Chicago Public Schools , commonly abbreviated as CPS by local residents and politicians, is a large school district that manages 666 public elementary and high schools in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago Public Schools is currently the third largest school district in the United States, with more than 407,000 students enrolled in the school district. The position of CEO of the CPS was created by Mayor Richard M. Daley after he successfully convinced the Illinois State Legislature to place CPS under the mayor's control. Most Illinois schools are governed by a locally elected School Board, who then hire a Superintendent. The Superintendent acts as CEO and hires administrators such as principals, who must be approved by the Board. Chicago Public Schools has a Board of Education whose members are appointed by the Mayor, making the entire system completely controlled by one individual, an elected politician. The last two CEOs picked by Daley are not educators by background, which has been mildly controversial. CPS has its headquarters in the 125 South Clark Street building in the Chicago Loop.
Ron Huberman is the current CEO of Chicago Public Schools (CPS). The previous CEO, Arne Duncan, became Secretary of Education under President Obama.
Schools
CPS is a vast system of primary, secondary, and disability schools confined to Chicago's city limits. This system is the second largest employer in Chicago with over 43,000 employees.
Most schools in the district, being prekindergarten-8, elementary, middle, or secondary, have attendance boundaries, restricting student enrollment outside of any given residential area. A school may elect to enroll students outside their attendance boundaries if there is space, and or if it has a magnet cluster program. Full magnet schools, such as Gunsaulus Scholastic Academy, are open to student enrollment citywide, provided that applicants meet a level of high academic standards: living near a magnet school does not guarantee admission. Magnets offer a variety of academic programs with various focuses (agriculture, fine arts, international baccalaureate, Montessori, Math, Literature, and Paideia programs, among others). The Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts) is the system's only audition based performing and visual arts high school. Chicago was the largest city in the country without a public high school for the arts until the establishment of ChiArts in 2009.
The school system also contains two levels of elementary-middle school programs which make selective admission only. Regional gifted centers have an area of focus (such as math and science) and require one type of assessment; classical schools, in contrast, take a liberal arts approach focusing on all areas and require a different type of assessment. There are nine regional gifted centers: Lenart, Beasley, Beaubien, Bell, Carnegie, Edison, Keller, Pritzker, and South Loop. There are five classical schools: Decatur, McDade, Poe, Skinner North, and Skinner West.
High Schools
Selective Enrollment
At the secondary level, CPS operates nine selective enrollment high schools. These are;
- Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy
- Jones College Prep High School
- King College Prep High School
- Lane Technical College Prep High School
- Robert Lindblom Math & Science Academy
- Northside College Preparatory High School
- Walter Payton College Prep
- Westinghouse High School
- Whitney Young High School
Selective Enrollment high schools work on a point system out of 1000 points:,
- 300 points for the 7th grade standardized testing (ISAT) (multiply the percentage by 1.515 to get the number of points)
- 300 points for the entrance exam (tested in vocabulary, liturature, math) (multiply percentage by 3.03 to get the number of points)
- 300 points for 7th grade grades (A=75, B=50, C=25; D and below=0)
- 100 points for 7th grade attendance (1–3 days=100 points; 4+ days is 2 points off for each day; 21+ days=0 points)
Competition is fierce, and many factors decide wether students are admitted or not:
- Ranking: Students are asked to rank their top 4 high schools—the higher a school is on the list, the higher the chance a high school will choose to admit a student
- Points from the point system mentioned above
Military Academies
In partnership with various Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps programs, five high schools are operated as public military academies.
- Chicago Military Academy at Bronzeville (Army)
- Carver Military Academy (Army)
- Marine Math & Science Academy (Marine Corps)
- Phoenix Military Academy (Army)
- Rickover Naval Academy (Navy)
Career Academies
Within Chicago Public Schools, 9 high schools have been designated as "Career Academies". According to CPS, these schools have "intensified resources to prepare students for careers in business/finance, communications, construction, health, hospitality/food service, manufacturing, performing arts, and transportation. Vocational shops, science labs, broadcast journalism labs and media/computer centers help students gain 'hands on' experience." As of the '09-'10 academic year, these schools were active career academies.
- Austin Polytechnic
- Chicago Vocational Career Academy
- Dunbar Vocational Career Academy
- Farragut Career Academy
- Manley Career Academy
- Prosser Career Academy
- Richards Career Academy
- Simeon Career Academy
- Tilden Career Community Academy
Charter Schools
Chicago has a growing number of Charter Schools who receive over half of their operating budgets from the same tax sources as CPS. The teachers are not members of a union, and do not receive tenure. In 2009 the number of charter schools in Illinois increased to 45 from 30 by decision of the state legislature.
Headquarters
The main offices of Chicago Public Schools are located in the 125 South Clark Street building in the Chicago Loop. The 20 story building, managed by MB Real Estate, has 570,910 square feet (53,039 m 2 ) of space.
Performance
The April 21 , 2006 issue of the Chicago Tribune revealed a study released by the Consortium on Chicago School Research that stated that 6 of every 100 CPS freshmen would earn a bachelor's degree by age 25. 3 in 100 black or Latino men would earn a bachelor's degree by age 25. The study tracked Chicago high school students who graduated in 1998 and 1999. 35% of CPS students who went to college earned their bachelor's degree within six years, below the national average of 64%.
Chicago has a history of high dropout rates, with around half of students failing to graduate for the past 30 years. Criticism is directed at the CPS for inflating its performance figures. Through such techniques as counting students who swap schools before dropping out as transfers but not dropouts, it publishes graduation claims as high as 71%. Nonetheless, throughout the 1990s actual rates seem to have improved slightly, as true graduation estimates rose from 48% in 1991 to 54% in 2004.
As announced on September 8 , 2006 , due to an ongoing series of campaigns and programs, including one which emphasized the importance of fathers accompanying their children to the first day of school, and parents picking up their children's report cards, first day attendance rose from a previous year high of 92% in 2005 to 92.8% for the first day of classes, Tuesday, September 5 , 2006 . CPS press release
See also
- List of Chicago Public Schools
- Chicago Public High School League
- Local School Councils
- Renaissance 2010
- Middle School Cadet Corps
References
- ^
- ^ a b "Chicago Public Schools - Stats and Facts". Chicago Public Schools . http://www.cps.edu/About_CPS/At-a-glance/Pages/Stats%20and%20facts.aspx . Retrieved 2009-06-27 .
- ^ http://www.cps.edu/News/Press_releases/2009/Pages/01_27_2009_PR
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