Schools

Addison offers opportunities for both public and private elementary school education. Addison Elementary School District 4 has eight schools which include six elementary buildings, a primary center, and a junior high. Two parochial elementary schools are also located in Addison.

District 4 provides the most current curriculum and best instructional practices in order to provide every child with the tools to learn and be successful. By coordinating the efforts of public and private health and human service agencies to meet the needs of preschool students and their families, District 4 plays an integral role in providing children with a solid educational foundation to build upon. The district offers state of the art curriculum and outstanding opportunities for engaged learning through the integration technology. Addressing the learning needs of all the members of its 3,800 student population is a District 4 priority.

As part of DuPage High School District 88, Addison Trail High School provides students with a secondary education. Once at Addison Trail, students can expect an excellent academic environment in which to learn. More than 80 percent of Addison Trail’s graduates go on to some form of higher education and 80 percent of the teaching staff hold master’s degrees or beyond. With approximately 1,700 enrolled students, Addison Trail offers more than 250 different courses, including advanced placement in English, calculus AB and calculus BC, biology, physics, American history, world psychology and political science. Several advanced and honors’ courses are included. The curriculum offers studies in three foreign languages including: German, Spanish and Italian.

Students of Addison Trail can also perform with several choruses as well as a symphonic band, jazz band, concert orchestra and concert band. Students are encouraged to participate in the extracurricular activities of nearly 40 clubs and special interest organizations.

Technology Center of DuPage (TCD), located in Addison’s industrial sector, serves 21 DuPage area high schools, providing the specialized education that leads to technical careers. The center prepares students for entry level positions in areas of business and industry. Students are taught special skills, including: pre-architecture and pre-engineering CAD, construction trades, machine tool operation, computer information systems, office systems technology, travel and tour services, graphic arts production, multimedia and television production, health occupations. TCD also offers technology courses in automotive, aviation, maintenance, electronics, computers and residential appliance.

Several institutions of higher learning surround Addison. The College of DuPage is only a short drive to the southwest, in southern Glen Ellyn. With more than 36,000 full- or part-time students, the college operates branch educational centers in three DuPage County communities. The College of DuPage Addison Center, located at the Technology Center of DuPage, is one of those.

As a junior college, the College of DuPage prepares students for transfer to a four-year university or for entry into a trade or profession. The college is divided into eight areas of study: business and services, humanities, communications, natural sciences, occupational and vocational education, social and behavioral sciences, learning resources and student affairs.

Elmhurst College, located to the southeast in neighboring Elmhurst, is one of the largest independent liberal arts colleges in Illinois. The college offers 53 majors in 21 departments, plus pre-professional studies in dentistry, medicine, law, engineering, theology, physical therapy and library sciences.

Many colleges and universities are within easy commuting distance from Addison students, including Benedictine University, a multifaceted, four-year college whose primary element is its undergraduate college for liberal arts and sciences. Other institutions of higher learning in the Chicago area include Robert Morris University, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois-Chicago, Loyola University, DePaul University, St. Xavier University and  Northern Illinois University.

In addition, the DuPage Campus of DeVry University is in Addison. DeVry Inc. is one of the largest publicly owned, degree-granting, higher education companies in North America, and recently opened its Chamberlain College of Nursing on the Addison campus.