Chicago Valedictorians Struggle to Stay Competitive

Chicago Reporter, The, May, 2001 by Sarah Karp

All Chicago public school valedictorians surveyed in the Chicago Valedictorian Project said they went to college. Thirty-one of the 69 Class of 2000 valedictorians responded to the survey, and 58 percent said they went to "moderately difficult" or "minimally difficult" colleges, or two-year institutions that were not rated in Peterson's.

Peterson's asks colleges to provide their own self-assessments, which measure factors like the percentage of applicants accepted into the college and students' ACT scores, Zidzik said.

Blondean Davis, the system's chief of schools and regions, noted that students often choose colleges for cultural reasons. Many valedictorians are the first members of their families to go to college, she said, and the families are uneasy about sending them out of state.

Still, the schools have a responsibility to help students break out of their "comfort zones," Davis added.

Eram Adam, the 2001 valedictorian at Von Steuben Metro High School, 5039 N. Kimball Ave., can verify firsthand that some schools do a better job than others of preparing smart, motivated students.

She applied to Von Steuben, a magnet school, because she and her parents feared her neighborhood high school, Carl Schurz, 3601 N. Milwaukee Ave, would not prepare her for college.

In 2000, 47 percent of the seniors at Schurz took the ACT, averaging 15.8, while at Von Steuben 91 percent of the students took the exam and scored an average of 20.4, schools data show.

Adam said she was accepted by Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, and was put on Harvard University's waiting list. She decided to go to Northwestern.

"My parents don't want me to go so far away," said Eram, 17, whose mother and father emigrated to Chicago from India in the 1970s. "And to tell you the truth, I really don't want to go."

Falling Behind

"I was bitter about my high school," said 19-year-old Carlos Gomez.

With a 4.65 grade point average, Gomez sailed through James H. Bowen High School, at 2710 E. 89th St. on the Southeast Side. He enjoyed the school's drafting program, he said, but got As with little homework or studying.

He was bored in his classes, where teachers repeated lessons for the slower students. He was not offered Advanced Placement courses, he said. At Bowen, 13.5 percent of the students read at or above their current grade level last year, schools data show.

In August 2000 he enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's highly rated engineering program. Gomez expected to do well. But he was stumped in the first week, he recalled. He couldn't keep up with the complex concepts.

"My classmates seemed to have had this stuff in high school," he said. "I did not."

One overwhelming and bewildering week turned into two. The university offered tutoring and other support services, but Gomez said he did not feel comfortable asking for help.

He slipped further and further under.

"By the end of the semester, I was really doing poorly," said Gomez. His grade point average fell below 2.0. "It was a domino effect."