Fox Valley School Discussion (Aurora, Naperville: house, school rankings, college)

[atcshane2]

My wife and I are disagreeing on which school to send our children in the fox valley, I'm hoping some locals could give me their opinion.

My wife really wants to send the kids to Aurora Christian. Her reasoning is that publics schools are horrible. (the media tends to reinforce this, plus she went to school in Tucson, which has horrible schools). She is also concerned about out of control kids, sex, drugs, all that jazz.

My background and perspective is different. I went to a great high school on the south side that to this day is better than many private schools. I also read how the fact that property taxes flow easily to schools in high income areas, makes for some very nice public schools. Our public school options would be either St Charles west, or Geneva high (depending on which house we select).

One more thing that might matter. Our kids have been homeschooled up until now, so this will be a big change for them regardless of which school is picked.

Your opinions would be greatly appreciated!

[kurama93]

What area of the Fox Valley are you referring to? The Fox Valley is a big area

Aurora (stay on the Naperville School district 204 side or Oswego 308)
Oswego: The schools are fine
St. Charles and Geneva have pretty good public schools, that area is pretty nice.

I think how parents reinforce education is critical for the child, it is not the public school per say that is bad

Kids are out of control no matter private or public ( I went to both seen it both school settings ) Parents have to keep better tabs on their kids so their kids could avoid those negative things...

[vandre]

I was curious about this as well. Supposedly both Geneva and St Charles have very good schools, but when I look at "U.S News High School Rankings" only St Charles North High School is ranked (Silver award). Geneva High School is nowhere to be seen, not even "Honorable mention".

The only other ranked school in Kane County by U.S. News is Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora:

America's Best High Schools 2010 - US News Education


Edit: Even more interesting The Sun-times rank for St Charles North is 27 among 656 ranked high schools. Geneva High? ranked 26!!

http://labs.suntimes.com/reportcards...10453040260001
http://labs.suntimes.com/reportcards...10453030260012

[atcshane2]

Originally Posted by kurama93

What area of the Fox Valley are you referring to? The Fox Valley is a big area.

Sorry, guess i am referring to the St Charles - Geneva - North Aurora areas. Just need arguements one way or the other. The school in North Aurora costs around $7k/year per kid (2 kids).

[westburbsil]

Geneva, St. Charles, Batavia schools are all above average. Don't let people tell you any different. Many only quote the handful that are ahead (i.e. Naperville, Hinsdale, North Shore), while there are hundreds upon hundreds below.
I would only do private if in Aurora or Elgin. Just my opinion.

[gardener34]

Why are you discontinuing home school? Isn't it working out?

[atcshane2]

Originally Posted by gardener34

Why are you discontinuing home school? Isn't it working out?

Burned out. Big time.

[atcshane2]

Btw, I accidentally wrote St Charles west, I mean St Charles North.

It would be great if someone who has had kids attend any of these schools could give me an opinion on the subject. Who knows, maybe someone on here has moved their kids from the private one to the public one, or vice versa. I know, longshot.

[chet everett]

Academic performance data is pretty hard to come by for private schools.

About the best one can do is extrapolate the information about AP Scholars awards (which go to individual students based upon their successful completion of AP exams) as percentage of enrolled students. Based on this number one of the best performing private schools in the Fox Valley is Marmion Academy, where about a third of boys receive such designation -- and extraordinary percentage.

I believe a similar ratio may be why St. Charles North is a US News silver -- about 10% of the kids there earned the designation.

Of course the admissions standards of a private school that uses tests would lead one to expect high performance, so the real issue is not just academics but the overall environment and I think it is fair bet that single sex high schools like Rosary and Marmion are not going to have kids ending up on MTV shows...

AC might an option for you, but they have a different philosophy that might best described as similar to that of Wheaton College or others where a bible centric tradition is primary.

[gardener34]

My children have attended St. Charles D-303 schools from the very beginning. We have been very satisifed with them in general. Son is going into STCh East and from meeting with the teachers it looks like there a lot of good options for him there.

I would recommend any D-303 school. They do teach "everyday math" curriculum so I don't know if that would be to much of a change for them. I do know this is controversial program for academics. But my kids are doing pretty well in math and they are doing better in math that I did at that same age, so I am not knocking it.

Although after homeschooling, a transition to a smaller parochial school may be much easier. You cannot go wrong with Marmion or any other catholic school out here for that matter.