When administrators at Park Junior High School in La Grange Park want to know how well things are going in the classrooms, they go right to the sources, asking the teachers, parents and students via a wide-ranging survey.
“Those survey results are compiled and a report prepared for the school and the administrators so they know what they have to work on, or what they’re doing well and have improved upon,” said principal Jerome Green.
So when the school was recently ranked 19th in the state in U.S. News & World Report’s 2025 Best Middle Schools tally, officials weren’t surprised.
The La Grange Park school was chosen from a field of 70,000 public elementary and middle schools in the state, which were ranked based on proficiency in math and reading/language arts, among other criteria.
Green said he was pleased with the high ranking, but put it in perspective.
“It’s nice to know that we did so well this year, but it’s not the primary measure to look at to see how much we have improved,” he said.
Green stressed that the school always kept a close watch on what he termed the “five essentials” of each department, which were the subject of the surveys sent to teachers, parents, and students.
Among those are a “student climate” survey of students compiled each fall and spring.
“The students tell us what they’re thinking about the school,” Green said. “Do you feel like you belong? Do you have friends? Are you able to talk to your teachers? Do you have too much homework, or do you feel challenged?
“It’s good to get their feedback because this is about them.”
The goal isn’t just to give the students what they want.
“We don’t want to give them things that are too easy. It’s easy to get everybody at the highest level when you’re not challenging them,” Green said. “Trying to find that proper level of challenge for each student individually is, I think, the hardest part of what we do, but also the most rewarding. And that takes teachers spending a lot of time with their students and really listening to them.”
So another focus is to make sure teachers have resources to draw upon.
“Some essential things are to make sure the teachers are as well trained as possible,” he said. “If they need or want professional development in their subject area, we make sure that they get it.”
It’s a way to keep staff and administrators nimble as they adapt to the ever changing needs of their students.
“Maybe one of the biggest challenges is forcing yourself to continue to grow,” Green said. “You can’t get stuck on any one approach because you might have to find a different approach to solve your problem. What worked last year might not work this year; what worked with that family might not work with this family.”
Several other La Grange District 102 schools landed on the magazine’s list, including Cossitt School (78th), Ogden Avenue (178th), Congress Park (231st), and Forest Road (310th).
Superintendent Chris Covino credited the district’s faculty and staff for its good showing on the state ranking.
“It was a lot of hard work on the part of the teachers,” he said. “We have one of the most amazing, dedicated crew of teachers and support staff anywhere. I’ve worked in districts for over 25 years now and this is a group of people who are unbelievably dedicated to the safety and welfare of students, and I would attribute a lot to the efforts that they put in every day. That’s probably number one.”
Covino stressed that it was a definite advantage to have students from an involved community.
“We have just an unbelievable community,” he said. “The parents, they come out to support their students, everything they do during the day as volunteers, what we know they do in their homes when the kids get home…between the dedication of the teaching staff and the engagement of the community, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have the success that we currently do.”
Covino echoed Green’s sentiments about the collaborative nature of education.
“We have started to put more of an emphasis on teachers collaborating with each other and talking about how to raise expectations and standards for students,” he said. “I think that that’s something that starts at a pretty adult level and gets to the kids pretty quickly. One of the things that is a structural change is increasing all the time in science and social studies that all the kids are going to have.
That team effort goes all the way to the top, he said.
“It really does start with the principal,” Covino said. “Dr. Green really does serve as a good role model for the students in the building. I walk the halls with him sometimes, and he knows every kid … and there’s 700 kids.”
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.