With a line of students and parents snaking around the building, it should be no surprise that one mother at Lane’s open house was eager for her daughter to go to her former high school.
“It’s been my dream,” Lissette Marrero-Hansen said. “I’ve actually been excited for this moment since she was born.”
At this year’s open house, parents and children sat in the auditorium in shifts to see performances from a myriad of extracurricular departments.
From Vietnamese club’s International Days dance to JROTC Drumline to a scene from the drama department’s most recent performance, “The Plot, like Gravy, Thickens,” attendees saw a lot of what Lane has to offer, but not much of the school’s academic numbers. All of which was decided by school administrators trying to entice attendees to apply to Lane.
There are around 20,000 students applying to the top five out of 11 selective enrollment high schools in the CPS system, CEO Pedro Martinez told NBC Chicago. So how does Lane attempt to stand out to students applying to high schools?
When Principal Edwina Thompson was applying to Lane she had seen the school’s gospel choir at her church. “They connected with those of us who wanted to talk to them,” said Thompson, “The connection, the relationship, it goes back to that.” And that convinced her to apply to Lane. But students applying to Lane have a lot more to consider now.
“Because of the competitiveness of the job market,” English Teacher Brian Telles said, “everything’s kind of had to elevate.”
Since high school diplomas are less useful in the job market than they were 40 years ago, Telles sees kids getting increasingly specialized at younger ages, followed by a stark difference in how kids are choosing high schools.
The selective enrollment system allows Chicago students to have a say in where they go to high school. That choice will affect not only their high school education, but it may also inform where they are able to go to college, which is becoming increasingly important in the United States job market.
According to Pew Research Center the median average income for men working full time with a college degree is $77,000 as of 2022. The counterpart for men with only a high school diploma is only $45,000.
Lane has many academic offerings – the school website proudly tells readers about Lane’s top tier Advanced Placement program, number 5 ranking in the city of Chicago, and specialty honors programs such as Alpha and Omega. But Principal Thompson believes there’s a more important question students need to think about when applying for high schools.
“Is it the right fit for your student?” Thompson said, “Is it the right fit for that individual? Is it the right fit for their academic journey?”
But is that good enough for students who want to go to one of the top high schools in the city?
Lane is rated the fifth best high school in Chicago by the U.S. News Best High Schools ranking. According to the Illinois Report Card, Lane has an average SAT score of 1,233, falling 93 points behind #2 Northside, and 82 points behind first ranked Walter Payton.
Yet Lane Tech is standing strong. CPS reports having 101,363 students in high school as of the start of the 2024-25 school year, and Lane reports having more than 13,000 students applying each year, just under 13% of all CPS high school students. Lane admitted 1,147 students last year and 1,116 the year before.
“Lane is a phenomenal school. We have a rich legacy. We have rich opportunities. We have rigorous courses. And in combination with all of that, I still believe that families have to choose environments that their child can fit into and become part of,” Thompson said.
