Underprivileged Students in Chicago Get the Opportunity of a Lifetime

Just because students attended low-scoring elementary schools in Chicago doesn’t mean they can’t succeed in high school. Thanks to the No Child Left Behind Law, four selective-enrollment high schools in Chicago are accepting 100 top students from these low-scoring schools. These high schools are some of “the highest-scoring and most sought-after high schools in Chicago,” according to the Chicago Sun Times.
For students who now get to attend these schools, it is the opportunity of a lifetime. These college prep schools will offer the students more chances to succeed and improve their chances of attending college.
The students were selected based on socio-economic factors and census tracts, but not on race. Some critics are afraid this will hurt minorities’ chances of attending the schools. However, the schools are also accepting students from four other socio-economic tiers, so it is likely that they will have a diverse student population.
Another factor for selection of the students was their test scores. Simply put, those with the highest score, win.
Chicago Public School officials said “high-performing students from low-performing schools were significantly under-represented” at these schools. However, thanks to the new criteria for student selection and admission, students who would not have had this opportunity now do.