Chicago's Board of Education will meet Thursday to consider a change to how CPS school choice works, potentially creating a major impact on selective enrollment.
The potential change in policy, which could eliminate the opportunity for students to test into one of CPS' selective high schools, would be part of a new, five-year "Transformational Strategic Plan" that the Board says will strengthen neighborhood schools across the city.
According to a statement from CPS, the resolution helps to create a model that "centers" neighborhood schools by "investing in and acknowledging them as institutional anchors in our communities, and by prioritizing communities most impacted by past and ongoing racial and economic inequity and structural disinvestment."
The statement added that the plan is a "critical step toward closing opportunity and achievement gaps."
A statement from the Chicago Teachers Union called the plan a "step in the right direction," saying that moves that support equity, and prioritizing neighborhood schools for all CPS families is "long overdue."
Some parents in the district however feel the move could wind up hurting students by taking away opportunities to test into selective schools, like Walter Payton College Prep.
"The selective enrollment schools are one of the shining stars of CPS. They are actually something that CPS has done right," Katie Milewski, a CPS mother said. "And it needs to be supported."
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"Neighborhood schools absolutely need help. No doubt about that. I’m not sure why those concepts are mutually exclusive," Milewski continued. "Why neighborhood schools can’t be built up, at the same time of supporting selective enrollment and magnet schools?"
CPS' statement went on to say that new strategic plan is expected to be approved by the Board of Education in the summer 2024, with community engagement sessions about the plan's development set to begin in February.
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The district's full statement can be found below:
"The Board’s resolution aims to guide engagement and development in partnership with the District on a new strategic plan with an emphasis on strengthening all neighborhood schools as a critical step toward supporting all students and closing opportunity and achievement gaps. Work on the District’s next five-year Strategic Plan has begun and will continue this spring with community engagement and outreach, beginning with the District’s Shape Our Future Survey as well as current engagement sessions about the District’s facilities master plan. The new strategic plan will be approved by the Board of Education in the summer of 2024. While CPS will work with the community and its City partners to co-design the strategic plan, the parameters call for 'a model that centers neighborhood schools by investing in and acknowledging them as institutional anchors in our communities, and by prioritizing communities most impacted by past and ongoing racial and economic inequity and structural disinvestment.' Specific community engagement sessions about the development of the new strategic plan will begin in February."
Chicago's Board of Education Meeting discussing the matter is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Thursday, and is open to the public.
