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I'll be honest. I'm not 100% satisfy with our choice. While Warren is exceptional, I really have my heart set on Main South and New Trier. We just can't afford it right now. Our twins are only 1 so we hope to be able to afford Park Ridge in the near future. Like I said, this is our starter home. My parents suggested that we use their address (Park Ridge) to register the kids, but that sound like big mess. As for doing some research we reviewed the school report cards, checked any rating that we could possibly find. We are very fortunate that 3 of my friends are teachers and parents in Gurnee (both districts) and gave us some honest insight of what to expect. It sounds promising but I still wish to move closer to my parents somewhere down the road.
I don’t know – maybe it’s because I’m not a parent yet, but I think a lot of the school issue is blown out of proportion in the suburbs. I can understand balking at certain CPS schools, or schools in city/suburbs like Elgin and Aurora, but aside from that, I don’t see what the big deal is.
I went to a high school that wasn’t considered “great” (I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin, far away from suburban school life). However, I spent my elementary school years in Barrington, whose schools are considered much better than the Wisconsin town’s. While my small-town school wasn’t high-achieving, it was safe. I had my own group of friends who were academically interested, and my parents were closely involved with my teachers. Nothing about my academic life changed when I left Barrington and went to the small town.
The only downside is that there wasn’t much diversity in the school, which I think is really important. I spent time in a more populous school district, and then a less populous one. My siblings only spent time in the latter. While I don’t really consider Barrington diverse, it made me much more wordly than my siblings. In my honest opinion, diversity is great for kids. It teaches them to be empathetic, knowledgeable about world events and real issues, and more aware of culture (which I think better prepares them for both careers and personal life).
But yeah – I don’t really see what the fuss is about in regards to test scores. Safe schools that have a decent graduation rate are fine by me. The rest of it is up to me, as a would-be parent. Again, I can’t guarantee my opinion won’t change once I have kids, but that’s what I think right now.
It may or may not be a big deal, depend on the school and the child. My cousin transferred out of Nile North to Maine East and can confirm that Maine East is way behind. Not as many advance classes were offered. He was already taking AP classes during his sophomore year at Nile North and was stuck with with mediocre classes at Main East his junior year. Different atmosphere and different attitude. He became not so motivated because he found his new school not challenging enough. Of course he still managed to get into a very good university with a 35 on the ACT but still.
I attended a magnet high school that was part of CPS. I refused to transfer to a different high school when my parents moved to Park Ridge. At that it didn't make any sense to me to spend my senior year at a different school. I can't say much about the neighborhood CPS schools but I can give you some insight on their magnet and college prep schools. Personally I think those selective CPS schools are much better than most of the suburban schools. The downside is that students are selected base on their entrance exam score and some other criterias, not how close you live to the school. Those exams are not hard. If you set a solid foundation for your kids then I can't see your child having any difficulty getting accepted to those schools. I do want to mention that there are some corruption going on as well. CPS principals and admin using their connection to get their unqualified children admitted to these schools. But overall, these CPS college prep schools are great opportunity.
Last edited by Crede's Crew; 02-20-2013 at 11:25 AM..
It may or may not be a big deal, depend on the school and the child. My cousin transferred out of Nile North to Maine East and can confirm that Maine East is way behind. Not as many advance classes were offered. He was already taking AP classes during his sophomore year at Nile North and was stuck with with mediocre classes at Main East his junior year. Different atmosphere and different attitude. He became not so motivated because he found his new school not challenging enough. Of course he still managed to get into a very good university with a 35 on the ACT but still.
I attended a magnet high school that was part of CPS. I refused to transfer to a different high school when my parents moved to Park Ridge. At that it didn't make any sense to me to spend my senior year at a different school. I can't say much about the neighborhood CPS schools but I can give you some insight on their magnet and college prep schools. Personally I think those selective CPS schools are much better than most of the suburban schools. The downside is that student are selected base on entrance exam score and some other criteria, not how close you live to the school. Those exams are not hard. If you set a solid foundation for your kids then I can't see your child having any difficulty getting accepted to those schools. I do want to mention that there are some corruption going on as well. CPS principals and admin using their connection to get their unqualified children admitted to these schools. But overall, these CPS college prep schools are great opportunity.
This is VERY helpful – especially if we decide to stay in Chicago. Thanks for that info!
IIRC the CPS magnet schools also limit the # of kids from certain zip codes to increase the diversity.
Not a knock against Warren, but "exceptional" is what I reserve for New Trier, Stevenson and other top 10-15 schools, as ranked by US News. Ok, decent, very good possibly excellent (depending on personal experiences). But test scores and rankings do not correlate to "exceptional". I might be splitting hairs.................
IIRC the CPS magnet schools also limit the # of kids from certain zip codes to increase the diversity.
Not a knock against Warren, but "exceptional" is what I reserve for New Trier, Stevenson and other top 10-15 schools, as ranked by US News. Ok, decent, very good possibly excellent (depending on personal experiences). But test scores and rankings do not correlate to "exceptional". I might be splitting hairs.................
You are correct. I apologize for my wrong choice of word. Warren is decent. I meant to say "Warrent is acceptable but not fantastic."
Interesting anecdotes about Niles North and Maine East. I graduated from Niles North and am pretty certain the test scores were higher 30 years ago than today. BUT, does that mean they have reduced the AP and honors classes or does it mean that there is a wider spectrum of diverse students than 30 years ago.. Is the curriculum dumbed down and now inferior, or is it the mix of students that affect the test scores? And is the curriculum different at Maine East than Maine South or just the student demographics?
Personally I think those selective CPS schools are much better than most of the suburban schools. The downside is that students are selected base on their entrance exam score and some other criterias, not how close you live to the school. Those exams are not hard. If you set a solid foundation for your kids then I can't see your child having any difficulty getting accepted to those schools. I do want to mention that there are some corruption going on as well. CPS principals and admin using their connection to get their unqualified children admitted to these schools. But overall, these CPS college prep schools are great opportunity.
Unfortunately, the selective admission high schools are nearly impossible to get into these days, at least if you live in a Tier 4 neighborhood. Schools that were once fall backs for the 15%-30% kids are now top schools. Acceptances rates are single digits, and sub 5% in many cases. The future of CPS high schools will be neighborhood based. Schools like Lakeview will certainly get better within the next ten years.
It may or may not be a big deal, depend on the school and the child. My cousin transferred out of Nile North to Maine East andcan confirm that Maine East is way behind. Not as many advance classes were offered. He was already taking AP classes during his sophomore year at Nile North and was stuck with with mediocre classes at Main East his junior year. Different atmosphere and different attitude. He became not so motivated because he found his new school not challenging enough. Of course he still managed to get into a very good university with a 35 on the ACT but still.
I attended a magnet high school that was part of CPS. I refused to transfer to a different high school when my parents moved to Park Ridge.
I can't stand back and just sit and read all your misinformation about Maine East. Your information is hearsay and have no direct experience in Maine East. I'm a Maine East grad. While I admit, its overall test scores is behind Maine South, it doesn't reflect the total quality of the school and its curriculum.
One thing that cannot be ignored is that ME serves several towns, such as parts of Park Ridge, Des Plains, Niles, Glenview, Morton Grove. A great deal of the student population speaks a second language, and English is the second language. Students come from a diverse background, they represent the real world population. They come from eastern European countries, India, Pakistan,Middle East, Philippines, Korea, China, and Mexico and other Latin American countries.
This reflects on the socioeconomic influence amongst the student body. A great deal of the students are from either middle class or barely hanging on the middle class status.
It's widely known that students that come from a lesser socioeconomic background tend to do less favorably then students that come from a well to do background, one likely reason why Maine South has higher test scores on the average than Maine East students.
You said that there's not enough advance classes offered, that's just not true. Stop posting lies. I'll give you a list of some of the Advanced Placement classes that they offer. http://east.maine207.org/assets/6/23..._2010-2011.pdf
ME even has a Gifted Lyceum program.
AP Calculus AB and BC
Statistics AP
Computer science AP
AP Environmental Science
AP Biology
AP Physics C
AP Chemistry
Advanced Placement United States History
Advanced Placement Economics:Macro/Micro
Advanced Placement European History
Spanish, French, Italian, German AP
Advanced Placement Psychology
Music Theory AP
AP English Language and composition
AP English Literature and composition
Studio Art AP
Honestly, if these AP classes are not enough for you, what the hell do you need on top of these classes and at the same time balancing a high school life by either playing varsity sports or any other extra curricular activities. It's not practical and not healthy for the student. There's not enough school hours in a standard class day, unless you go to school 6-7 days a week and then take 3 months of summer classes. The science, math, English, history, statistics, CS, foreign language AP classes are the type of core classes you need in college to get college credit. My friends and I practically had sophomore standing by the time we walked in to our first class in college because of all the AP classes we took at ME.
Although it's hard to generalize, but I bet you if you take the cream of the crop Maine East students versus the cream of the crop Maine South students, it would be a tough battle, with no clear winner. That's how much confidence I have in Maine East.
If it's such a bad school, why would Harvard take two of my graduating class. To round of the top 5 in my class, three students were tied for #1 in the class. The two #1 went to Harvard, the third decided on Johns Hopkins, the next student was admitted to Stanford and the fifth decided on University of Chicago (U of C). The rest of the top 10 percent went either to U of C, Illinois, Northwestern, Michigan, Duke, UPenn, with Illinois having the bulk of these students. The rest went on to Loyola, Northern, Depaul, Illinois-Chicago, Oakton, Devry, ect. or just simply opted to work after high school. Maybe to you this is nothing, but I think it's impressive considering ME has been malign over the years by outsiders who know nothing about the school.
Whoa pard'ner, I didn't see anyone throwing down on Maine East, the claim was that a particular student from Niles North who transferred to the school still earned a 35 on the ACT and got into a very good university. The reason for that student taking AP classses as a sophomore at NN and then being in a different tier at ME very well could have to do with circumstances we are not privy too. The experience of ANY transfer student is often quite different than students that have the benefit of being at a single school throughout their high school career..
The fact is that schools do change over time and without knowing the specifics of when this happened I would not lose too much sleep over these kinds of things. The desirability of any school is measured on a spectrum that is somewhat fluid and does shift with the changing mix of families in an area...
The situation that kindrakindra mentions is without question a MUCH BIGGER DEAL and frankly one that I have heard from multiple sources -- competition for the few CPS high schools with stellar repuatitiin is HARDER than competition to get into some of the most well known colleges. And the reasons are mostly becuase the non-selective schools have diverged so far in desirabilty. The circumstance that once motivated CPS to create Options For Knowledge have largely passed -- there are longer cities with club wielding nut cases keeping kids out of schools for racial hatred. The segregation that has replaced race is one that is based on intelligence, opportunity, safety and motivation. When CPS dismantles the current magnet high schools some kids will really get a raw deal, and given the history of Chicago's poltically connected leaders either gaming the system to their advantage or channeling their own kids to private schools it is good bet that "regular people " will get the shaft. As always....
The history of immigrants of previous generations getting ahead after starting out a Lane,Steinmetz, Schurz or Senn has largely shifted to the suburbs.
Last edited by chet everett; 02-21-2013 at 08:52 PM..
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