NW Suburban Schools (Arlington Heights, Evanston, Palatine: renters, house, neighborhoods)

[DanielWaterhouse]

We're looking at getting out of the city and to the suburbs soon and are considering a number of areas. We had looked at Glenview, Wilmette and Park Ridge mostly due to the schools and proximity to the city, but haven't seen much we like in our price range (less than $650k or so.)

It seems to me that Mount Prospect and Arlington Heights might be good choices to still have good schools (if not quite as good as Wilmette and Glenview) and have a good commute to downtown. Looking at the schools, there appears to be wide variation in the scores from the various school districts in those communities. Would it be safe to say districts 25, 57 and 23 are very good? Would it also be fair to say that district 59 and 26 fall a bit short? How about district 21? There appear to be a couple of good elementary schools and a number that are not so good. That seems to lead to middle schools that are good but not great as the various elementary schools feed into them.

Is it safe to say you get more house for your money in Mount Prospect and Arlington Heights vs the initial communities I listed?

Thanks.

[chet everett]

The sad reality is that the schools districts that serve a larger portion of renters in large complexes have students that move more frequently, parents that spend more time with economic struggles and generally perform less well...

[DanielWaterhouse]

Taking into account the cause you cite (which makes sense), is it still advisable to seek out the higher scoring districts, both in terms of home value and with regard to where the schools are focusing their efforts? I would think that a district with a greater number of struggling students would have to adapt their curriculum to suit those students, unless they had an effective way of breaking out the higher performing students.

Any thoughts on whether the characterization of those districts is accurate?

Also, I think all of those districts feed into high school district 214. Does intradistrict choice still apply at the high school level? Are you stuck with a single school? When looking at Park Ridge, I seem to recall everyone from there goes to Maine South, but the kids from Des Plaines, for example, would go to one of the other Maine Township high schools (but they're all in HSD 207.)

[chet everett]

Correct. The attendance area is very important if you want to have a large number of students with similar capabilities / needs. The pessimists would say this segregation is negative and exclusionary while those with classroom experience will readily admit that students that are less well prepared should be given more attention and smaller class sizes to assist them in reaching their potential.

Districts that are relatively unfettered by less well prepared students are free to either funnel more resources to "extras" or focus on enriching the experience of students of high potential. Even this is controversial to some, as there are plenty of "angry tax payer" types that would be happy if public education also meant very low compensation. The short sightedness of this belies the fact that under our system of entitlements the retirees and others that do not work are excessively dependent upon a highly productive workforce that can provide higher value goods and services than other less developed economies. I have seen first hand that more well educated residents of high income area, regardless of age / work status, are thus more supportive of both the aim of high performing schools and the economic support needed to ensure such success is realized. It is also true that there are those that because of their recognition of the importance of high performance are very concerned that schools use tax dollars wisely -- a far different position than mindlessly wishing for "lower taxes"...

In a another thread I have posted similar "clues" to finding the schools districts that deliver top results to the "smartest" home shoppers: http://www.city-data.com/forum/11610119-post6.html

[cubssoxfan]

Originally Posted by DanielWaterhouse

We're looking at getting out of the city and to the suburbs soon and are considering a number of areas. We had looked at Glenview, Wilmette and Park Ridge mostly due to the schools and proximity to the city, but haven't seen much we like in our price range (less than $650k or so.)

It seems to me that Mount Prospect and Arlington Heights might be good choices to still have good schools (if not quite as good as Wilmette and Glenview) and have a good commute to downtown. Looking at the schools, there appears to be wide variation in the scores from the various school districts in those communities. Would it be safe to say districts 25, 57 and 23 are very good? Would it also be fair to say that district 59 and 26 fall a bit short? How about district 21? There appear to be a couple of good elementary schools and a number that are not so good. That seems to lead to middle schools that are good but not great as the various elementary schools feed into them.

Is it safe to say you get more house for your money in Mount Prospect and Arlington Heights vs the initial communities I listed?

Thanks.

Yes you get more house for your money AND your comments re. schools match my opinions and experiences. Chet Everett has posted links to US NEws and World report high school rankings. All Dist 214 schools make the list except Elk Grove. The only cross border choice you have is if the HS your child attends does not offer the course, s/he can take the course at another 214 school offering it BUT you have to provide transportation. They will also consider "hardship" cases. We know a family that successfully had their daughter switched from Wheeling to Buffalo Grove about 6 years ago. You can go online and check course offerings by school. We are pleased with Dist 23, the orchestra program is phenomonal! The only complaint I have is the splitting up of the 8th grade class into 2 high schools. It's weird! I grew up in Skokie/Evanston and your 8th grade class ALL went to the same high school. Let me know if you have specific neighborhood questions, I'm up near Palatine and Schoenbeck for 17 years and would be happy to provide details on the neighborhoods around here.