Illinois A Great Place To Live If You're A Teacher: Study

Summer is nearly here, and many school districts are looking to fill empty roles for the 2017-18 school year — so if you're a teacher, now's the time to be job hunting. And Illinois is a great place to look, according to the 2017 Top 100 Best Cities For K-12 Teachers list from GoodCall, a data analysis site dedicated to "(bringing) information and relationships together for a better consumer experience." Five cities in the top 10 are right here in Illinois.

GoodCall ranked cities based on eight metrics that identify affordable cites that pay teachers well, are safe, have available jobs, have residents that value education, and are nice places to live with plenty of amenities. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest Chicago news. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

The study considered factors, including average salary, jobs per 1,000 residents, violent crime rate, unemployment rate and percentage of residents with a high school diploma and bachelor's degree or higher.

These Illinois towns made it into the top 10:

• Glenview #2
• Evanston #3
• Elmhurst #4
• Plainfield #9
• Crystal Lake #10

Other Illinois cities made the top 100, including Naperville, Downers Grove, Buffalo Grove, Schaumburg, Arlington Heights, Palatine, Orland Park, Tinley Park and Skokie.

Most of the cities on the list are in the Midwest, according to GoodCall. "Top cities tended to be smaller cities. The top 10 percent averaged around 91,000 residents, while the bottom 10 percent averaged more than 138,000," the study said. "Despite the fact that many of the top places are outside large cities, they tend to have low violent crime rates. The average across all cities is 4.3 crimes per 1,000 residents, but cities in the top 10 percent average just 2.6."

Find the full list of 2017 Best Cities for K-12 Teachers here.

Image via Shutterstock