Chicago’s Board of Education unanimously changed how it ranks its schools Wednesday, introducing minimums that will benefit the highest-performing schools and potentially lessen the number of schools at the bottom.

Schools that score in the 90th percentile on the Northwest Education Association test at the elementary level or the Explore, Plan Act test in high school, will now automatically end up in the highest of five tiers, said John Barker, who’s in charge of testing at CPS. Schools in the 70th percentile cannot rank below the second tier, or below the third tier in the 50th percentile, he said.

Schools already are rated according to a series of factors, including attendance and growth in test scores, but these thresholds should help the highest-scoring schools retain top ratings even though they have less room to increase their scores, he said. Any school below the 40th percentile must rely on those other factors to move out of the lowest tier.

via Chicago Board of Education changes how it ranks schools | Early & Often.

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