College Prep Schools

December 1, 2000

	Order
Some see elite schools as drain on system Brett Schaeffer In the beginning, there were Lane and Lindblom technical high schools, the former for high- achieving students north of Roosevelt Road and the latter for those south. For decades, these schools were the only ones in the public school system that required high test scores for admission. Then came Whitney Young Magnet School in 1975, and now six regional college preparatory schools, one of which is a converted Lindblom. Within a few years, these magnet schools will enroll at least 12 percent of Chicago's public high school population. Together they constitute the leading edge of the... > Read More
Freshman's marathon trek to prep school pays off Debra Williams Weekdays, Ashleigh Johnson's alarm clock goes off at 5:30 a.m. An hour later she starts a 90 minute, 13-mile trek to the city's newest high school, Walter Payton College Prep. By 6:30 a.m., Ashleigh has left her home in Greater Grand Crossing and is heading for the Gresham Metra stop three miles away. She catches the 6:58 headed downtown to the LaSalle Street station. Arriving at 7:20, she cuts through the Chicago Board of Trade to catch the LaSalle Street bus going north; it deposits her only a block away from the sparkling new school at Oak and Wells streets on the edge of the... > Read More
Board gives North Side preps lavish facilities, ample planning time Debra Williams On the first day of school this year, television crews and newspaper reporters swarmed the grounds of brand new Walter Payton College Preparatory High School. Connie Payton, widow of the late Chicago Bears running back, was on hand to cut a ceremonial ribbon, officially opening the magnet school designed for Region 2 on the Near North Side. There was no such fanfare for the rechristening of Lindblom Tech as the college preparatory high school for Region 5 on the mid-South Side. Community leaders aren't even aware of the change. "This is the first I've heard that it was a college... > Read More

Some see elite schools as drain on system

In the beginning, there were Lane and Lindblom technical high schools, the former for high- achieving students north of Roosevelt Road and the latter for those south. For decades, these schools were the only ones in the public school system that required high test scores for admission. Then came Whitney Young Magnet School in 1975, and now six regional college preparatory schools, one of which is a converted Lindblom.

Within a few years, these magnet schools will enroll at least 12 percent of Chicago's public high school population. Together they constitute the leading edge of the...

> Read More

Freshman's marathon trek to prep school pays off

Debra Williams

Weekdays, Ashleigh Johnson's alarm clock goes off at 5:30 a.m. An hour later she starts a 90 minute, 13-mile trek to the city's newest high school, Walter Payton College Prep.

By 6:30 a.m., Ashleigh has left her home in Greater Grand Crossing and is heading for the Gresham Metra stop three miles away. She catches the 6:58 headed downtown to the LaSalle Street station. Arriving at 7:20, she cuts through the Chicago Board of Trade to catch the LaSalle Street bus going north; it deposits her only a block away from the sparkling new school at Oak and Wells streets on the edge of the...

> Read More

Board gives North Side preps lavish facilities, ample planning time

Debra Williams

On the first day of school this year, television crews and newspaper reporters swarmed the grounds of brand new Walter Payton College Preparatory High School. Connie Payton, widow of the late Chicago Bears running back, was on hand to cut a ceremonial ribbon, officially opening the magnet school designed for Region 2 on the Near North Side.

There was no such fanfare for the rechristening of Lindblom Tech as the college preparatory high school for Region 5 on the mid-South Side. Community leaders aren't even aware of the change. "This is the first I've heard that it was a college...

> Read More

Letters From Readers

Intervention stories "dishonest" in presentation of data

By: George Schmidt

Probably the most obviously dishonest thing about the way in which CATALYST's August 1 "Web Special" on "intervention" presents the CPS data on the intervention schools is the failure to mention the fact that the 2000 data compare(s) the combined scores for 9th and 10th graders, while the data from 1996 through 1999 is comparing 9th and 11th graders. A footnote is not sufficient to this important material.

Letters From Readers

Local school councils need better training, too

By: Arline K. Hersh, Albert Bertani, & Andre

Congratulations on a strong examination of the crucial issue of principal leadership. Elizabeth Duffrin and the other Catalyst (October 2000) writers did a thorough job of addressing the qualities that go into good principal leadership, while recognizing the challenging context within which Chicago's principals do an incredibly difficult job.

Congratulations on a strong examination of the crucial issue of principal leadership. Elizabeth Duffrin and the other Catalyst (October 2000) writers did a thorough job of addressing the...

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