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Admissions

In 2015-2016, the average admissions score at Harlan’s Academic Center was 580 on the 900 point admissions scale – which is down 56 points from last year’s 636. Harlan has the lowest overall admissions scores among the Academic Center family of seven schools. In recent years Harlan has struggled to attract qualified students, particularly those from higher socioeconomic Tiers.

If Harlan’s new principal can succeed in improving the quality of the Harlan Community Academy, it’s possible that the attractiveness of the Academic Center will increase. Many parents view Academic Centers as a six year option – hoping to have their children stay for high school – should the associated school provide a superior academic experience.

For the past six years, CPS has been using a socioeconomic Tier system to select students for all of its selective admissions schools, including Academic Centers. Currently, thirty percent of seats are allocated to students with the highest academic performance citywide – regardless of their “socio-economic status”. The remaining seventy percent are allocated to each of four socio-economic Tiers, with each Tier receiving 17.5%. Students compete for this portion based their academic performance in comparison with other students in their Tier.

Use of the Tier system has led to significant gaps in the academic achievement required for admissions between students from different parts of the City of Chicago. There is a particularly large gap between admissions scores of Tier 4 (the highest socioeconomic Tier) and Tier 1 (the lowest socioeconomic Tier) students – in the more competitive schools.

In recent years, few or no Tier 4 students were admitted by Tier to the Harlan Academic Center.

In the latest admissions cycle, CPS updated its Tier system with new census data. This led to a reclassification of students across the City of Chicago. One effect of this reclassification was to “downgrade” nearly all south side areas to Tier 1 or 2 – if they were not already in that group. Perhaps because of this “downgrade”, there was a scarcity of Tier 4 and students applying to Harlan Academic Center. Since Harlan is located on the far south side – it’s geographically remote for most Tier 4 residents which may make it more difficult for Harlan to attract them.

More importantly, in addition to attracting more Tier 4 students, Harlan Academic Center needs to increase its efforts to attract academically advanced students from all Tiers to its Academic Center.

With such a small entering class of 7th graders, it’s quite possible that Harlan will be open to students seeking to enter the Academic Center in 8th grade.

Programs

In 7th grade, students take an accelerated program that includes Language Arts-Reading, Social Science (American History), Pre-Algebra, Physical Science, Technology and Technological Systems I (Design and Modeling, Automation & Robotics, and Energy and the Environment), AVID VII (Advancement Via Individual Determination). AVID is a study skills class that whose goal it is to enhance students’ college readiness.

In 8th grade, students can take an accelerated program that includes African American Literature, AVID VII, Geography, Environmental Science, Algebra I, and Technology & Technological Systems II.

Academics

Standardized test administered to middle school CPS students are in a state of flux. The ACT organization is phasing out the EXPLORE test which has been administered to 8th and 9th graders and is transitioning to the Aspire test. The ISAT is being phased out in favor of the PARCC and MAP test. As this transition takes place it leaves the ISAT with the only up-to-date, multi-year and comparable data for CPS middle students, so information from this test is used to assess Academic Center performance.

In 2014, Harlan 8th graders (only 10 students) did well on the Math portion of the ISAT — 80% of them met or exceeded standards. However, no students exceeded standards. The fact that no student exceeded standards and the tiny population of Harlan Academic Center 8th graders are disappointing signs for a program aimed at academically advanced students.

Similarly, in 2014 90% of Harlan 8th graders (still only 10 students) met or exceeded standards in Reading on the ISAT test. However no students exceeded standards and there were only 10 Harlan 8th graders tested.

State of Illinois Rankings

State of Illinois Rank: 478 (2012). In 2013, Harlan Academic Center was not rated by the Chicago Sun-Times. However in 2012, Harlan Academic Center was ranked 478th among Illinois’ middle school population of 1,423 schools by the Chicago Sun-Times. This puts Harlan’s Academic Center in the top one third of Illinois’ middle school population.

Harlan’s High School was ranked 647th among Illinois’ high school population of 677 schools, putting Harlan’s high school in the bottom 5% of high schools in the State of Illinois.

The Chicago Sun-Times bases its middle school ranking on average ISAT Reading and Math scores and high school rankings using average PSAE scores.

For additional academic information about Harlan Academic Center, click here for a state report card.