Laura B. Sprague elementary school Lincolnshire? (Buffalo Grove, Wheeling: how much, house, safe area)

[Franceclaire]

Hello,

We are a foreign family and we have found a house in Lincolnshire IL. Can someome tell me if it's a nice and safe area (it's look like but I don't know this area).
Our little girl will go next year to school : elementary school and the realtor told us that the school for this house is in district 103 "a very good one". I would like to be sure it's the truth.

Can someone confirm that it's a good elementary school. I can not find rate for this school on greatschool.com

Thanks and happy thanksgiving!

[sammy22]

Yes, it's an excellent school system and VERY safe. Your children will be in good hands.

[ahava]

Ditto what sammy22 said. District 103 is one of the best.

[cubssoxfan]

Beautiful area, excellent schools.

[chet everett]

I really do not like to make generalizations about "excellent school" -- that sort of attitude hampers the ability of people to distinguish between schools.

Here is the standard report card from the State about district 103:
http://webprod.isbe.net/ereportcard/...10302002_E.pdf

You won't see Sprague show up on "best lists" for one main reason -- decision to have a district wide k thru 2 building is not common, more typical is a k-5 type elementary school. There are those who like the "grade level center" concept, others do not. I know that in some towns a decision to have that sort of an organization can lead to long bus routes and/or lots of parent drop-offs. Don't know how important that kind of thing really is...

[cubssoxfan]

I really do not like to make generalizations about "excellent school" -- that sort of attitude hampers the ability of people to distinguish between schools.

Oh, I'm sorry. You mean it's a crappy school? I know the wealthier northern, suburbs have a reputation for having awful schools, so caution is advised I would send my kids there based on the state test scores the district achieves. Interactive Illinois Report Card 92-97% meeting and exceeding ISAT is not the only factor, but a good first step in determining excellence. Factor in good parental demographics for prioritizing education with their children and that comes up positive as well.
So what makes my statement a generalization??

[chet everett]

No. If a school shows up on a list I like to say that it is "number X on a list of ___ ____". ANd even then I have real issues when comparing VASTLY different kinds of schools on obscure criteria (you can see how I rip on certain selection criteria for the various high school ranking...)

I do not like "excellent" "good" "fair" or even "crappy".

If more people realized that the school they LOVE is only middle of the pack MAYBE more people would demand that schools REALLY ramp up...


I suspect that the OP will have no issues with D103 schools, and they feed into Stevenson, which does real well on the rankings. If that is what you want (Stevenson is really large, covers many suburbs) you ought to know that ahead of time too...

[cubssoxfan]

No. If a school shows up on a list I like to say that it is "number X on a list of ___ ____". ANd even then I have real issues when comparing VASTLY different kinds of schools on obscure criteria (you can see how I rip on certain selection criteria for the various high school ranking...)

Valid point. But how else do you get a feel for a school besides visiting the school and talking to parents who have kids in the district? This can be difficult to do from out of the area

I do not like "excellent" "good" "fair" or even "crappy".

If more people realized that the school they LOVE is only middle of the pack MAYBE more people would demand that schools REALLY ramp up...

How do you determine what is middle of the pack? Case in point: Wheeling HS. Has a so-so reputation. Ranks 68th out of 609 HS in Illinois. State-wide a good ranking. For Metro area, ranking is fair. But, the test scores are brought down by a large ESL and immigrant population and a fair share of students who do not seem to be college bound. Yet, there is a full offering of advanced and AP classes for those who do excel and are college bound. Kids are also exposed to diversity that some higher ranked schools do not have. So if you have a motivated kid, they can do well and go off to a good college. Yet Buffalo Grove, Prospect and Hersey are ranked higher. Is it because of different course offerings in AP and advanced classes. No, I researched this and discovered they all offer almost the same course offerings in English, Math, Science and History. Is it demographics. Yes. So how do you REALLY determine a good school? How do you peel this onion?

I suspect that the OP will have no issues with D103 schools, and they feed into Stevenson, which does real well on the rankings. If that is what you want (Stevenson is really large, covers many suburbs) you ought to know that ahead of time too...

I believe that's what I said. I understand your disdain for rankings. I have some skepticism for them also. But how else do you find out if your local school truly is poor, fair, good or excellence? How do you eliminate the subjectiveness without relying solely on test scores?

[chet everett]

The data on high schools is a lot more standardized -- the use of ACT tests, AP course offereing AND success, college application success, and percentage of various demographics are all valid and the honest rankings will tell you how much weight they give to each category. It sounds like you've done some the research for Wheeling and compared it to other nearby high schools. That is smart and frankly too few people do that. Beyond just that ranking research it would be great to also get data on the efforts that various schools to raise achievement for specifc groups -- especially if those efforts pay off. Unfortunately that data is not out there and there are groups on both sides of those issues that don't want it to be easy to figure out which schools do the best job of improving performance for the worst prepared populations...

There is always some subjectivity of the success factors, but beyond that the data clearly shows that students whose parents have a lot of education and good incomes tend to have the best performing schools. It would probably be hated by some, but I can just about guarantee that if you reported on "average parent educational level" you would have a very accurate ranking of student succcess too... One positive that might come out of such data is there MAY be schools that do a signficantly better job of helping students from household of lower parental educational backgrounds. I would even call such schools a vital piece of the puzzle that the whole Nation needs to "step up" in the global economy. If there are schools that can give kids a competitive leg up we should spread their techniques so that the most growing part of our population becomes an asset instead of liability...