Finding fault with a notoriously frustrating school selection process, the Chicago district’s watchdog said in a report released last week that thousands of students were improperly enrolled in hundreds of elementary schools last year because of loopholes, confusion over policies, or intentional disregard of rules.
Some schools used “cherry picking” to favor students, according to the audit analyzed by Inspector General Nicholas Schuler’s office. Nonselective schools improperly used academic benchmarks such as test scores and grades to evaluate prospective students, the office said, and some schools “specifically weeded out kids with histories of poor attendance.”
The analysis concludes that an estimated 93 percent of the 421 schools audited had at least one admissions “failure;" close to two-thirds of audited schools had at least 10 improper admissions.
