First hearing on CPS admission changes Sat.

11/12/2009 3:15 PM

By Micah Maidenberg
Editor

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Siblings of existing students at Chicago Public Schools' magnet institutions would gain automatic entry under a proposed new admission system, officials announced Tuesday.
And neighborhood children would receive would a bonus when it comes to getting into such schools. After all the siblings were enrolled, 50 percent of remaining seats in the magnet programs would be divvied up by via a "proximity lottery" for kids living within 1.5 miles of an elementary school and 2.5 miles of a high school.
The rest of the seats would then be filled via a city-wide lottery based on socio-economic factors rather than race-based ones.
At selective enrollment schools, half of all students would gain admission under the proposal via test score and half would enter through test score and the socio-economic factors.
If ratified by the Board of Education in December, the admissions changes would affect Near West Side magnet schools like Suder, Jackson and Galileo, as well as Whitney M. Young High School. In the South Loop, Jones College Preparatory would fall under the new rules, as would South Loop Elementary School's regional gifted program.
The first of six public hearings about the new procedures will be held Saturday on the Near West Side, at Andrew Jackson School.
Jackson is located at 1340 W. Harrison. The session is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.


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