Five of Illinois’ top 10 high schools are Chicago Public Schools: US News & World Report
Now, we are not talking about regular neighborhood high schools like Taft or Sullivan. But according to US News & World report (as relayed by Chicago Sun-Times), four of the top five schools in Illinois are the most prestigious schools in Chicago Public Schools District - Northside College Preparatory High School, Walter Payton College Preparatory High School, Jones College Prep and Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. All of those schools are selective enrollment schools. In other words, you need to take exams to get in, and there are limits on how many students they take from any given area. The competition to get into any of those schools is as a cutthroat as anything you see in New York City education system.
What I find even most interesting is that, according to Sun-Times' calculations, the four schools are among the top 100 high school in the entire United States. Not too shabby.
The Top 10 list also includes Lane Tech - another selective enrollment school that briefly got national attention after the district's ill-advised removal and ban of Persepolis, an acclaimed graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi. The other five are regular high schools in middle class or fairly well-off Chicagoland suburbs.
Oh, and every single school in the Top Ten list has teachers' unions.
Just something to keep in mind when you hear talking points about how Chicago Public Schools can't do anything right and teachers' unions are hurting education.
What I find even most interesting is that, according to Sun-Times' calculations, the four schools are among the top 100 high school in the entire United States. Not too shabby.
The Top 10 list also includes Lane Tech - another selective enrollment school that briefly got national attention after the district's ill-advised removal and ban of Persepolis, an acclaimed graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi. The other five are regular high schools in middle class or fairly well-off Chicagoland suburbs.
Oh, and every single school in the Top Ten list has teachers' unions.
Just something to keep in mind when you hear talking points about how Chicago Public Schools can't do anything right and teachers' unions are hurting education.