CPS tiers, explained.
Your tier is one number, set by where you live, and it shapes how Selective Enrollment seats are offered. Here is what it is, what it is not, and where to find yours.
What a tier is
CPS groups every Chicago census tract into one of four socioeconomic tiers, Tier 1 through Tier 4. A census tract is a small area the U.S. Census uses, usually a few blocks. Your home address sits in exactly one tract, and that tract’s tier is your child’s tier. CPS refreshes the tier map over time, so a family’s tier can change from one cycle to the next without the family moving.
What tiers do
For Selective Enrollment programs, a share of seats goes to the highest point totals citywide, and most seats are then filled within the four tiers. Applicants compete for those seats against other applicants from the same tier. That is why the same point total can clear the cutoff in one tier and miss it in another, and why published cutoff tables show a separate line for each tier, each year.
A tier is not a judgment about your family, and it is not something you can choose or appeal your way into. It follows the address on your application.
Where to find yours
CPS offers two official address lookups: GoCPS School Search and the CPS School Locator. On both, type your address and then look closely at the results panel: your tier appears in small print under a map-pin icon (for example, “Tier 4”), next to the sentence that starts “Based on your address.” It is easy to miss on first look.
SchoolNav also computes your tier from your address on your family profile, and every cutoff table and likelihood band in the app already reflects it - create a free account to see school cutoff history through your own tier’s line.
Keep it in perspective
Cutoffs move every cycle, so tier history is context, never a promise. See how the points work for the full formula behind the totals the tiers divide up.