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I really enjoyed reading the conversations on the cpsobsessed blog, when it was running, and wish there was more activity here! Wondering if any 8th grade parents/students would take the time to share what high school(s) they’re hoping for and why? Would love to hear different perspectives and gain insight about the schools you’re considering! Now that the HSAT test is behind [most of] us, its going to be a long wait for acceptances and I’d love to help the time pass by chatting with others also going through it!
Back in the spring, CPS announced it was considering making changes to the SEHS acceptance process by eliminating the ‘rank’ seats or by giving more seats to tier 1/2 students than tier 3/4 students. I haven’t heard anything since. Does anyone know if these changes might still be made for this round of admissions?
Cheers!
M.
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Was wondering about the top 30% admitted on score alone too. I think if it was implemented we would have heard something ….
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Ah well, you’d think CPS would’ve announced any changes by the time this year’s application process began but I wouldn’t put it past them to wait right until decisions are about to go out either. It’s been hard to watch these kids give the process their all, go on tours, rank their choices etc without knowing if their odds for SEHS are about to be slashed even further. Transparency either way would be nice so that we can adjust expectations accordingly.
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Hi All!
From my understanding, if CPS made any changes to the acceptance process, they would have had to have done it already because it has to go to the board for voting. I think we’re in the clear this year for any changes.
This is my 2nd go around with an 8th grader. We’ve been to the Jones and Whitney Young open houses and will be going to Payton’s this Saturday. These are my son’s top 3 choices. Right now, he says he prefers Jones over WY. We’ll see how Payton fits into the mix. He will definitely rank Jones CTE for both Law and Engineering as 1 & 2 on the Choice side.
I also have a freshman at Payton. I went through the stress and worry last year with this whole process. While we do have to wait some time for the exam scores to be released because the non-CPS students still have to take the exam, last year I did like that they gave us the scores before the applications were due.
I did a lot of research last year on this entire process. Feel free to ask me any questions if this is your first time going through the HS admissions process. Good luck to all!
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I sure thought they’d done away with providing the scores ahead of acceptance decisions. To receive them while the application window is still open would be amazing! Good luck to your kiddo and congrats to your first!
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Hi 8thGrade+Mom,
Thanks for offering to share your experience. How is your freshman at Payton doing? I was at the open house and the principle told parents/students that Map test is included in the selecting process, which is NOT true. That was a red flag for me. It reveals that she is not in the loop, somewhat disconnected. I also heard about teacher turn overs.
How was your child’s experience at Payton? How are the teachers? How is the principal? Is the school responsive and actively communicating?
I know it is competitive to get in. But what about after that? Are students too competitive against each other?My child’s first choice is Payton, but I’m starting to concern as I hear things about the leadership. And also the teacher’s turn over worries me.
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I miss the CPS Obsessed site too!
I attended a GoCPS training session and they confirmed they are not changing the top 30% this year. It was suggested (not confirmed) they need to review the criteria for the tiers first as it has been a few years.
We are looking at Fine Arts programs and schools that have interesting science programs/electives. Also, IB vs AP curriculum might be a better fit for my kid.
All that being said, I liked Jones for the way they teach Math and how they sequence their science courses. Jones is not an IB school, but perhaps the way they teach balances that out. I really want my kids to make his choices and rankings.
Does anyone have feedback on Senn? I liked them at Open House. Maybe a sleeping gem?
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It looks like the rank and tier system is well intact, per CPS Board of Education.
“A total of 30% of the available seats shall be filled in rank order from the testing/academic criteria-only list. The remainder of available seats shall be filled in rank order from the lists that rank applicants by each of the four SES tiers, with an even number of students selected from each of the four SES tier rank lists.” (page 5 of the document below)
Source: https://www.cpsboe.org/content/actions/2022_07/22-0727-PO1.pdf
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Thanks very much for this info!
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My child just completed the exam and said math was ok, but vocab was the trickiest part. How did it go for others?
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My kid could tell me at least one vocab word he knows he messed up on but said otherwise he felt the ELA sections went okay. He was more blindsided by the math. Especially considering the math score serves as the first tie breaker, good on your kiddo if they felt it went well! But who knows what to expect, really. Where’s your kiddo hoping for?
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Does anyone have any idea when the score will come out for non-CPS students who took their exam in Nov? Any non-CPS student got their result yet? How about those with IEP? I assume non-CPS with IEP will get their score later than others??
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Still no results for non-CPS kids but hoping they will pop up today or early this week.
My kiddo really liked Payton at the open house but we had to miss the Lane open house, which was too bad. looking at all options, my kiddo really liked the vibe at Von Steuben & has written an essay for their honors program. I think it’s neat that they do that—have an essay as part of their application process. I just hope it’s a challenging enough environment (if they get in). I prefer IB to a regular honors program, but I did get a really positive feeling from the faculty & students we talked to. Very welcoming, very diverse.
We did test prep but not pinning hopes to SE schools. What a process! I can’t wait to get the scores & get the application finalized! Good luck everyone!
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I’m dying to find out the score! I understand that non cps students took the exam later and needs time to process. But it doesn’t seem fair! They need ample time to rank their desired schools!!!
does anyone know when the result will come out?
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@Ncps, before Thanksgiving, my non-CPS school received notification that scores would be released this week. Let’s hope that’s early in the week & not on Friday when applications close!
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What notification? My child nor I received any notification. Was it an email? I didn’t receive any.
I hope I am not missing out any important information.
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It was sent to school admin, not parents/families.
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@KL, our school’s academic director forwarded a reminder from CPS on the application deadline being Dec. 2. It also stated: “Students who took the CPS HSAT exam in November will be able to log into their GoCPS accounts the week after Thanksgiving to see their scores. In order to see the scores, the student must have a submitted application. From the guardian dashboard in Schoolmint, families can navigate to the “Student Details” button to bring up the HSAT scores. Families will be notified by email once HSAT scores are available for viewing.”
I never received anything directly from CPS. Just to be clear. This came from our non-CPS school staff (same person in charge of submitting grades, etc.)-
@MTT, thank you for sharing the info. That is helpful.
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Just received an e-mail stating that CPS will be extending the Application Deadline. Hope that doesn’t mean they are going to make non-cps kids wait longer for their results.
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My thought was also that perhaps the non-CPS scores would be further delayed, which would be a bummer!
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My daughter’s scores are up.
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When did your daughter take the exam? My child took it on Nov 13, and we’re still waiting for the score to come up.
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Our school counselor just forwarded a CPS update to us that there is going to be a tier update for the 22-23 selection process before the end of the calendar year. Did anyone get the same info? Does this happen every year?
I don’t know what this exactly means or how much it’s going to accept the students. I just feel like this waiting game never ends!!
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@ChicagoParent can you clarify? We didn’t see this update at our school. Are you saying they are going to change peoples tiers BEFORE the selection process? That would change alot of peoples rankings so I don’t see how they could do that unless they were planning on doing it this week. Can you post the text of the update?
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Updating tier will impact so many families in a crucial way. I can hardly imgaine parents allow CPS to change the tier map at this point.
I have not heard anything from my child’s school (non-CPS).
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This is correct. Tiers should be updated and visible in the “Student Details” section sometime this week. This will give affected families time to re-rank prior to the new application close date on 12/8. I’ve also heard that Tiers in the GoCPS School Search map are supposed to be updated at the same time as they are in the application portal, but I think it’s possible there could be a delay on the map getting updated.
Tier determinations are made by the Department of Planning & Data Management. Their email is [email protected]. Tiers haven’t been updated for the past couple of years, but some of the data used in the Tier calculation process may not have been available due to the pandemic. It’s not a matter of whether parents will “allow” CPS to change Tiers — the Tier process is explicitly written into CPS Board policy, so it will be happening.
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I know Tier updates have to happen at some point and there’s probably never a good time, but in the middle of the testing/application process seems kind of odd. At least they’re not waiting until after the application deadline?
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Yeah, I agree the timing isn’t ideal. Psychologically it’s easier to know going into the process that your child doesn’t have a high enough score for their top school(s). Thinking you have a shot only to find out that you actually probably don’t is awful. On the upside, at least there should now be some students whose Tier will decrease, so this will actually be good news for some families. Idk why this couldn’t have been done sooner, but maybe they had to wait on updated numbers from the census bureau or something?
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I heard that too but I think it would be horrible to reset tiers at this point- they even posted on their own site that the tiers for 23/24 were already set.
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Is anyone still waiting for their non CPS kids’ result? Have all non-CPS kids received their score? My child does not have the score up yet. Also, I do not see her tier on her dashboard of “Student Details”. It shows her 7th grade GPA/grades, IEP status and neighborhood highschool, but does not show her tier (left empty) nor CPS HSAT score. Anyone seeing the same? FYI, my child has IEP.
Do you all see your tier there on Student Details?
Are the scores for all non-CPS students released?-
@KL I agree you should call to inquire. For what it’s worth I am not seeing our tier either, nor a breakdown of the score. I also never received an email from CPS saying the score was ready, so perhaps they are still uploading info. Good luck!
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@KL – Call OAE!
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What boggles my mind is that my non-CPS kid got his scores last night. We spent the night talking about where he is eligible to go (Tier 3) and now there are rumors the tiers are changing this week? How do you change the criteria for something in the middle of an application process? If you cannot get the necessary data in place BEFORE you initiate an application cycle then how is it fair to kids to change it after you’ve handed them their scores and allowed them to spend 24+ hours excited about their high school futures? Now I know this could be a positive for other families but from a selfish perspective I’m incredibly frustrated and disappointed. And don’t even get me started on why it took the Non-CPS students so much longer to get their results. Aren’t all the 8th graders accessed together? If so and it’s a computerized exam why would there be a delay?? Sorry for the venting.
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CPS kids took the test on 10/26. Non CPS kids took the test 2 to 3 weeks later.
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@KS24
I hear your frustration. Uncertainty is always hard. My non-CPS child’s score is still not up yet. All her friends who took the text on the same day (some even at the same location) got their results! It is really frustrating that only my child is left in unknown state.
To those who see their scores, do you see your tier in your Student Details dashboard? I don’t see my child’s score nor their tier. I wonder if it will show up only when their score is released…?
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Yes I am aware. What I am questioning is if all kids take the same/similar test and all the results are thrown into the same assessment pool to figure out percentages why wouldn’t the results all be released at the same time? Or are CPS students being assessed against CPS students only and Non-CPS are assessed against Non-CPS only? Then the timing would make sense.
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@KS24 – The percentile assessment is based on national norming (per CPS). My take on what this mean is that they determine that, for example, getting 37/40 on the math test equates to being in the 97% percentile of a national sample and so on through all the scores. They are not actually ranked against the other test takers of this specific test. However, with the large group (on the order of 25,000 8th graders in CPS), national norming should work.
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@KL – thanks. It is an aggravating process. My son has his grades and test scores but no tier information. I don’t recall ever seeing his tier on the application portal.
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Our tier is still not showing up but at the top of this document (goCPS) it stated that towers have been updated for the 23-24 application period. I am assuming that means the tires on the school search page are accurate, though I’d feel better if it was showing up on the student detail page.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J7b3gicXusmPr952m0cZghXCwQhTJo-g/view?usp=drivesdk
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Tiers have not been updated for 2023-24. Whoever published that document probably just copy/pasted last year’s document and updated the years in it.
Tiers are expected to be updated this week. Counselors were notified that tiers will be changing for 2023-24 in in an email sent out before Thanksgiving. Not everyone’s tier will change, but some will.
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@cps-thoughts—can you share a link? Or the text of the email? Our school counselor has been forwarding emails to parents but I have not seen anything to suggest a change in tiers. Copy-paste error in the document I linked seems unlikely given that someone would have to change the date (hence not copy-paste-ing).
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I can’t find the exact text, but it was in the November monthly memo for admin/school leaders. Heading was something like “Tier Updates”.
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Also there are so many docs/resources (plus a ton of stuff of the website) that needed to be updated from 2022-22 to 2023-24, I think it’s very likely that someone did a mass find-and-replace on all the old stuff and didn’t actually read over the content that closely.
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<p style=”text-align: left;”>Thanks for your response. Will just have to wait & see at this point.</p>
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Has anyone’s child took a CPS high school test on November 17? If so, did you get the results yet? This is really frustrating.
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@Sa: my kid took the exam on 11/17, and still waiting for the result. FYI, her friends who took exam on 11/17 got their scores yesterday.
I’m sorry that you’re still waiting. But good to know that I’m not the only one.
Do you see your tier on the Student Detail? I see her neighborhood high school and her GPA but not the tier.
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@NonCPS: Yeah, I am eagerly waiting for the results. Same here, I can’t see the tier. But yes, the neighborhood high school and GPA can be seen. Hope the results will be out at least by Friday.
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11/17 was the makeup date for CPS students, wasn’t it? If you don’t have scores, you should contact Student Assessment: [email protected]
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I did contact them, but they said they are trying their best to publish it soon, but they can’t say when.
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Sorry I got confused. My child took the exam on 11/13, NOT on 11/17. And yes, still waiting for the result. It is getting more and more frustrating as so many is up in the air.
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@MMT, thanks for sharing the tier process doc, and thanks @cps-thoughts on your insight. It doesn’t make sense and not fair that they noted it on a CPS website found doc that the tiers have been updated for 23-24 application but go around and say oh we are going to be updating our tiers still. So we have no say on errors that they make basically. Totally agreed that it’s psychologically damaging to kids who thought they have a shot and might be possibly taken away.
I looked at our cps account this morning and tier is still not showing like everyone else yet.
@cps-thoughts, correct that we should have the updated tier info by this week? TIA
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From what I’ve been told, the goal is to get tier data in by tomorrow, and it’s something that they are actively/urgently working on. If that doesn’t happen for whatever reason, I would expect it to be in early next week.
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I’m hearing new info from my contacts this week. 23-24 tiers will not be visible to the public before the app closes. You’ll have to lock in your rankings before you definitively know the tier that will be used in selections. Keep that in mind before you submit your app!! (And/or edit your program choices and rankings accordingly if you’ve already submitted)
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Everything I read said to rank the schools in the order you want to go to them. That the computer will automatically match you with the highest school you ranked and you make the cut off for. So regardless of how many points you have or tier you live in don’t you just rank them in the order of your favorite to your least favorite?
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Yes, but let’s say that your 2022-23 tier was tier 1, and you’ve got an 815. In 2022-23, an 815 in tier 1 would get you into any SEHS: Payton, Young, Jones, Northside, Lane, etc. But if you get bumped up to tier 2 this year, you may not get into any of the 5 previously listed schools now. Lane’s tier 2 cut score was 816 in 22-23, and the other 4 schools were 840+. If you don’t have a back-up option on your application, you may get no offers. Does that make sense?
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Thank you! Stress level up for sure…How likely a tier gets pumped up by 2 tiers? Very unlikely right? 😛
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Very unlikely to get bumped up 2 tiers, but my understanding is there are some cases of that happening. I want to say a small part of Pilsen & Old Town might be affected this way
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Thanks! We are tier 4 my sons first choice was Payton he did not score high enough. Close but not 900. If he ranks Payton 1st and Jones 2nd it will not hurt his chances to get in to Jones, correct?
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This is unfortunate. I did receive a response e-mail from OAE last week stating tiers would be updated prior to the 12/8 deadline, and that parents would receive an e-mail once tiers are updated and available for viewing on go.cps.edu. Hoping that is still a possibility…
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My child’s score is still not up yet! Anyone else?? We have only three days until the submission due date but how are we supposed to rank schools without even knowing their score??
This is so frustrating!
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You may already know this but you have to submit application before you can see scores. You can go back and edit application until deadline.
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Thanks @Non CPS parent.
Yes, I did submit the application and I can see my child’s grades from 7th grade and neighborhood high school on the dashboard of Student Details. However, I can not see her tier nor scores. It is really frustrating to be in limbo and also it is not fair--
Do you see the SEHS schools you have applied to on your application? You have to select at least one of those schools and apply to see the scores.
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Yes, I see the schools my child applied to. However, score is still not up yet. This is really frustrating!
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<p style=”text-align: left;”>That is so frustrating, I’m sorry. Have you reached out to the office of access and enrollment? I hope you get answers soon!</p>
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Yes, we’ve called CPS OAE multiple times but first, it is hard to get a hold of them and second, they say “they are working on it”. That’s all they say and nothing useful.
How are we supposed to rank and submit the application without having no clue of the score?! This is NOT FAIR!
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Calling is way less useful than emailing. The hotline is contracted out to a non-CPS vendor. Try emailing [email protected] and at least an actual OAE person will respond.
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@Thoughts – Which areas in Old Town do you think will change? I know that there are a few Tier 2 pockets near Skinner North.
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There’s only one tier 2 area remaining in Old Town (everything else is already 3 or 4) from what I can see on the school search map- bordered by Division, Larrabee, North, & Sedgwick. If anywhere in that area were going to flip up by 2 tiers, it would have to be there
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@NonCPS, I’m so sorry to hear about your situation. This is very frustrating! I hope you get to see your scores soon. Same as the tiers issue. How could they update so late into the application and we won’t be able to see until after we submit our apps!? If the pandemic is not causing enough stress issue, this whole process def is!!
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