As the Chicago Board of Education seeks to shift away from selective high school admissions, an internal briefing obtained by NBC 5 Investigates reveals the school board's efforts to gain support from lawmakers for the plan and the school board's response to it. Repulsion is shown.
The board passed a resolution in December outlining the “values and terms” of Chicago Public Schools' new five-year strategic plan, which it hopes to implement by the next school year starting in fall 2024. The resolution states that the city's “people continue to face long-standing challenges and opportunity disparities,” which are caused by “long-standing structural racism and socioeconomic inequality.”
“This is the foundation on which our current school choice system was built. An under-resourced system pits schools against each other and has the effect of categorizing students based on performance and selective admissions criteria, which is confusing. “cycles of inequality,'' the resolution reads.
To address these issues, the resolution calls for the district's new five-year plan to include “privatization and admissions policies that further increase the stratification and inequity of CPS and drive students away from neighborhood schools.” It is said that the goal is to change the approach.
CPS has 11 selective admissions high schools, which are ranked highly both in the city and nationally. Admission to these schools, which include Northside College Prep, Whitney Young Magnet High School, and Walter Payton College Preparatory, is highly competitive.
Through a Freedom of Information Act request, NBC 5 Investigators learned that five internal briefing staff from CPS and the Chicago Board of Education discussed the new five-member organizational framework with City Council members, state and federal legislators in late January. I obtained a recording of the briefing session. Program for the year. Aldermen criticized the way the resolution was written, saying it suggested that selective admissions in the district would be abolished.
“People are very proud of the selective admissions schools in the city,” said Ward 39 Ald. Samantha Nugent said at her first press conference. “It's something people are talking about all over the country. I mean, Michelle Obama wrote in her book how much it changed her life for her.”
“I think it's okay to have something really good and be proud of it and try to find ways to make things better,” Nugent continued. “But as written, I think a lot of our colleagues would say that we're getting a lot of calls and it's causing quite a problem. At least for me, it's creating a lot of stink. “Causing it” in the ward. ”
“Do you understand that parents don't have confidence in Chicago Public Schools in their neighborhoods? And they leave,” said 31st Ward Ald. Felix Cardona said at a subsequent press conference.
“That's what we're trying to address, sir,” replied Chicago Board of Education Vice President Elizabeth Todd Breland.
“You're taking away their options. That's not right,” Cardona continued.
Todd Breland said the resolution did not include any plans to close selective admission schools or any formal action.
“Unfortunately, your message was completely, absolutely terrible,” state Rep. Jaime Andrade said in another session. “That's the message that CPS is sending, and all the parents are panicking that selective schools are going to change, that they're going to close down as selective schools, and that they're just going to be regular neighborhood schools. Because I am.”
“I agree. A lot is lost in the translation and message delivery here, especially on this topic, because it doesn't actually say anything about selective admission schools. But this… It's the direction people took,” Todd Breland said.
“I just think the message needs to be clear that these schools aren't going anywhere, right?” Andrade later added. This is a first-of-its-kind separate CPS system. ”
State Sen. Javier Cervantes shared his experience as a parent whose daughter attends the CPS School of Performing Arts.
“I have to go 20 to 25 minutes every day to pick up my daughter, but that's a choice I make as a parent, and I don't want to take that choice away from them,” he said.
School board members repeatedly sought to allay the concerns of elected officials.
“What we can say is that none of these schools are closing, but we are evaluating all of these policies and practices,” Todd Breland said. “We are at the beginning of this process.”
Lawmakers also criticized the timing of the new five-year plan. The new five-year plan is expected to be drawn up just before the term of the appointed school board expires and the city's first elected board of education takes office.
