As CPS prepares to close a record number of schools, the fate of students and communities is in question.
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Neighborhood high schools losing students
Crane and Dyett, the two high schools slated for closure, are not unique in that few area students choose to attend.
By: Sarah Karp / December 20, 2011
One of the justifications given for phasing out the West Side’s Crane High School is that most students in the attendance boundary are “voting with their feet” to go elsewhere. Only 17 percent of the students living in the neighborhood this year attend Crane, notes Chief Portfolio Officer Oliver Sicat.
But Crane’s situation is far from unique. In just the last five years, the percentage of students attending their neighborhood high school fell by 10 percent, from nearly half in 2006-2007 to about 37 percent in 2010-2011, according to a Catalyst Chicago analysis of CPS data.
Five years ago, no high school enrolled fewer than 20 percent of the students in its attendance area. Last year, nine schools did, and Hirsch and Tilden enrolled just 13 percent of students in their neighborhood.
Dyett High School in Washington Park, also slated for phase-out and eventually closure, enrolls 19 percent of its area’s students.
The flight from neighborhood schools is not just happenstance: It is the result of the district’s orchestrated policy to give students more choices. Those choices include magnet and selective enrollment high schools, which have been a mainstay for years. But over the past decade, the number of options grew significantly, with charter, military and contract high schools opening up. They now serve 26,000 students, five times the population these new schools enrolled in 2000.
Most of the new high schools are on the South and West sides of the city and many of them are a bus ride away from Crane and Dyett.
This fact would be heralded by proponents of choice who say that high school students in these areas desperately needed better options. Of the 40 new schools that have been around long enough to post scores on the ACT college entrance exam--students take the test in 11th grade--16 have higher scores than the district average of 17—which is considered too low for college readiness.
Only four of the schools have scores as low as Crane and Dyett, which average 14. The ACT is scored on a 0-to-36 scale.
Critics argue that the proliferation of charters and other new schools has left neighborhood high schools with the students who have the lowest academic skills and cannot win admission or have the facility to pursue other options. Getting these students up to grade level is a difficult, unique challenge, they say.
Others note that the trend has made comprehensive neighborhood high schools obsolete. That is a loss, they say, because such high schools have traditionally been anchors of communities and provide a variety of classes and after-school options to students.
Catalyst Chicago examined the challenge in the Fall 2011 issue of Catalyst In Depth, which reported on the turnaround effort at Marshall High School, less than a mile-and-a-half from Crane. Like Crane and Dyett, Marshall and other failing schools in Chicago--and hundreds in big-city districts elsewhere--are losing students while struggling to improve while facing competition from charters.
Click on the markers to find out specific information about the neighborhood high schools and new high schools.
rickover
Rickover HS is not a charter school, it is a military school and it is on the selective enrollment application.
lest we forget....
"Critics argue that the proliferation of charters and other new schools has left neighborhood high schools with the students who have the lowest academic skills and cannot win admission or have the facility to pursue other options." While this may be true, we must remember that this is AFTER selective enrollment schools and magnet programs -- with their strict entrance requirements -- have already skimmed off the "talented tenth." At least charter admissions are based on a lottery, not on test scores and GPAs so their playing field is much more level and their outcomes are typically better than those of the neighborhood schools, particularly in the area of college-going rates.
Equity in Resources and Funding
Perhaps, if the neighborhood schools were provided the resources, funding, and autonomy of the selective enrollment and charter schools it would be evident that those with the most experience dealing with our kids would be most successful.
Where there are consequences (such as being put out of the school) available for even minute offenses (such as habitual tardiness or parents non-attendance to mandatory meetings) for selective enrollment and charter schools, neighborhood schools and not put students out unless maybe they nearly killed soneone!
Correction
"and not put" should be "can not put"
This map is not entirely accurate
You have left off of this map the Little Village/Lawndale campus, with its four high schools, which are ALL neighborhood schools. Please fix.
Sorry
Hi Rico,
I am sorry to say that CPS did not give me information for Little Village/Lawndale high schools. They only gave me information on long-time neighborhood schools, excluding even career and technical high schools, such as Dunbar and CVCA, even though they do have neighborhood boundaries. I will submit another FOIA and try to get more complete information.
Question about Data
I'm wondering is 17% of students living in the attendance boundry who attend Crane out of all students who are high school aged population, or out of all students in that attendance area attending high schools? Do you have the breakdown for the % of students in the Crane attendance area who attend traditional schools vs. charter schools/selective enrollment/magnet? It would seem to be a bit misleading to say that only 17% of students attend Crane, when in actuality only, 60% of high school aged students are actually enrolled in a high school since we know there is a high dropout rate. Also, does the 17% imply that all others are attending a charter schoo? Or just another neighborhood high school?
charters-selective schools should becounted and compared as such
just ask Senn, where the charter near them kicked out 14 students and sent them to Senn.
data question
Andy, in response to your question: CPS supplied us with data showing the percentage of CPS high school students in an attendance area who are enrolled in their neighborhood high school. by definition, that would preclude dropouts since they are not in school. we do not have information on where students who are not in their neighborhood high school go, but again, if they are not in their neighborhood high school, then they would be in another CPS school, either another neighborhood school, selective or magnet school, charter, etc.
Neighborhood high schools losing students
Chicago Public School’s middle class education model doesn’t work for thousands of CPS students. A middle class education model presumes that students have educated parents that are helping their children prepare for college.
One of the best ways to improve the neighborhood high school is to improve the elementary feeder schools. One of the best ways to improve neighborhood elementary school is to improve the home life of the students. Now that requires the Chicago Public Schools to institute mandatory parenting classes for all CPS students and parents.
What do you think?
Marc Sims
Chicago
marcsimschicago@gmail.com
This response to the data
This response to the data question above is unsatsifactory. It seems to me that making/reporting the claim that neighborhood high schools are becoming obsolete is irresponsible without providing a thorough evaluation of that claim. Although it states that only 26,000 CPS high school students have enrolled in charters, contract, and other neighborhood high school alternatives, this article seems to support that claim. I find this puzzling. Without knowing the percentage of high school students who are enrolled in "neighborhood" public high schools outside their attendance area, I have difficulty buying the idea that neighbhorhood high schools are obsolete. Perhaps the point of the article is that the label "neighborhood high school" is becoming obsolete. Perhaps we need a new label. However, what have been traditional neighbhorhood high schools in the past are FAR from obsolete or irrelevant for the remaining 90,000 CPS high students who attend them. To suggest that they are is to encourage divestment from schools that desperately need resources and support to educate the vast majority of CPS high school students.
This response to the data
We are not really certain the exact question that you're asking regarding the data. Our story is not meant to imply that neighborhood high schools are "obsolete," but to inform people that the typical neighborhood high school is losing enrollment as students and families opt to go to schools outside their community. Plus, let's not forget that, on the whole, Chicago's population is declining, which means fewer students in the system as a whole. Certainly, students should have good schools within their neighborhood to attend. But the reality is the opposite, for a variety of reasons including the growth of charters and the systematic disinvestment in traditional, neighborhood high schools.
The band plays on
Neighborhoods schools will always exist as long as there are charters. Someone will have to serve EVERY child. But eventually neighborhood schools will assume the form of charters, which by design are disconnected from, and look down upon the communities they serve. It's the McSchool model of education reform. A model that costs teachers their dignity, communities their social support, and students their sense of civic engagement, moral empathy and common good. It's a brave new world.
Data availability?
I am not able to access this information from the map. (The HS icons only provide me with links to directions to the school?) Is the data still available?
Thanks!
Try this link
I am not sure what is going on with the map. I will try to fix it, but until then try this link: http://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=298295
Thanks!
I really appreciate your quick response! This link works.
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