By George N. Schmidt

Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan told a December 1 press conference at the Alcott Elementary School that the newly released “High School Scorecard” was just what parents wanted to answer questions about where to send their children to high school.

But the book that was given out to the media at the press conference was incomplete, was not available as promised in many libraries and other places around Chicago, was not in languages spoken by many Chicago parents, and wasn’t even availabe in print form a week before Christmas in the CPS Office of High Schools, which supposedly prepared it for publication and release.

Above: Xavier Botana, Director, NCLB Accountability, explains the “Scorecard” at a December 1 press conference. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

 
The “High School Scorecard” is one of the most important documents published by the Chicago Board of Education on the city’s high schools in the past decade. Because of the winter vacation, many of the questions that arose after the release of the document were not answered during the weeks after Duncan’s press conference and were not available at Substance press time. A pre-Christmas visit to the CPS Office of High Schools resulted in a half hour wait while staff tried unsuccessfully to find a print copy of the document. Most school counselors were not available during the long holiday vacation.

As one part of covering this major story, Substance requested an interview with Xavier Botana. Botana, whose title is “Director NCLB (No Child Left Behind) Accountability” at CPS,told Substance that he did not have the time for a regular question-and-answer interview regarding the scorecard. Substance agreed to do the interview by e-mail. Substance’s initial questions were sent to Botana on December 16. Botana’s responses were e-mailed to Substance December 30, which was deadline. The results of the beginning of that interview are presented here.

Substance: Why was the High School Scorecard developed and released?

Botana: There are two primary and related reasons: First, it’s something that parents have been asking for so that they can make as informed a decision as possible about where to send their children. Secondly, the scorecard is a part of the district’s high school transformation. It is consistent with the desire to raise expectations for our district by providing everyone — including the schools themselves — with transparent information about our high school performance.

S: How many copies of the print version of the scorecard were printed?

B: 2,000

S: Where have copies of the print version been made available to parents and other citizens?

B: In addition to schools, printed copies are available through public library branches, alderman’s offices and other community organizations. We have also mailed copies of the scorecard to private schools in the Chicago area.

S: How much has staff cost to develop the High School Scorecard?

B: Staff that worked on this project is existing CPS staff as part of their jobs.

S: How much has the High School Scorecard cost to print?

B: The cost of printing was about $75,000; all of it was funded using private funds granted to CPS.

S: What are the names of any consulting groups that worked on the project?

B: The Boston Consulting Group and the American Institutes of Research.

S: When did the Board of Education approve the use of these consultants for this purpose (please include Board Report number and date)?

B: I do not know

S: Why were consultants used instead of Board staff for this project?

B: Board staff was responsible for this project. Consultants provided some support.

S: How does the Board currently determine the number of “high schools”

in CPS?

B: Schools that serve students in grades 9-12 are considered high schools.

S: How many “high schools” (total) were included in the scorecard?

B: 100

S: How did the Board determine which “high schools” would be considered

selective enrollment and which would be considered general high schools

for purposes of this report?

B: Schools having selective admissions for all applicants are selective enrollment. All other schools are considered neighborhood schools even though they may have some programs with selective criteria.

S: Please name those high schools that were considered selective enrollment for this report.

B: See the Scorecard website http://www.cps.k12.il.us/Schools/scorecard/

S: Please name those high schools that were considered general enrollment for this report.

B: See the Scorecard website http:// www. cps.k12.il.us/Schools/scorecard/

S: Why weren’t racial data included in this report?

B: The scorecard is about outcomes/performance not demographics. Principals asked us to include enrollment, special education and English Language Learner information as demographic information on the scorecard and we did. They did not request any other demographic information. In addition, demographic data is available on the CPS website, as well as through ISBE state report cards.

S: Why weren’t data about poverty included in this report?

Same as 14

S: Why were the 17 categories used in the report used?

B: They were selected from the data that were available to us and that parents and students told us were most helpful to them.

S: Who determined that those 17 categories would be included in the report?

B: CPS staff in consultation with parents, students and principals

S: Given that a major concern of parents selecting a high school for their children is safety, why aren’t available CPS data on suspensions under the Uniform Discipline Code included in the report?

B: Suspensions are not a good mea sure of school safety. Many suspensions could mean that a school is doing a great deal to monitor and control student behavior; a lack of suspensions may mean that there is little effort to enforce the Uniform Discipline Code. In the next version of the Scorecard, CPS will include results of surveys of high schools students on school safety. We believe this will

be better information to provide to parents.

S: Given that a major concern of parents selecting a high school for their children is safety, why aren’t available Chicago Police Department data on arrests and incidents included in the report?

B: Same as 18

S: In Arne Duncan’s cover letter releasing the report (beginning of the book), Duncan states: “They [the scorecards] were initiated and designed with a great deal of input from educators, parents and students and we hope you find them useful.” Please list for me those individuals, indicate how they were chosen to provide this input, and what form or format the input took.

B: Waiting for list

S: Given the limited distribution of the print edition of the scorecard both within CPS and outside of CPS, on what basis was the decision made to produce the scorecard in English only and to distribute its information primarily via the Internet? Specifically, what data does CPS presently have to indicate that the parents of elementary children considering Chicago high schools have Internet access via computers that can actually receive or download the information in the “Scorecard” in the format(s) used for the Web publication of the “Scorecard.”

B: The main source of this information for parents is school counselors. Counselors have been instructed to inform parents about the Scorecard, show them the binders and provide school by school information. They have the data available in Spanish and Polish as well

as in English.

S: The book distributed at the press conference lists the CPS Office of High Schools as one of the developers of the scorecards. Who in that office participated in this project, and how was that participation done?

B: Dr. Pittman oversaw the project as part of his role overseeing the High School Transformation initiative. We printed only 2000 copies. Just about all of them were distributed to schools.