4255 W Devon Ave
Chicago, IL 60646

Our family has had a terrible experience with this school. There is so much bullying that happens and teachers do nothing to help the students that are being victimized. The bully’s are never confronted and parents are told to have their children ignore or stay away from the bullying. The academics are also lacking, not sure if class size is the reason, however it’s harder to tell where your child is academically now that MAP is no longer being used. Once you enroll your child into a CPS school, they will immediately start to indoctrinate them with political ideologies that you may not want your child learning out of your home. Explaining sexuality to a 3rd grader that has not even had sexual education to understand it at any level, leaves families powerless to what and when they want to teach. We wish they would spend more time on academics and socialization and leave the politics out of the classroom.

While my experience was a bit better at high school than at grammar school, some of the things that I encountered gave me some weird vibes. One of them is that almost every time you go into the bathroom, you smell something weird, someone is doing drugs, or the bathrooms are filthier than at home. Not to mention, some weird things have happened in school, such as someone spraying liquid fart in the hallway (which is just gross), and there would be fights students would have with others over something little. That aside, they have teachers who are willing to teach, but at the same time, you will have teachers who are lazy but willing to help. Some of the policies they put into place regarding having to get a tardy slip to get into class, even if you were a few seconds late was a bit unnecessary, not to mention you would need a specific hallpass if you needed to use the bathroom (not to mention there would be times where the bathrooms were closed). I also realized that this school isn't a college prep school anymore, since more often than not, a student from Taft would graduate and go on to college, and they would struggle a lot, since the school doesn't really prepare kids for college.But otherwise, this is just your average suburban high school. You certainly can still have good experiences, though you have to be careful who you surround yourself with, as things can make a turn for the worse if you don't. Unless this is the only school you can attend, you have better options.