Last Monday I provided a map of the Top 5 Chicago High Schools based on the Illinois Standards Achievement Tests (ISAT) 2010 rankings released the previous weekend. Here’s a map of the Top 10 Chicago Elementary Schools based on 2010 ISAT rankings by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Map of the Top 10 Chicago Elementary Schools Based on 2010 ISAT Scores

• Decatur in West Ridge was at the top of the rankings.
• Keller in the Mount Greenwood ranked 2nd.
• Lenart in Chatham ranked 3rd.
• Edison in Albany Park ranked 4th.
• Skinner in Near North Side ranked 6th.
• McDade in Chatham ranked 7th.
• Poe in Pullman ranked 9th.
• Lincoln in Lincoln Park ranked 14th.
• Bell in the North Center ranked 29th.
• Oriole Park in Norwood Park ranked 32nd.

All of these schools with the exception of Oriole Park use tests to select some or all of their students. Thus, residing in a home in one of these areas does not guarentee that children can attend these schools.

The results of the 2010 Illinois Standards Achievement Tests were released this past weekend. Based on rankings by the Chicago Sun-Times, 5 Chicago High Schools ranked in the Top 50 Chicago Area Schools.

Map of the 5 Chicago High Schools Ranked in the Top 50 Based on 2010 ISAT Scores

• Northside Prep in North Park was at the top of the rankings.
• Payton Prep in the Near North Side ranked 2nd.
• Young Magnet in the Near West Side ranked 4th.
• Jones Prep in the Near South Side ranked 12th.
• Lane Technical in North Center ranked 33rd.

All of these schools use tests to select some or all of their students. Thus, residing in a home in one of these areas does not guarentee that children can attend these schools. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the highest ranking Chicago High School that does not use tests for admission is Lincoln Park which ranked 130th.

The Illinois State Board of Education released its 2009 school report cards today. Use ISBE’s eReport Card Public Site to view the complete reports.

Illinois State Board of Education eReport Card Public Site

Another option for viewing the report cards is the Interactive Illinois Report Card. One advantage of this site is that it lets you compare schools.

Both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times developed school rankings based on the report card data. However, they use different criteria to rank the schools. The Chicago Tribune School Rankings use overall percentage of scores meeting or exceeding standards. The Chicago Sun-Times School Rankings use average scores on state achievement tests.

While I don’t have an opinion on which ranking approach is better, I think when it comes to deciding where to buy a home many parents will prefer using the Chicago Tribune system which lets users see where a school is ranked within its district and county.

One of the shortcomings of all sites that let you search for Chicago homes for sale is that they don’t always list the neighborhood schools. That’s because only school district numbers are required in our multiple listing system (MLS). School districts may encompass several neighborhood schools. Neighborhood school names are optional in the MLS. Since sites that list homes for sale are primarily fed from the MLS, they can only display the information provided.

CHICAGO SUBURBS
Listings for homes for sale in Chicago suburbs typically include school names. If a listing doesn’t:

1. Search for the school district number within the county for the home on Wikipedia’s list of school districts in Illinois. I know that Wikipedia isn’t an “official” site for Illinois schools, but it has the best list of Illinois school district websites that I’ve found. Don’t just search for the school district number. The same number may be used by districts in different counties.
2. Many school district sites have a map showing the boundaries for their individual schools. If there isn’t a map or you can’t determine the school for the listing from the map, call the school district.

CITY OF CHICAGO
Unfortunately, most of the time school names are not provided for homes for sale in Chicago proper. Fortunately, Chicago Public Schools has a terrific system, Chicago Public Schools Locator (shown below), for finding the neighborhood schools for a specific address and for displaying the neighborhood school boundaries.

Chicago Public Schools Locator

Sunday’s Daily Herald had a very informative article on schools that tout Blue Ribbon Awards not from the U.S. Department of Education, but from paid consultants!

If a school displays a Blue Ribbon School Award of Excellence as shown, the award was earned, not purchased from the U.S. Department of Education. If a school displays a Blue Ribbon Lighthouse Award, the school met standards set by a private consultant and paid that consultant a fee.

Looking for more information on Chicago neighborhoods and suburbs? After you review my neighborhoods and suburbs‘ posts, check out the ChicagoTribune.com’s Community Intelligence. For each neighborhood and suburb it shows a map with numerous amenities, market stats, demographics, crime data and schools. Community Intelligence also has several articles most recently featuring Andersonville and Wilmette.

On Saturday I showed townhouses in the Lakeview and Lincoln Park areas of Chicago to a woman relocating here from Memphis with her two children. The son is in high school and the daughter is in elementary, so schools are an important consideration in her home selection.

School names currently aren’t required for listings in the Multiple Listing System of Northern Illinois (MLSNI). Most Chicago listings I’ve seen only have “PUBLIC”, if a name is entered. Fortunately, the Chicago Public Schools Site has awesome tools for helping prospective Chicago home buyers with school age children.

Find a school lets parents find the schools for a specific address and view maps showing the schools boundaries at all public school levels. Below is part of a map generated by the CPS Geographic Information Systems showing most of the areas served by Lakeview and Lincoln Park High Schools.

I recently started working with a gentleman relocating with his wife and daughter from Seattle. He was clear that his top criterion in deciding where to buy a home is good schools. Even though his daughter won’t be in high school for several years, he wanted to know where good high schools are located. What defines a school as good to one parent may be irrelevant to another, so I gave him the link to the IL State Board of Education’s eReport Card site.

One of many measurements of a high school’s quality is the school’s composite ACT score. Below is a map I created based on the most recent ACT data available from the IL State Board of Education. Each blue flag marks the location of one of the 32 high schools with the highest composite ACT scores out of 210 high schools in the Chicago metro area. Click on a blue flag to go to the web site for that school.

For families with children in school, schools are often an important part of the home buying process. On Friday I started searching for a new home for a lesbian couple in Palatine. They want to keep their 8 year old son in the same elementary school, but with another child soon to be on the way they need more space than their current apartment provides.

I setup a search for homes that meet their criteria including their son’s elementary school. They emailed me back wondering why a few homes they saw online didn’t come up in my search. I found that the listing agents for those homes didn’t bother to enter the name of the schools for their listings. They only entered the school district. There is only one elementary school district for Palatine (District 15) and it includes all 15 elementary schools that serve Palatine and all or part of 6 surrounding suburbs.

So I setup a second search using a map that approximates the school’s boundaries to find those listings that meet the women’s search criteria, but don’t specifically mention their son’s school. This type of search isn’t perfect, but should pick up most of the listings missing the school.

If they decide to make an offer on one of these houses, I’ll recommend they call the school to confirm that the address is served by that school. Until the Multiple Listing System of Northern Illinois (MLSNI) requires schools to be specified, I’ll continue to use both types of search.

While getting a house in Bolingbrook ready to go on the market this week, I asked the seller for the names of the school districts for his home. Not having children, he didn’t know and said I could call the schools. I explained that an agent can’t provide the information for a home. It must come from the seller. I wasn’t trying to be difficult or lazy. I just can’t be the source of a home’s information whether it’s school districts, property taxes or year built.

Considering how critical school information is, as a seller you shouldn’t trust anyone but yourself to provide it. Buyers have sued and won after purchasing a home that turned out to be in a different school district.

School districts also change, so to be safe, call your local school district. Give them your address and they’ll let you know if you are currently in their district. Some school districts such as Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202 are starting to put this information on their websites.