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Old 04-04-2014, 02:42 PM
 
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I've heard from others that LPHS is really like two schools, with the IB kids and "neighborhood" kids living in separate realities within the school. I have no first-hand experience of it, however, and will defer to those with more current knowlege. I did notice that when I lived on Fremont more than a decade ago that most of my "rich" neighbors in single-family houses seemed to send their kids to Latin or Parker, and that the LPHS kids mostly seemed to arrive via the Brown Line. I do know that many of the CPS K-8 schools that feed in to LPHS have greatly improved since then, and that this may lead to a more well-off student population at LPHS in coming years.
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Old 04-04-2014, 03:36 PM
 
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LPHS is someways one of the most unique high schools in Chicago but in other ways still typifies the most frustrating aspects of CPS.

The big "plus" is its International Baccalaurete program, far and away the longest running and most throughly respected in the region. Kids that can rise to the challenge of the what is called the "Diploma Prep" program are well prepared for success at the most selective universities. The kids BOTH from the "neighborhood attendance area" and the whole city MUST apply to this programme and they do move as a "cadre" through a set sequence of classes for all four years so in a sense they are "segregated" but as others have pointed out these kids have to be extremely focused on academic success and this is not a negative...

CPS created the "Options For Knowledge" in response to segregation issues. The program has really NOT done much to do deal with that and the FACT is that kids from families that value education overwhelmingly take the slots in the most successful selective schools and the rest of the slots are filled with kids that really are behind the curve and will not do as well as peers in schools that are less dysfunctional...


For kids not as driven LPHS is not a good a choice. For a rough comparison I might suggest pulling up the data from the Illinois Interactive report card for a school like Riverside-Brookfield. The break-out shows that although LPHS has similar numbers of students in the "meets or exceeds" categories the bias at RBHS is a more skewed toward larger percentage of kids being on the "exceeds" category. Given that the PSAE is essentially the ACT test with a few added "WorkKeys" it does serve as a decent measuring stick of how prepared for college kids are likely to be and thus the LPHS bias toward the whole population of students not being extremely strong ought to be a concern. Honestly even schools that have similar student characteristics have much more promissing data. Take for instance OPRFHS, a place that has even greater percentage of low income kids than RBHS (23% vs 18%, both far below LPHS) but is even more strongly biased toward the "exceed" category -- Compare Schools: Student Characteristics The data from the "pure" selective admissions Northside or Payton (with 36% and 31% low income respectively...) show a very encourageing mix of "exceeds" greatly outweighing "meets"...

The bigger issue for the OP may be the fact that they will have to choose a school to attend BEFORE high school and then try to pick one that might be a "good fit" with a signficant number of kids being like their own and wanting to attend just a neighborhood HS. {Most evidence would STRONGLY suggest a large number of kids that might just be a little above average are going to aim for not just Northside or Payton, but also Lane, Whitney Young, Jones and other good perfroming schools... ) This seems like a really tough choice at a very challenging age for teens. Speaking as a former teacher and parent (although my kids are grown now...) Given the frankly awful alternatives I really would hesitate to make this choice. Honestly I would lean much more toward Oak Park or Evanston if you are specifically looking for a town that has a more urban character unless you have the deep pockets needed for a nice private school where continuity of not just educational philosphy but also consistency of social circle is going to be a much better situation...
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Old 04-04-2014, 05:53 PM
 
Location: Denver, cap hill
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thanks all so much for the info!!!!! After looking at the bazillion high schools we decided against LPHS because it only has a 75% graduation rate! I guess I was hoping for a "local" school where kids live near each other, is diverse and is safe...We are only a family of three so we can get into a smaller place. Thinking about living in Lincoln square to try for Von Steuben (they accept from neighborhood first). Then apply to the others. THEN if all else fails we will prob move to Evanston. I believe its the most urban suburb???
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Old 04-04-2014, 09:02 PM
 
Location: Upper West Side, Manhattan, NYC
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Evanston is one of the most urban suburbs - not sure about number 1, but it's up there. There's some "eh" parts of the city but for the most part I think it's fine. Oak Park as well... Cicero and Berwyn are pretty urban suburbs too, but I'm pretty sure their schools rank behind Evanston and Oak Park's.

Not to go on the parenting angle either, but that does play a big role into that type of thing too. Parenting, any sort of positive adult influence, peer pressure, etc. Teachers are important obviously but it's not THE end all be all of whether someone may succeed or not educationally. My brother is a prime example of this - the high school we went to is ranked in the top 50 or 100 in the US. My brother is very smart and always had straight A's until his sophomore year of high school when he started hanging out with the wrong crowd. He got involved with drugs, but he was smart enough to hide it from people like my parents for awhile and why his grades dropped down to C's or worse.
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Old 04-05-2014, 07:19 AM
 
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Default Really not going to be found inside CPS...

Quote:
Originally Posted by lofarber View Post
thanks all so much for the info!!!!! After looking at the bazillion high schools we decided against LPHS because it only has a 75% graduation rate! I guess I was hoping for a "local" school where kids live near each other, is diverse and is safe...We are only a family of three so we can get into a smaller place. Thinking about living in Lincoln square to try for Von Steuben (they accept from neighborhood first). Then apply to the others. THEN if all else fails we will prob move to Evanston. I believe its the most urban suburb???
While Von Stueben is far from the worst HS in CPS it really does not have the kind of academic profile that suggests it is effective in preparing most kids for college -- VON STEUBEN METRO SCIENCE HS: Test Results

The difficulty is that under the current system that "siphons off" kids that come from a background where success is the standard and sends them to the "selective admissions" high schools the rest of the kids really are missing out on having peers that will be most likely to attend the best colleges...

I tend to agree that for folks that are looking for a community that setup in a more traditional way with portions that are urban and a fairly large percent of both Hispanic and 'black' students Evanston is a top choice -- EVANSTON TWP HIGH SCHOOL: Student Characteristics That said the overall graduation rate is below that of OPRF, and OPRF does have a student population that has a smaller percentage of Hispanic students and more 'black' students. (I use the terms provided by the ISBE) OAK PARK & RIVER FOREST HIGH SCH: Student Characteristics

Personally I might check out a range of options that might include both city neighborhoods and areas beyond the city limits but without knowing what sort of work situation and budget makes sense there are a daunting number of choices. I agree that in someways having only one child makes things a little easier but for kids that might do better in a smaller school or perhaps need to be around peers that have a similar social background the options are going to require a lot more effort than if you needed only to find the most academically rigorous program. That said my experience as a high school teacher in CPS strongly leads me to believe that not all students at the selective admissions schools are particularly motivated; it probably makes sense to plan to apply to the selective admissions schools like Lane which has a graduation rate very similar to the many suburbs. It also has a population that reflects the increasing influence of Chicago's growing Hispanic population, biggest downside is its shear size of over 4000 students which likely posses some challenges for students that transfer... LANE TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL: School Profile
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Old 04-05-2014, 07:30 AM
 
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I asked my friend who lives in Lincoln Park and sends her daughters to Catholic school about LPHS. She said that the kids there are too tough and that her daughters "would have been eaten alive." I don't know if that's true or not but she's willing to spend a lot of money on tuition because of that belief.
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Old 04-05-2014, 12:17 PM
 
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Default "Eaten alive"?

Quote:
Originally Posted by chicagobear View Post
I asked my friend who lives in Lincoln Park and sends her daughters to Catholic school about LPHS. She said that the kids there are too tough and that her daughters "would have been eaten alive." I don't know if that's true or not but she's willing to spend a lot of money on tuition because of that belief.
Back in the darkest days when Lincoln Park lost its middle income blue collar residents to criminals / wannabe revolutionaries Fenger High was as bad a school as even Hollywood writers could imagine with drug pushers and actual blood & guts fights an altogether too common occurance.
Thankfully that era ended well before Cabrini Green was dismantled and by the 90s the reborn LPHS efforts at success with the International Baccaulerste was well underway.

That said there are always likely to be a fairly significant percentage of kids in Chicago that just are not attuned to the reality of what it takes to get into a good college. I doubt these kids are particualrly violent, though I suppose they could negatively impact the progress of classmates and make for a less than socially cohesive "scene". The parochial schools in the region do have much narrower expectations for acceptable behavior and tend to have parents that are far less tolerant of anything that hurts their own child's academic progress. Even the often maligned "charter schools" are unlikely to get as a high a level of "buy-in" when it comes to the sort of values that are crucial to having a learning environment that encourages all kids to perform at a high level.

Somewhat paradoxically the uniformity of expectstions that parochial schools are known for is largely absent in traditonal public high schools that at least claim to espouse a more 'liberal' view of education. Too often the result is that the social standards of public schools is quietly reduced to "what ever we can away with" especially for 'regular' kids that are not selected for academic talent. I am far from the biggest support of private schools in general, as too often the most expensive ones really are catering to the social expectations of parents and not really doing anything 'special' for kids in any academic sense but I can fully agree that when it comes to the standars of behavior that at least have the appearance of respect / safety / support general admission public schools in Chicago are unlikely to ever really close that gap.
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Old 04-05-2014, 02:09 PM
 
Location: Nort Seid
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What I actually find greatly amusing about this tale (no offense to the OP, it is a serious subject) is that in the mid-80s kids north of Diversey were slated to go to Lake View HS for their local. I recall more than a few kids whose parents gamed the system to get them into LPHS instead by registering them under relatives and at family-owned business addresses, and this was when LPHS was incredibly wild. LVHS is an interesting contrast in that there was no IB program to inflate stats, nor were there public housing census tracts. Still, that is the school Hollywood chose for the setting of My Bodyguard due to factors including if not its rep then certainly its beaten-down appearance.
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Old 04-05-2014, 02:30 PM
 
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Default Some of the more interesting brickwork ...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chi-town Native View Post
What I actually find greatly amusing about this tale (no offense to the OP, it is a serious subject) is that in the mid-80s kids north of Diversey were slated to go to Lake View HS for their local. I recall more than a few kids whose parents gamed the system to get them into LPHS instead by registering them under relatives and at family-owned business addresses, and this was when LPHS was incredibly wild. LVHS is an interesting contrast in that there was no IB program to inflate stats, nor were there public housing census tracts. Still, that is the school Hollywood chose for the setting of My Bodyguard due to factors including if not its rep then certainly its beaten-down appearance.
Lakeview High's distinctive masonary and the way it is sort of dominates the street is probably why it caught the filmmaker's fancy. Actually there are quiet a few attractive looking high schools in Chicago -- Amundsen is very visually appealing, as is Lane Tech, Schurz is regarded as Praire-style masterpiece.

I'll leave it to others find more picture --- Carl Schurz High School (Part One) | Connecting the Windy City

Lane Technical High School · Chicago Pictures Photos and Photographs by Chicago Uncommon

Lake View High School | Chicago Historic Schools

BTW -- There was once a CPS facility that was designed to help "troubled boys" that also had a very appealing look to it --

Chicago Parental School | Chicago Historic Schools

Apparently there is a book about this sort of thing -- The Chicago Schoolhouse: High School Architecture and Educational Reform, 1856-2006, Gyure

Last edited by chet everett; 04-05-2014 at 02:41 PM..
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