America's Top 1000 High Schools

[Robert Pauly]

Is it the water?  Administrators, curriculum, teachers, facilities – family involvement?  Seems to me, if you follow the money trail .........

From Newsweek, America's top 1000 high schools (I skimmed the list quickly and might have missed a few).  Kudos to some area schools – RB, OPRF and LT.  The state of our schools seems to pop-up in just about every thread – maybe we can join here in some meaningful conversation about how to improve our school system, our town, and most importantly, our children.

31 Lincoln Park (Chicago)
86 Stevenson (Lincolnshire)
146 Hinsdale Central
293 New Trier (Winnetka)
315 Lake Forest
323 Riverside Brookfield
341 Highland Park
342 Deerfield (Highland Park)
424 Glenbrook South (Glenview)
429 Evanston
550 Hersey (Arlington Heights)
581 Barrington
600 Oak Park – River Forest
628 Glenbrook North (Northbrook)
642 Hinsdale South
672 Fremd (Palatine)
680 Libertyville
696 Vernon Hills
699 Glenbard West (Glen Ellyn)
719 Nequa Valley (Naperville)
744 Sandburg (Orland Park)
761 Homewood Flossmoor
811 Von Steuben (Chicago)
869 Lyons Township North (LaGrange)
911 Maine Township South (Park Ridge)
953 Buffalo Grove
992 Palatine
1005 Niles West (Skokie)
1025 Naperville North

[Ana]

Here's the link to the top 100 high schools article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7761678/site/newsweek/?GT1=6542



and here's one on how to build a better High School:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7773524/site/newsweek/

[Bru67]

No shocker there.  The more money a community has, the better its schools are going to be.  And it isn't the money per se, it's the quality of student you're getting.  Melliman is right -- if you picked up MW and put it, its teachers and its administration in Lake Forest, it would be a top flight school, lauded for excellence and revolutionary teaching methods.  For whatever reason (guilt?) people tend to view being poor as an act of God in this country and completely unrelated to merit or intelligence.  But people who are poor are usually poor for a reason.  That's generalizing of course but on the whole it's a true statement.  Trying to raise school quality in a low income area is very, very, very difficult.  Anyone have an example?  I don't.  You don't have the money and even if you did, it may not work. 

[mabeda]

How about some good news about our schools...

Wednesday, May 4, 2005 - The Life

Success at Irving School included in testing study

Not only does principal Dan Lane think Irving School is the best in the whole world, so do officials from Illinois State University who are conducting a reasearch project on what makes the school so successful.

Paul Baker and Marilyn Moore both professors at Illinois State University in Normal, conducted a research study on April 28 and 29 at the school for the National Center for Educational Accountability.  

The Illinois Best Practices Study identifies how highly successful schools work from the district level down to administrators and teachers.  The research will provide educators with useful information for their own schools.

Due to Irving School's high Illinois Standards Achievement Test scores, the school was chosen as one of the 15 in the state for the research project.

Under No Child Left Behind, the school is making adequate yearly progress on standarized testing in reading and mathematics.

According to the Illinois State Report Card, in the 2003-04 school year, 78.2 percent of Irving students met or exceeded standards in math and reading, compared to 61 percent of students statewide.

"Good schools aren't an accident.  They grow over time and keep getting better.  One success builds into another each year.  Over time you get a legacy of excellence, like what you have here at Irving (School).  That legacy of excellence is what we want to learn more about to help other schools provide a similar opportunity for their children."  Baker said.

Baker and Moore met with district and school officials.  Teachers were interviewed on curriculum instruction, assessment, relationship with parents, along with how they stay current with new teaching methods.

"The magic of any good school is the staff's ability to work together as adults for the benefit of children," Baker said.

Baker was especially intrigued by the school's high ISAT scores considering it has a large low income populatin of nearly 39 percent.  The low income level for South Berwyn School District 100 is nearly 53 percent.

"This is one of the most outstanding schools in the state.  We are especially looking at schools that help low-income students be successful.  Iving School has a large number of low income students, yet they do extraordinarily well on the ISAT," he said.

Lane said the school's participation in the research project is an honor to the district, teachers and students.

"The secret to Irving School is the fine staff that dedicate their lives, energy and expertise to the students of District 100.  This is a feather in the cap of the teachers and students," he said.

The research results will be included in the www.just4kids.org Web site and in training sessions for educators accross the state.

[Bru67]

How about some good news about our schools...

The research results will be included in the www.just4kids.org Web site and in training sessions for educators accross the state.

That's wonderful but it would be nice to see the results make it into the Trib and Sun Times too, if they can stand reporting good news from Berwyn, hehe.

[Paul Fuentes]

Before anyone uses the Newsweek report as a standard ruler by which to compare high schools, look closely at the criteria used to create the rankings.

1.   The only criteria used was the percentage of seniors taking advanced placement tests or international baccalaureate tests.  NOT the actual results of the tested pupils.  There was no consideration of ACT/SAT scores, graduation rates, percentage of students who actually went on to college, the percentage of students that actually made it into the top tier colleges or universities.  No mention of nationa merit scholars.  Who in the know really believe that even among public high schools, Von Stuben ranks above Whitney Young who places more students than any other Chicago public high schools in top tier universities.

2.   Only PUBLIC schools were considered on this ranking.   Consistent with their favoritism toward secular education, most media will not even venture into including private schools such as St. Ignatius, Fenwick, Regina and Loyola Academy that place a much higher number of its students into schools like Yale, Harvard, MIT, Princeton and some other elite schools.

This is not meant to be a knock on public education or a recruitment pitch for private education.  It is just a call for you to take such rankings with a grain of salt.  I can come up with an entirely different list if my criteria was different.  In this case, however, the criteria used, in essence the number of students that take certain tests without regard to performance on those tests, seems highly suspect.  It focuses on efforts..not results. 

One more thing to ponder.  Since when are we a "low income" community??  Yes, some of our students might be considered low income, but the school districts are usually viewed in terms if tax dollars, not pupil income.  In Highwood there are a large number of low income students, as their parents serve as the service industry for those living in Kenilworth, Highland PArk, and other North shore communities.  But the schools they attend are financed by the property taxes paid, not income taxes.  And we never hear about any crisis in those school districts as low income students enter the system.  Closer to home, Lyons Township absorbs all the students flowing from trailer parks and low rent apartments in Hodgkins, LaGrange and Countryside (yes, the exist there too) yet never complain about it.  Good schools can create good students, regardless of their income level.  The gauge is usually the tax dollars flowing in, not the students' parental income level.

Have you checked YOUR tax bills lately??  We are not exactly in the "low" property tax bracket.  It's what those dollars are used for that matters.  Do your homework.  Check the school report cards for the last 4 years.  What you find is:

1.  Teachers have been and remain underpaid.

2.  School administrators make top dollars.

3.  A smaller percentage of our tax dollars goes to education than state average.

4.  A larger percentage " " goes to other expenditures other than education.

You figure out what's wrong with this picture.

[Robert Pauly]

I agree with some of your assessments, Paul.  I'd love to see Newsweek's criteria plotted against some of the other measuring sticks that you mentioned.  But I doubt that it would improve Morton's ranking, which was my point in starting this thread.  IMO, a community is not complete until it offers a competitive education to the majority of its children.

Are we a "low income" community?  Consider:

2001 Equalized Assessed Valuation Per Pupil (computed property values upon which a district's local tax rate is calculated) for elementary school districts:

Cicero: $45,164
North Berwyn District 98: $66,587
South Berwyn District 100: $104,938
Lyons Township: $167,449
Oak Park: $173,173
449Riverside: $322,909

Looks "lower" income to me.  For the record, the percentage of low-income children in Highwood is 10%.  District 98 is 75%.  District 100 is 53%.

How does this impact us?   Lower valuation + average tax rate = less educational resources, resulting in larger class sizes, underpaid, inexperienced teachers and an underpaid administrator (it's true, Paul - District 100's administrator makes 28% less than their counterpart in Riverside, and 19% less than Oak Park).  We have bigger problems.  Shouldn't we have better, more well-paid people?

I love extra effort and involved parents - but in the real world, on a broad scale basis, nothing can substitute for the almighty dollar.  If you want to fix the schools quickly, I say raise the tax rate, unless you want to wait around for Berwyn property values to increase by themselves.

[Bru67]

We don't spend quite enough on the schools but lack of spending is not why the test scores are so bad.  It's the quality of the students going to it.  That's why throwing money at them is probably not the best bang for the buck.  Though again, I think some educational reform and "some" more money is probably in order.  But we have to address the other issues too.  Don't forget those.

[Face Reality]

For the record, Morton is NOT part of School District 100.  It's really not fair to use those stats.

[markweiner]

Education is always the hardest answer.  In my humble opinion, you need four things for a person to get a good education:

1) student
2) parent(s)
3) administration
4) teacher

If one of the four is out of wack or not working properly, it makes it extremely difficult to get a good education.  My wife teaches at Proviso East, a school, I believe with 99% low income students.  She teaches English and she is a great teacher(of course she is).  At Proviso, administration is poor, students come in with fourth grade reading levels and the majority of students do not have both sets of parents, let alone one(many have guardians).  Yet, some of her students move on, go to college, and become productive citizens. 

No easy answer.

[Paul Fuentes]

Melliman,

While it may be true that Berwyn school administrators might make 28 percent less than those of Riverside, they are just about on par with state averages. True or false?  At the same time, our teachers have NEVER been on par with state averages for at least the last four years. 

Second, low income students are not the bar to success,  Lincoln school in CICERO made into the top ten public elementary schools in the state.  Cristo Rey in the heart of Pilsen has has a great track record of graduates going on to top universities and an excellent graduation rate.  Whitney Young's alumni is certainly not high income. 

As our enlightened alderman informed, a succesfull school is dependent on various factors.  And in fact, mark my words (no pun intended Mark Weiner), this isssue will shortly become the hot button topic for many, particularly those on this board.  As Mark can attest, we have had an influx of middle class professionals who will become very vocal shortly before their children have to enroll in kindergarten. 

Whatever the problems or solutions are, I emplore you all to keep this topic at the forefront of this forum as collective minds form a recipe for creative methods to address the problem(s).  It will not be easy.  We cannot expect our newly elected leaders to provide a mracle solution in the short term..,,,a panacea solution will not satisfy.  And as someone brilliantly pointed out in another post, two districts for one small town is nonsense.  It only serves to maintain two administrations, a typical feed from the trough pork fest.  What has happened  recently??  North Berwyn is overcrowded so students are sent to South Berwyn.  Wow...that's a solution we all agree with. 

When I see people like Mark, T-Stan, Bru, Boris, Art, Ruffian, Pkd and all others here, I know that I will remain in Berwyn for quite some time.  Your pride, care and concern for this community is stallwarth.  And to think I was ready to move last year.