neighborhood elementary schools with easy commute to loop (Chicago, Addison: low income, apartment)

[butterfly70]

Hi,

I'm interested in recommendations for neighborhoods with good elementary schools and easy commute to loop. It seems that there are numerous elementary schools that are good, but options are more limited for high school? I'm looking to pay up to $2200 rent for 2 bedroom apartment. I appreciate recommendations and am also interested in best means of evaluating schools.

Thanks!

[jjjttt]

Waters Elementary is considered a strong elementary school and it's in a great neighborhood. You could live near the brown line which would give you an approx 35-min commute, which is a bit long but you'd just be sitting on the train. Your price range would give you a decent sized place, too.

[NorthSideSoxGuy]

For the most part, you're correct in your assessment that there are many good elementary schools, but limited options for high school. In many neighborhoods, families really have no choice but to send their kids to private high school if they don't make it into one of the selective enrollment schools. For instance, you'll find that the vast majority of families in places like Mt. Greenwood and Beverly would have no problem sending their kids to CPS elementary schools, but almost all end up sending their kids to Catholic high school. And then on the North Side in places like Lakeview, North Center and Lincoln Square, you have good elementary schools, but many families deciding to move to the suburbs before their kids are of high school age.

But of course, there are are exceptions. Lincoln Park High School has a solid reputation. Taft on the far NW Side is also viewed as an acceptable option.

But in terms of neighborhoods with good elementary schools within reasonable commutes, you have a lot of options, especially at your price point. Here are are a few neighborhoods I'd check out:

Northwest Side:
Edison Park -- lots of families, 30 minute commute downtown on Metra
Norwood Park -- again, family-friendly, 25 minute commute on the Metra

North Side:
Lincoln Park -- a bit pricey, but solid schools and 20 minute commute on Red/Brown Lines
Lakeview -- lots of rental options, solid schools, 20-25 minutes on Red/Brown Lines
North Center/Lincoln Square/Roscoe Village -- great schools, lots of families, 35-40 minutes on Brown Line.

South Side:
Beverly -- great neighborhood, 30-35 minutes on Metra
Mt. Greenwood -- not as great transit access as other neighborhoods, but great schools and loads of families

If you'd like to explore some of your options, I'd check out this tool from CPS: CPS School Locator -- It'll show you school info/attendance boundaries. Good luck!

[Clark&Addison]

Good info above, Pretty much all the elementary schools along the brown line are good. Same goes for the schools on the northwest side off the blue line. Beverly and Mount Greenwood are nice areas but the Clissold and Sutherland are a step down from the northside schools mentioned in my opinion, and Mt. Greenwood/Cassell are to far from the metra.

[chet everett]

Some posters are trying to portray Taft as an 'acceptable" option. I checked in with friends still working in CPS and they strongly disagree. Fact is more than 80% of students are NOT rated as doing work that would suggest they are prepared for college -- https://iirc.niu.edu/classic/School....250043&level=S

To any sane parent this would be UNACCEPTABLE; fact is even the least desirable high schools in D214, Rolling Meadows https://iirc.niu.edu/Classic/School....170007&level=S or Wheeling https://iirc.niu.edu/Classic/School....170006&level=S are FAR better ...

Anyone contemplating a non-selective admissions high school in CPS ought to consider just how narrow a path to future success they'd be leaving for their children. The fact is even as relatively well paid city workers continue to live in nicer parts of Chicago the high schools that once served those areas are increasingly not reflective of the neighborhoods -- families with no real sense of the importance of a quality education are merely fleeing the more violent schools in rougher neighborhoods. It is a terrible situation that is politically too hot to handle...

[Vicman]

I wonder if Taft has/had a "school within a school" which attracts some neighborhood families. At the high school level people are often tracked by academic ability. In Houston there are two comprehensive high schools in the inner city that are seen as "acceptable" for upper middle class families (Lamar and Bellaire) but there's a clear disparity between the AP/IB classes and the "regular" classes.

Originally Posted by chet everett

Some posters are trying to portray Taft as an 'acceptable" option. I checked in with friends still working in CPS and they strongly disagree. Fact is more than 80% of students are NOT rated as doing work that would suggest they are prepared for college -- https://iirc.niu.edu/classic/School....250043&level=S

To any sane parent this would be UNACCEPTABLE; fact is even the least desirable high schools in D214, Rolling Meadows https://iirc.niu.edu/Classic/School....170007&level=S or Wheeling https://iirc.niu.edu/Classic/School....170006&level=S are FAR better ...

Anyone contemplating a non-selective admissions high school in CPS ought to consider just how narrow a path to future success they'd be leaving for their children. The fact is even as relatively well paid city workers continue to live in nicer parts of Chicago the high schools that once served those areas are increasingly not reflective of the neighborhoods -- families with no real sense of the importance of a quality education are merely fleeing the more violent schools in rougher neighborhoods. It is a terrible situation that is politically too hot to handle...

[Clark&Addison]

They do, they have an IB diploma program, an IB Career Certificate, and the AVID program. All of these programs are much better that the regular neighborhood program and are the reason that many Taft academic center (7th and 8th grade) kids stay at Taft.

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by Clark&Addison

They do, they have an IB diploma program, an IB Career Certificate, and the AVID program. All of these programs are much better that the regular neighborhood program and are the reason that many Taft academic center (7th and 8th grade) kids stay at Taft.

It's consistent with what's in Houston. A board member of the Houston Independent School District (HISD) stated in the 1990s that middle and high school parents know their kids are tracked/put in classes by academic ability, so they can tolerate higher levels of low income students compared to elementary school parents https://books.google.ae/books?id=4eY4cg07-CAC&pg=PA59

For middle and high schools, which grouped classes somewhat by ability, the minority enrollment could exceed 70 percent.

[chet everett]

Newsflash -- all schools have different "levels" of class and "ability grouping" is pretty much universal in high schools. THAT does not change the FACT that more than 80% of the kids at Taft are not performing at a level that would indicate they are prepared for college.

The details on the "IB Career Programme" sound like kids SHOULD be prepared for "higher education" Career-related studies - International Baccalaureate®

The fact the so few kids at Taft are prepared for higher education should be a RED FLAG that explains why parents who have better options choose them...

It is not helping anyone to sugarcoat the sad reality that CPS is not serving HUGE numbers of the students that it should be -- the kids that are not being adequately prepared for college are going to end up making the problems of Chicago and the region worse.

[Vicman]

Looking at the link for Taft further, I notice that the link reads "ACT College Readiness Benchmarks (CRB) by All Students - All Subjects 2012-16". I'm not from Illinois, so I'm not sure what the criteria is for testing (and the site doesn't allow me to see on a grade level by grade level basis).

Which grade levels are tested? I'm wondering if they have the 7th and 8th grade students take the ACT? If so, does the level which someone is "college ready" change based on grade level or is it the same level regardless of the grade level? (Unlike the other schools Taft has the 7th and 8th grades.)

From Houston I can say that even though comprehensive high schools generally do separate by ability, not every one is deemed "acceptable" by the middle class.

Originally Posted by chet everett

Newsflash -- all schools have different "levels" of class and "ability grouping" is pretty much universal in high schools. THAT does not change the FACT that more than 80% of the kids at Taft are not performing at a level that would indicate they are prepared for college.

The details on the "IB Career Programme" sound like kids SHOULD be prepared for "higher education" Career-related studies - International Baccalaureate®

The fact the so few kids at Taft are prepared for higher education should be a RED FLAG that explains why parents who have better options choose them...

It is not helping anyone to sugarcoat the sad reality that CPS is not serving HUGE numbers of the students that it should be -- the kids that are not being adequately prepared for college are going to end up making the problems of Chicago and the region worse.