An interactive map of Chicago Public Schools touted by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard this morning is full of errors a study by The Bulldog has found.
The map, announced with new school progress measurements parents will receive with report cards by the end of the week, “tell the story of a school’s performance by providing information about academic performance, teachers and staffing, school culture and climate and parent satisfaction,” a news release from the city said this morning.
Yet, as seen in our screen grab image, errors abound on the map, with schools mislabeled, misplaced and difficult to find.
“Through the school progress report cards, we can provide access to data on performance in a clear and understandable way,” Brizzard said in the release. The release goes on to note “the public will have access to all school progress report cards through a comprehensive online map.”
In its study of about 26 North Attendance Area elementary schools and 28 North Attendance Area high schools The Bulldog located 18 errors.
The Bulldog reached out to the Chicago Public Schools and was asked to call back in the morning. The mayor’s office did not reply to a tight deadline call for comment.
*** UPDATED Nov. 15, 2011 @ 12.25P
The Mayor’s Press Office noted that charter schools, which make up some of the issues we noted, are not included in the data base. The office said the map didn’t include charters because the charters “have a different set of standards.”
The office noted that The Bulldog was not at the press conference announcing the map. It said the charter issue was addressed at that time.
The mayor’s spokeswoman said charter information would be added next year.
The office asked The Bulldog to take the story down due to this “error.”
Below, in the list of schools found in our limited survey of the North Attendance Area we added a note if the school is a charter. The Bulldog also refers reader to the press releases from the city where the charter issue is not addressed and Brizzard’s description of the map as being “comprehensive.”
Return to Brizzard’s description of the “comprehensive” map.
Read the Mayor’s press release.
Read the release from Chicago Public Schools.
Go to The Bulldog’s interactive maps that includes charter schools and information on the schools.
List of locations with errors:
- Taft AC isn’t noted
- Chicago Academy isn’t noted (Charter)
- Aspira-Haugan isn’t noted (Charter)
- Chicago Math & Science isn’t noted (Charter)
- Passages isn’t noted (Charter)
- Trumbull isn’t noted
- Florence Nightingale is located in Budlong Woods
- Thomas Kelly High School is located in Irving Park (Horner Park West)
- William H Seward Communications Arts Academy ES located in Old Ravenswood
- McPherson isn’t noted
- Velma F Thomas Early Childhood Center in North Center
- Evergreen Academy MS in South East Ravenswood
- Aspira-Ramirez Computer Science isn’t noted (Charter)
- Noble Street not noted on map (Charter)
- Noble Pritzker not noted on map (Charter)
- Noble- Rauner not noted on map (Charter)
- Noble- Golder not noted on map (Charter)
- CICS Northtown not noted (Charter)
A study by The Bulldog found 18 errors in the CPS map intended to help parents make education decisions. Nine are listed on the illustration. Credit: CPS.EDU
They should have hired Google.
Hell Eric, they should have hired us. It is a Fusion map on an KML document. We already learned the issue with posting in Google Earth. I wonder if there are hidden problems with the data now.
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.
The CPS response IS the problem. They should have thanked the reporting of errors and made corrections rather than try to cover themselves and try to censor facts. Who is getting paid by CPS to make the maps for the very things they are trying to boast about?
In my opinion, CPS brass and the Teacher’s Union have a PR problem with the average the citizen. Some individual schools, however, are doing a great job with PR and do a great job communicating with parents.
Many CPS schools, in my opinion, talk AT parents like the response given to you. Many parents “do not want to deal with CPS”…so they don’t even visit the local schools and see if its an option for their kids.
If the response above was a positive one by CPS leadership on something of this non-controversial magnitude, it would have been a step in the right direction.
I’m commenting on this because clear, easy to understand school information and maps like these are very crucial to parents and my clients. My advise is to go direct to the schools rather than CPS reporting and see how you are treated. It takes a lot of research and investment sometimes, but you may find options you did not know existed.