Subscribe: From Winnetka’s New Trier High School:
New Trier High School students in the Class of 2011 achieved an average composite score of 27.5 on the ACT, the highest score the school has ever posted and among the top average composite scores in the nation among public open-enrollment high schools.
…
Overall, New Trier students achieved average scores of 28.1 in English, 27.8 in Mathematics, 27.3 in Reading, and 26.4 in Science.An analysis of the Class of 2011 data finds that approximately half of New Trier’s graduating class performed in the top 6 percent of the nation on the ACT. In addition, 90 percent of New Trier’s Class of 2011 scored above the state and national average.
Some parents are intimidated by New Trier on their children’s behalf, and those numbers do nothing to dispel their concern. The numbers, however, don’t help parents understand how exceedingly well New Trier meets the needs of children who don’t fit the driven, high-achieving stereotype of the school’s typical student.
Three years ago this month I sat with Coldwell Banker’s Mary Ellen Stalzer to chat about that very subject. Mary Ellen has a graduate degree in education and had three children who attended New Trier, where my two children also graduated.
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Another thing that intimidates parents is the size of New Trier I think the area would be better served if the school was divided in half (North/South New Trier or East/West New Trier). This helps create a smaller community feel where students feel they are not a number.
anon,
The adviser system makes New Trier a small school – kids start every day for 4 years with the same group / teacher. The kids at New Trier are anything but numbers.
ADDED –
The New Trier annual report just arrived in the mail. It contains a section titled “Making a Big School Feel Small.”
In addition to the adviser system it mentions New Trier’s more than 160 student clubs, individual post-high school counseling that begins in sophomore year, participation in 35 interscholastic sports and dozens of intramural and no-cut sports and double-cast performing arts opportunities.
New Trier also offers an “Integrated Global Studies School” – a small school-within-a-school setting.
Except that it is a larger school and its harder to make extracurricular teams if you are average. Many of my friends who are graduates of New Trier do not speak highly about their experience. They recognize that its a fabulous school, but didn’t actually enjoy their time there. They were average to slightly above average students (B students) who have chips on their shoulder because they were not exceptional. They are smart enough to attend most graduate/professional schools; however, because they spent so much time with the very above average, they don’t think they can do it. Most people who elect not to attend New Trier do so b/c of its size. Why not divide the area into two high schools? They would be of equally high caliber and would feel more intimate.
anon,
Just a few years ago, when a growing student population forced the re-opening of New Trier’s Northfield campus, there was a lengthy and lively debate on whether to split the school in two. The decision was to open Northfield as a freshman campus with sophomores, etc. attending the Winnetka campus.
There was genuine concern that splitting the school would dilute its excellence while producing few benefits.
I have friends who attended New Trier West in the days when it was a 4-year school. They and their parents contended that the attendance boundaries were drawn at the time to “keep the Jews out of New Trier.” Some of that ugly history recurred, in a much diluted fashion, in the recent debate on the subject.
Every kid, it almost doesn’t need saying, reacts differently to the way the school is constituted.
My daughter was one of those above average but not exceptional students. New Trier’s reputation helped her get into a top-50 school – UC Santa Barbara. My son, though very bright, scored a below average GPA while excelling in all of his music classes. Neither of them “have chips on thier shoulder” from their New Trier experience and both are glad they attended.
This is really great insight. Few parents even visit schools before they make decisions. This is true for the preceived underachieving CPS schools and the top suburban schools. The perception of schools by parents and kids is a topic of concern I’ve discussed at length with the author here.
Joe,
Thanks so much for posting about schools.
Since you are a parent who decide to buy in the Northshore I was curious as to what went into the decision. Were there as many other options in previous years? In other words were Glenview and Northbrook held in such high regards back when you were finding a home. (I imagine the Glen was still a Navy Base.) As a father who is preparing to leave South Evanston to seek out a (self perceived) better district up north for our child, I would love to learn of others thought processes.
Also if you know of any good online resources for learning about schools please let us know. I use Chicago Tribune’s community pages and the Sun times school ranking lists, which have some information. Then spoil what I learn by reading urban dictionary and watching high school produced YouTube films.
Thanks.
Dan,
I heartily applaud your willingness to move for the sake of your child.
Can’t answer your question without going into a fair amount of detail. Hope you don’t mind.
Prior to moving to the North Shore I’d lived in Lincoln Park (Clark & Armitage / Dickens & Larrabee / 2333 Geneva) and DePaul (Armitage & Seminary) for 14 years.
Looking out for my two pre-school kids’ interests is what triggered the move, with concerns for my son being the major factor. At the time he was an extremely active, easily distracted 4-year old who couldn’t go outside alone and would dart into the street when accompanied. Both kids had been in pre-school at Near North Montessori, and it wasn’t working for him, so we transferred him to a program at the New City Y, which did work for him.
I was also becoming repelled by the behavior of my new yuppie neighbors in the Armitage / Seminary area where we lived. They’d literally honk their horns, gun their engines and scream at my kids if they moved too slowly through an intersection or down a sidewalk. I began to feel like I was living among savages.
When we considered schools where we were, I ruled out Parker and Latin based on the attitudes of the kids / parents I knew from there at the time. I knew my son wouldn’t make it in public school. If we were to stay in the area we would have sent the kids to St James Lutheran, just two blocks from where we lived.
Weighing everything, we decided to move. We looked at a lot of homes in Edgebrook. My then wife ruled it out based, sad to say, on the hair styles of the locals, how they dressed, and the fact that many were police and firefighters. She had grown up very affluent; I had grown up very poor. My approach was firm: I’d rather have my kids grow up with cop values than yuppie values.
I had a number of partners / investors at the time who knew I was looking to move. They began talking up various parts of the North Shore and the phrase that kept recurring was “New Trier.” The more I learned about New Trier, the more I knew I wanted my kids to go there, so we began looking in Wilmette and Winnetka, looked at a lot of places and talked to a lot of people. We didn’t look at Glenview because the wife had ruled out anything that wasn’t North Shore. Evanston didn’t seem to work for my son.
The decision became a tug of war – the wife wanted Winnetka for status reasons; I wanted Wilmette because it seemed to me to be relatively oblivious to status issues. Moving to Winnetka seemed to me to be jumping from a yuppie frying pan into yuppie hellfire. I wouldn’t have the same concern today – learned that Winnetka’s not as homogenous as I then perceived it to be.
Wilmette proved to be a spectacular choice. My son could ride his bike around our then downtown Wilmette neighborhood – people were very conscious of kids and very solicitous of their safety and emotional well-being and there were lots of little kids around. Central School handled everything my son threw at it without a ripple, although I did have to accompany him on field trips. He quickly outgrew his early difficulties.
Following a divorce the kids moved to the Romona School district and also attended Wilmette Jr High – they just missed the opening of Highcrest as 5-6 school – and then New Trier. All of Wilmette’s schools are places where kids can thrive and find ways to develop whatever unique talents they have. New Trier’s outstanding music programs, led by a demigod by the name of John Thompson, made my son’s high school experience, I’m convinced, far better than any he would have had anywhere else. New Trier brought out the best in my daughter also and, I think, helped her to get into a better college than she might have if she’d gone elsewhere. Both kids had great teachers who genuinely cared about the kids and became involved in their lives.
I lived in a small rented house west of the tracks in Kenilworth for 5 years and came to like that community a lot. It’s a very North-Shore-not place in a lot of ways despite its affluence. Give it some consideration. Sears school is awesome, and walkable from anywhere in Kenilworth. It’s well worth living in less of a home to send your kids there.
Moved back to Wilmette when I had to move my kids in with me and needed a larger home. Inertia has kept me here even though my son and daughter have long since moved on. It’s an easy commute to my River North office and within striking distance of my son who now lives in Antioch.
There are so many excellent schools on the North Shore and in the near North Shore communities that you really can’t go wrong whichever you pick. If New Trier is your goal, don’t rule out any part of its attendance area, including Northfield and the small pocket of Glenview east of Harms Rd.
I realize that my decision process was driven by a peculiar set of values and, in retrospect, by too many incompletely examined assumptions about different communities. Looking back I think Wilmette made it easier for my kids to grow up without acquiring an attitude that they were better than people who didn’t have as much money as they did, which was a primary goal for me in choosing where I moved.
If you can, avoid making assumptions. Lock in on a few areas that you can afford, get to meet some of your prospective new neighbors at community events, and move to wherever feels right. If it’s Northbrook or Glenview or Deerfield or Wilmette or Winnetka, etc you’re unlikely to make a wrong move, so be willing to narrow your choices somewhat arbitrarily.
One final caveat: if your child has any special talents, then choosing the right schools becomes more critical. If you have a math whiz, future musician, performance artist, swim star or tennis player you may want to lock in on the New Trier district. Other north and North Shore schools have special strengths in other areas that might make a difference in your child’s life.
And one added consideration – if possible, keep your kids in the same school system / general area throughout their school career. My kids’ lives have been very much enriched by the continuity of their friendships, some of them dating to pre-school and continuing into their late 20s.
Joe,
That post was fantastic!
Thank you for your gracious response; it was very insightful and thorough. You gave my wife and I another perspective to weight into our north shore search.
Dan,
If you have any follow-on questions I’d be happy to take a stab at answering them.
I am constantly amazed that ANYONE would turn their back on the opportunity to send their kid to NT. They are there to get an education- not to feel good about themselves because they got a few minutes playing for a watered-down football team. Kids need to learn that they have to compete if they want to succeed. If your kid is scared of that fact then you should have started their preparation for the real world much much sooner than high school.
STARCHY,
Fear of competition is probably the least of the reasons why parents opt to enroll their kids in schools other than New Trier.
Some parents fear that it wouldn’t be competitive enough for their kid – including those who judge New Trier as having a “watered-down football team.”
“Fear of competition is probably the least of the reasons why parents opt to enroll their kids in schools other than New Trier.”
“Some parents are intimidated by New Trier on their children’s behalf”
Gee Joe, which is it? make up your mind dude!!!
STARCHY,
There’s no contradiction in those statements.
Stop entering phony info into our URL link with your ID. At some point it will be easier to remove you than to continue removing the links. That point occurs the next time you do this.
Thanks Joe -’s’ is all we need….
If you are looking for a well rounded kid, not spoiled, and has the ability to get along with anyone in the “real world” market place,then look to Evanston High School.
My son (only child) went to a small Catholic school so we were a little scared at sending him to a big high school at first. But he chose ETHS over Loyola and it has been the most rewarding experience I could have ever dreamed for him. He is graduating this year and has just been excepted into 8 of the 10 schools he applied to. From TCU,Purdue, Miami of Ohio, Dayton, Clemson, etc. Wants to go out of state and has really learned a sense of self worth through both tough competion in classes and on the sport fields.
He also got to participate in a play that is put on by all the local kids who are not involved in the School Theater program ( very competive at ETHS. If your looking for a well rounded child who can handel themself with both very well off and poor children ( real world) ETHS is the place! I too was in Lincoln Park (Old Town) 12 years, we decided to have a child and debated between Evanston and New Trier.
I have nothing bad to say about New Trier but Im so glad he went to ETHS. I know he is more prepared then most kids his age for the world ahead of him! ETHS has a great Math and Science department. The Honors and AP classes are fantastic. We just got back from a visit to TCU and an ETHS student he meet at TCU said his ETHS AP classes were all harder then his freshman TCU classes, especially English. My son writes a 5-8 page paper everynight in his English Ap class. He is prepared for College!
what ever you say Joe- you’re the boss!
My two cents for the alternative approach of being the big fish in the little pond instead of the other way around. Our daughter is graduating from Niles West High School this year. She was co-captain of her tennis team and in the orchestra for 4 years. She is in the top 5% of her class. She was recently accepted to University of Illinois engineering program which is in the top 5 in the country and also Cal Poly for architecture which is also top 5. Many of her friends have been accepted into other top colleges through out the country. Our children do not have to go to the “top” scoring ACT school to be noticed by colleges and sometimes other schools are much better fits.