Chicago Magazine List of Best Chicago Public Schools (Troy: house, neighborhood)

[beaniemac]

My mom mentioned this article to me last week, so I was able to pull it up off the internet using my chicago public library info to access the magazine for free. That being said, two of the top 10 elementary schools are less than a mile from me. My youngest is going from private school to public school for the first time (she starts 1st grade), and she was accepted to one on this list, which I'm happy about. when I was a kid, I went to skinner west for my first three years using my grandad's address. then we moved to oak park and went to school out there going foward.

[beaniemac]

this same article also ranks the best high schools and grammar schools in lake, kane, dupage and will county as well. I just didn't post it since this is the chicago forum.

[citylove101]

Eleven of those 15 schools are selective, which I presume means entry is by some type of examination, interview, minimum GPA, or other metric. So they end up as top schools not because they're that good, but because they pick top students to start out with. Under those circumstances most any school will be top in its district. The truly top schools, IMO, are the ones that take a broad range of students and elevate everybody, and those are few and far between--especially in big city districts like Chicago, New York, LA, etc.

Nevertheless, congratulations on your kid gaining entry. Finding a strong, high-performing public school in Chicago, and getting admitted into it, is no easy task. Im sure you're nothing but proud. And you ought to be.

[beaniemac]

Originally Posted by citylove101

Eleven of those 15 schools are selective, which I presume means entry is by some type of examination, interview, minimum GPA, or other metric. So they end up as top schools not because they're that good, but because they pick top students to start out with. Under those circumstances most any school will be top in its district. The truly top schools, IMO, are the ones that take a broad range of students and elevate everybody, and those are few and far between--especially in big city districts like Chicago, New York, LA, etc.

Nevertheless, congratulations on your kid gaining entry. Finding a strong, high-performing public school in Chicago, and getting admitted into it, is no easy task. Im sure you're nothing but proud. And you ought to be.

especially when that school is in the neighborhood and only a 2 minutes away.

I wasn't clear on how the charter schools stack up to the regular CPS schools.

the way the process here works is you take a test for both the regular schools and one for the classical schools. and then they mail you out a letter for which schools you get accepted to as well as your test scores.

my older daughter is actually smarter than the 1st grader, but she's in private school and my wife didn't seem too keen on sending her to the northside via train for 8th grade and wanted to let her finish out this last year of private school and she will DEFINITELY be in public school next year. since she was accepted to a number of schools via testing this year, I believe she will be able to get into a selective enrollment high school as well. that's the plan at least. my younger daughter only did kindergarten at private school, so she was OK with switching her school, since she will be at her new school for the next 8 years.

[xsboost]

Wow. Can't believe Whitney Young has fallen to third over the years.

[beaniemac]

Originally Posted by xsboost

Wow. Can't believe Whitney Young has fallen to third over the years.

I have a friend who said that his daughter applied to every selective enrollment high school, and the only one she didn't get into was northside prep. so she got into all the other ones.

what suprises me most is jones college prep isn't on the list at all. and that's a selective enrollment school.

[Gemini1963]

Isn't that Jones at #4 -- William Jones College Prep?

[chet everett]

Interesting post from the (now former) principal at Blaine Elementary -- https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2016...missal-process

Troy has been very vocal about the reasons that being a principal in CPS is a losing proposition

... If they do pass a budget, we have a [state] funding formula that is inadequate. If they correct the funding formula, you have a district that’s proven that it will spend money recklessly and wastefully... All three of those things have at some level or another created a degree of uncertainty and frustration among principals."

-- Dozens of principals quitting CPS, even from “plum schools” | Catalyst Chicago

[treemoni]

If you live within the boundaries of the school, your child gets to attend whether they test or not. I'm sure your kid is intelligent, but he or she wasn't going to be denied admission.

[beaniemac]

Originally Posted by treemoni

If you live within the boundaries of the school, your child gets to attend whether they test or not. I'm sure your kid is intelligent, but he or she wasn't going to be denied admission.

actually mcdade is block from me to the south and the closest school to my house on the list, but my kid cannot go there since that is a selective enrollment school only and she wasn't offered a position there. there's also another school across the street from me, that she's not going to attend either. my kid is of average intelligence I would say. she's only in the 1st grade.