Wheaton Elementary Schools (Glen Ellyn, Washington, Franklin: apartment complexes, crime, houses)

[mschwager]

Hello ..

My family and I will be relocating to the Wheaton area this summer. I thought I remembered reading in this forum that one elementary school in Wheaton is sub-par and should be avoided? Does anyone have any thoughts on this. Thank You

[Misia]

I was quite interested in responses to that question, but so far no one has anything to say. In that case I would suggest you go to the website GreatSchools.net where you will get basic info about any school and you can compare them. Although from the info you get there, there does'nt seem to be any bad schools in Wheaton. Good luck.

[ahava]

There isn't one elementary school a lot worse than the others. They are all good with very little difference between the test scores of individual schools.

[treeg26]

Wheaton schools are all good schools. Went through the Wheaton school system myself and would send my own kids through them, too.

[HOWELL_STREET]

Dear Friends:

I am a senior citizen and so I cannot directly respond to your elementary school question. So I use inductive logic in my analysis - - to help you decide.
The entire town of Wheaton is VERY high class. That's because the houses are so expensive, that only the well to do - - for the most part - - reside here. There is very little crime in Wheaton. The local newspaper (Sun Times / Wheaton) 'police blotter' constantly identifies our moderate crime area as near IL-38 and Blanchard to Lorraine roads. Either 'DUI' or theft.
We do have integrated famlies in our subdivisions. We also have a small African - American neighborhood area. However, that African - American neigbhorhood is VERY high class. In fact, I have never heard of a published crime in that small neighborhood. Those people are very nice.
Since the parents are high class, one would also expect their children to be high class, too. This is my inductive logic.
My only slight negative comment is that Wheaton people are afraid of each other. So it is difficult to make backyard friends.

Carter Glass

[irish setter girl]

Do you have any special needs/requests for your children. Certain schools house certain programs. You are always welcome to visit the schools in the areas that you like most to see which environment works for you. There are 13 elementary schools. District 200 is excellent overall but each school has its "thing". What "thing" are you looking for?

[quadrokeith]

Does anyone have any insight into Wheaton elementary schools? My wife and I are looking to move out to the Wheaton/Glen Ellyn areas, and while all the high schools and middle schools in the area look quite solid, it does seem like there are some elementary schools which don't perform as well. We're just on our first child, but plan on having a few more, so being in a good elementary district seems like a good thing to strive for.

Specifically, Hawthorne and Washington elementary schools stick out as underperforming. The greatschools.org ratings on these two schools and the Illinois report card test ratings show two lesser performing schools, although I'm a bit skeptical as they are both in a great high school district and a seemingly top notch school district all-around. I was just curious if anyone had any anecdotal evidence about these two schools or some reasoning as to why they are so much further down than the other schools.

We just want to make sure that if we're moving to a town for the purpose of sending our kids to good schools, that we're not making a mistake and sending them to poor elementary schools.

[quadrokeith]

Originally Posted by quadrokeith

We just want to make sure that if we're moving to a town for the purpose of sending our kids to good schools, that we're not making a mistake and sending them to poor elementary schools.

To be clear, I mean poor as in subpar, not as in economically depressed... just want to make sure I don't give people the wrong idea.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by quadrokeith

Does anyone have any insight into Wheaton elementary schools? My wife and I are looking to move out to the Wheaton/Glen Ellyn areas, and while all the high schools and middle schools in the area look quite solid, it does seem like there are some elementary schools which don't perform as well.

I have kids in Glen Ellyn District 41, and could answer specific questions about that district. I do know some people with kids in the Wheaton schools, and I've never heard anything but good things. Usually an elementary school with lower test scores in an otherwise solid system just has more diversity of incomes and backgrounds.

[chet everett]

Among folks who study these things it is pretty widely acknowledged that the more kids are forced to move around during the school year the greater the likelihood that their performance will suffer. The Illinios Interactive Reports that report on the performance of all public schools track this data. The schools with a greater "mobility rate" have more kids performing below standard. These also tend to be the portions of towns with a greater number of large apartment complexes which tend to be attractive to lower income families but there is evidence that even bright kids that are otherwise well prepared suffer in such environments. Here is the data for the three middle schools in Wheaton D200:

FRANKLIN MIDDLE SCHOOL: Student Characteristics

MONROE MIDDLE SCHOOL: Student Characteristics

EDISON MIDDLE SCHOOL: Student Characteristics

If you are concerned with what influences will effect kids in middle school it is probably best to shop for homes in the area served by the school with the lowest mobility / highest performance...