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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was hoping to kickstart a conversation on APS college acceptance results, and why people think they are so poor

For background - I live in Arlington now with two kids, but grew up in a comparably wealthy suburbs of Chicago and went to New Trier, a public but well off HS.  At NT, we had a classes of about 800, but pretty consistently stellar college placement results (few dozen ivy leagues, even more state flagship, etc)

In comparison, APS's college acceptances are shockingly poor.  I understand the narrative in Arlington for why; there are a lot of wealthy NOVA suburbs so high performing DMV HS seniors are a dime a dozen, so it is just harder to stand out.  But the sale argument also applies for the wealthier suburbs of Chicago that somehow have way better placement[/quote]

There are no non-magnet high schools in the DMV the quality of New Trier.  I went to a neighboring high school - Deerfield - and yes even today there is no non-magnet high school the quality of Deerfield.  Not sure the reason is anything to write home about.   The Chicago area is among the most segregated of areas, and the demographics at a Deerfield or Stevenson are quite different than high schools here.  But contrary to a bias against the Midwest, these top flight Chicago suburban schools are very good. In the 80's the principal of Highland Park high school became the APS superintendent and while Highland Park had a small neighborhood of recently arrived migrants in Highwood, it was an an adjustment to APS (from what I can tell he did an acceptable job).

The real loss, so to speak, in the State of Illinois has been in the secondary cities.  Peoria Richwoods used to be excellent in the 70's, and now it is dismal.  A singular example, to be sure - but in Peoria - formerly the hallmark of the middle class throughout America, it is really unfortunate.   From this perspective APS looks fairly good.  [/quote]

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