Comments on: Finding your socio-economic tier

By: don't panic

don't panic — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:52:59 +0000

The new tier map is up at the OAE website. We are still in tier 4 in Morgan Park, but I did not expect that to change. Now the waiting begins for high school selection process for our 8th grader. Good luck.

By: cpsobsessed

cpsobsessed — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:24:49 +0000

Here are the cutoff scores from last year. Note that these are first round….

http://cpsmagnet.org/apps/news/show_news.jsp?REC_ID=177470&id=0

By: Isabel Liss

Isabel Liss — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:42:50 +0000

any word here? Anyone know if the new tiers have been made public? (I’m guessing that for some reason they were waiting for the new ward map to be released — even though that doesn’t – or shouldn’t — affect anyone for 5 more years) — curious to see what out ‘new’ tier maybe.

Also, does anyone know where to find information about what kinds of scores were required for each SE high school for each tier in years past?

By: WRP Mom

WRP Mom — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:38:52 +0000

When the website wasn’t updated last week, I sent an email to the OAE. I finally received a reply yesterday (so it took 8 days to reply):

“We are still awaiting information on one of the five characteristics used to determine to the tiers; we now expect the tiers to be updated by the end of the month.”

It was signed by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry, Communications Manager, Office of Academic Enhancement

…I thought there were 6 criteria used to determine tiers, not 5. I wonder what information they could still be waiting on, since the census was in 2010.

By: James

James — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:43:11 +0000

The reason we’re concerned about the tiers is that the tier group you are placed into determines who your child is competing against to get into the SE high schools — and thus how hard it will be for him or her to get into those schools. For example, in my case, when my older daughter applied two years ago, we were in a Tier 3 neighborhood. Last year, when I didn’t have a child applying, I saw that we were moved into the Tier 4 group (without any appreciable change in the neighborhood, I might add). Although it is difficult to get into the most competitive SE high schools from either Tier 3 or Tier 4, it’s marginally easier to get in from Tier 3 — and I’d like to know just where my census tract will be placed this year as my second daughter is going through this horrible process.

Beyond that, however, I find it ridiculous that just weeks away from the completion of the application process, CPS claims it doesn’t have updated socio-economic information and sorted tiers. This entire new system is build on just that — seeking socio-economic diversity through tiers that are individually examined and carefully constructed based a basket of specified socio-economic factors. It’s 2012. The census was completed in 2010. And yet we have no information available — information so critical that the entire admissions system is built on it? Why wasn’t this made a priority?

I don’t yet subscribe to the conspiracy theory either, ard. But with the games that were played a couple years with Ron Huberman’s last-minute “gut check” and the insertion of the NCLB kids into the top four SE high schools, it certainly isn’t beyond CPS to jigger the system at the last second to attain the level of diversity it wants if its publicly-announced system has been determined to have failed. Would CPS adjust a couple census tracts from 3 to 4 if it kept otherwise “over-represented” kids out of some of the top schools? Would CPS adjust a couple census tracts from 2 to 1 if it got some otherwise “under-represented” kids into those schools? I’d like to think no. But CPS, through incompetence or lack of transparency, forces me to wonder a little. And on some days, more than a little…

By: RL Julia

RL Julia — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:38:58 +0000

Its just annoying to have them change stuff mid stream. On the other hand, who knows when they’ll decide to revamp the application system again. I don’t think that my neighborhood’s tier is going to change one way or another. Too many foreclosed on houses to be tier 4, too many people making their mortgages to be tier 2. Tier 3 it is….
While I too have experienced long wait times when I have had to call OAE this year, the people I worked with to reschedule my daughter’s testing date were really, really nice. The gentleman I talked to also went out of the way to find out when my son was taking the HS test and answer all of my questions about why went my daughter took the test for 7th grade, she was in a room of kids a year older than her.
I imagine that by this time in the process, they are tired of dealing with hysterical parents. I personally felt bad about having to change my test date and sort of wondered why they just didn’t give parents a randge of dates to commit too rather than just randomly assigning a date. Whatever, I am sure that managing this process is a completely thankless task.

By: Mom

Mom — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:38:24 +0000

I feel like I’m missing the boat – why is everyone concerned about tiers right now at this point in the application process?

By: ard

ard — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:33:03 +0000

james–i almost felt sorry for the guy on the phone. you could tell that he was the guy at the bottom of the totem pole that gets to answer the hard questions that he has no answer for. i have to admit–i’m not subscribing to the “conspiracy theory” of OAE purposely waiting for applications to come in to determine the tiers. i think it is just ineptness, disorganization and having a general “doing things by the seat of our pants” sort of attitude that permeates a lot of what goes on there. i don’t know which assessment is harsher, but it doesn’t matter.
i do take some small consolation in the fact that they changed the date. i don’t put any credence in it, but there it is.

btw, sorry about the typos in my last post. my eight grader caught one and one was a slip of my fingers on the keyboard. guess i’d better go back to school myself…ha!

By: Navigator

Navigator — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:29:13 +0000

You can use this website to determine your tier.
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml

By: mom2eli

mom2eli — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:31:48 +0000

: ( Jan 31st.