Potential relocation from uk. British school of interest but where to live? (Chicago: 2015, house)

[Finp06]

Chet, I had a look at some of the US state school reports but couldn't really work them out so that s very helpful to know of the honor roll for academic excellence - I'll look at them again now.
Our schools are all inspected by a national body - Ofsted - rated and a then a report written which anyone can access. The county councils deal with admissions which vary dpending upon where you live. In Surrey where we are, the schools are above national average and my children's school is above surrey average so we are spoilt and this has probably made me more cautious. The catchment for our school last September was 400 odd metres for a 60 child intake. Nonsense situation!

[chet everett]

I think I can translate -- the way the catchment boundaries work (after things like siblings and selective admissions) is by saying "kids that are closer to this school get a perference in admissions" so that means the OP's schools had such high demand that only kids who were just four football fields away got accepted and only 60 students came from that "local pool"...\

Things are signficantly different here. The vast majority of public schools are designed to serve local residents. In a few large districts, such as Chicago, there are selective admissions which were dreamt up as way to address concerns of racial imbalance some 30+ years ago. Now Chicago has exceedingly few non-minority students in most area and competition for the handful of high performing schools is fierce.

There is a strong correlation between the academic success of students and the income of their parents -- towns with more costly homes have schools with good performance. The relative buying power of $765,000 in desirable parts of Chicago with good local attendance area schools is arguably less than the same sum in one of the suburbs with good accessability to O'Hare...

[Finp06]

I think I need to go over for a week but I guess that won't be until August when the schools are off and I won't get such an angle on the school traffic but at least I get a feel for neighbourhood. Rental I guess £2-3,000 a month so will do a price comparison on areas linked with schools and take it from there. Husband's job will probably be based in Itasca.

[Finp06]

Yes Chet, perfect translation. Therefore the school has children born to parents with a certain level of income to be able to afford to live close enough to the better schools. The catchment area used to be much greater but our town has become super popular with couples looking to get out of London to give their family green space. There are these pockets all over the commuter belt. And all outstanding schools are over subscribed. The atmosphere it creates therefore just increases the competitive feel. Vicious circle.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by chet everett

If you care to list the CPS facilities on the Honor Roll that are neighbor attendance schools and not over crowded / offer good access to O'Hare / a nice range of housing options at the OP's price point that would be helpful.

Please define the following:

not over crowded
good access to O'Hare
a nice range of houisng options at the OPs price point

And Chet you know as well as anyone that the Honor Roll favors schools with a very low number of low income students. When you look at the mentioned CPS elementary schools by income level, you will see that student outcomes are not that different from the Honor Roll schools. I imagine there are many people who are afraid of mingling with the poors.

Anyway, to the OP, if your husband's job is in Itasca, you will likely want to live out near the office. FYI, my wife works with a good number of UK expats, they almost exclusively live in Chicago (most work downtown Chicago). Those with school age kids tend to send there kids to the mentioned CPS schools.

[Finp06]

Vlajos, many thanks. Looks like we have an awful lot of requests for our move. My husband is now in Chicago for a couple of days so hopefully he can start looking around. Around the Glenview area was my initial choice, being close to Itasca. The British school idea obviously has thrown a curve ball and made me question my initial thoughts.
Lots more research required!

[chet everett]

There are a fair number of folks that commute to Itasca from suburbs like Arlington Heights, Elmhurst, Downers Grove, Glen Ellyn and even Hinsdale/Clarendon Hills/ Oak Brook -- fairly straightforward commute via 355 or Rt 83/290. Expats are not uncommon in the nicer suburbs at all.

As to the definitions of over crowded I would be happy with any CPS school not listed as "over utilized".
For "good access to O'Hare" I would accept anything on the Blue Line (though with an office in Itasca any day that the OP's spouse needs to be in the office public transit will not be feasible...)
Nice range of housing options is kind of self explanatory -- with children and pets I doubt OP would be enthusiased living in anything less than they have currrently and current budget is about $765K US...

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by chet everett

There are a fair number of folks that commute to Itasca from suburbs like Arlington Heights, Elmhurst, Downers Grove, Glen Ellyn and even Hinsdale/Clarendon Hills/ Oak Brook -- fairly straightforward commute via 355 or Rt 83/290. Expats are not uncommon in the nicer suburbs at all.

As to the definitions of over crowded I would be happy with any CPS school not listed as "over utilized".
For "good access to O'Hare" I would accept anything on the Blue Line (though with an office in Itasca any day that the OP's spouse needs to be in the office public transit will not be feasible...)
Nice range of housing options is kind of self explanatory -- with children and pets I doubt OP would be enthusiased living in anything less than they have currrently and current budget is about $765K US...

I gave a good starting list of schools, you can go through CPS list of "over utilized" schools and figure it out.

You have an odd definition of good access to O'Hare. Only along the blue line?

One can easily find a nice home in Chicago at 765K for a family with kids and pets.

[knitgirl]

Originally Posted by Finp06

Vlajos, many thanks. Looks like we have an awful lot of requests for our move. My husband is now in Chicago for a couple of days so hopefully he can start looking around. Around the Glenview area was my initial choice, being close to Itasca. The British school idea obviously has thrown a curve ball and made me question my initial thoughts.
Lots more research required!

I would not call a commute from Glenview to Itasca easy. I grew up in the Itasca area and would recommend Arlington Heights, Palatine, Glen Ellyn or Wheaton as being closer to Itasca, they all have interesting, walkable downtowns. They are also on train lines to Chicago for when you'd like to spend a day downtown.

[chet everett]

Here is the data on all schools in Chicago and the degree to which they've been deemed under /spot on / over utilized. A "zero" means perfect match between capacity and current enrollement , negative numbers are under utilized, postive numbers over utilized. Scale is an issue -- many of the schools are trying to serve almost double their capacity...

Chicago Public Schools Utilization Index, SunTimes

There is some controversy as to degree to which the CPS formula misstates underutilization and likely allows for classrooms to be severely overfilled -- Gazette Chicago » Bridgeport Alliance questions CPS school utilization formula

I really think the OP is better off comparing top performing schools that will afford her spouse a short commute to work & airport...