideal world, all schools would be equally funded..
I work in law so in law school we read about the case below:
San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez.
It gave the go-ahead for inequitable school funding back in the 1970s by holding that there is no constitutional right to equal education. Super fascinating to read about, but depressing as hell
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