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Not sure this is the right forum for this, but does anyone have any hesitations about putting their kids into the SEES system? What are the main advantages? Yes, the SEES schools have higher rates of funneling kids into the ACs and selective enrollment high school, but presumably that’s at least in part because they have generated a cohort of children who are good at test taking and intelligent. Likely they would have gotten in anyway (and perhaps not worked so hard to achieve the As in 7th grade they need). Are we, as parents, chasing prestige? Or is this system actually what’s best for the city’s gifted children?
Full disclosure: I have no firsthand experience with the environment at an SEES since we moved here too late for the K application and declined our offer for 1st grade due to the commute and the fact that we are quite happy with our walking distance neighborhood school. However, I have heard people talk about the “pressure cooker” environments that start even in the early elementary years and I have to wonder if there is truth to it, and if so, if it is developmentally appropriate. Are the schools fostering kids’ natural curiosity while nurturing them socially, or are they (and us parents) curating an environment in which kids are competing against their classmates from age 5? Are they burning out by the end of high school?
I’m still trying to decide if SEES is right for us if we get off a waitlist for a closer school. My kindergarten son did not score heroically high, but he’s doing multiplication on his own because he thinks it’s fun, and he’s reading at a second grade level. Am I doing him a disservice by keeping him in a regular classroom where he may get bored at some point, or am I allowing him to maintain his confidence and enjoyment of learning? Maybe my thoughts are colored by my own experience as being labeled as a “gifted kid” and the pressure that came with that.
I would love to hear other people’s thoughts.
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Totally individual but we are in a similar boat with both kids and know in our bones that our neighborhood school was the right call. A commute, friends scattered all over, and likely ending up at the same high schools anyway were our main reasons. Most cps schools offer accelerated math and reading starting in 5th grade and even kids in the sees system are supplementing academically.
Both of our kids got into top SEES programs and while it made us feel good, we never seriously considered it.
The way I see it, yes, they may be bored in math, or whatever, but it gives them space to develop in other ways.
I think a lot of people love SEES, but it wasn’t for us. And I don’t think I’m harming my kids with that choice. Just the opposite.
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I appreciate the affirmation! I’m glad to know I wasn’t the only one hesitating to jump at the opportunity for an SEES program, and I’m very happy your kids are thriving in the neighborhood program!
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I think it really depends on whether your zoned neighborhood school is well organized and has involved principal/teachers/families etc. Check the 5essentials survey scores for your neighborhood school vs the sees. In our case they look VERY different (our neighborhood school has below average scores for ALL of the areas and our SEES has above average). I don’t know how much to believe these survey results but it’s what CPS is pushing as the new metric for measuring school quality, and it avoids the the pitfalls you mentioned about metrics based on test scores.
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True, we are fortunate to have a wonderful neighborhood school.
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My neighborhood school is also a SEES school so that is what made the decision for us to enroll our kids in SEES. There are times I wish it was a more traditional neighborhood school in that all friends lived close by instead of all over the city but I also realize how lucky we are to have a good neighborhood school as, unfortunately, I know that isn’t always the case. I definitely think there is too much emphasis and stress put on a test your kid takes when they are 4 or 5. Involved parents throughout the education experience seem to be the most important factor.
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I agree with above that this is a totally individual call and it strongly depends what your alternatives are.
We knew we would likely move once our child had a school. I toured every SEES and choice/neighbourhood school in logical radius of where we lived at the time. (This is how I manage my anxiety; I did the same thing with day cares.)
Every single one had something great. I really liked the dual-language systems at several of them, the STEM focus at others, and some really great art programs at even more. Kid would have been fine at all of them, but not necessarily thrived the way I think he is now.We did end up at a SEES. One advantage for us is that kiddo is academically in the middle but is with students who are at the same social/emotional level. I had worried about him always being the best in class and not being challenged enough. I trust that the teacher isn’t over extended trying to differentiate from can’t read to reading at +3 grade levels. My husband likes that they feed to top HS, but even at the intro meeting it was emphasized that the kids went to their top choice HS (not specifically one of the SEHS.)
It a disadvantage that our classmates are not our neighbours. It requires more work for play dates etc… One way our parent group has managed this is to announce when we’re going to be at a park and sometimes other friends will show up.
I personally also think the size of the school is a disadvantage. There’s only 1 class/grade level, which means that unless someone moves or takes a different offer this is the class until HS. (or academic center.)We’re still in early elementary, but I wouldn’t say there’s huge pressure. The parent group is tight knit and there are often articles about intentional under achieving or the benefits of unstructured time that go through the group chat.
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Thank you, I appreciate the insight. May I ask where you ended up that does not have a pressured environment? Maybe it is school dependent as well.
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If you dont want to do the selective schools there are weekend enrichment programs like Northwestern Talent development (fee based program) or look at some local university of community college programs (some free) that way your child(ren) can still be academically challenged.
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I’m in a similar dilemma. We are in a strong waitlist position for SEES program. However, we are excited for our neighborhood program too (Blaine). I’m having a hard time deciding if we should take the SEES option if its provided. Can anyone share Blaine’s academic emphasis and specifically their ability to help challenge gifted children?
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I have two CPS kids. The oldest was in SEES K-8 and is now about to graduate from an SEHS. The other has done K-8 in our mostly ok neighborhood school and is about to graduate and go to an SEHS. I’ve seen both sides of this story, so here is my 2 cents:
– The SEES my kid was in never felt competitive to my kid or to me as a parent. I know families with kids who have been in a variety of SEES schools and honestly I have never heard any of them say it is highly competitive environment but I can only truly speak to my experience. The biggest value for us was that my kid was in a group of kids that were all relatively similar in terms of academic ability and drive. That allowed for much more even instruction from the teachers and an acceptance by the kids that everyone was a pretty good student vs creating any sense of hierarchy about good/bad students. Not that every kid was the same, but there was a solid baseline they all brought. Even in the SEES my kid was bored at times and not pushed to their full ability, and I think in many neighborhood schools that would have been even more likely. Socially, the challenges of friends being all over the city is real, and while my kid had friendships they have kept even as they all went to different high schools, it did remove the spontaneity of hanging out with kids nearby. No regrets at all though.
– My neighborhood kid was fine in terms of getting what they needed academically from about K-3. After that is where we really started see a difference in how the school handled the differing abilities of the students. Our kid was definitely left to be a good student without a lot of effort to challenge or engage them at their level. The focus by the teachers went to the kids who were truly struggling and the curriculum was generally not as engaging or challenging as what my SEES kid experienced. For us, that has been a big problem for our smart kid that only has grown bigger in middle school. In part because of the personality of my kid, who is smart and able to focus and work hard when interested in something, but also happy to do the minimum of things they don’t like if it also means good results. They now have some pretty bad habits in terms schoolwork and effort. Socially, the neighborhood experience has been fantastic with many impromptu play dates when the kids were younger and now as teens easy to hang out any time with friends in walking distance, but academically my kid definitely is not entering HS with the same student abilities my oldest had coming from SEES.
So bottom line, I would assess the choice between SEES and a neighborhood school on a school by school basis and what kind of environment will best serve your kid. Don’t assume anything without learning as much as you can about the experience your kid would have at any school.
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You definitely have a unique perspective having been through both programs, so I very much appreciate you chiming in! I didn’t think about the main focus of the teacher being the students who are struggling, but it’s certainly a consideration.
Where my son is now, the kids break into groups based on ability and they rotate which group is with which kinder teacher so they’re working on skills that are appropriate for them. So one of the kinder teachers ends up working with the group with lower reading ability one day and another teacher has the more advanced reading kids, then they switch the following session (same for math). I should look into whether this continues into the later grades because I do think this is very positive for him.
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We’re at Edison. I may have to walk that back. I haven’t seen pressure/competition, but we’re early elem.
Just today at pickup, someone was commenting that 2nd grade homework is intense.
I think it scales. Kindergarten is lead by a Disney princess who gently corrals all the little forest creatures. Homework was available, but totally optional. 1st grade teacher is more like Mary Poppins and doing the homework gets a prize. I don’t think that our class is competitive with each other. One of the conference reflections questions was which classmate could you ask for help?The pressure question probably also depends on your kid. Mine likes to do homework, but has had 2 meltdowns (so far) about the rock project. Which, to be fair is a bit intimidating. I like that kiddo is being challenged now and we can work on things like breaking to work into smaller chunks and managing the emotions.
And also depends on your class. Our class is pretty chill. One mom is the PTA president who actively encourages (by way of article sharing) planned under achievement” aka unstructured time. The book club read “The Anxious Generation.”
There are a lot of really great neighborhood schools out there. Our day care class split to at least 6 schools and all of our friends are happy with theirs. We 100% love our school. But, I do think there’s a lot of “grass is always greener” worry. We have friends at Prescott and Hawthorne (both amazing schools) with classmates who try to test to other schools. I value the community of a school and the convenience. We made the best choice for our family. If we had already owned a house with a great neighborhood school that we could walk to or had to worry about sibling preference, might have made a different choice.
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I love your description of the teachers 😀 My son’s RGC score was 245, so I don’t think Edison is in the cards for us but I’ve heard wonderful things!
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Would you be willing to share some of the planned underachievement articles? There is zero acknowledgement or communication that I’m aware of about this at our SEES and am thinking about a lot as we progress through the years.
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https :// www. nytimes. com /2026/04/12/opinion/parenting-kids-burn-out.html?unlocked_article_code=1.aVA.9Lx0.Gv6BzXQrmyk8&smid=nytcore-ios-share
This was the recent one.
I added some spaces, hopefully it will post.
I’ll see if I can find any earlier ones.
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My kids both went to a small private – one graduated from there and is now in SEHS, one transferred to Edison at the beginning of the school year. Our neighborhood school was not a good fit for our kids.
My two cents: Culturally, I think the neighborhood school decision would look different depending on the culture of the neighborhood. Some are stronger than others at retaining kids from the neighborhood, so you could have a great experience of range of personality types, academic ability, etc. in the same school while being able to make plenty of neighborhood friends (the dream hah!)
However, socially, emotionally, and educationally, I am very glad we transferred our younger to a SEES (and I sometimes wonder if we did our older kid a disservice by not giving him the same experience) – and this is coming from someone who absolutely LOVED our private school. The community was great, the teachers were wonderful, the academics were very good, and the end result was SEHS. BUT I think my son could have benefitted from more academic challenge earlier on (similar to what someone else mentioned here, he formed some bad habits when the assignments were easy). My younger child is very social no matter the school, but watching her interact with her friends from Edison is another level. It’s like she finally found her “people” – I’m kind of dreading the AC decision in a couple of years! She’s also more engaged with and challenged by the schoolwork – not in a way that seems like a pressure cooker, but in a way that seems more on her level than her previous school.
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Anyone got an offer?
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Thanks for posting this! What did you decide? We declined our Decatur offer in favor of our neighborhood school!
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We declined Beaubien in the initial round, mostly due to commute. Did not receive any offers today, but we are #1 at Pritzker and #2 at Bell and Edison, which surprised me given his score. I actually don’t know yet what we would do if we receive any others offers (though I don’t think Edison and Bell move much).
Still trying to figure out what’s best for my kid. All seem like excellent options, but he also loves his current school. I just want to make sure he doesn’t feel too pressured that he doesn’t maintain his love of learning. I appreciated the post from eckma regarding the culture at Edison earlier. Anyone with insights as to the culture at Bell and Pritzker, particularly in regard to how competitive it feels (for parents as well as kids)? Part of me also worries he wouldn’t be able to keep up. He’s definitely bright but not a genius by any means. I don’t want him to lose confidence because he’s in the bottom of a class of geniuses.
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Sorry for the multiple posts. But yes – short answer is we are currently staying at our neighborhood school.
What were the factors in your decision to stay at your neighborhood school vs Decatur? Will you be staying on any waitlists, or would choose neighborhood above all others?
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Local community, less burnout for kid and us re commute (more sleep, more free time, less traffic), easy to access for activities/emergencies/sick calls, and more independence for our kid as she grows up (walking a literal block to school and back solo when she’s older, walking to friends houses, etc)!
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I went through this all as a kid (Decatur, Bell Options, and then Northside) and definitely felt the pressure cooker aspect, so that has been a huge concern for me as I navigate this process for my rising K child. I had no expectations for her with the testing process, and we are also lucky to have a strong neighborhood school and a great magnet offer that was even closer to us. We ended up receiving a rank seat at our first choice SE. I debated back and forth up until decisions were due. We are going to try the SE school. To your question re: culture, I have spoken with multiple current Pritzker families (2 K, one 4th, one 5th, and 6th) and each has said that there is not a competitive atmosphere amongst parents or students within the RGC. The parents I talked to all seemed fairly laid back when it comes to academics, and seem to want a well-rounded experience for their kids. I think that’s one of the benefits of Pritzker’s program, that you get people opting for it because they also have interest in the fine arts programming, so you don’t necessarily have a crowd hyper focused on academic achievement at all costs. I think teacher expectations are high, but my impression is that it’s a generally supportive atmosphere. It was a tough call to make, but I think there will be benefits and opportunities from the RGC that she wouldn’t get elsewhere. There are downsides too (driving commute, homework, friends spread out through the city). Having never attended a neighborhood school myself, some of that is easier to swallow just because it was normalized for me. But we’ll see how it goes for my kid and reassess if needed.
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I toured Pritzker recently, but unfortunately they didn’t have much info on the RGC as it was combined for all programs including the neighborhood programs and magnet school. They did say the options kids do all the same fine arts “specials” as the rest of the school, which sounds great in general but my kid absolutely hates dance and drama. They had some dance at his current school in PE and he was miserable about it. Pritzker is actually the closest RGC to us, but I wonder if it would be a poor fit for him due to the fine arts emphasis. Really too bad, as it otherwise sounds wonderful.
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We are in the same boat. We have an offer at Lenart, but can go to Galileo. We are torn whether we send our son to a school where we know he will grow with his cohort and will all be challenged well, or to a more local school where we can build stronger community.
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I assume you took the Lenart offer since the deadline passed and Galileo is your local school? Otherwise how are both still options? Let us know what you decide! No easy answers.
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We didn’t. We went with Galileo. Aside from the convenience and community we already have with other families there, they’re diverse, have rotating specials on a weekly basis (PE, science lab, library, Spanish), have a curriculum that doesn’t just rely on Skyline, are diverse, and about the same number of students got into Academic Centers and SEHS. We are able to supplement and support our son at home if we need to. It was a hard decision (and we put ourselves back on a lot of waitlists where he has a favorable position), but we’re comfortable with it.
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Skyline is horrible.
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Sounds like a great opportunity! I just learned about Skyline today, and it seems CPS is really pushing it. I don’t think my son’s current school uses it. How can we find out which RGCs are using Skyline? I see the comment below about it being horrible – anyone else with thoughts about it? Is this the general consensus?
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Yes. Even from friends who work for CPS providing Skyline trainings. The science and Social Science within Skyline were essentially licensed from other developers. Those are ok. The math and reading are not great. It was rushed and piecemealed. You would have to ask the admin team directly. Many share about their curriculum on their tours.
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