Evan Caughie-Petcher is working the odds like a Vegas blackjack player.
He wants to go to Northside College Prep next year, but the chances of getting in are slim. And if he puts Northside at the top of his list, his second choice, Lane Tech, might not take him. But if he puts Lane Tech at the top of his list and then aces his entrance exam, he might miss out on Northside.
Finally Evan can’t take it anymore. Banging his head on the kitchen table in his West Rogers Park home, he pulls at his hair. Evan is 13, and this is the toughest decision of his life so far. But he’s ready to flip a coin for it.
At this time of year, all around Chicago, students–rich and poor, in private and public schools–are wrestling with applications for admittance into the city’s selective public high schools and handful of magnet high schools.
The creation of new academic powerhouses–Northside, Walter Payton and Jones–has only fueled the fire, attracting more applications than ever.
Applications are due on Friday, but the harsh realities of the competitive process began for some as early as 6th grade. Preteens–already contending with acne, cliques and the vagaries of the opposite sex–suddenly find themselves facing pressures usually associated with college admissions.
But at times they are still kids. Evan, smiling, says he wants to attend the prestigious school because “it’s shiny.”
“It’s going to be such a roll of a dice to get him in there,” said Evan’s mother, Pamela Caughie, an English professor at Loyola University. She knows that even though her son is smart, so are thousands of other kids in the city.
Last year, 6,023 students applied to Northside, usually considered one of the top schools in the state, and 304 enrolled. Overall, 12,302 students, including 1,870 from private schools, applied to the eight selective-enrollment high schools last year. The schools had space for about 2,600 kids, a 20 percent acceptance rate that rivals the most selective colleges in the nation.
The magnet and selective-enrollment schools are coveted by parents because most have higher achievement-test scores than the average neighborhood school. During the last decade, the city has worked hard to beef up its roster of elite schools to get middle-class families to stay in the city. Conversely, a rejection letter from coveted schools has prompted some families to move to the suburbs.
With stakes that high, counselors and teachers warn parents that they must begin preparing well in advance for applications. They stress the importance of 7th grade–the year that counts for grades, attendance and standardized test scores. Some even advise parents to send kids to school when they are sick rather than risk a deduction on the system’s point system.
In 8th grade, students take the entrance exam worth about 300 points. Admittance is based on a point system in which 1,000 is the highest possible score.
A student’s race can also play a role in a decision, as principals pursue guidelines for student diversity.
At magnet high schools, such as Morgan Park and Von Steuben, the requirements differ. Some pick students by lottery, while others look at test scores.
Evan missed school last year due to an illness and a trip to Italy. He also received a B the year before on his report card from Boone Elementary School. All that will count against him.
`I hate this system’
For him to get into Northside, he would have to sail through the entrance exam.
“I hate this system,” he says with the passion of a child who is quickly realizing that some things are beyond his control.
Part of the process for families is figuring out how to rank the schools. Schools look more closely at students who rank them first. For those who rank them second or third, it’s tougher to get in.
After going back and forth with his parents on the pros and cons of each school, Evan ends up going with Lane first.
“It’s really a big deal, ’cause whatever high school you go to is going to affect your college,” Evan says. “I don’t think kids should go through this. It makes you nervous and stuff like that.”
Pamela Caughie remembers how crushed her son became after hearing school administrators at Northside’s open house point out the odds of getting into the school. That day, Evan apologized to his parents for being “so stupid”– this from a boy who had just gotten all A’s on his report card and made the honor roll.
“This is too much at 13,” Caughie says.
In a cramped apartment in a three-flat on the Northwest Side, two sisters are also in the midst of this.
Adriana and Daniela Carmona, 13 and 12, respectively, do their homework each night on a table in the kitchen.
Their bedroom, with twin beds inches apart, is filled with playpens and strollers–during part of the day, it is the nap room for their mother’s child-care center. At this moment, seven toddlers and infants are in the living room, loudly making their needs known.
The girls ignore the noise.
With their mother, Eucaris, a former attorney, the sisters moved from Cartagena, Colombia, more than a year ago. Their father, who lives in Chicago, works as a teacher. In a little more than a year, they have become fluent in English and are among the top students at Inter-American Magnet School.
As she does her homework, Adriana, an 8th grader, whispers the answers to herself. Although she seems very focused, she later says she has difficulty concentrating with all the noise and stays up late to finish.
Daniela, a 7th grader, finishes fast.
But when a C appeared among all the A’s on Daniela’s report card a few weeks ago, her mother became upset.
“I push them very much,” Eucaris says in Spanish. “I don’t know if it’s good or bad.” Eucaris says she will not send her daughters to the local high school. She also is not keen on them going to a school several bus rides away.
She gives her youngest a faux mean look, then smiles. The girl smiles back, but stays quiet.
An obsession
Adriana has become obsessed with getting into a good high school. She dreads that day early next year when students across the city will receive their acceptance and rejection letters from the school district–a day notorious for producing tears.
“I’m scared,” she says.
Last year, Adriana received a perfect score on her standardized test in Spanish. A couple of months ago, however, she took the test in English and scored an 87 in math and a 73 in reading, both out of 100.
She cried that day.
On her application, Adriana picked Northside first, to please her mother, who likes the school and its proximity.
“She would be really proud of me, but I don’t think I am going to get in,” she said.
Michael Thompson, author of “The Pressured Child,” said this all points to not having enough good schools. Parents, however, should keep it all in perspective.
“I’m worried about the very bright kid whose parents can’t afford a private school and [who] doesn’t get into a magnet school and is forced to have an inferior education,” he said.
“For a family that can afford private school, it’s a disappointment [if they don’t get in], but it’s not life-altering,” he adds.
Jeff Gray, the program manager for Chicago’s selective-enrollment high schools, says as soon as he clears out his voice mailbox, which holds about 40 messages, he is quickly bombarded again with calls from “hyper-anxious” parents.
Around the city, networks of frenzied parents share what Gray calls “parent myths”–rumors tossed around as fact, such as the erroneous notion that public schools kids get an edge.
Some parents also resort to schmoozing administrators.
“It’s obnoxious, really,” says writer Joyce Winer, who lives with her husband David Kaplan and their son Ethan in the Old Irving Park neighborhood. “The amount of talk that goes on–sometimes I really feel like we need to get a life.”
Their son is a 7th grader at Near North Montessori, a private school. Winer says she and her husband can’t afford to continue sending him to private high school after years of paying a hefty tuition. Moving is a last resort.
“We’re tapped out,” she said. “The city needs to have far more to offer if they are trying to keep people who want their children to have a really good education.”
Winer was open to the local high school until she discovered the 57 percent graduation rate. Then she heard stuff like, “your kid can get hurt” there.
“It really doesn’t invite further inquiry when you hear things like that,” she said.
The couple has tried to shield their son from stress.
Ethan, a happy-go-lucky 12-year-old, has worries like getting his novel “The Wife of the Wizard” published–it’s 90 pages so far –and when he will next play Magic cards with his pals.
The jazz fan lists Ray Charles as his favorite singer and has been playing the trumpet and piano for years. His parents say he will audition for the performing arts magnet program at Lincoln Park High School.
But even with his talent, there are no guarantees. Approximately 350 students audition for each of the vocal, band, strings and drama programs, but only about 28 students get in.
When the topic comes up, Ethan shrugs.
“I’m sure I’ll get into some high school,” he says nonchalantly.
Source: Chicago Public Schools
Chicago Tribune
