What Is Changing?

The Five-Year Strategic Plan, introduced by CPS in 2023, involves the district’s hopes to redirect the school choice system to become more equitable. Though nothing has been put into practice, leaders within CPS and the mayor of Chicago have voiced their opinions, arguing that the current system does not benefit students.

Mayor Brandon Johnson explained during his campaign that the process is like a “Hunger Games scenario,” where competition festers and many schools lack the necessary resources for their students to succeed.

The Board of Education’s resolution passed on December 14, 2023, explained its aim to create “fully-resourced neighborhood schools” where it intends to ” prioritize schools and communities most harmed by structural racism, [and] past inequitable policies and disinvestment.”

What this may look like remains the question. CPS is working to collect data from the district to better understand the problems at hand. Ultimately, this feedback will be used to inform the final Five-Year Plan, which will be released in the summer of 2024. 

Northside College Preparatory is one of the eleven selective enrollment high schools within Chicago Public Schools. Students who have been receiving word of potential changes for the district have many questions and concerns about the future of their school, their siblings’ education, and their district.

As word gets out to CPS families regarding the potential changes for the district, many questions have arisen. 

Student Queries

Lorenzo Borzutzky (Adv. 502) inquires, “What happens to the kids already in selective enrollment?”

Another student, Avi Detweiler (Adv. 610), asks, “Do they actually say that there would be a complete phase-out of selective enrollment, or did they just say a change to selective enrollment?

Among other frequently asked questions, students wonder, how will this impact current high schoolers? Will selective-enrollment schools come to an end? What does this mean for incoming high school students? 

CPS emphasizes in their update about the new Five-Year Strategic Plan that “this resolution is not a vote to close selective enrollment, magnet, or charter schools.” Still, many students worry about the future of selective enrollment as their siblings start to apply to high school. 

Students like Lorenzo Borzutzky (Adv. 502), Matthew Sterniuk (Adv. 500), and Willem Johnston (Adv. 607) wonder what the effects of dialing back selective enrollment funding might be. Matthew agrees with CPS CEO, referencing “Hunger Games” when speaking about selective enrollment in the CPS system. However, both Matthew and Willem explained that without the current selective enrollment structure present in Northside, “it would not be Northside anymore.”

Ayesha Ali (Adv. 402) reflects on her time in the building, explaining that, “Our teachers are excellent, and if I didn’t go to Northside, I wouldn’t have access to any of this.

Many students in the building feel that Northside has given them an opportunity they wouldn’t have had otherwise. A common sentiment from Northsiders is that a selective enrollment school was a chance to get a stronger, well-resourced education. The question becomes, why can’t the same educational opportunities be offered in neighborhood schools? And what role will selective enrollment schools play in the future of stronger high school education in CPS?

After interviewing students in the building, a bill was proposed by the Illinois State Congress regarding the concerns over selective enrollment schools within the district. The bill, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, would prevent CPS from “making major changes to selective-enrollment programs” or changing “standards for admission” until early 2027, when there would be a “fully elected school board.”

While the bill has not yet passed, it brings up significant advancements in the ongoing issue. 2027 may reopen the doors for a change, but until then, many students are hopeful that a successful school structure can be implemented further rather than disbanded altogether. 

—————————————————————————————————————————————-

(SIDEBAR)

Types of Schools in the CPS System

Chicago is home to a wide variety of public schools, ranging from the most selective to general neighborhood schools, that students can choose from as they enter high school. 

• Selective enrollment high school programs

• • These schools must be applied to during a student’s first semester of eighth grade and require the student to take an entrance exam, submit their grades from seventh grade, and rank their top choices of specific schools within the city. This process, as of 2021, does not require that students submit their NWEA standardized testing scores.
  • The students will receive a score out of 900, and their admission to their top choice schools is based on the neighborhood’s Tier rank from 1 to 4. Tiers are determined by the “median income, education level, home-ownership rate, single-parent family rate, rates of English-speaking, and neighborhood school performance.”
  • CPS has 11 Selective Enrollment programs: Hancock, Jones, Lane, Lindblom, King, Northside, Payton, South Shore, Westinghouse, and Whitney Young.

• Choice high school programs

• • Anyone in the city can apply to a Choice high school but criteria for selection varies. 

• • These schools include Charter, Career and Technical Education, Contract, City Wide, International Baccalaureate (IB), Neighborhood, and Service Leadership Academies 

• Neighborhood schools

• • If a student does not attend a choice or selective enrollment school, they are guaranteed a spot in the general education program of their neighborhood school without applying. 
  • Students can include the general education program of their neighborhood high school on their application if they choose to do so while ranking their choices. 

• Continuing schools

• • These are schools or programs that serve K-8 in the same building as 9-12.  A student attending a continuing school is guaranteed a seat in those schools and a seat in their neighborhood high school. 

—————————————————————————————————————————————-