The Chicago Westside Branch of the NAACP, Westside Ministers Coalition, South Austin Coalition Community Council (SACCC), People Who Care, education advocates and parents will hold a press conference tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, 211 S. Laflin Ave.
The group will discuss the current Chicago Public Schools selective enrollment/magnet school policy and provide recommendations to change the policy so that the number of African-American students attending these schools in the future doesn’t decline. Dwayne Truss shares his thoughts about the policy in the current edition of the Austin Weekly News.
The previous policy was a result of the 1980 Consent Decree agreed to by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Chicago Public Schools because of CPS past discrimination against African-American students.
The current 2009-10 policy has decreased the number of African-American students offered admission to the selective enrollment/magnet schools (K-12) for the 2010-11 school year.
It is the position of the community-based groups that the Chicago Public Schools should have maintained its previous selective enrollment/magnet schools admission policy. It is also our position that the CPS should always work in an equitable manner with parents, community-based organizations, and educators to review and/or create new policies.
The organizations recommend the following:
*Race should continue to be a component in the admission process in order to maintain diversity in the selective enrollment/magnet schools.
*CPS should eliminate the reserving of 40 percent of seats assigned to students by point totals for the selective enrollment schools.
*If CPS continues to use the four socio-economic tiers, the tiers should be equally divided for each school (eliminating the 40 percent set aside based on rank order of total points). The rank order of points should be assigned in each of the four socio-economic tiers.
*CPS should use the census data to reflect the student population served and not the citywide census data.
*Maintain the Blue Ribbon Commission so that it can assess and adjust any future policies, and the commission should include a representative from the West Side.
*Fully fund transportation for pre-K thru 8th grade students in order to provide transportation to the selective enrollment/magnets schools located away from poor and underrepresented communities.
For more information about tonight’s meeting, contact Dwayne Truss of the CWBNAACP Education Committee by calling (773) 879-5216 or e-mailing at austin_youth@sbcglobal.net.