Posts filed under 'High school'
Eric Zorn on the SE High School Process
Not for me, but for my 12-year-old son. He had made a short movie to fulfill a language arts class assignment and the film was due. But he couldn’t find a disc to burn the movie onto the night before, so he went to bed.
I shouldn’t be out here, dodging puddles, crossing busy streets.
I should be in the kitchen, reading the paper, having a cup of coffee and preparing to deliver the classic “Let This Be a Lesson to You …” speech when my son realizes that the DVD fairy didn’t come overnight to save him from the penalty associated with turning in an assignment a day late.
Yet instead I’m playing DVD fairy and preparing the feeble “Don’t Let This Happen Again” speech.
It’s the next morning.
I’m supposed to be working.
Instead I’m engaged in a complex e-mail negotiation involving my son’s teacher and his principal over the way a portion of a recent exam was graded. I’m building the case that he deserved five more points (and one higher letter) than he got.
And even though my appeal is successful, I have enough self-awareness to be dismayed that I’ve become an archetypal pushy, enabling father.
My excuse:
My son and his twin sister are in the seventh grade, “Hell Year” for students in Chicago who are hoping to win a spot at one of the city’s elite public high schools.
Historically, only about one in five applicants get in. They compete more or less on a point system — one third of their application score is based on their seventh-grade classroom grades and another third is based on the results of standardized tests taken in seventh grade. The final third is based on an entrance exam they take in eighth grade. And the average score for admitted students has been creeping up each year.
So could one DVD being turned in one day late or one dropped letter grade on one exam in one subject in March of 2010 cost him a place at one of the top city public high schools in the fall of 2011?
And is it necessary to pay hundreds of dollars to have him and his sister enrolled in a weekly, after-school program run by SelectivePrep, a 5-year-old local company modeled after businesses that prepare high school students for their ACT and SAT college-entrance exams?
Maybe not. But the stakes for being wrong are high. At the city’s top four public prep schools, 90 percent or more of the students test at or above grade level. At our local public high school — the default option — fewer than 20 percent of the students test at or above grade level. These same four elite schools rank in the top five in the state for test scores and regularly launch students to the best colleges and universities.
“The system forces 12-year-olds to deal with pressures that are worse than what 17-year-olds deal with” as they prepare for college, said Julie Woestehoff, executive director of Parents United for Responsible Education, a watchdog group. “And because the requirements seem to change every year, they never know when the ground’s going to shift under them.”
The “safety” schools for Chicago elementary pupils are either private or suburban, options that are expensive or disruptive at best, out of reach for their parents at worst.
Chicago has increased the number of selective-enrollment programs in recent years, but not nearly fast enough to meet demand or allay the anxieties of neurotic parents like me.
“The two-tiered system was created to keep advantaged families in the city,” Woestehoff said. “But the bigger it gets, the more harm it does to the neighborhood high schools.”
Long-term, she said, “the solution is to fix all the high schools so that, 15 years from now, anyone would feel comfortable sending their kids there.”
I believe this. Just as I recognize that no one is forcing me and my wife to raise our children in the city and that, unlike many parents, we have the luxury of enduring this drama by choice.
Short-term, though, the solution is soggy shoes, a fresh sleeve of blank DVDs and a guilty conscience.
LINKS:
An annotated version of this column — the director’s commentary, as it were — is posted here.
Chicago Public Schools Office of Academic Enhancement’s web page on Selective Enrollment High Schools
30 comments March 17, 2010
Trying to figure out what happened with SE High Schools
Can we discuss why the Tier system has had such an imapt (assuming it has) on the SE admissions process?
From what people are saying, kids in the upper Tiers (3-4? Just 4?) who had the grades/scores to get into an SE High School last year, aren’t getting spots this year. So the higher socio-economic background kids are having to compete against each other more directly, with more getting pushed out.
So it sounds like in the past, more lower-socio-econ kids were getting pushed out, due to lower scores. If this is true, then why is CPS scrambling to get kids from low-performing kids into the top schools?
If speculation is correct, the SE schools ended up looking a little too “rich”/white so CPS needed to balance it out.
Oh, why can’t they just publish the numbers for geeks like me? Need to understand…..
12 comments March 8, 2010
The Selective Enrollment numbers
For those who haven’t seen it yet, here’s the talkworthy link from the District 299 Blog that reveals the test score distribution by Tier for the Selective Enrollment High Schools.
As you also may have read, CPS has decided to open 25 spots at each of 4 top high schools for kids at “failing” elementary schools. The top-performing kids at these schools have been invited to apply for the spots. Speculation is that the new Tier system ended up with too many whiteys in the top high schools.
One of the first things that surprised me was the narrow range between the average score (out of 1000 based on 7th grade grades, admission test, attendance) by Tier that gained admission. At Northside, the Tier 4 kids had an average score of 888 while the Tier 1 kids had 868. Maybe in reality that does give the Tier 1 kids a big advantage. But it’s good to see they aren’t exactly letting slackers into the school. Whitney Young has a wider spread of 836-869.
As I face a possible housing move in the upcoming year, I can’t help but think that if Ireside in a Tier 1 neighborhood, my son has an immediate 20-30 point advantage the year he applies to high schools. I would like to move to his neighborhood school area. Tier 4. Disadvantage. I’m thinking of living in a mobile home so I can move as needed for the best application strategy.
Let me know what you think of these number.
I don’t necessarily see the SE thing as a debacle. I’m OK that CPS is doing some experimenting and I’m also in favor of helping kids who are excelling despite being in schools/neighborhoods where the odds are against them. I would LOVE to see some follow-up stories on these kids over the next few years to see how they’re faring in the high schools and what they do beyond high school.
24 comments March 5, 2010
High school initiatitive – more info
For those of us who are conspiracy theorists, here’s some good news about this group. Keep in mind that it isn’t really a “group” unless people actually join up, go to meetings, and do actual stuff (rather than just hoping that a few parents fight to get us some better high school options.) The most success will come if more people join in the cause. In the end, we’ll be at the mercy of CPS and someone could bust their ass on this high school initiative only to find out that it will serve a certain OTHER part of the city or their own child won’t test in. This is why I’m still in favor of principal discretion. I mean come on, can’t a parent earn their kid a spot in a school in special circumstances?
Response:
I believe we are hoping to make an impact all over; however, we need many volunteers willing to take on various roles. This is a very daunting task but we are hoping to motivate large numbers of people to become active in showing strong community wide support for high school improvement. We have defined ourselves under the umbrella of these wards simply because it is where we live. In order to expand this dialogue, we are willing to share our mission and knowledge as people are willing to volunteer to become active in their own neighborhoods. At this point, we are thrilled that so many people are interested in addressing the issue.
Add comment November 13, 2009
North Side High School Initiative – More Info
I got further info on this group. As you can see, it’s basically still in the infancy stage – trying to figure out what the goal is and how best to proceed. I think it is pretty clear that there will be a high school crunch in the city down the road if people continue to opt to stay here. I think most parents would like to know there is a good, safe high school option that their child has a reasonable shot at getting into. Ideally that school would involve a child getting up at the crack of dawn and taking public transportation halfway across town as many do now. It’s also sad to think of our kids all going their separate ways when High School comes around, which is also the case now.
The million dollar question is how much capacity is needed, where, and how to decide who gets in. I don’t begrudge North side parents for taking the lead and wanting to work locally. I think that is how most of the best things happen in CPS. I don’t know that I’d be willing to bust my butt to get another Selective Enrollment high school built, knowing my kid has a million-to-one shot at getting in. Activism happens at a personal level. If anyone sends me a link to a group that is doing the same in any other part of the city, I’m happy to post that as well. Anyhow, here’s the scoop:
Thank you all for your interest in our group. Our mission statement is as follows:
We are parents concerned about solving capacity issues and creating/improving options for secondary education on Chicago’s north side.
Our short term goals have included data collection and member recruitment. Now that our group has grown, we are ready to assign specific tasks to volunteers. On Monday we are hoping to recruit people for the following tasks:
1) Organize small groups at public and private elementary schools on the north side (wards 32, 43, 44, 46, 47) to attend high school LSC meetings and CPS board meetings.
2) Develop our website.
3) Collect data from area high schools and compare/contrast with performance data from selective enrollment high schools. Essentially, we are hoping to “diagnose the problem” in order to create solutions for viable high school options. This will be a multi-step process. I believe the first step is bringing all the information together to understand the disparities between regular and selective enrollment high schools.
If interested, please let us know where you would like to help and we will have someone contact you.
6 comments November 9, 2009
If you read this before Friday at 2pm: Re future North Side high schools
I just got this via email this morning. If you have a minute, feel free to email Hub’s assistants.
I actually don’t know anything about this intiative specifically, but clearly it’s something we can all agree on.
I’ll try to find out more about it and report back.
Can you please cut and paste this message and send it to the two email addresses listed below– they are Ron Hubeman’s 2 asistants. We need to show CPS that there are a whole bunch of concerned taxpayers in Chicago who support improving public education. If we can get as many emails as possible to Huberman before tomorrow’s (Friday’s) meeting, we can demonstrate the size of our group. We NEED to show our numbers before tomorrow so start recruiting friends to send him emails. Copy and paste the mission statement in your email to your friends and ask them to use it in their email. The meeting is scheduled Friday at 2:00.
“I am writing to inform you of my support for the North Side High School Initiative. We are citizens concerned about solving capacity issues and creating and/or improving options for secondary education on Chicago’s north side. We are residents from the following wards: 32, 43, 44, 46 and 47.”
mnburgos@cps.k12.il.us
galicea@cps.k12.il.us
13 comments November 6, 2009
Attendance won’t count for Selective Enrollment High Schools any more
Wow, second big news item in CPS recently!
A couple people have sent me the following announcement:
Revised Attendance Policies for GEAP Schools and Selective Enrollment High Schools!
The selection of students for these three school types was previously based on a 1,000-point scale. The revised process will utilize a 900-point scale, consisting of points for previous year’s standardized test scores in reading and math (300 points); final student grades in reading, mathematics, science, and social studies (300 points); and student performance on the admissions examination (300 points). A revised rubric illustrating the specific assignment of points will be developed and available within the coming weeks.
If you have any questions, please contact the Office of Academic Enhancement at (773) 553-2060.
Attendance is important for the schools because they get funding based on it, AND the principals get “graded” on it. Our principal has REALLY stressed attendance repeatedly so far to the point that I will feel guilty if I let my son miss a day for a minor ailment. Or add an extra day onto a school vacation.
2 comments September 28, 2009
High School Admissions: News from the baby sitter
So I don’t know many people who have kids of the age who are entering high school so I get all my information from baby sitters. Our current sitter attends Whitney Young high school (which to my horror starts really early which requires north side kids to board public buses freakishy early every day.) She attended a well-thought-of private elementary school that comes with a hefty price tag that likely assures parents that their child will earn a spot in a selective enrollment high school. She told me that the school really focuses on helping the kids prepare for the high school entry criteria. She said that most kids also get private tutors for the high school admission test (that is given in 8th grade.) So overall, it’s a group of kids who have some pretty good odds.
She told me last night that the high school acceptance letters went out this week and that the 8ths graders from her old school had basically “not gotten in anywhere.” She said there were a few Latin and Parker kids and a Whitney Young but that the rest were in Lane Tech for now. (So no Northside College Prep, no Walter Payton, and not the usual slew into Whitney.)
Of course being 14, she isn’t quite as in-tune with greater school trends as I would have hoped, so she couldn’t speculate as to what caused this. Of course my brain went right to the fear that the log-jam is starting already due to more people staying in the city schools.
Without a doubt, more of these 8th graders will get admission in the top high schools by the time September rolls around. My sitter didn’t get into Whitney initially this time last year, but was admitted before summer came around.
Don’t know why I worry already, it’s just when I pass some of these high schools that constantly have police cars out front, I can’t help but think “no way my kids is going there.”
5 comments February 22, 2009
