New admissions plan for magnet schools and programs

On December 16, 2009, the Chicago Board of Education approved a new admissions plan for magnet schools, Gifted and Enriched Academic Programs, and Selective Enrollment high schools. The application period for the 2010-2011 school year has been extended to January 6, 2010.

The new policy, which will be in effect for one year, will use socio-economic data as a consideration in admissions instead of race.

At the end of this admission cycle, the results of the policy will be analyzed to determine whether they were consistent with CPS goals of maintaining and, in some cases, increasing the socio-economic diversity in our schools. The policy will be adjusted as needed after analyzing the results.

Magnet schools

The new procedure at the entry level for magnet schools is as follows:

All siblings will be admitted.
Up to, but not exceeding, 40% of remaining seats will filled through a proximity lottery.
The remaining seats will be filled through a socio-economic based lottery.

Key changes:

No principal discretion for magnet schools.
A proximity lottery will be held for all magnet schools. Previously, proximity preference would only be given if the entire school was less than 30% proximity.

Selective enrollment

The new selective enrollment school procedure (elementary and high school) is as follows:

Up to 40% of the seats will be filled on the basis of pure rank order
The remaining seats will be assigned by rank order, by socio-economic groups.

Key change:

Students will receive only one offer from selective enrollment schools—they will be selected for the highest-ranked school on their application for which they qualify.