Any current 8th grader interested in applying to CPS programs for 2024-2025 must take a High School Admissions Test. This applies to Selective Enrollment, International Baccalaureate, Magnet, CTE and Service Academy programs.
For current CPS 8th grade students, the test will be administered in their CPS school on Oct. 11, 2023. No pre-registration is required.
For non-CPS students, the first step is to register by Oct. 6 to take the test on either Oct 14, 15 or 21, 2023. Registration is done via a student’s portal at https://cps.schoolmint.com/login
More info at https://www.cps.edu/gocps/high-school/
Letter to 8th grade families from CPS:
Dear Rising 8th-Grade Families,
Prior to the start of the new school year, we want to provide you with helpful information and key updates for the GoCPS high school application process and the High School Admissions Test (HSAT).
The GoCPS application will open at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, September 13, 2023, and all CPS eighth graders — District and charter — will take the HSAT in school on Wednesday, October 11. Registration is not required, as the test will be administered to all CPS eighth graders.
Students who do not attend CPS and are interested in applying to a CPS high school will take the HSAT at either Lane Tech High School or Lindblom High School on October 14, 15, or 21, 2023. Students who do not attend CPS will need to register for testing through the GoCPS application when it opens on September 13, 2023. The deadline to register for the test on October 14 or 15 is October 2, and the deadline to register for the test on October 21 is October 6.
In order to provide more equitable access to all CPS programs, we are pleased to announce that next school year’s HSAT will be offered in English, Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, Polish, and Urdu. This will open more doors of opportunity for our English Learner students. The test length has also been shortened to 60 minutes, responding to concerns that the test was overly burdensome. The content areas for the test are reading and math.
With these changes to the HSAT, the high school admissions scoring rubrics are under revision and will be available by the time the GoCPS application opens on September 13, 2023.
Families must submit GoCPS applications for the 2024-25 school year by Thursday, November 9, 2023 at 5 pm. Families are encouraged to apply to a range of options and rank those options in order of preference. HSAT scores will be released in early to mid-November, so they may not be available for these initial rankings. The GoCPS application will remain open for re-ranking ONLY until November 22, 2023 at 5 pm. Families may return to their previously submitted GoCPS applications during this period to re-rank their school choices based on their HSAT scores. However, no new school choices can be added or removed from an existing application, and no new GoCPS applications will be accepted after the deadline of November 9, 2023 at 5 pm.
We will communicate additional details about the GoCPS application process by September 1, 2023. If you have questions in the meantime, please feel free to contact gocps@cps.edu. For questions about the HSAT, please contact assessment@cps.edu.
Sincerely,
The Office of Access and Enrollment