School Watchdog Says Sherman Elementary Manipulating Enrollment

Well this would be unfortunate news from CPR:

Sherman Elementary sits on 52nd Street a mile west of the Dan Ryan. It's undergone big staffing changes over the last few years to improve performance. Last year, the percentage of low-income kids at the school dropped by nearly 10-percent. That raises flags for Julie Woestehoff, head of a group called Parents United for Responsible Education. She says it's unlikely the neighborhood's income level changed that much.

WOESTEHOFF: So I don't think we're really looking at an artifact of demographics. I think we're looking at a manipulation by a school that's trying to weed out students who might drive their test scores down.

Other schools in the area also had drops in the percentage of low-income students, though not as dramatically as Sherman. The school's principal says Woestehoff's allegations are "ridiculous." He says Sherman enrolls every student that shows up at its door.

You know instead of just making themselves look good, the schools should just remember that low income children deserves a quality education too. Assuming that these charges are substantiated perhaps the Chicago Public Schools ought to remember that.