While my experience with Avery Coonley is from another era (class of '83), at that time they were highly individualized in mathematics, language arts/rhetoric, and art in particular. Standards were high across the board - in the 1990s the school was excluded from the Illinois State Science Fair after placing first too many times in a row. The progressive traditions also ran very deep, with handiwork, music, and outdoor education integral to the curriculum at all levels.