Moving to Chicago (Evanston, Oak Park, Lincoln: top neighborhood, homes, neighborhoods)

[Jimejime]

[LEFT]Hi, We are moving to Chicago (northwest area) within the next 6 months and I am starting to look for good schools and neighborhoods for my 2 sons. I would appreciate your input and suggestions.
Thank you!
[/LEFT]

[knitgirl]

Do you mean Chicago's northwest side or do you mean northwest suburbs - you need to clarify. It would also be helpful if you gave more detail about what you're looking for.

[Jimejime]

We are still looking at options, it could be Northwest side but we are also thinking about suburbs. We've been looking into Lincoln Park, Oak Park, West Ridge, Jefferson Park, Logan Square, Edgewater, among others. By the time we move my oldest will be in 2nd grade and my youngest in Kinder.

[Johnny Northside]

Here are a couple of lists of the top neighborhood schools in Chicago

Top ten Chicago elementary, middle schools :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Education (http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/1253961,top-ten-chicago-schools-110108.article - broken link)

All of the Top 10 Elementary Schools are on the North Side and Northwest Side with the exception of South Loop. (Ogden is close to downtown, but technically on the North Side.) Notably, none of the Top 10 are in the neighborhoods you listed, except Lincoln in Lincoln Park.

In Oak Park, Lincoln and Mann are generally considered to be the best schools.

[soulful]

Within the City of Chicago, you may not be happy with the public schools (and if you plan to stay here all the way through their high school it can be challenging). However, if you don't mind paying to sending them to private schools you will be fine with any of the areas you mentioned plus you could add Lincoln Square/North Center to your list.

Oak Park (a separate city as you probably are aware) has some very good public schools. Also, some great residential neighborhoods and cute downtown.

Good luck with all of this and let us know if you have additional questions

[chet everett]

You are casting too broad a net. If kids and access to schools are important to you the list has to narrow. If you can afford the $1M+ price tags that single family detached homes in Lincoln Park command you still should budget for private schools, that can easily cost tens of thousand per child.

Some of the other city neighborhoods you list are far less expensive, but safety concerns would be paramount. Further the overall choice of housing stock in some areas is going to be limited.

Oak Park is a suburb adjacent to Chicago. It has a widely known reputation as the kind of place liberals with cash flee to in an attempt to get better public schools and more safety will still having a racial mix that fits their view of diversity. On the high end it is every bit as expensive as the most costly part of Chicago and the low end has some safety and housing quality issues, while still not being as cheap as the least expensive part of Chicago -- the worst Oak Park schools are much better than the dregs of Chicago.

Depending on what sort of work you do and where you do it a commute into Chicago on the Metra trains from further out suburban area can actually be faster than living in Chicago or Oak Park and relying on the CTA. Your money will go farther and the schools are better, as well as offering a different lifestyle / mix of people. Still easy to spend as much as most expensive parts of Chicago, but you are buying a very different thing...

[chet everett]

It is interesting that those are the CPS schools that are NOT exclusively "selective admissions". Sorta odd just how far down the statewide list that drops some well known schools in Chicago.

I tend to rely a bit more on the "top 50" list. That includes the selective enrollment schools. Those tend to compare much more favorably with the suburban schools that I really believe most parents look at.

http://www.suntimes.com/images/cds/pdf/top50elem-2008.pdf (broken link)

The other things that strikes me is that the Top 50 list is going off fairly minor difference on the admittedly weak ISAT type assessment. When you look EVEN those "top 10 non-selective admissions" CPS options it is terrifying to think that ONLY THE TOP half have 3/4 of the students meeting the standards of the assessment. THESE ARE NOT like "appitude" tests. These are SUPPOSEDLY assessing the schools' ability to get student to MINIMUM STANDARDS.

Appalling.


I generally do not make a deal out of the fact that no Oak Park nor Evanston schools make the Top 50 list. I point this out not because I want to pick a fight with some one that will want to argue about the value of the tests / goals of the various school districts, but only to suggest that there are a horriffyingly limited number of schools that do a very good job of getting all students to the minimum levels...

Originally Posted by Johnny Northside

Here are a couple of lists of the top neighborhood schools in Chicago

Top ten Chicago elementary, middle schools :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Education (http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/1253961,top-ten-chicago-schools-110108.article - broken link)

All of the Top 10 Elementary Schools are on the North Side and Northwest Side with the exception of South Loop. (Ogden is close to downtown, but technically on the North Side.) Notably, none of the Top 10 are in the neighborhoods you listed, except Lincoln in Lincoln Park.

In Oak Park, Lincoln and Mann are generally considered to be the best schools.