KENWOOD — Chicago Public Schools on Thursday announced six schools that would be getting focused help on getting more kids into advanced placements classes.
Chicago Agricultural, Curie, King, Lake View, Mather and Morgan Park high schools will all work with Equal Opportunity Schools to figure out how to get more kids into the the right advanced placement classes.
“What it does is it seeks out to help school communities create a system where they can identify students that should be in AP classes that are normally overlooked,” said Janice Jackson, chief education officer for CPS.
This program goes further than CPS current efforts and consults with principals and counselors to get kids into more rigorous classes, Jackson said. She said CPS is paying $27,000 per school to see if the program can help the resolve some of the racial disparities in academic achievement in the district.
King College Prep Principal David Narain said the program has been in the school for two months so far and it’s been less about getting kids into AP courses since approximately 80 percent of King students are already in one of 15 AP courses.
He said it’s more about AP success and identifying the right AP courses for King students and not just the ones they most want to take.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said it’s a step towards the goal of half of CPS students having at least one early college or career credit by 2019.
“We are going to ensure that every student in the city is competitive and wins in the 21st Century,” Emanuel said.
The program is being treated as a pilot that could be expanded to more schools if successful.
