Evanston vs. New Trier (Harvard, Ohio: home, neighborhoods, school district)

[brenty]

As many know Evanston and New Trier are archrivals. I just wanted to start a thread that discusses Evanston and New Trier. The pros and cons of each school, etc.

[crbcrbrgv]

The main difference between New Trier and Evanston is graduates of New Trier go on to attend schools such as Harvard and Yale while Evanston graduates attend crappy schools such as U of I or Michigan

[brenty]

I agree that more Evanston students attend schools of lower rank. But Michigan and U of I are by no means crappy schools. Plenty of New Trier students attend those too. I went to a school similar to New Trier (Orange High School, Pepper Pike, OH) and I went to Ohio State and had a fabulous time. Now I am in my twenties and own a home worth more than $500,000. No too many people my age have been so succesful. In fact in a year I hope to move into a $1 Million dollar home. A school that I know that is comparable to Evanston would be Shaker Heights High School. Except that Shaker Heights is probably wealthier. If and when I have kids I will probably move to the New Trier School District, just because the neighborhoods seem to be more family friendly, but I would never move because of the school.

[crbcrbrgv]

Then I guess sarcasm is harder to parlay on here than I realized. Sorry about that. I went to crappy ol' U of M by the way.

[lovebrie]

ETHS is ranked one of the best high schools in the nation.
also its 10x more diverse then new trier.
the only reason new trier seems like a better school is because they have more money.
but the math text books that students at new trier read are written by some of the teachers at ETHS.

[brenty]

Wouldn't you say that the average class at New Trier scores higher than the average class at Evanston?

[SloopyJ]

In anticipation of our upcoming move to Evanston, I was perusing some test score data last night and uncovered something very interesting. As an upper-middle class white family, I was more interested in finding out how such kids do at ETHS than how the "average" kid does, knowing that 30% of the kids there are lower-income and have more challenging backgrounds than my kids do.

Turns out that when you look at the data by race, you find that caucasian kids at ETHS do significantly better on the ACT than kids at New Trier (almost all of whom are white or Asian). Surprising, no? I will add that ETHS seems to encourage all of its lower-income kids to take the ACT, as the percentage taking the test is extremely high. I take that to indicate that ETHS actually cares about investing in those kids even if it brings down their overall scores.

[brenty]

I totally agree with you SloopyJ. I have been stressing this for quite some time now. Everyone just says that Evanston is such a terrible school.

[SloopyJ]

Yes, except for people that actually go/went there.

[ahava]

Just to clarify, the ACT is part of the PSAE, which is the state test for 11th graders. As such, all 11th graders in Illinois are required to take the ACT unless they have an IEP that allows for alternative testing. The data for ACT scores in the state report cards comes from that ACT test and not the national test dates. Students usually score higher or the same when taking the ACT as part of the PSAE compared to the regular one.