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

An Overview of Lane Tech Academic Center

Founded in 1908, Lane Technical College Prep High School (also known as Lane Tech) and Academic Center is situated in Roscoe Village, a neighborhood on the north side of Chicago. Though founded many years ago, Lane Tech’s academic center opened in 2011. Lane is one of eleven selective enrollment high schools in Chicago and its academic center is one of seven. Since it’s both a selective enrollment high school and academic center, students enrolled in Lane’s academic center are automatically enrolled in Lane Tech’s high school program without needing to reapply.

Much like at other academic centers, students enrolled are considered gifted and can gain high school credit for classes as well as work on material that is 1-2 years advanced. Moreover, Lane Tech’s website describes their academic center as providing “an advanced curriculum for students beginning in the 7th grade and culminates with a capstone advanced placement college preparatory experience.”

Furthermore, as early as their 7th-grade year, students at Lane Tech Academic Center begin receiving high school credit for classes like algebra, biology, global issues, and electives such as world language, art, music, or computer science. As students progress to high school, all academic center students at Lane are expected to take either Honor or Advanced Placement courses, though, still must meet all regular prerequisites in place by course instructors and departments. This puts students on track to already be taking AP courses (that may count for college credit) during their freshman year of high school.

In addition to academics, Lane Tech Academic Center also offers extracurriculars students would find at any other elementary school. Sports offered include cross country, track, basketball, soccer, and cheerleading to name a few. There are also clubs which include but are not limited to student council, math team, yearbook, chess, and the National Junior Honor Society.

To find out more about Lane Tech Academic Center’s courses or extracurriculars, visit their website: https://lanetech.org/ltac/.

Lauren Lynch, Tutoring Coordinator
lauren@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266

Academic Center Entrance Exam (ACEE)

The Academic Center Entrance Exam (ACEE) was designed by the Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Access and Enrollment specifically for Chicago’s 6th grade students applying to Academic Centers. Unlike other standardized tests such as the NWEA MAP, the ACEE measures critical thinking skills, reasoning, and problem solving, much like an IQ test. At 90 minutes in length, the exam boasts 9 sections, each being 10 minutes long. It includes both verbal and non-verbal sections such as verbal analogies, vocabulary and sentence completion, word classification, geometric sequences, geometric analogies, number series, and paper folding, respectively.  

 Like the Selective Enrollment High School Exam (SEHS), the exact format of the exam is kept a secret, and there are no practice or past tests available from CPS. However, Test Prep Chicago’s material is exceedingly close to the actual test, which we know based on exit interviews we have conducted with past students who have taken it. To learn more about our curriculum and how to take an ACEE practice test, visit testprepchicago.com.

Lastly, for Chicago Public School, private, and parochial school students alike, the Academic Center Entrance Exam is administered in the winter of students’ 6th grade year, usually in early February. To sign up for a test date and to apply for an Academic Center, visit the CPS website. Stop by our website to check out the dates for our Academic Center prep courses. 

Lauren Lynch, Tutoring Coordinator
lauren@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266

An Overview of Academic Centers

Do you want to avoid the complexities of the high school selective enrollment process, but still want your student to attend a competitive school? An Academic Center may be for you!

Academic Centers, which are similar to middle schools, are housed in high schools and provide a college preparatory program for seventh and eighth-grade students. If a student is admitted into an Academic Center, he or she is automatically granted admission to that Academic Center’s affiliated high school. A few highly sought-after Academic Centers in Chicago include Brooks, Kenwood, Lane Tech, Lindblom, Morgan Park, Taft, and Whitney Young.

The application process for Academic Centers is almost indistinguishable from the Selective Enrollment process; however, instead of the process beginning in 7th grade, students must begin testing in 5th grade. Much like Selective Enrollment, the Academic Center admission process works on a 900-point scale.

The first third of points available come from a student’s 5th-grade grades in math, English, science, and social studies. Each A grade is the equivalent of 75 points, totaling at 300 points, or 1/3 of the 900 points obtainable. Each B grade results in 50 points, each C grade results in 25 points and no points are awarded for grades of D or F.

The second third of the 900 points come from a student’s NWEA MAP scores. For CPS students, the official score will be taken from their spring NWEA MAP in 5th grade, while non-CPS students will get their official score from their fall NWEA MAP in 6th grade. This test is divided into two sections: math and reading. Each section is worth 150 points, totaling at 300.

The final third of students’ points are taken from their Academic Center Entrance Exam (AC Exam). The AC Exam includes 9 sections, each at 10 minutes long. Unlike other standardized tests like the NWEA MAP, the AC Exam measures critical thinking skills, reasoning, and problem-solving, much like an IQ test. This test is administered in the winter of their 6th-grade year, usually in early February. 

In addition to the 900 points, students will also need to fill out an Academic Center application using the CPS website. On the application, parents will have to declare in which tiered neighborhood the student lives (to find out in what tier your neighborhood is, visit the CPS website). The final score a student needs out of 900 for each school (for example, 850/900 for Lane Tech or 880/900 for Taft) will be determined by their socio-economic tier. These applications are usually open in October and are due in mid-December, but you can find official dates on the CPS website.

Lauren Lynch, Tutoring Coordinator
lauren@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266

An Overview of Lane Tech College Prep High School

Founded in 1908, Lane Technical College Prep High School is ranked #3 in public high schools in the state of Illinois, and #69 in the nation. Situated in Roscoe Village, a neighborhood on the north side of Chicago, Lane is one of eleven selective enrollment high schools in Chicago. This means students must test into the school with a high NWEA MAP score, SEHS score, and good 7th grade grades (to learn more about the selective enrollment process, see blog post from May 1, 2019). The school currently boasts an enrollment of 3,942 students, a student to teacher ratio of 21:1, and a graduation rate of 98%. Of the student population, 63% of the student body is composed of people of color, and 51% receive free or reduced lunch prices. 

In addition to its consistently high subject proficiency and college readiness, Lane offers a vast array of classes in each subject. Their science department offers everything from Robotics I and II, to Aerospace Engineering, to Meteorology in addition to the usual science classes available at high schools. The school also houses an entire computer science department with a litany of classes available for students to choose. In addition to science and technology classes, Lane also uniquely offers an immensely diverse art and English curriculum, with classes in filmmaking, printmaking, sculpture, and literary activism, argument and debate, sports communications, and women in literature, respectively. Foreign languages offered at Lane Tech include Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Arabic. To see the full scope of classes offered at Lane, visit their website: lanetech.org.

Lastly, Lane offers opportunities for students interested in athletics as well. With 18 different sports teams to choose from, students at Lane Tech can compete in whatever they’d like. The school also uniquely offers a water polo team as well as a swim team, and they conveniently hold practices in their school’s pool. For more information about the vast athletic opportunities offered at Lane, visit their website.

Lauren Lynch, Tutoring Coordinator
lauren@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266