Chicago Sun-Times

Victoria Sotirova was devastated when she missed the cutoff score to get in to Lane Tech High School by a few lousy points.

The teenager, who’d led her class at Budlong Elementary School, had her heart set on the selective North Side high school. But while awaiting a possible principal discretion slot, she resigned herself to going to her neighborhood school, Amundsen High School, 5110 N. Damen, and entered an International Baccalaureate program there that demands critical thinking and tons of reading...