Spots at Whitney Young’s Academic Center, the top ranked middle school in the State of Illinois, have always been difficult to get. This year the average admissions score of an admitted Whitney Young Tier 4 student was 846, while the average score of an admitted Tier 1 student was 796 — a difference of 50 […]

At a time when attaining high levels of mathematical fluency has become critical to academic and career success, Illinois is close to the bottom in setting goals for math knowledge. While the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) performance of Chicago Public School (CPS) students has climbed dramatically over the past several years, actual math aptitude […]

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 […]

Breaking news… For the past two years, Lane Tech Principal LoBosco has led an effort to open an Academic Center at her school. Academic Centers are schools within high schools that serve academically advanced 7th and 8th graders. These students not only learn at an accelerated pace, but they are also guaranteed a spot in […]

Federal officials recently subpoenaed the CPS seeking information on the Selective Enrollment Admissions policy, August 2, 2009 Just one week after the Chicago Public School (CPS) system announced an internal investigation into admissions practices at all application-based Chicago area schools (e.g., selective enrollment, gifted, classical, magnet, etc.), it has been revealed that the federal government […]

CPS is launching an investigation into the District’s Selective Enrollment admissions process Currently students are admitted to one of the nine Selective Enrollment high schools on the basis of their score on a 1,000 point system. Students can receive a potential 300 points for 7th grade grades, 100 points for 7th grade attendance, 300 points […]