CPS releases new school ratings with fewer getting top marks

Fewer Chicago schools earned the city’s top rating in new data released Friday, matching stagnating test scores released earlier this year.

The school rating data made public by Chicago Public Schools showed 146 schools with the highest-possible Level 1-plus rating. That’s down from 185 the previous year.

The rating system, School Quality Rating Policy, is created and administered by CPS and is based on the past year’s student growth, performance, school culture and climate, graduation rates and other metrics.

CPS said some 395 schools are in good standing, just about matching last year, when 398 schools fell into that category.

The bottom two ratings, Level 2 and Level 3, were given to 138 schools identified as low performers needing additional support, with 55 of them flagged as needing “intensive support.” That support includes “substantial intervention” from CPS to help get the school back on track academically, the district said.

Still, there were fewer low-performing schools than in previous years.

“I think there’s something to be said about the fact that we continue to decrease the number of Level 3 schools that we have in our portfolio overall,” CPS Chief Education Officer LaTanya McDade said. “And as far as continuing to support them, I think some of the big initiatives that we’re putting out now are to do just that.”

McDade pointed to the district focusing on specific supports for math education and a new $135 million curriculum initiative that will soon be launched to help improve low-performing schools.

CPS also said it would likely recommend closing three charter schools: Chicago Virtual Charter School, Chicago Collegiate and Frazier Charter School. It also added another four charters to its warning list: CICS Ellison, CICS Longwood, Learn 7, and Urban Prep’s Englewood campus.