CPS Application Result Dates Announced

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has released information regarding application result dates and wait-listing for students applying to choice and selective enrollment schools. Applicants can receive up to one offer for choice and selective enrollment programs. Students applying for high schools (9th grade) will receive their results on March 14th while elementary students from grades K-8 will receive their results on April 11th.

Once results have been released, a rolling waitlist for non-admitted students will be set up.  Students offered placement at schools will be given a deadline to decide at which point students on the waitlist will be offered spots accordingly.

Additional deadlines for students who have not yet tested should be noted. Selective enrollment students should request a rescheduled date by February 2nd. The final SEES testing date for 1st-8th graders is February 16th and Kindergarten students will have until February 21st.

Kayley Horton, Tutoring Coordinator
kayley@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266

CPS and Catholic School Application Process

CPS Applications

All high school and elementary students who wish to apply to CPS schools outside of their neighborhood must apply through GoCPS. Families are required to rank their top choice schools and apply by the extended deadline of December 15th at 5:00 PM. The ranking process requires applicants to order their top 20 choice programs or top 6 selective enrollment schools. Applicants can be offered one choice school option and one selective enrollment option.  Students applying to selective enrollment schools or academic centers are required to participate in the testing requirements while all other applicants will be chosen via an independent lottery system or audition process. All offers will be announced in the spring of 2025.

Catholic School Applications

Students looking to test into Catholic Schools are required to complete their applications prior to the coming holiday break. While most students have already completed the required testing for exams, all remaining application requirements must be completed in the coming weeks to be considered for the 2025-26 school year. Students who were unable to test on their originally scheduled test date will be able to attend a make-up test on December 14th at specific schools such as St. Patrick’s and De La Salle.

Kayley Horton, Tutoring Coordinator
kayley@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266

CPS High School Admissions Test Dates Announced

CPS recently announced test dates for the CPS High School Admissions Test (CPS HSAT). 8th graders are required to take this exam to test into Selective Enrollment High Schools. This year, CPS students will take the exam at their school on October 9th while alternative language students will take the exam on October 15th. 

Non-CPS students will have the option to take the exam in the following weeks at a CPS testing center. They will choose to test on October 19th, 20th, 26th, or 27th. You can find a list of all testing dates below.

CPS HSAT Test Dates
Wednesday, October 9 (For CPS Students)
Tuesday, October 15 (For Alternative Language Testing)
Saturday, October 19 (For non-CPS Students)
Sunday, October 20 (For non-CPS Students)
Saturday, October 26 (For non-CPS Students)
Sunday, October 27 (For non-CPS Students)

Kayley Horton, Tutoring Coordinator

kayley@testprepchicago.com

312-848-1266

Proposed CPS Budget Adds Teaching Positions, Reduces Budget for 20% of Schools

According to a budget recently proposed by the school district, while the overall CPS budget will not substantially change, additional funds will be allocated to providing instructors in high-need schools.Teaching positions will be added especially to support English language learners and special education classrooms.

The proposal, which was released by the CPS administration, comes as the district continues to grapple with declining enrollment and a persistent budget deficit. School budgets will grow per student; however, due to declining enrollment rates, approximately 20% of CPS schools can expect to see a reduction in their budgets this fall.

With the expiration date for federal pandemic relief funding coming up in 2024, the long-term financial trends of CPS schools are unclear, but the new school year’s budget represents a shift away from enrollment-based funding. Although enrollment is still a factor, other needs are being weighted more heavily, such as student demographics and special programming requirements.

Anna Jordan, Tutoring Coordinator
anna@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266

Selective Enrollment High School Cut Off Scores Rise

High School Entrance Exam scores are on the rise for 8th-grade students applying to Selective Enrollment High Schools. CPS recently released their Selective Enrollment cut-off scores for the 2023-2024 school year which details an increase in average point totals and minimum scores required for eligibility. This increase will affect applicants of all Tiers across the board.

According to the information provided by CPS, Tier 4 students must achieve a perfect 900 points to place into Walter Payton College Prep or Northside College Prep. This cut-off score remains stagnant for Payton while it has increased by 4 points at Northside in the last year. Similarly, Whitney Young has seen an increase across the board from Tier 1 to Tier 4 students. Tier 1 students must score a minimum of 834 points to be eligible which is up dramatically from 816.5 the year prior. Tier 4 students must score a minimum of 893, up 9 points from last year’s cut-off of 884. Other Selective Enrollment high schools such as Jones College Prep and Lane Tech College Prep have also seen surges in cutoff scores, though their Tier 4 eligibility requirement leaves a small margin for error.

Tier 4 cut-off scores have soared the most rapidly at King Jr. College Prep, Lindblom Math and Science Academy, South Shore International College Prep, and Brooks College Prep with some schools seeing as much as a 21% increase. Previously requiring 529 points for eligibility at Lindblom, the school now demands a score of 643, a 114-point difference. King’s requirement was raised from 501.5 to 600, followed by Southshore which now requires 613 points as opposed to last year’s 529. Lastly, Brooks’ Tier 4 cutoff has increased 46 points this testing season with a new standard of 718 points required. Because of the increasing demand for applicants to achieve higher scores, students who score under 600 points on the High School Admissions Test will not be permitted on the waitlist, making it more difficult than ever for students to test into the school of their choice.

Kayley Horton, Tutoring Coordinator
kayley@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266

Technology in the Classroom

As technology continues to explode, educators are doing their best to utilize the expanding field to benefit their students in the classroom. Whether it’s implementing personal computers for students, engaging in coding instruction, or using app-based progress tracking, nearly 90% of teachers claim that utilizing research regarding the integration of technology in their teaching strategies has enriched their student’s educational experience. However, research has found that educators lack a common definition for “technology integration” regarding student achievement thus leading to large discrepancies in the education system.

According to a research study that took place between 2010 and 2021 many educators use technology integration as a means by which to enhance their student’s overall education through the use of enrichment tools. For other educators, utilizing technological advancements simply means allowing their students the opportunity to use new tools without implementing proper scaffolds to help them benefit from them in the long term. There is also inconsistency amongst educators concerning the degree to which technology should be used and the ethicality of such changes. This poses a serious problem for students because educators must have a common understanding of the functions of technology-based learning in order to effectively teach in accordance with changing standards.

Research suggests that to combat this discrepancy, teachers must first be trained to understand the value of technology in the changing world before using it for instructional purposes. Professional development programs are necessary to implement this paradigm shift so that educators have a common lens through which to apply these changes. This includes training teachers to learn what tools add value to their classrooms while averting buzzword-heavy trends that do not support student needs. With a more definitive standard for how technology should be integrated in the classroom, educators will be able to make choices for their students that are grounded in evidence-based research rather than speculation. This will lead to a more constructive use of funds as well as a cohesive experience for students from year to year.

Kayley Horton, Tutoring Coordinator
kayley@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266
 
Sources:

https://www.edweek.org/technology/what-weve-learned-about-technology-and-learning-in-the-last-3-years/2023/03
https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2022/09/benefits-integrating-technology-todays-k-12-classrooms-perfcon
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/education/screens-classroom-tool-temptation.html

Homelessness in the Chicago Public School System

A growing number of students in Chicago are currently struggling with having a permanent and stable home. As of December 2022, 13,000 CPS students identified as homeless, according to CPS’s “Students in Temporary Living Situations” program. However, according to the Chicago Coalition of Homelessness, due to some students not wanting to identify themselves and others being homeless but living in other students’ homes, this number is actually closer to 16,000. Notably, many students in these types of situations don’t qualify for public aid.

There have been many attempts to curtail this rise, to varying degrees of success. Tonti Elementary set up a “Care Closet” to have a place to keep donations from the community and charity organizations for students in need, and provides incoming students with free uniforms and a backpack stuffed with school supplies. 

The American Rescue Plan of 2021 raised the child tax credit to $3600 per child from $2000. Governor Pritzker also made a proposal in February of 2023 to raise the budget for homelessness prevention, increasing the funding that goes into Illinois’s Evidence-Based Funding program that awards funds to schools based on priority of need. The Chicago Teacher’s Union stated that the increases were insufficient, and stated that at least double the proposed amount would be necessary to make the changes necessary. The state budget should be finalized by May of 2023 when the spring legislative session closes.

Nate Hall, Director of Technology & Tutoring Coordinator
nate@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266