***Dec. 2, 2011 @ 4.09P An updated map and spread sheet on this subject is available. ***
How would you rank our area public schools?
In the next week parents will be sent a new report by the Chicago Public Schools. According to media reports, the ‘progress reports’ will accompany student report cards starting today.
The reports will emphasize students reaching benchmarks to go to college, according to the Chicago Tribune. Other indicators will include “teacher and staffing information, graduation rates, school climate, leadership and parent satisfaction,” the report says.
All of these measures are available through independent sources gathered here for you by The Bulldog.
Using surveys published within the past 18 months by Newsweek and Chicago Magazine, test scores compiled and analyzed by the Chicago Sun-Times, input from parents, students and community members on GreatSchools and in a University of Chicago survey and finally data provided by the Chicago Public Schools, The Bulldog set out this week to understand our public school system.
It is a difficult system to navigate. In the Ravenswood area there are four area public high schools: Lane Tech, Amundsen, Lake View and DeVry. In addition, a high school student has a wide choice of other schools. And a small part of our coverage has attendance at other schools, Roosevelt and Senn.
Mistakes made by parents and adults are paid for by children.
And we find this very frustrating: virtually no one in politics takes responsibility for the problems. They blame unions, parents, ‘the schools.’ We might look no deeper than the TIF issue to understand how this sorry situation has been twisted to benefit long-time politicians.
The Bulldog chose to start by creating a database that presents in one place a place for you to examine all the information on your school choices. We’ve presented this information to you as a searchable Google map and as a spread sheet that you can use to sort, filter and examine the information.
Today, we move on, providing information gathered about area public high schools.
In addition, we’ve added an outline so that parents who don’t live in Ravenswood or the North Attendance area can follow along and develop their own database. (For questions, see our report on elementary school posted yesterday.)
Did you have a suggestion? Did you see an error? Drop it in the comments and we’ll try to deal with it.
*** Update to table on Nov. 8, 2011 @ 11.24A. ***
A sharp-eyed reader asked about the ACT scores for Amundsen. We checked all the ACT scores and discovered that Amundsen and Lake View were incorrect, based on the CPS.edu site. In addition we added the ACT score for Northside Learning. The table has been corrected and the map should reflect the new results going forward.
We apologize for the error.
Mashup of Public High Schools for Ravenswood students
The Ratings and Rankings
Further Notes on the Schools
The instructions to follow regarding locating your neighborhood high school’s attendance districts are similar to those presented for the elementary schools. However the maps are in a different location. So, for instruction, finding information on schools not in our report follow these links to see a map of high school attendance districts.
North: http://www.cps.edu/SiteCollectionDocuments/Zone%20maps/HS_North_Near_North.pdf
West/ Central and South: http://www.cps.edu/SiteCollectionDocuments/Zone%20maps/HS_West_Central_South.pdf
Far South: http://www.cps.edu/SiteCollectionDocuments/Zone%20maps/HS_Far_South.pdf
