Reservation in Chicago Public Schools

Reservation in Admissions in Chicago Public School’s Academic Centers and Selective Enrollment High Schools

The Chicago Public School (CPS) system was established more than 150 years ago. It has more than 600 schools and approximately 400,000 students and billions of dollars in budget. CPS funding comes from federal tax, state tax, property tax, and some unidentified local resources from the City of Chicago. Many selective schools depend on parent funding, others the CPS budget.

The Chicago Public School system has different types of schools. Some examples are the neighborhood, magnet, classical, regional gifted centers, academic centers, International Baccalaureate programs, selective enrollment high schools, etc. Charter schools set their own admission policies. Admission to Academic Centers and Selective Enrollment High Schools depends on many factors.

In the beginning, CPS schools were racially segregated, so in 1980 CPS adopted a racial quota system to desegregate the school system or balance out the enrollment in schools. This continued until 2009 when the court ordered that race cannot be used as a criterion for admission in the CPS system. To make sure schools have economic diversity, in 2010 The Chicago Board of Education adopted a tier system with a 40/60 ratio. 40% of positions are to be filled based on merit and the remaining 60% are based on tier. Later on, it was changed to 30/70. From November 2010 onwards, 30% of seats are given to high-performing students irrespective of the tier system, in other words, based on merit. The remaining 70% is divided into 4 tiers - 17.5% from each tier. This 17.5 % includes high-performing students in each tier. Therefore, students compete with each other in the same tier. For example, tier 1 does not compete with tiers 2, 3, or 4. Usually, the cut-off for tier 4 students is much higher than for tier 1 students.

So what is tier system?

The city is divided into multiple small sections and each of these is given a tier number from one to four based on six factors:

  1. Median income of families

  2. The education level of adults

  3. The rate of homeownership

  4. The rate of single-parent family homes

  5. Number of English-speaking people

  6. Neighborhood school performance

Tier 1 usually has people with low socioeconomic status and tier 4 is mainly comprised of people with high socioeconomic status. The data is derived from the US census.

The maximum score for admission is 900 points. 300 points are for performance in 5th grade for academic centers and 7th grade for high schools (A grade earns 75 points, B 50, C 25, and D 0 points). 300 points are for Illinois state standardized test, and the remaining 300 points are for performance in the entrance examination. If students have the same points then tiebreakers are used.

Drawbacks of the tier system:

  1. Tier 4 students may have better scores than tier 1 students but still will not get admission. In other words, tier 1 students with lower scores get admission and tier 4 students with higher scores do not get admission. Their fault—their parents live in tier 4 and have high socioeconomic status.

  2. Some low socioeconomic status people may live in tier 4 and some high socioeconomic status people may live in tier 1, 2, or 3.

  3. Selective schools are for exceptionally brilliant students. It has an enrichment program for students who excel and need more challenges. The tier system defies this purpose.

  4. People in tier 4 pay high property tax, federal tax, and state tax and still their children do not get admission to good schools because of this reservation system. This system gives the opportunity to children from low socioeconomic status to go into a good school but at the same time, it takes away the chance of a high socioeconomic status child to get enrollment in a good school.

  5. Why do children’s education opportunities depend on their parent’s socioeconomic status? Is it good for the community, society, and nation? Shouldn’t all children get an equal opportunity based on their performance?

  6. Many of these schools depend on parent and corporate funding. What is the logic of reservation in this situation?

Where is equal opportunity in the tier system? This system favors low socioeconomic status children and students in low tiers. There are public schools available for all children in Chicago, so why do students with low scores have to go to selective schools? No one is denying them education. They can always go to neighborhood schools. Any thoughts?

Bharti Raizada
May 10, 2018