Questions about Lake View public elementary schools... (Chicago, Hamilton: real estate, crime)

[M4rT1N]

A few questions about Lake View public elementary schools……

1. Are there reputable public elementary schools in Lake View?
2. Are all public schools in Lake View zoned (they are in a school district so to speak)?
3. If you live within a public school’s zone, is your child more or less guaranteed admission to the school?
4. Can kids who do not live in a school’s zone attend the school?
If so, who gets priority if enrollment is limited… the kid in district or out of district?

I’ve found a listing of Lake View schools here…..

http://www.zillow.com/real-estate/IL-Chicago/Lake-View-schools/

Which of these public elementary schools (if any) are generally considered to be of a high standard….. all of them, none of them, one or two of them?

Thanks in advance for your responses!

[Lookout Kid]

Nettlehorst and Blaine are pretty good schools in Lakeview, and yes, they must take your kids if you live within the attendance boundary for the school. If they don't fill up with neighborhood kids, they are "magnet" and take kids from other neighborhoods.

[chet everett]

The School Report Cards show Blaine doing quite a bit better than Nettlehorst:

2008 Report Card Results
2008 Report Card Results

For comparison purposes here are the Top 50 elementary schools:
http://www.suntimes.com/images/cds/pdf/top50elem-2008.pdf (broken link)

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by M4rT1N

A few questions about Lake View public elementary schools……

I’ve found a listing of Lake View schools here…..

http://www.zillow.com/real-estate/IL-Chicago/Lake-View-schools/

The "Zillow" website is very inaccurate. Most of the schools it mentions are in Lake View Township (Which is far larger than the Lake View community area) which includes parts of several community areas as well as more than a few neighborhoods.

[M4rT1N]

Hey thanks for your posts, much appreciated.

Avengerfire, Zillow does seem to throw in far too many schools if you only want info on the Lake View community area. Chet, I see that the top 50 list includes Hawthorne, thanks.

I've continued searching on the net and found a few really useful sites.......

This one rates Lake View schools, also in terms of student test scores....... where the scores rank, when compared to all Illinois Elementary schools. Blaine, Burley and Hawthorne are in the top 25 percentile. I'm not sure if you can attend Hawthorne just by living in its boundaries (I'll call them), whereas with the other two you can.

Real Estate: Community Map, Attractions, Schools & Crime Statistics -- chicagotribune.com

This next site has an online school directory that's fairly detailed. You can view stats on the schools, such as test scores for each individual grade (3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th etc.)

Neighborhood Parents Network of Chicago - NPN serving the Parent Community (http://www.npnparents.org/index.asp - broken link)

The cps website itself is good for identifying a school's attendance boundaries..

School Locator Page - Department of School Demographics and Planning

Nettlehorst and Hawthorne are listed within the same attendance boundaries on the site.... so I'm guessing that it's tough enough to get enrolled in Hawthorne

[chet everett]

The NPN folks have been very active in trying to improve the local school(s) { Blaine and Nettlehorst }. Hawthorne is a "selective enrollment school" and there is some controversy over how open / fair the selection process is, plus many parents have issues with kids from outside the neighborhood having access to the school -- in fairness racial balance was the initial reason for CPS's magnet/ selective admissions process. The dearth of non-minority students makes it harder and harder to justify that aspect...

The school locator is the CURRENT guiding authority of "which kids go where", but nothing is carved in stone -- remember Miegs Field? This is still CHICAGO, and middle of the night changes in rules are a reality. If you are serious about picking a neighborhood to live in it would smart to get active in NPN even if your kids are not yet school age -- "clout" of number should help to prevent some other kind of clout from re-doing the boundaries just as you are ready to enroll your kid. Unlike when suburbs re-do boundaries for attendance the quality of schools just a few blocks apart can be worlds of difference...

[mr aztec]

What about Inter-American? I am on the locator website, and am looking at school boundaries, but both Inter-american and Greeley seem to be in the same boundary. Does that mean on can choose?

[Lookout Kid]

When you look at the scores for Nettlehorst and Blaine, keep in mind that the scores for the younger kids are higher for two reasons:

1. The school has only recently improved it's reputation, so you can see a split from the "old Nettlehorst" and the "new Nettlehorst".

2. Many parents still leave for other districts when their kids get old enough to get into trouble (i.e. middle school years).

Also, note that Nettlehorst still has a large population of students who come from high-povert households. There is definitely a lot of inequality in that shool, but according to parents I know your kids can get a good education there if they come from a good home and have reasonable intelligence.

[Avengerfire]

Here is a school (a magnet) in Lakeview that is pretty decent that nobody seems to mention on this site.
The CPS is talking about "phasing it out." Which makes no sense to me whatsoever. The CPS says it is at 40% capacity. I am trying to figure out with so many yuppies living in the area (school address is 1650 W. Cornelia),why does the school not have a higher amount of attendance? Perhaps Hamilton should be taking overflow from Nettlehorst,Blaine,Hawthorne,Blaine, and other decent schools in the area. Christ when you have a school performing decently in the city you should be busing in kids (that have brains of course) to keep that school alive. If the CPS "phases out" this school there will be less incentive for people to want to stay in gentrified areas and raise a family.Hamilton should be made into a neighborhood school again.

Behold our new Secretary of Education. What a friken moron.
================================================== ===============================
"Hamilton's students perform well above averages for the city schools. Last school year, 81 percent of Hamilton students met or exceeded state testing standards, as compared with the Chicago Public Schools' average of 64 percent. The school was recently named a School of Distinction and a Rising Star School.

The school's accomplishments are not at issue, according to Duncan. "

"If approved by the board of education, the school's population - and staff - would dwindle until its eventual closure in 2017, when Hamilton's current kindergarten class would finish the eighth grade."

"A series of public hearings and community meetings will be held on these proposals, with a meeting addressing Hamilton Elementary at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 3, at the schools' central office, 125 S. Clark.

After considering input from the hearings, the Chicago Public Schools administration will present its plan to the Chicago Board of Education. The earliest that the board of education could vote on any of the proposals is Feb. 25."

http://www.chicagojournal.com/main.asp?SectionID=48&SubSectionID=141&ArticleID=6 837&TM=51915.34 (broken link)

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Fight people fight!

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by mr aztec

What about Inter-American? I am on the locator website, and am looking at school boundaries, but both Inter-american and Greeley seem to be in the same boundary. Does that mean on can choose?

Inter-American is a Magnet School. The school rates 60 out of 100. (Which is not very good.) Granted there are many that are far worse in the city though. Greeley is rated 59 out of 100. So I really do not think there is much difference academically between the two even though one is a magnet school and the other a neighborhood school.

According to Citi-Data stats Inter-American is:

White Enrollment (%): 8.8%
Black Enrollment (%): 5.2%
Hispanic Enrollment (%): 72.4%
Asian Enrollment (%): 1.2%
Native American Enrollment (%): 0.3%
Multiracial Enrollment (%): 12.1%

Greeley:
White Enrollment (%): 10.9%
Black Enrollment (%): 13.1%
Hispanic Enrollment (%): 71.7%
Asian Enrollment (%): 0.8%
Multiracial Enrollment (%): 3.5%

Look to their pages on Citi-Data for more info.