Decatur Classical School - Chicago, Illinois

hjk G.

Academics are very mediocre, nothing stands out in particular. Science curriculum is very poor quality, majority of class time is spent on nothing. Everyone is friends and overall good social atmosphere. As others have mentioned, plenty of favoritism and ridiculously small workload. The only reason school has good test scores is because of wealthy parents and high cutoffs to get in, school itself is nothing special. Overall, good school for younger grades, but wouldn't recommend it above other selective schools.

Georgo G.

It's an okay school. They have pretty good teachers for the subjects that really matter like social studies, math, and reading/writing. But, the school is too competitive. They didn't treat me that well until I won one of their academic competitions. Also, the teachers pick favorites. But overall (again) it's okay.

The R.

My experiences there were not that bad. First things first, the administration is horrible. The principal and vice principal are racist. My 5th and 6th grade year were my best ones, and I really loved the teacher I had, Mrs. Allegretti. My 4th year, however, was horrible. Ms. Jorbin, the science teacher was the worst. Fortunately she left the school.

The science teacher in 5th/6th grade was okay, but he picked favorites way too much. Don't get thrown off by the other reviews, the Latin curriculum was amazing with a stellar teacher, and it really helped me learn other languages (or at least give me a small jump start) in high school.

The school was tiny, which might be bad if your transitioning to a big school afterwards, and there was almost no homework. This might sound like a good thing, but really, it's bad. My new school has a lot of homework and my homework amount at Decatur did not help to cope with the quantity of homework.

Overall, a good experience in my last years, and the rest were mediocre. I would not recommend this school to older students. As for younger students, you can make the decision.

Keith S.

As a student there right now, it is an overall good school. Except the fact that there is too much favoritism. Also some teachers don't put in many grades, which aggravates my mom. Kudos to Magistra Cohen, who puts in grades consistently. Some teachers also get kids in trouble for no reason at all.

Jaren S.

This school was phenomenal but it also had one bad part about it. There was a certain teacher who i disliked. He was the worst teacher ive ever had
I didnt like this teacher for the following reasons
1. He wasn't really our teacher. What i mean by this is that he didn't really teach us anything. He used youtube videos such as vsauce or scishow to teach us. Theirs a huge difference learning from vsauce and learning from a teacher.
2. He picked favorites. There were two kids who kept leaving the classroom without permission. After being given several warnings they kept leaving. Then on one day he noticed that they were gone and told the class that they were going to get in trouble which usually involves a misconduct report. As soon as they got back he didn't have the guts to give his "favorite students" misconducts even though that was strictly forbidden by the uniform discipline code and I was sure if it was anyone else he would of probably suspended them or worse.
3. He also has students that he disliked for example once there was a kid and he was a trouble maker. He was doing the monkey bars when suddenly another student jumps onto the monkey bars and crashed into him. The teacher yelled at that kid and told him to sit down but he didnt even talk to the other kid
4. He doesn’t know how to handle kids. Instead of handling them he just sends them to the office for the principal to handle. This of course excludes his “favorite students”
5. He wont admit hes wrong

Even though they have this bad teacher. This school is phenomenal but it has its problems. 1 bad apple can ruin the bunch. 1 teacher can ruin a class of students or even the whole school. Its kinda ironic that my favorite subject is science but he was my worst teacher. Even though they have him as I said before this school is great and I would suggest having your kids go there

Ibraheem K.

Decatur Classical was a great school to go to. The small environment makes for a great opportunity to meet new people and make best friends! The academics are the best in the state, and they give you an excellent base to jump off of at other schools, such as Lane Tech Academic Center, Taft Academic Center, or Whitney Young Academic Center, to name a few. I go to one of these, and I must say, I am doing great and really benefited!

Lily M.

The old principal was okay but the new principal, Ms. Luna is much nicer and more open to new things. Some of the old traditions are gone but there are some new things to replace the old ones. Some people think that learning Latin was useless, but I think it was important because Latin is the base for many languages. I suggest you send your kids here because it is a good school.

Kashif C.

Punishments were much harsher than the infractions which were puny little things, but I learned a lot from this school, for which I'm grateful to. Thank the Great Lord that the obnoxious chanmi chun left decatur. Everybody's least favorite teacher. What goes around comes around. Many teachers here were great at teaching, and the principal was quite mediocre, which Huffington Post quickly pointed out in an article. The vice principal was the most racist person that I have ever encountered.