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CPS Selective Enrollment Schools Leaving Out Black Kids, Aldermen Say

By Ted Cox | July 15, 2014 11:15am | Updated on July 15, 2014 12:43pm
 Ald. Will Burns called it "vitally important that selective-enrollment schools reflect the diversity of this great city."
Ald. Will Burns called it "vitally important that selective-enrollment schools reflect the diversity of this great city."
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DNAinfo/Ted Cox

CITY HALL — Chicago's top high schools are leaving out a large population of the city's students, some aldermen say: African-American kids.

Aldermen grilled officials from Chicago Public Schools Tuesday in an Education Committee hearing on the selective-enrollment process at the city's top 10 public high schools.

Aldermen Pat Dowell (3rd) and Will Burns (4th) co-sponsored a resolution looking into the selective-enrollment process at CPS.

Burns called it "vitally important that selective schools reflect the diversity of this great city."

"We all believe there's a resegregation occurring," Dowell added.

According to the resolution, a 2009 court decision striking down racial quotas led to a drop in minority enrollment at CPS' top four high schools: Payton, Northside, Whitney Young and Jones. At the same time, minority enrollment for all 10 selective-enrollment high schools rose from 2008 to 2013 from 75.7 percent to 78.5 percent.

Dowell said those four top schools "do not have a high number of African-American students" and sought ways "to increase these numbers."

CPS' Chief Accountability Officer John Barker and Katie Ellis, executive director of CPS' Office of Access & Enrollment, both stressed how the six other selective-enrollment high schools were valid options: Lane Tech, Lindblom, King, Brooks, South Shore and Westinghouse. Barker acknowledged that it was "very competitive" to get into the 10 schools, with 18,000 students applying for 3,500 slots in a typical year.

"These four schools are not the only options," Ellis said, adding that she wanted to "improve marketing" to enhance the reputations of CPS' "South Side gems."

The 2009 court decision struck down a quota limiting white enrollment at the schools to 35 percent. CPS tried to achieve the same ends with a formula using what it called "socioeconomic tiers" based on median household income and other criteria in census data.

However, the resolution states the new formula might not feature "a way that optimizes racial and socioeconomic diversity."

CPS allots 30 percent of the slots at the schools strictly on test scores, grades and other hard data. The remaining 70 percent is weighted according to rankings in four socioeconomic tiers.

"Socioeconomic status is being used as a proxy for race," Burns said.

Ald. Latasha Thomas (17th), chairman of the Committee on Education and Child Development, disagreed with the court ruling, however. "You've gotta have race as part of the standard," she said, in order to prevent what she called "resegregation."

"The tier system has worked to preserve diversity," Ellis countered.

"We're very open to discussing revisions," Barker said.

They cited a racial shift over 15 years from 1998 to 2013, when African-American enrollment dropped from over 50 percent of the district to about 40 percent, while Hispanics increased from over 30 percent to about 45 percent. Whites slipped slightly, while Asian-Americans gained slightly.

Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26th) questioned how CPS was working with census tracks. Ellis said they had 700 census tracks across the district and had considered going to a system based on 2,000 "block groups," but the data were "less accurate" in that measurement.

"We will have you back," Thomas concluded, inviting CPS to give a progress report in the fall. Ellis and Barker said they would be reporting on council recommendations to CPS leadership.

Burns said he was satisfied with the answers he received from CPS, and Dowell agreed.

"i was satisfied with the hearing," she added. "I think that they have a lot of work they need to do in terms of looking at formula factors, principal discretion — which really needs to be increased."

Ellis said that students added at the principal's discretion had dropped from 10 percent to 5 percent of a school's enrollment, and that there were "strict controls" imposed about five years ago following a "federal investigation" on abuses. Yet Dowell said there had to be ways to allow them more leeway to address inequities without "principals going off the reservation, so to speak."

Dowell questioned Barker on how CPS could add programs like the International Baccalaureate curriculum at elementary schools while cutting their budgets. Barker pleaded that a "structural deficit" requiring "pension reform" limited CPS resources.

"As James Brown would say, that's talking loud and saying nothing," Dowell responded.

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