Payton College Prep

Last weekend was the Payton open house. The building is only about 10 years old, so it’s bright, modern and airy. A big screen showed a peppy video of student life as we filed into the auditorium and then heard Principal Tim Devine (son of Dick Devine for you old timers out there), who has been the principal there a year or two. His talk was very inspirational in that he said that the students’ impressive data and test scores are what bring interested families there, but it’s the connections they make with each other and the overall education they receive that transform them. He spoke with pride of the students and faculty and said that they push the kids to be intellectually curious. He himself teaches one class per year, and I thought that was a nice reflection of his commitment to wanting to stay in touch with students and with the teaching side of high school. He spoke a lot about how much they counsel the kids to be grateful for the education they’re receiving, and that they look for opportunities to serve the community through service projects. Every year on March 4 (in honor of Walter Payton’s #34), the entire school shuts down and kids and teachers fan out over the city to do volunteer projects. In addition to Mr. Devine, we heard short speeches from current students and saw performances by the cheerleaders and two a cappella singing groups.

After that, we were set loose to view the building and classrooms on our own. There were students and some parents and teachers available to answer questions. There is an interesting mix of a focus on math and world languages. Last year, faculty members led 18 separate trips abroad (I think it was 18 -- might have been more -- it was an impressive number for a school of only 900 kids) to help students further their language skills and cultural horizons.

We went into a math class and a very young and hip (they all look young and hip to me nowadays, though) math teacher demonstrated some pretty nifty technology they use in the classroom: Wireless calculators that the teacher can tap into to see what each kid is doing, and that the kids can use to “vote” for a correct answer, game show style. If all the kids get the right answer, then the teacher knows they all get it and can move on, but if there’s a split in opinion, it’s time to review a little. This little whiz-bang display even made my math-averse daughter interested in participating, which is saying a lot. It’s fantastic that Payton kids have cutting edge technology like this, but it made me a little sad to think that all CPS high school kids could make good use of it, no matter what their level of math achievement.

So overall, it would be nice to get an offer, and if DD hits the 99th percentile for the SEHS entrance exam and the cutoffs remain the same as last year for Tier 4, then there might be an offer forthcoming, but we’re not getting our hopes up. I’m predicting that all 95 kids offered spots this year from rank and Tier 4 will have perfect scores of 900 (all As in final 7th grade grades, 99th percentile on math and English 7th grade ISATs and 99th percentile of the SEHS exam).