You guessed wrong--I don't live in Urbana or

Champaign. However, I have friends in both cities and knows very well about the school systems.

Champaign school district is famous for it's lawsuit by african american.Under the court watch, it adopted a system--school of choice. From K, all kids have the right to choose any schools in the district, no matter how far away their home is from the school. However, home within 1.5 miles from a school has the priority to attend the school. Since everybody wants to go to the best school, most of the cases, there is no choice for kids who live more than 1.5 miles away.

After the K, the situation is differet. Your kid can only go to the schools with space. So even a school is very close to your home, you may not get the spot if there is no space. This is the time a lot of people move, so you better check with the Family Information Center ASAP once you move in. The most popular schools are Bottenfield and Barkstall, both are in the south end of the city. As for gifted program, you have to go to the district to ask for information.

Urbana is different system. Kids go to the close school. The best school is Yankee Ranger and Leal school. As A-momy mentioned, most graduate students and postdocs live in Orchard Down, so their kids go to M.L.King school, which is in the north side of the city. The school's average test score is good because so many international students. There are even Chinese Language class every day.

Hope this is helpful for you.

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