2200 SF foot house Maine East school Districts vs 1200 SF house New Trier district for family of 5? (Palatine: apartments, attorneys)

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by knitgirl

Chet, you make an interesting point about people looking for schools where their children will do their best, but I'd argue that the very highest ranked, competitive schools aren't necessarily the best choice for every child. A smart, but not brilliant kid may do better at an above average high school.

The real value of high school is how well it prepares kids for what happens next. For most people the "next" is going to be college. The best predictor of success in college is taking college level courses while in high school. The schools that offer the widest range of these course and have the greatest number of kids do well in these courses are conveniently ranked by US News & World Reports High School rankings.

Fact is there are handful of schools that have done exceptionally well in getting a extraordinary percentage of their students to take AP courses and do very well on them. If you care to track down threads where I have defended some of these unique situations in areas like Little Village you will see others attack this school as somehow not worthy of their high ranking. I disagree and strongly believe that the kids from this schools, even if they are only doing well in AP Spanish or a single AP math class, will still be far more likely to succeed in college than kids in some miserable CPS school that offers no such AP classes...

I have no doubt that there are many kids that would benefit greatly from having a mostly "regular" schedule of courses except for one or two AP courses and there are probably SOME schools that will accommodate this but in my experience the schools with the LARGEST range of AP courses and the greatest likelihood of teaching those courses well are the schools that end up at the top of the US News rankings...

That does not mean EVERY class at such schools is going to be some kind of hyper-competitive "murderfest" (frankly that distinction, if it exists at all, is probably most likely to be found at schools like Payton or Northside where the whole student body competes for a rare shot at admission..) it simply means that the best chance for doing well after high school is at the most highly ranked schools.

[Lookout Kid]

I do like that U.S. News "college readiness index", since "college readiness" is truly a top priority for most parents. If you rank schools completely based on that (you can sort Illinois schools by any of the metrics used on their list and remove the "selective enrollment" schools), the top 20 non-selective public high schools are then as follows:

1. Stevenson
2. Deerfield
3. Hinsdale Central
4. Hersey
5. Highland Park
6. Lincoln Park (Chicago)
7. Prospect
8. Riverside Brookfield
9. New Trier
10. Glenbrook North
11. Vernon Hills
12. Glenbard West
13. Buffalo Grove
14. Oak Park & River Forest
15. Glenbrook South
16. Evanston Township
17. Barrington
18. Rolling Meadows
19. Lake Forest
20. Grayslake Centrol

Some surprises on that list for sure! Rolling Meadows? Grayslake? And of course my favorite, Glenbard West?

[Chicagoisthebest]

New trier district Maine east is not good and visit the house in real life the 1200 house is probably in willmette or north field

[mwj119]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

I do like that U.S. News "college readiness index", since "college readiness" is truly a top priority for most parents. If you rank schools completely based on that (you can sort Illinois schools by any of the metrics used on their list and remove the "selective enrollment" schools), the top 20 non-selective public high schools are then as follows:

1. Stevenson
2. Deerfield
3. Hinsdale Central
4. Hersey
5. Highland Park
6. Lincoln Park (Chicago)
7. Prospect
8. Riverside Brookfield
9. New Trier
10. Glenbrook North
11. Vernon Hills
12. Glenbard West
13. Buffalo Grove
14. Oak Park & River Forest
15. Glenbrook South
16. Evanston Township
17. Barrington
18. Rolling Meadows
19. Lake Forest
20. Grayslake Centrol

Some surprises on that list for sure! Rolling Meadows? Grayslake? And of course my favorite, Glenbard West?

I suppose it depends on what you're really looking for when considering rankings.

Education equity is one i'd like to think all would consider, though most don't when selecting a district to live in. So, why not just consider output then? Which school districts have the best test scores, plain and simple.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...-compares.html

The Stevenson District looks like the runaway in IL, 2nd best in the country if you look at attainment vs. median. Looks like Butler in Oak Brook is the next best in IL, along with Hinsdale and Northbrook/Glenview.

Or, instead of rankings... You could just look at the median income levels of a given district. Unfortunately, that tells a better story than all.

[Hiruko]

Originally Posted by Chicagoisthebest

New trier district Maine east is not good and visit the house in real life the 1200 house is probably in willmette or north field

Old thread, but this is nonsense, for the record. Maine East is just as top-notch as New Trier and the other north suburban districts. Park Ridge is a lovely area with a housing stock that is reasonably comparable to Wilmette. These are public schools—no grounds to be snobbish about them.

[MSchemist80]

Maine East was pretty good back when I went there. Keep in mind the good and crappy students tend to separate out with the good students taking AP Calc and upper level science courses and the crappy ones remedial courses. I'd be more worried about Gemini JR High or some of the elementary schools. Gemini was a crap hole with nutjob and low quality teachers and a poor learning environment. It got to the point my parents were considering private school and I was fantasizing about dropping out of school at 16 I was so miserable. ME was so much better I graduated top10 and full of honors from it.

[mwj119]

Originally Posted by Hiruko

Old thread, but this is nonsense, for the record. Maine East is just as top-notch as New Trier and the other north suburban districts. Park Ridge is a lovely area with a housing stock that is reasonably comparable to Wilmette. These are public schools—no grounds to be snobbish about them.

Park Ridge = Maine South, with the exception of a few streets.

Maine East serves Des Plaines, unincorporated Glenview, Morton Grove, and parts of Niles.

[G in MP]

I suppose the biggest factor in school performance is how academically minded the student body is. I was Maine East class of '91, it was fine per middle-class standards. It had the usual mix of high achievers, the just there, and the occasional misfits (like me). Unless something major changed there since the 90's, I don't see a reason to avoid Maine East.

[MSchemist80]

Maine East does also serve the unincorporated area of Des Plaines east of 294 which is fairly ghetto. That is where a lot of the disadvantaged students come from. But as I said the better students separate into the better classes though there are general required classes like gym and government where they mix.

[Hiruko]

Originally Posted by mwj119

Park Ridge = Maine South, with the exception of a few streets.

Maine East serves Des Plaines, unincorporated Glenview, Morton Grove, and parts of Niles.

You're right. I spaced out and confused the two. There is a stark difference between Maine East and Maine South and the other north suburban districts.

Originally Posted by Hiruko

Old thread, but this is nonsense, for the record. Maine East is just as top-notch as New Trier and the other north suburban districts. Park Ridge is a lovely area with a housing stock that is reasonably comparable to Wilmette. These are public schools—no grounds to be snobbish about them.

The above was in error and was meant to refer to Maine South.