Relocating to Chicago.. need info on school districts - Page 3

teriwtt · 03-09-2008, 01:27 PM

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I can't agree with Teriwtt comment that drug use or partying in general are more common in privates. You will hear this comment, but everyone that every said this to me never had a student in the private school they were talking about

I have heard this directly from kids who attend the private schools, which is why I pass it along. It's not something I just heard in passing from some unaffiliated parent/student. One of those kids I heard it from actually transferred to our local public school from a private (not because of the drug problems, but just wanted more curriculum and EC options).

Quote:

But, aren't those areas high cost because of the good schools?

As pointed out previously, 'good' school is a relative term, depending on what your values are in for an educational system. The OP later clarified that she doesn't think her child would fit well in an environment with such high pressure, so those would not be good schools for them.

midwesterner · 03-09-2008, 03:24 PM

Sun-Times News Group
has test scores for all the state. If you are looking by county, Chicago and many suburbs are in Cook; Lake County to the north and DuPage to the west have some of the schools mentioned by previous posters.

If you want to stay south, I would recommend looking at Burr Ridge, equivalent in price to the tonier northern suburbs, but in a better location for you.

TheresaCPA · 03-09-2008, 04:41 PM

I lived in Chicago and suburbs all my life. I went to school in Lisle a smaller town east of Naperville. It has good schools with good kids. When we got fed up with the Chicago academically gifted magnet school high stress game we tried private schools and we found teachers who could not spell etc. Finally we transferred the kid out to Waubonsie HS west of the Naperville area. Not alot of rich kids like in Naperville. Kids come to school in their very own hummers in naperville. The communte is horrendous specially on a friday night.

I also lived in Elmhurst for ten years. It is close enough to city to make a quick train ride. Can take a bus and el ride in as well. can drive quickly into the city I think 28 minutes driveway to parking garage. And the York high school is a regular HS with enough programs for an ADHD kid. My nephew is paraplegic and went to Uof Il Champaign. He does computer gaming programs and whatever.

The husband has lived in St charles and Geneva and both are truly picture perfect towns. The commute is long.

Neighborhoods like Elmhurst, Hinsdale and Glen Ellyn are comfortable old suburbs with wonderful commuting times, and easy access to the hub of the interstate system in Chicago.

moondogguy · 03-09-2008, 08:59 PM

One thing to be careful of is that the school districts don't always allign exactly with the associated town. For example, the east side of Naperville is in District 203 and the west side (along with a portion of Aurora) is in District 204. Waubonsee High School, mentioned in the previous post, is in District 204 and a good portion of it's students are from Naperville. (So the previous posters ascertain that Wabonsie is better because it doesn't have the stuck up rich kids from Naperville isn't exactly true, although I do believe it to be more economically diverse. On the other hand, Nequa Valley, another high school in District 204 is known to have some of the richest, most stuck up, obnoxious kids in the country, mainly living in very transient, expensive subdivisions (lots of corporate transferees.)

Some very basic differences between the two districts. District 203, being landlocked, hasn't experienced much growth in a number of years. On the other hand, District 204 has seen explosive growth and hence has higher property taxes to pay for all the new schools. (In fact, be careful of property taxes in any of the outlying school districts which have seen consideable growth in recent years, such as Plainfield noted in an earlier post.) In fact, they recently passed a referendum to raise taxes again to build a third high school. Apparently, there is a lawsuit pending from a group of parents pointing to the new high school location (a bit off the beaten path) that will cause the school boundaries (elementary, junior high, and high school) to differ from what they were promised when they voted on the referendum. Some just don't like their kids suddently being destined to travel further (bused) to school and others just preferred certain schools over others. They are all good schools, so I can't see the point myself. One nice thing about District 204 I've noticed, is that they cut a deal with the College of Dupage (local community college) that provides high school students the opportunity to take college level classes in place of high school classes their senior year. Even leased a building nearby one of the high schools to house the classes. Gives a big head start on accumulating college credit.

With respect to property taxes, District 203 just passed a referendum to raise money to essentially rebuild one (very old) of their two high schools. So kids going there within next few years might have to put up with considerable construction. Also, with respect to the earlier post on competive high schools resulting in lower class rank when applying to colleges, District 203 recently dropped determining and reporting class ranks for that reason. As a result, acceptances at the hard to get into flagship state university actually went up a few percent for the district. Overall, I tend to like the atmosphere of District 203 better (older part of town and more down to earth, less competive, although they have their share, people.) Academically, both districts are neck and neck.

Bottom line is that if schools is your primary consideration, you really need to know the intimate details of what is going on in those districts, in addition to ACT scores.

One other warning, I've heard of people buying in subdivisions in the Chicago area (especially one still under development) in which the developer claimed belonged in a much sought after school district, only to find out after buying the house, they are really in nearby, not so good school district. Best to check with the school district directly before buying the house.

JiffsMom · 03-09-2008, 11:21 PM

A couple of charts to use in your search...

This chart shows the percentage of high school grads in each district that are adequately prepared for first year college-level courses in the last column (New Trier and Hinsdale data is not included). You may be surprised that overall, Chicago suburban school districts adequately prepare only 27% of students for college.
Daily Herald | A decade of school funding

Excel version if you like to sort data:
http://www.dailyherald.com/packages/...ter10excel.xls

This chart shows the debt load per student in each district. School debt has a major impact on your property tax bill.
Daily Herald | A decade of school funding

Excel version:
http://www.dailyherald.com/packages/...pter9excel.xls

Also take a look at US News & World Report's medal winning Illinois public high schools. You can sort by county.
Best High Schools Search - US News and World Report

Pizzagirl · 03-10-2008, 06:47 AM

To the point about the boundaries not aligning with the town boundaries, also note that parts of Oak Brook go to the Hinsdale school district, and parts of Oak Brook go to the Downers Grove school district.

Pizzagirl · 03-10-2008, 06:50 AM

"And most importantly, it ALL depends on the priorities you have for your child's educational experience. You will find at most of those schools, the competitiveness of the students is implicitly indicative of the competitiveness of the parents. So you have to decide how much stress you want your child to be under to succeed, and be around people whose parents are spending every penny possible to assure their child's success (by the way, I know teachers/administrators in all four districts I mentioned, so I hear this from them)."

This is a very big point. While New Trier and Hinsdale are excellent, the pressure is very intense, and one could argue that someone could be better served by being, say, the star at Downers Grove rather than one of many stars at Hinsdale.

DadOfMAR · 03-11-2008, 01:33 AM

Thank you all for the information you all gave me. Every single of you posts have given me insight that only people in the know could give. Now we have to decide if this big step is the right one.
My nephew lives in a "less desirable" avg high school (SAT 490V 485 CR /20.5 ACT and recieved similiar SAT scores and GPA compared to my son's high school , AVG SAT 549V/ 537 CR/ 23 ACT yet he got into very similar schools. My brother and I have been debating for years over whether is it better to be the big fish in the pond or a little fish in the big pond. Our sons' success has not ended thid debate.
So with respect to the " best of the State" schools, can any of you give me any info on any places south of Chicago that is within 50 miles that are reccomended? In school districts near me, including mine, parents micromanages thier kids every move in order to make it into the Ivies. My younger son has been affected by the pressure placed on his friends and needs to be himself not compared to his quadiplegic over acheiving brother " QuadNerd " as he calls him. For my son's sake , we would like to live in a less competitive school district, at least in ones where the pressure is not as intense?

Pizzagirl · 03-11-2008, 07:51 AM

I might suggest the Downers Grove / Woodridge area which is west to southwest of Chicago. Close to Oak Brook, Naperville and direct train lines to downtown Chicago if access to business centers are important to you. Lovely family friendly communities. Good school districts (DG North and DG South) that will get your kid anywhere he needs to be, but without the intense cutthroat Ivy pressures of Hinsdale or New Trier. Not cheap, to be sure, but not the insane housing costs of the North Shore.

I'm not familiar enough with the southern suburbs to make any recommendations; can anyone provide perspective? Homewood-Flossmoor comes to mind, but I don't know much about it.

If you are moving to be able to make frequent visits to your son at UIUC, then I think it's really only the southern or southwestern suburbs that are worth considering. Good luck!

dbwes · 03-11-2008, 09:07 AM

Orland Park? Frankfurt?

ChiDad · 03-11-2008, 05:11 PM

It's been a few years since I've lived in the Chicago suburbs (Glen Ellyn) and I know the western suburbs best. However, directly south of Chicago are Olympia Fields and Homewood Flossmor (HF) two schools that sent a lot of kids to U of I when I attended in the 1980's. You should check them out.

prankityclankity · 06-28-2008, 05:19 AM

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Someone mentioned Plainfield. It is indeed a rapidly expanding community. I actually know someone who works at Plainfield North.

DCforMe, I actually attended Plainfield North and live in Plainfield. The school is a hot mess, but only because the community is growing so fast and your friend's analysis is correct. The teachers were probably one of the worst parts of the school and I advise parents to stay away from the incompetent school district. I'm sure in the future Plainfield district 202 will be a fine district, but right now it can't keep up with the growth and because of that the academics are mediocre.