Audit of Chicago selective and magnet school admissions finds lax oversight, sparks curb of principal power Posted By Sarah Karp On Wednesday, March 17, 2010
In Government and Policy An audit of selective and magnet school admissions in CPS found that principals had wide discretion to hand-pick students, and CEO Ron Huberman now plans to sharply curb the principals’ power over admissions.

On Wednesday, Huberman released a copy of the audit and announced changes to the admissions process. Before this year, principals of magnet and selective enrollment schools had the discretion to pick 5 percent of their student body. Earlier this year, he announced a moratorium on magnet schools using this discretion, which Huberman said he was going to continue.

Yet Huberman rejected the most far-reaching and concrete of the independent auditor’s recommendations: Do away with principal discretion all together.

Principals of the district’s nine selective enrollment high schools will continue to have discretion in admissions. “We determined that we need it to ensure a diverse student body,” Huberman said, noting that he was referring to a more global definition of diversity, not just racial diversity.

Officially, principals of selective and magnet schools were allowed to hand-pick 5 percent of their students. But in reality, the audit revealed that they had much more discretion. Huberman refused to say how many principals had abused their power.

Principals were able to enroll students who had not met admissions requirements, allow mid-year and summer transfers of whatever student they wanted, and pick students from the waiting list in any order. No high-level officials checked up to ensure that someone powerful from the outside was trying to influence the process—allegations that surfaced last year.

Principals didn’t even use the same criteria to determine what “5 percent discretion” meant, with some principals selecting a number of students equal to 5 percent of the school’s total enrollment and others 5 percent of the number of seats available.

At the nine selective high schools, principals will be able to choose about 150 students for this fall’s incoming class. The new policy states that the 5 percent will equal the previous year’s freshman enrollment on the 20th day of school. The new criteria principals must use to choose students are: unique skills or ability, activities demonstrating social responsibility, extenuating circumstances and demonstrated ability to overcome hardship. Siblings will no longer be one of the criteria considered.

Huberman said his administration is taking multiple steps to ensure that all students have a fair shot of being chosen, and that the admissions process for magnet and selective schools is not compromised.

For one, the student information system, known as IMPACT, will now prevent principals from enrolling students who had not been accepted through the standard procedure, which includes an application and entrance exam. Rocks said in the past principals had the technical ability to do this and they, on occasion, did.

Also, the Office of Academic Enhancement will handle all transfers, not principals. Open seats will be filled through official waiting lists, which will stay viable throughout the school year and not be discarded in September, as they had been in the past.

Principals will have to report any contact made on behalf of a student and certify that no undue influence was exercised in the selection. CPS employees and politicians will still be able to reach out on behalf of students, but only if they know something specific about the student’s ability or special circumstance.

 All decisions by principals will be reviewed by a panel from Academic Enhancement.

Rocks admitted that there’s still room for wrongdoing. “No system could ultimately stop it,” he said. The audit was done by the firm Crowe Horwath and will cost the district about $13,000.

 Since July, the Inspector General has been investigating allegations that politicians and other high-profile outsiders unfairly used clout to get students admitted to the top-scoring high schools. Huberman and General Counsel Patrick Rocks refused to provide any details about that investigation, or even general information about the level of abuse by selective enrollment principals. They promised that the results of the investigation will be made public soon.

 But Huberman did comment on the lack of safeguards to make sure that the admissions process had integrity. “I am not surprised that there was gaming of the system considering the lack of controls,” he said.

Rocks said some of the problems identified by the audit were related to the improprieties being investigated.

 

 

 





Comments