Coonley School - as good as they say it is/will be?

From what I can gather, Coonley School recently received a grant to create a Regional Gifted Center. That's great, of course, if you live in the neighborhood and your child tests into the RGC.

But will that improve the school overall? I'm hearing that Bell received the same grant and created an RGC, which improved the school overall and made the neighborhood and the school all the more desirable.

Apparently people are now flocking to the Coonley neighborhood boundaries with the thought that Bell will be the same. I might be one of them, but I want to make sure I understand correctly what is going on.

Coonley rates at 8 with Great Schools, which is pretty good, but it's not currently as high as some of the "big name" neighborhood schools on the Chicago Magazine ratings list (Bell/Burley/Audubon/etc). Will that change once the RGC is in place? And how long will it be before the school is "great"? (Or is it already great?)

I'm a newbie to all of this, so thank you for your patience!

That's a great question, Amanda. Great Schools must have updated their ratings for the most recent test scores. Coonley is now a 7. The RGC at Coonley as been open for a few years now, but I'm not sure how far up it goes in grades right now (the neighborhood part goes through grade 8, the RGC adds a grade each year until it hits grade 8). I'm also not sure that, of the grades that have an RGC, how many RGC classrooms there are vs. how many neighborhood classrooms there are. I'd like to know since the RGC would bring up the school's test scores. I'd like to be able to back into what the neighborhood scores are. Oh, and fyi - the RGC is not for neighborhood kids only. It is a test-in for kids from anywhere in the city.

Coonley (like Bell's) biggest problem is that it is now overcrowded. There is no way they can maintain all 4 of their programs 1) neighborhood 2) special needs 3) pre-school and 4) RGC in the existing space. Every year they graduate one class and gain 4 !

The RGC goes up to 5th grade. I think the big 'test' will come when those 5th graders hit 7th grade- will they opt to stay at Coonley or move on to Academic Centers?

Coonley is a wonderful school. As others have posted, it has become very popular, but for good reason, and is now becoming overcrowded. The Principal is committed to keeping the programs there, although pre-k will probably have to go. The composition of the neighborhood really no longer justifies using Pre-K for All funds--which are intended for at-risk children. It could become a tuition pre-k, especially when we finally get the addition that wonderful Alderman Pawar has committed $ too, but CPS bureaucracy has bungled per usual. Bell will certainly have there addition first. I know less about the neighborhood program but I think families are very happy. I wouldn't jump to move to the neighborhood though before checking class size; every neighborhood child has to be accepted which could cause class sizes to explode. RGC, at this point, starts at 28 and then goes up to 31 by 4th grade. We are part of the first RGC class which is now in 5th grade and are so excited that our kids are being taught by a beloved former Bell teacher.

If you are curious about the classroom composition at Coonley, they have a list of all their teachers here.

http://www.coonley.org/index.php?opt...d=75&Itemid=82

So for K-5, one of each of those rooms is the options program. I know for K it is Ms. Hamilton-Ms.Grzych (two because Ms.Hamilton's maternity leave) but I couldn't tell you which of the older grades' rooms is the options one.

My oldest won't be in K until next year, but I enjoy looking at this once in a while to see what kind of things he might be doing if he attended Coonley as I assess our school choice for next year.

I'm a Coonley RGC parent (1st), with a 5th grader at Decatur. Coonley is by FAR the preferable of the two schools in our opinion. By FAR. Thry consider the whole child, not just their test scores. We've found it to be such a breath of fresh air compared to Decatur, truly. While I adore most teachers and many parents at Decatur, the administration is abhorrent, and cares nothing about either their rampant bullying problem (going on since our kids were barely in 2nd grade) or the welfare of the emotional health of the children. Very sad, indeed. (They also have zero accommodation for parents with disabilities either at pick-up or drop-off). Coonley is open, warm, inviting, available. I can volunteer in the classroom (never permitted at Decatur) and I can walk my child to class (also never permitted at Decatur). The administration is accessible and accommodating. Fabulous school. We are considering sending our Decatur grad there for 7th and 8th grade, which says a lot..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Amanda

From what I can gather, Coonley School recently received a grant to create a Regional Gifted Center. That's great, of course, if you live in the neighborhood and your child tests into the RGC.

But will that improve the school overall? I'm hearing that Bell received the same grant and created an RGC, which improved the school overall and made the neighborhood and the school all the more desirable.

Apparently people are now flocking to the Coonley neighborhood boundaries with the thought that Bell will be the same. I might be one of them, but I want to make sure I understand correctly what is going on.

Coonley rates at 8 with Great Schools, which is pretty good, but it's not currently as high as some of the "big name" neighborhood schools on the Chicago Magazine ratings list (Bell/Burley/Audubon/etc). Will that change once the RGC is in place? And how long will it be before the school is "great"? (Or is it already great?)

I'm a newbie to all of this, so thank you for your patience!

---

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