Hinsdale Central Beats New Trier, Stevenson

HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale Central High School was recently designated an "exemplary" school based on its data from last year, according to the state.

That puts the school in the top 10 percent of Illinois' elementary, middle and high schools.

Meanwhile, Hinsdale South was labeled "commendable," a distinction that the vast majority of the state's schools receive.

At a meeting last week, Hinsdale High School District 86 officials noted Central beat two similarly wealthy high schools for the "exemplary" designation.

Both New Trier High School in Winnetka and Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire received "commendable" labels. New Trier and Stevenson have low-income student rates of 4 percent and 6 percent, respectively, compared with Central's 7 percent.

In issuing designations, the Illinois School Board of Education uses a formula that includes the graduation rate, chronic absenteeism, ninth graders who are on track, and English, math and science test scores.

Here are suburban high schools that also received "exemplary" ratings:

• Fremd (Palatine)
• James B. Conant (Hoffman Estates)
• John Hersey (Arlington Heights)
• Lake Forest
• Metea Valley (Aurora)
• Naperville North
• Neuqua (Naperville)
• Payton College Preparatory School (Chicago)
• Prospect (Mount Prospect)
• Vernon Hills