This year average admissions scores at nearly all Selective Enrollment High Schools declined– and some fell dramatically. Lane Tech, Young, Payton, and Northside saw declines of 12, 10, 8 and 6 points respectively. This decline comes after years of successive and often significant point increases.

This decrease in scores was precipitated by a change in CPS’ admissions policy. In November 2010, CPS changed the admissions formula from a 40%/60% Rank/Tier mix to a 30%/70% Rank/Tier mix. Students are admitted in the Rank category if they have the highest scores, regardless of their socio-economic Tier; while students in Tiers are admitted on the basis of their scores in comparison with other students in that Tier. This change effectively increased the percentage of students admitted in each Tier from 15% to 17.5%. While the scores of Tier 3 and Tier 4 students increased or were flat, this was more than offset by an increased number of students from Tiers 1 and 2 with lower admissions scores.