Adlai E. Stevenson High School (AESHS), commonly called Stevenson High School (SHS), is a four-year

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

located in Lincolnshire, Illinois, United States. It is named after Adlai E. Stevenson II, the 31st

Governor of Illinois The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its we ...

History

In 1964, growing disagreement between the western (Lake Zurich) and eastern (current Stevenson) sections of the district emerged regarding the school's direction. Before the opening of Stevenson, the students in the Stevenson area attended Ela-Vernon High School in Lake Zurich. Stevenson was planned to be a second school for the growing district, but the western side (Lake Zurich) of the district decided to build their own district. Adlai E. Stevenson High School opened in September 1965. This left Stevenson with an unfinished building, no board or administration, and no faculty. When Stevenson opened to 467 students and 31 teachers in 1965, the building was not carpeted, the library was empty, most classrooms were without desks and athletic fields were non-existent, as most of the school furniture had been shipped to Prairie View, Texas instead of Prairie View, Illinois. In the 1980s, the release of "A Nation at Risk" and the arrival of Richard DuFour as school principal marked pivotal events. During the 1980s and 1990s, the school's student activities program expanded, providing over 100 clubs and teams for students. By the late 1990s, intense student competition led to the formation of a task force to find solutions to issues like grading system manipulation. In 1992, a community referendum determined that Stevenson would remain the district's only high school, with 52% supporting this option. In 1995, Stevenson underwent its largest expansion, growing by more than 50% with a $25 million project. Stevenson has grown since its opening to become one of the largest high schools in the area. The school has undergone various additions over the years, the first being in 1970 where the school gym and pool were renovated. To accommodate the increasing student population, another round of remodeling occurred in the mid-1990s. After the addition of the three-level east building in 1995, the physical size of SHS increased to more than six times its original size of 113,000 square feet. The new east building included 60 new classrooms, a new Performing Arts Center (PAC), the Patriot Aquatic Center, Field House, and the Technology Center, among other projects as well. Also built was a new indoor walkway ("The Link") between the original west building and the new east building. In 2002, a referendum seeking an increase in the education tax rate received nearly 70% support from the community, stabilizing the district's finances. Since 2002, DuFour's retirement year, he had become a leading voice for school reform within the education community until his death in 2017. In April 2008,

Education Week ''Education Week'' is a news organization that has covered K–12, K–12 education since 1981. It is owned by Editorial Projects in Education (EPE), a nonprofit organization, and is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. The newspaper publishes ...

featured Stevenson High School in an article about its successful implementation of professional learning community practices. In 2004, the main entrance to the school was completely rebuilt and transformed into another commons area now known as "The Point." Other renovations that year included more fine arts areas around the band, choir, and orchestra rooms in the west building. Around 2008, many of the athletic fields were expanded and the football field received new turf. In that same year, the original auditorium was renovated as well. In the 2005–06 school year, Stevenson had its highest enrollment of 4,573 students. Between the 2005–06 and 2014–15 school years, each school year saw progressively declining enrollment in the student body. In the 2014–15 school year, Stevenson had its first enrollment increase since the peak in the 2005–06 school year. Stevenson's enrollment was 4,337 for the 2018–19 school year, and enrollment is expected to surpass 4500 by 2020. In 2011, the school library and student resource center in the old/west building were renovated for the first time in Stevenson's history. The project was finished in 2015 when the removal of the two lecture halls was completed to make way for the Quiet Learning Center (QLC). In addition to the new ILC/QLC, the photography studio was also renovated in the summer of 2013. In 2019, the school added an extension to the east building, including 22 new classrooms, conference rooms, a

green roof A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage ...

and flower garden, multiple living walls and solar panels, with the intent of making the new addition a net-zero building. In 2020, Stevenson began planning for an additional expansion, with new athletic courts, an artificial turf playing field, a larger running track, an area for exercise equipment, and other features to be built in the enlarged field house. This addition was finished in August 2022.

Demographics

In 2023, the demographics were: White: 46.6%, Asian: 39.3%, Hispanic: 9.0%, Black: 1.7%, Two or More Races: 3.2%, and American Indian: 0.2%.

Communities served

The school serves students in the area's District 125 coming from

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, Long Grove, Prairie View, portions of Buffalo Grove, Mundelein, Kildeer, Hawthorn Woods and smaller portions of Vernon Hills,

Lake Zurich Lake Zurich (, ; ) is a lake in Switzerland, extending southeast of the city of Zurich. Depending on the context, Lake Zurich or can be used to describe the lake as a whole, or just that part of the lake downstream of the Hurden peninsula and ...

, Riverwoods, Bannockburn, and Mettawa.

Feeder schools

Public schools

Controversies and incidents

Newspaper censorship

In November 2009, a dispute erupted between school officials and the student newspaper, ''The Statesman'', regarding censorship of stories. The administration stopped publication of the November 20 issue, objecting to stories regarding drugs, teen pregnancy, and shoplifting. When students wanted to leave the front page blank in protest of the censorship, the officials instead required the students to produce other stories approved by the administration. The Stevenson public information officer released a statement November 20 stating the administration did not think anonymous sources discussing alleged illegal activity was fit for print. The Chicago Tribune, in a November 26 editorial, said the school was wrong to force students to produce administration-approved stories. "This isn't editing, it's censorship," wrote columnist Zak Stambor. The Society of Professional Journalists' Freedom of Information chairman called the censorship "immoral, un-American, irresponsible and not fit for education." Following the censorship fiasco, 11 of 14 Statesman staffers — and all the paper's top editors — resigned from their positions at the start of the spring 2010 semester.

Confiscation of student cellphones

In February 2012, the school administration initiated an investigation into marijuana sales at the school, during which the cellphones of students suspected of marijuana sales were confiscated, and the text messages stored on the phones were read. The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois described the incident as a "

fishing expedition A fishing expedition is an informal, pejorative term for a non-specific search for information, especially incriminating information. It is most frequently organized by policing authorities. Media In the United Kingdom, Abu Hamza and Yaser al-Sirr ...

", while school officials stated they were "perfectly within our rights". In one instance a student was suspended for five days and barred from participating in extracurricular activities because he refused to provide the password to his cellphone. The probe resulted in two arrests on misdemeanor drug charges.

Student altercations

In 2017, three female students were put on academic suspension when a video surfaced of a student attacking another student on a bus. The student was later charged in juvenile court for aggravated battery.

Discrimination against Black students

In January of 2020, a black student at Stevenson was allegedly targeted and disrespected by dean Nick Valenziano on a recorded video. This led to student protesting and an uproar in the Stevenson community. School administrators accepted Valenziano's resignation around June of 2020, and hired a diversity director to address racial issues within the school.

Athletics

The Stevenson Patriots compete in the North Suburban Conference. The following is a list of sports Stevenson lists for the 2023–24 school year: *

Badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

Bass Fishing Bass fishing is the recreational fishing activity, typically via rod-based angling, for various North American freshwater game fishes known collectively as '' black bass''.Henshall, James A. (Dr.), ''Book of the Black Bass'', Cincinnati, OH: R ...

Bowling Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...

Cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense Physical exercise, physical activity. It can be performed to motivate s ...

* Cross Country * Sideline Dance *

Fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

Field Hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

Flag Football Flag football is a variant of gridiron football (American football or Canadian football depending on location) where, instead of Tackle (football move)#Gridiron football, tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or ...

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

Gymnastics Gymnastics is a group of sport that includes physical exercises requiring Balance (ability), balance, Strength training, strength, Flexibility (anatomy), flexibility, agility, Motor coordination, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movem ...

Ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

Lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

* Patriettes ( Dance squad) *

Soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

Softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

Tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

Track and Field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

Water Polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

Wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

Stevenson High School is a member of the IHSA, the athletic teams are stylized as the Patriots. Many of its teams are top-ranked nationally and have a history of producing collegiate and professional athletes. The following teams have won their respective IHSA sponsored state championship tournament or meets:

Awards and recognition

Stevenson High School is one of the only high schools in the country to receive the United States Department of Education's "Excellence in Education" Blue Ribbon Award five times.National Blue Ribbon Schools from 1982 to present
nationalblueribbonschools.ed.gov In addition, Stevenson has been named one of America's top high schools by both U.S. News & World Report and Newsweek magazines, and has been named a National School of Distinction in Arts Education by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Niche ranked Stevenson as one of the best public high schools in America in 2017. In 2016, Niche gave A+ ratings in the following areas: academics, teachers, educational outcomes, health and safety, resources and facilities, sports and fitness, co-curricular activities, food service, and administration and policies. Several national publications have regularly included Stevenson in their lists of America's best public high schools. Stevenson was the top-ranked open-enrollment public high school in Illinois in 2021, 2015, and 2014 in '' U.S. News & World Report'', and was the top-ranked open-enrollment school in Illinois in the ''Washington Post’s'' rankings in 2014, 2013, and 2012. In 2021, ''U.S. News & World Report'' ranked Stevenson as 171st in national rankings and 6th in Illinois. For the class of 2016, 99.9% attended college.http://www.d125.org/docs/default-source/College-and-Career-Center/other-documents/2016-17-stevenson-hs-profile.pdf In 2015–2016, 360 students were named Illinois State Scholars. In addition, there were 32 National Merit Semi-Finalists in the Class of 2016 and 38 Commended students.

Notable alumni

* Megan Bozek – 2014 USA women's Olympic hockey player. * Kyle Brandt – actor and media personality.Nenni, Pete
"Stevenson grads make a name for themselves in television roles"
''

Daily Herald (Arlington Heights) The ''Daily Herald'' is a daily newspaper based in Arlington Heights, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. The newspaper is distributed in the northern, northwestern and western suburbs of Chicago. It is the namesake of the Daily Herald Media Group, a ...

'', May 13, 2003. Accessed January 20, 2008. * Jalen Brunson – NBA

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player (point guard),

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the Na ...

team captain, 2x NBA All Star (2024, 2025), All-NBA Second Team 2024, member of 2016 and 2018 NCAA champion

Villanova Wildcats The Villanova Wildcats are the athletic teams of Villanova University. They compete in the Big East (NCAA Division I) for every sport; except football and women's rowing where they compete in the Coastal Athletic Association (Football Champions ...

. *

Tamika Catchings Tamika Devonne Catchings (born July 21, 1979) is an American retired professional basketball player who played her entire 15-year career for the Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Widely considered as one of the ...

– former professional basketball player, WNBA champion and 2011

MVP MVP most commonly refers to: * Most valuable player, an award, typically for the best performing player in a sport or competition * Minimum viable product, a concept for feature estimating used in business and engineering MVP may also refer to: ...

. * Brad Cieslak – former NFL

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for the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East div ...

and

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. The Browns compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team is named after ...

. * Kevin Frederick – former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

for the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Since 1989, the team has p ...

. * Dylan Geick – wrestler, writer, and social media personality * Ron Goldman – friend of

Nicole Brown Simpson Nicole Brown Simpson (née Brown; May 19, 1959 – June 12, 1994) was the second wife of American professional football player, actor, and media personality O. J. Simpson. She was murdered outside her Brentwood home, along with her friend Ro ...

and one of the murder victims from the trial of O.J. Simpson. * Hal Gordon – unofficial mascot for the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (frequently referred to as the Oakland A's) were an American Major League Baseball (MLB) team based in Oakland, California from 1968 to 2024. The Athletics were a member club of the American League (AL) American League We ...

, hotdog vendor, and economist. * Andrea Jaeger – professional tennis player, Wimbledon and French Open finalist, who became a nun. * Paul Juda - Olympic medal winning gymnast *

Holden Karnofsky Holden Karnofsky is an American nonprofit executive. Karnofsky co-founded the charity evaluator GiveWell with Elie Hassenfeld in 2007. He co-founded the grantmaking organization Open Philanthropy (organization), Open Philanthropy in 2014, and was ...

– the chief executive officer of the

Open Philanthropy Project Open Philanthropy is an American philanthropic advising and funding organization focused on cost-effective, high-impact giving. Its current CEO is Alexander Berger. As of June 2025, Open Philanthropy has directed more than $4 billion in gran ...

and a co-founder and board member of

GiveWell GiveWell is an American non-profit charity assessment and effective altruism-focused organization. GiveWell focuses primarily on the cost-effectiveness of the organizations that it evaluates, rather than traditional metrics such as the percenta ...

. * Joe Lando – actor, known for the television series '' Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman''. * Alison La Placa – actress, known for sitcoms ''

Duet A duet (italian language, Italian: ''duo'') is a musical composition for two Performing arts, performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a har ...

'', '' Open House'' and '' The John Larroquette Show''. * Drew Mormino – NFL football player for the

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. *

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– professional stock car racing driver. * Maema Njongmeta - linebacker for the

Wisconsin Badgers The Wisconsin Badgers are the College athletics in the United States, athletic teams representing the University of Wisconsin–Madison. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I ...

* Aidan O'Connell – NFL football player (quarterback)

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. * Matt O'Dwyer – former NFL

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and

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. * Mosheh Oinounou (born 1982), former executive producer of ''

CBS Evening News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featu ...

'' * Danny Richmond – former professional ice hockey

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. * Rex Ryan – analyst at

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, former NFL head coach for the

and

.Pompei, Dan/ , ''

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'', May 17, 2009. Accessed September 11, 2017. "When he left the NFL 14 years ago after the Cardinals fired him, the legacy he left the league was his twin sons, Rex and Rob. They had been ball boys for the Bears back in the heyday when they were students at Stevenson High School, and later they were assistants on their dad's staff with the Cardinals." * Rob Ryan – NFL assistant coach. * Justin Smith (born 1999) - basketball player in the

Israeli Basketball Premier League Ligat HaAl (, lit., ''Supreme League or Premier League''), or the Israeli Basketball Premier League, is a professional basketball league in Israel and the highest level of basketball in the country. The league's name is abbreviated as either BSL ...

David Simon David Judah Simon (born February 9, 1960) is an American author, journalist, screenwriter, and producer best known for his work on ''The Wire'' (2002–2008). He worked for ''The Baltimore Sun'' City Desk for twelve years (1982–1995), wrote '' ...

- professional basketball player in the Japanese B.League * Gene Stupnitsky – head writer and executive producer of ''

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''. Television and film writer, director and producer. * Kiki Van Zanten – women's soccer player, represented Jamaica in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup * Lisa Wang – rhythmic gymnast, winner of the

2007 Pan American Games The 2007 Pan American Games, officially known as the XV Pan American Games () and commonly known as Rio 2007, were a major Americas, continental multi-sport event that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from July 13 to 29, 2007. A total of ...

. * Andy Wozniewski – former professional hockey player.Mora, Josh; ''Breaking Down the Blackhawks' Deal''; 5 March 2009; csnChicago; HawkTalk; accessed 12 July 2009
/ref>

References

External links

Official Website
{{authority control 1965 establishments in Illinois Educational institutions established in 1965 Lincolnshire, Illinois Schools in Lake County, Illinois