Evanston is a school town in the literal sense. It has two public districts that do not overlap, a handful of private schools, and one of the country’s better-known research universities on its lakefront. Here is how the pieces fit together.
Public schools
Evanston/Skokie School District 65 runs the pre-kindergarten through eighth grade schools. According to the district, it has ten attendance-area elementary schools, three attendance-area middle schools, two magnet schools and an early childhood center, with roughly 6,500 students. Enrollment has been falling for years, and the district has been weighing school closures, so boundaries and building lists are worth checking with the district directly.
Evanston Township High School, District 202, is the city’s only public high school. It was founded in 1883, and its current campus at 1600 Dodge Ave. opened in 1924. The campus covers about 65 acres near the lake, and the school has recently enrolled somewhere between 3,500 and 3,700 students, depending on the year. The school offers Advanced Placement courses, engineering classes, culinary arts and auto technology, along with a program that lets advanced students earn Northwestern credit.
Private schools
Private options include Beacon Academy, a Montessori high school; Chiaravalle Montessori; Midwest Montessori; Pope John XXIII School; and St. Athanasius School. Admissions calendars and current status vary, so check with each school directly.
Colleges and universities
Northwestern University, founded in 1851, has an Evanston campus of about 240 acres beside downtown. Its Kellogg School of Management has been in Evanston since 1908. Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, founded in 1853, shares the campus. For adults and recent graduates, universities and community colleges elsewhere in the Chicago area are reachable by Metra, the CTA and the highway system.
Libraries
The Evanston Public Library dates to 1873. A satellite branch operates at the Robert Crown Community Center. The library’s North and South branches closed in 2021.
Finding more information
For school performance data, the Illinois State Board of Education’s Illinois Report Card gives side-by-side numbers for both districts. Independent guides such as GreatSchools and the Independent Schools Association of the Central States are useful for comparing private options.