There are very good public schools throughout the city. In this thread, people are equating wealthy white with good schools. It’s bllsht. Every single “good” school mentioned here is primarily white and wealthy. These kids often have tremendous social and economic advantages that have nothing to do with the school.

Deep dive via goCPS and ISBE reports into the schools and look at how they are educating different races, different income levels, and ESL kids. These groups factor into overall test scores and might make test scores look lower initially, but don’t show a full picture. Check the percentage of kids taking algebra and passing. Ask how many kids from the program end up in SE high schools, if that’s something important to you. Tour the school. Find out about the parent communities. Decide what a “good” education is, and if a homogenous education in the middle of a wonderfully diverse city is fits that description.

Another thing to keep in mind is that these good/white and wealthy schools are also often manipulating their testing numbers through overuse of IEPs and “indefinite” ESL status, to name a few. I have numerous teacher friends at “good” schools who attest to this. They know it’s BS.

And then go ahead and do another thing. Check the “good” schools in the suburbs and compare them to similar social groups throughout the city. You’ll be shocked at the lack of difference in the numbers.

I’ve got a kid on of the highest performing SE elementary schools in the city, and another at a tiny gem of a CPS school. The SE school is beautiful- huge classrooms, new everything, tons of money, highest test scores in the city. The other school is a dump, but diverse in every sense, has tremendous heart and a wonderful parent community, and exposes my little one to cultures and ideas that are totally missed in my other child’s education. Plus, large percentage of those kids go to SE high schools. They are both getting amazing educations, albeit different.

In short, do your research, and challenge the white=good mentality.

The brown line neighborhoods and the far northwest side have the best public schools. The best public high schools are all selective enrollment which vary from reasonably easy to get into with lane to quite difficult with Payton/northside. Even lane requires a lot of work from the parents making sure their kid is on top of everything to get into. The non selective enrollment public high schools are generally shit although there are a couple IB programs which have ok reputations. The best one is LP, although I have a few friends who attended and hated it. Personally if my kid doesn’t get into selective enrollment I’d pass on the public high schools in the city. The best private schools are uchicago lab and Parker/Latin in LP. The religious schools are much cheaper but imo aren’t better than selective enrollment, ignatius in the west loop is the best one.

Some of the good public high schools like lane and young now have middle school programs which guarantee high school placement and seem like a good way to make high school placement less anxiety provoking. The high school placement process was much more stressful than college placement for me.

Sauganash, Edgebrook, and Wildwood are very nice. However, they are also pricier than homes in Jefferson Park, on the other side of the forest preserve. West Rogers Park is nice as well. The Northwest Side, in the area served by Taft High School, is generally good and affordable. Norwood Park and Edison Park are especially nice. On the southwest side, Beverly is good, and popular with South Side city workers.

My best advice when seeking advice on CPS schools? Make sure you’re asking parents with students who actually go to CPS school.

I’ve found that those with the strongest negative opinions about CPS tend to have never had any interaction with it.

If you want an affordable home and a good school, Portage Park is a great place to live. We've been here for 2 years and the elementary school is great. It's a pretty chill neighborhood. It might not the most exciting part of the city, but there are things to do. Lots of parks

Shhh dont ruin the narrative that cps is god awful top to bottom

Where’s Stuyvesant? And Trinity outranks Dalton?

Come on.

If anyone is surprised about West Lafayette, IN, it is the home of Purdue University. Lots of professors kids go there.

What do you mean by better? Do you mean better academically or better for the employee or better sports program or something else...

My answer will probably be different depending on what you mean...

North shore suburbs for better working conditions, benefits and pay teacher morale

Hey, when I was looking for a new job, I kept finding that Indeed or K12JobSpot had old postings for positions filled, so I made a list of every public high school district in Cook, DuPage and Will Counties with their direct external candidate links.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1liSkXw4v9zeuEYNubKG6zhMvsyQoA8J-pO3OcGhuP6g/edit?usp=sharing

Apply at Joliet. 204 in Will is great.

Honestly this spends on how much you want to spend. I would look outside of Chicago proper. Homer glen is nice

To give sime more specificity

Wilmette, Winnetka, Lake Forest, Highland Park, Morton Grove, Park Ridge, Glenview, Northbrook, Buffalo Grove, Arlington Heights, Mount Prospect, Deerfield, Libertyville, Wheeling, Skokie,...

Lake Forest, Stevenson, def best lake county schools by far

Payton College Preparatory High School was the highest for Illinois, coming in at No. 32 on the national rankings.

It was followed closely by Northside College Preparatory High School at No. 40, then Lane Technical High School at No. 72.

There’s nothing to choose between the top 5 SEHSs academically. It would be more interesting to know which are the “best” non-selective HSs.

Stevenson is still the best non-selective HS in the state.

The top 5 are mentioned a lot: Payton, Northside, lane, Whitney Young, Jones (I have a child here).

There are some other great selective enrollment schools that don't get mentioned much: Hancock, lindblom, Brooks (I have two kids here), king, kenwood (A.C., magnet, and neighborhood school)

Honestly, and I say this with a kid at Lane, the top performing elementary schools are on the North Side. Lane and Northside are so far north it makes sense kids from other areas don’t pick them as their top choices. They would spend over an hour each way commuting. It’s also why my kids have those two schools as their top choices over the others. They don’t want to spend that much time commuting. So eventually the top of the top end up there. WP can pull the best from the elementary schools in Lincoln Park and other nearer areas.

Yes, it’s harder score wise to get in from a top neighborhood, but kids also want the best school with a realistic commute too. So West Side kids will most likely pick Young first and South Side kids will most likely pick Jones first with Young as the second.

Illinois is about 3-4% of the US’s population, so having 3% of the top 100 schools… kinda just makes sense?

i was wondering which might be the best non-selective high schools in the city

but yeah student test scores correlate so tightly with family income they are effectively a proxy, it’s not some earth shattering insight

• Payton College Preparatory High School (No. 32 nationally) - Chicago

• Northside College Preparatory High School (No. 40 nationally) - Chicago

• Lane Technical High School (No. 72 nationally) - Chicago

• Young Magnet High School (No. 104 nationally) - Chicago

• Jones College Preparatory High School (No. 106 nationally) - Chicago

• Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (No. 120 nationally) - Aurora

• University of Illinois High School (No. 124 nationally) - Urbana

• Adlai E Stevenson High School (No. 203 nationally) - Lincolnshire

• Hinsdale Central High School (No. 302 nationally) - Hinsdale

• Hancock College Preparatory High School (No. 314 nationally) - Chicago

All but one are college prep, so I would hope they are highly ranked.

Stevenson is overrated as usual

You have to pay for the US News & World Report badge. If you see a school or hospital advertising their ranking, they paid for it.

Gee, whatever happened to New Trier?

I think US News & World Report’s only source of revenue are these stupid high school and college ranking lists.

That Dooley school in Schaumburg is a magnet school, seems sorta unfair to be on the list.

I despise these "ratings." Schools that selectively choose their student populations cannot be judged in the same category as neighborhood schools with open doors. Yet, in addition, Chicago Magazine gives charter schools their own category? Why? Because they cannot compete in any category. And yet they are highlighted? Corporate much? Why not highlight neighborhood schools apart from selectives? Given that, kudos to neighborhood Lincoln Elementary for its spot among the selectives, although, given the population that feeds into the school (Lincoln Park), the thing they're doing right is encouraging those people who live in Lincoln Park to actually go to their neighborhood CPS school. In any case, don't pay any attention to these so-called rankings.

Without reading the article, I'm betting the best schools are selective enrollment.

Always take these results with a grain of salt and understand the methodologies.

For example, Highland Park High School and Deerfield High School are both in the same school district and have basically the same funding and resources, however Deerfield is usually at or near the #1 ranking for Lake County whereas Highland Park is several spaces down. Does Deerfield have better teachers or facilities? No, the difference is that the the entirety of Deerfield's territory is 96% white and predominately upper class, whereas Highland Park High School's territory besides the similar Highland Park also covers the latino enclave of Highwood, which is 57% latino and predominately lower to middle class, and so 20%+ of HPHS students are latino with varying degrees of english language fluency, so of course they do much worse on standardized tests and college admissions rates, bringing down the Highland Park High School averages significantly.

https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/school.aspx?source=studentcharacteristics&source2=studentdemographics&Schoolid=340491130170002

https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/school.aspx?source=studentcharacteristics&source2=studentdemographics&Schoolid=340491130170001

We see that Deerfield HS is 92% white and asian, Highland Park HS is only 73% white and asian and 22% latino, and yet apparently the methodology used doesn't give Highland Park any handicap.

This is hugely relevant to my interests, cheers OP.

Here's a look at the top 10 high schools in Illinois, according to the report:

Walter Payton College Preparatoy High School

Northside College Preparatory High School

Young Magnet High School

Jones College Prep High School

Lane Technical High School

Adlai E Stevenson High School

Brooks College Prep Academy High School

Vernon Hills High School

Hancock College Preparatory High School

New Trier Township High School Winnetka

Of note, they do not rate private schools.

We live in South Loop with a 6 year old. South Loop Elementary is a good school, so we are set through 8th grade. But our default high school ain't that great, so we have to figure out the selective enrollment game to get her into a good high school by then.

Thing about CPS is that it's a very broad spectrum. There are literally world-class schools, and there are schools I would not want my child to go to. I really depends on your neighborhood.

But for young children, South Loop is pretty good.

Chicago is great city with many great options for families and public schools! It’s hard to give you direct advice without better idea of neighborhoods but in general you’ll want to choose a place to live in a neighborhood with a great neighborhood school. these are the schools that must enroll you based on your address. The other types or schools are choice programs (sometimes called magnet) which are lotto only or selective enrollment schools which are based on test scores. Because both of these program are kinder entry it’s hard to get a seat at 3rd (and in Kinder!) so you don’t want to rely on that. gocps.edu has great explainer on the different schools and the process. There are over 600 schools in cps an and lots of great ones. Once you get down to neighborhoods it’s easier to tell you the difference but for the most part the popular neighborhoods all have great schools - there are couple places where one school might be more preferred over an other but you’ll have lots of great options.

I guess private schools will be best since Chicago schools district is broke and a lot of their specialty programs are defunded.

We live in the South Loop which is family friendly, good access to the museum campus and lakefront and the South Loop elementary school is a good school with strong parent involvement.

We moved our kid from the British school to the CPS South loop about 5 years ago and we still like the school. High school will be a bigger challenge, hoping for the nearby Jones college prep but she needs to test in so at that point we may reconsider private again if she doesn't get into one of the good public high schools.

I've heard good things about the West Loop and the skinner school or going further up to Lincoln Park area.

Edit: since you're asking about schools close to the loop I assume you will work downtown. From South loop I can walk to the office downtown on Wacker in 30 minutes but I usually cycle, there are also easy bus routes from the South loop. West Loop also has easy access to downtown depending on where you will work.

Go on Greatschools.org jt shows you a lot about the schools

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