Public Schools in Chicago & Suburbs (Naperville, Joliet: rent, neighborhood, school district)

[deadbeatdeb]

We have a one year old son now, so we're beginning to think about schools. We rent in Edgewater and from what I've read, CPS seem abysmal, with a few exceptions that may be options for us. (Nettelhorst, Bell). My own public high school education was sub par and although I don't believe we'll be able to send him to private school, I will not fail my kid like I believe I was failed. Here are some things I've been wondering about.

1. I've been looking up schools on Illinois Report Card, but how do I know if a school "teaches the test", which sounds horrible.

2. I feel like moving to the right suburb might be an easy solution, so we're starting to look at suburbs. Am I wrong to think this would solve everything regarding his education?

3. My neighbor was telling me about one school nearby that teaches its entire curriculum in Spanish, which interests me. Could my child learn Spanish or Chinese starting at an early age in a suburban school, or is this something a Chicago city school is more apt to teach?

I appreciate any advice.

[JustJulia]

Originally Posted by deadbeatdeb

We have a one year old son now, so we're beginning to think about schools. We rent in Edgewater and from what I've read, CPS seem abysmal, with a few exceptions that may be options for us. (Nettelhorst, Bell). My own public high school education was sub par and although I don't believe we'll be able to send him to private school, I will not fail my kid like I believe I was failed. Here are some things I've been wondering about.

1. I've been looking up schools on Illinois Report Card, but how do I know if a school "teaches the test", which sounds horrible.

2. I feel like moving to the right suburb might be an easy solution, so we're starting to look at suburbs. Am I wrong to think this would solve everything regarding his education?

3. My neighbor was telling me about one school nearby that teaches its entire curriculum in Spanish, which interests me. Could my child learn Spanish or Chinese starting at an early age in a suburban school, or is this something a Chicago city school is more apt to teach?

I appreciate any advice.

We live in Naperville, which has two schools that teach dual-language classes in Spanish. Other suburbs do offer dual-language as well, and I believe some of them offer classes in languages other than Spanish (Chinese and Japanese, I think).

Dual Language - Naperville Community Unit School District 203

Whether schools teach to the test--I've seen various school report card sites, some with parental reviews. A couple of the regular posters always have good links for those, and they will probably post them here for you.

I don't agree that switching schools, even to a highly rated school, will automatically solve "everything regarding his education," because a good education requires involvement from the student and his parents , but I do think that your son's future school system should be one of the very most important factors that you consider when deciding where to move.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by deadbeatdeb

We have a one year old son now, so we're beginning to think about schools. We rent in Edgewater and from what I've read, CPS seem abysmal, with a few exceptions that may be options for us. (Nettelhorst, Bell). My own public high school education was sub par and although I don't believe we'll be able to send him to private school, I will not fail my kid like I believe I was failed. Here are some things I've been wondering about.

1. I've been looking up schools on Illinois Report Card, but how do I know if a school "teaches the test", which sounds horrible.

2. I feel like moving to the right suburb might be an easy solution, so we're starting to look at suburbs. Am I wrong to think this would solve everything regarding his education?

3. My neighbor was telling me about one school nearby that teaches its entire curriculum in Spanish, which interests me. Could my child learn Spanish or Chinese starting at an early age in a suburban school, or is this something a Chicago city school is more apt to teach?

I appreciate any advice.

Peirce is a good school in your neck of the woods.

[chicagojlo]

A good site for info on Chicago schools is cpsobsessed.com. You can learn a lot about selective and lottery admission schools there. Another good site is NPNParents.org but you have to pay to join.

It's not a given that any suburban school will provide a better education for your child than any CPS school could. You should research schools you are considering thoroughly, including checking attendance boundary maps. Don't assume that proximity to a school means you are in.

[chet everett]

There are so many factors. On the one hand the numbers work against CPS -- of the HUGE population of Chicago only a TINY handful of parents are sufficiently involved in their kids schools to really be able to assess what goes on. So many teachers, even still relatively young, have been whipsawed by the various efforts to both contain costs and improve performance that they have little alternative to just doing enough to get by. The efforts to get kids into selective admission programs means that in many areas the kids "left behind" are sorta like getting skim milk in your coffee when you were hoping for cream -- the best part is some place else...

If you took a distribution of kids in kindergarten from across the metro region you'd get a roughly bell shaped curve of abilities BUT if you looked at the better performing kindergarteners they come overwhelmingly from well off areas where the parents have the time and motivate to get the kids very well prepared PRIOR to kindergarten. That advantage really never completely goes away, and in many aspects the gap between the well prepared and those filling out the lower end of the curve grows wider...

There are involved parents in a handful of neighborhood CPS schools. If you do join the npn site there are ample opportunities to find out the advantages and pitfalls of selective enrollment vs neighborhood school. If you put the effort in now you should be in AWESOME position to decide which route you want to pursue. If your kid gets into a selective admissions program and sticks with it all the through Northside Prep or Payton they will just as well positioned if not moreso than the academic aspects of a top performing suburban high school.

You also have to take into consideration where your job is, what sort of housing situation you can expect to have, how involved in things like scouting , athletics, sports and other "extras" you envision your family being -- people who dis places like Elk Grove Village or Glendale Heights or Joliet sometimes forget that for the hippness of Billy Corgan, James Iha, or Jimmy Chamberlin that is where the Smashing Pumpkins grew up. Not saying the next "Chicago band" to make it big won't be classmates from Nettlehorst or Blaine, just that choices you make NOW will effect what your kids does down the road...

If you knowingly send your kid to some school where a large percentage of the other kids are not making adequate progress you really are sort of irresponsible -- those kind of situations are the ones mostly likely to result in an uncreative teacher sticking to the basics or "teaching to the test" and that will probably result in many of the kids being turned off on education. With out some sort of "magic" kids that get turned off on education have a hard time do well enough in school to be able to consider college. The odds of that happening in a 'burb where pretty much every parent is living there for the schools is close to zero -- the sorts of bad things that drain the energy out of teachers just don't happen ...

[deadbeatdeb]

It's been awhile since I posted this, but thank you so much for your input. I think we're leaning toward relocating to the suburbs. I'll look into getting my son on a waiting list for preschool in the meantime, because we are still in very early stages of thinking about this. I like Park Ridge. I have no question that it would be a great place to grow up. But the more homework i do on the burbs, the more I feel that moving even further out might be great. I suppose I should create a new thread with my questions. Thank you again.

And Chet, how did you know that I'm secretly worried about not being cool living in the burbs - ha!