Economic tier scheme for CPS selective enrollment schools: go back to the drawing board

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

Looking back on it, I just don’t know how I made it in.

Growing up at Addison and Lincoln there was no question where I wanted to go to high school: the gorgeous, ivy-covered walls of Albert G. Lane Technical High School up the street at Addison and Western.

The place where, every time I mentioned it, older folks would say "that place, yeah, my brother went there…before they let girls in."

I remember the first time I ever graced Lane’s halls as a knock-kneed 8th grader back around February of 1988. There, on that stunning campus, I took something called an "entrance exam." When the bell rung, out flooded big girls and boys of every color, style, and age imaginable and I remember I just could not wait to join them and be totally cool with a new-wave hair-do and black and white tights in thick black clod-hopping combat boots.

Also I remember being told to not hold my breath. "I hope you noticed all the other boys and girls in that auditorium taking the same test you did, Esther," Mr. Nutley, the St. Andrew’s school principal warned me and the three other kids who had braved the elements to take the test. "They’re all really bright, too, I hope your family applied to other schools just in case."

Fast forward to November 2009.

I absolutely cannot begin to imagine what sort of Dickensian horror city parents today go through to get their kids into decent schools. Even the schools in the "good" neighborhoods have spotty teaching quality and the rest – well, their achievement and standardized test scores speak for themselves. That leaves selective-enrollment schools like Lane Tech and Payton College Preps, and magnets like Whitney Young and Chicago Metropolitan High schools.

Now, in the wake of the "clout scandal" and the recent tossing of the 1980 desegregation consent decree that had given schools leeway in admissions based on race, the Chief Mathemagician at CPS, Ron Huberman, has come up with a plan to select enrollment to these schools based on family income.

As ace education reporter Rosalind Rossi outlined in Wednesday’s Sun-Times story "College Preps to admit by income" there will be four economic tiers ranging from $22,959 to $61,862, which is estimated to cover about 600,000 students – the neediest in the city. But it leaves the "middle class" kids whose family’s household income is above that top number. The kids of Frank the fireman and Darla the nurse who are doing alright, but probably not alright enough to send their kids to private schools if they can’t get them into the "good" CPS schools.

I have consistently clanged the bell of educational equality based on socio-economic status over race for years, and I’m really glad Huberman has taken his statistical analysis skills out of the same tired old race box, but I worry that there will still be kids unfairly left behind.

Depending on whether the plan gets voted in by the CPS School Board December 16th and then on a "principal pick" situation, the admission status of a sibling, scores on entrance tests, and/or proximity to schools, there’s still ample opportunity for families to be left out in the cold.

What, exactly, is so wrong with putting ALL eligible kids – ignoring race and income –

in a locally televised lottery for all to see?

Why are we contriving to ensure the proper mix of students by segregating them whether it is by race or income? In either case you exclude city residents because they aren’t the right color or because they’ve been fortunate enough to make a decent living for themselves. It just doesn’t feel fair.

My parents, thank goodness, were professionals who came to this country with some serious skills. They lived out an American Dream that included a private elementary school that enabled me to make the cut and live my life-long desire to attend Lane Technical High School.

If I were trying to get in today – under this new plan, if it is passed – I would have lost a leg-up on the ethnicity aspect (which would have been perfectly fine by me), might have still shined based on my academic prowess, but might have gotten passed over because my parents made too much money. I don’t like those odds.

All parents want to believe that if they work hard, they can get a decent education for their kids. City parents know it’s a gamble between a bad or so-so school; short of leaving town, all Chicago parents just want an equal chance at some of the better schools regardless of their income or race.

The CPS School Board – which was appointed to represent all parents, not just the financially neediest ones – must ensure they get their fair shot.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Comments

They are all currently considered well respected, top notch professionals now that they teach at schools with selective enrollment policies.

[Esther J. Cepeda]

First of all, You are absolutely, 100% totally correct, someone else also brought this to my attention. In stark contrast with how the majority of School Boards across this state are goverened, CPS' board is appointed, not elected. I did change it above and regret my error. Thanks again for the great catch!

And I won't argue your points, rather, agree that there is an overabundance of truly bad teachers - even if they are deemed "highly qualified" - in Chicago and across this state!

Thanks for writing. ~Esther

[John Viramontes]

I was eager to learn about what Chicago School Board President Michael Scott knew about how some students were clouted into the school system. Recently the FBI had compelled Scott to testify in federal court with a federal grand jury subpoena investigating how students were selected for the system's elite selective-enrollment high schools.

Now, unless there are written or audio records of the details--with Michael Scott's sudden death this morning--I suppose we will never really know.

[rodentface]

First, the school board in Chicago is not elected; it is a collection of corporate power players appointed by Mayor Daley, none of whom have any training in education or childhood development.

Second, as a National Board Certified Teacher with a Master's from Northwestern, 10+ years of professional real-world experience in my chosen field before I became a teacher, and a strong commitment to neighborhood schools, I take exception to your claim that neighborhood schools suffer from spotty teaching quality. Your implication that neighborhood school test scores are a result of poor teacher quality is wholly unsupportable and misguided. I would gladly put the staff at my neighborhood school up against the staff at any magnet school in the city or any suburban school for that matter. There surely is a proportional degree of hackery in the field of education as there is in journalism - but it is not limited to, nor overly represented, in neighborhood schools.

A dozen colleagues of mine, formerly commited to neighborhood public schools, who were fired from "toxic" and "disastrous" "failed" neighborhood schools, were literally labeled as an embarrassment to the teaching profession when their schools were closed. They are all currently considered well respected, top notch professionals now that they teach at schools with selective enrollment policies.

Third, given that most selective enrollment schools in Chicago are in gentrified neighborhoods, students from the upper level tract will actually be very well served by the new policy. These students will be able to get in to SE schools based both on their geographic location (Lincoln Park, Whitney Young, Northside, Lane, Jones, Franklin, Lasalle, Wildwood, et al) and as part of the census tract to which they belong. Poor (and largely minority) students will generally not receive the benefit of this dual representation because of where they live.

A better solution would be to invest in neighborhood schools by providing equitable resources and support to which they are routinely denied access. For example, Ren2010 schools receive $1 million in funds denied to neighborhood schools. Likewise, charters and contract schools receive 29% of capital investments while hosting 12% of students. And turnarounds (where the "awful" neighborhood teachers are all fired en masse) receive 13% of capital improvement expenditures while hosting only 1% of students.

[jack spatafora]

Fine coverage of a murky issue. High school families are now experiencing what college families have for years. You have to be poor enough or rich enough to get somewhere, but if you're in the middle you often get lost in the shuffle. I wish there were an easy solution, but I can't really see it