Let’s Learn About Lane Tech Academic Center

The Academic Center Entrance Exam (ACEE), also known as the Regional Gifted Center Test (RGC Test), plays a major role in admissions for selective enrollment 7th and 8th grade Academic Centers. There are 7 such Academic Centers in Chicago: Brooks, Kenwood, Lane Tech, Lindblom, Morgan Park, Taft, and Whitney Young. Students will be taking the ACEE in mid to late January; in the meantime, Test Prep Chicago will be featuring some of the top Academic Centers, laying out what makes them special. 

First up is Lane Tech. Founded in 1908, Lane Technical College Prep High School and Academic Center (also known as Lane Tech) is situated in Roscoe Village, a neighborhood on the north side of Chicago. Though founded many years ago, Lane Tech’s Academic Center opened in 2011. Since Lane Tech is both a selective enrollment high school and Academic Center, students enrolled in Lane’s academic center are automatically enrolled in Lane Tech’s high school program without needing to reapply.

Much like at other Academic Centers, students enrolled can gain high school credit for classes as well as work on material that is 1-2 years advanced. Furthermore, as early as their 7th-grade year, students at Lane Tech Academic Center begin receiving high school credit for classes like algebra, biology, global issues, and electives such as world language, art, music, or computer science. As students progress to high school, all Academic Center students at Lane are expected to take either Honor or Advanced Placement courses, though, still must meet all regular prerequisites in place by course instructors and departments. This puts students on track to already be taking AP courses (that may count for college credit) during their freshman year of high school.

In addition to academics, Lane Tech Academic Center also offers extracurriculars students would find at any other elementary school. Sports offered include cross country, track, basketball, soccer, and cheerleading to name a few. There are also other clubs and activities which include Student Council, Math Team, Yearbook, Science Olympiad, and Debate.

Admission scores for Selective Enrollment Academic Centers are calculated on a 600-point scale. 300 points are determined by the Academic Center Entrance Exam, and 300 points are determined by 5th grade scores in math, reading, science, and social studies. While we cannot know the scores required for admittance into Lane Tech for the 2026-27 school year, last year’s cutoff scores for Lane Tech are listed below:

Rank                    Min. Point Total

Tier 4                                   565

Tier 3                                   552.5

Tier 2                                   530

Tier 1                                   482.5

Admission to Lane Tech is highly competitive, and the Academic Center Entrance Exam is a key component in the admissions process. Test Prep Chicago offers individualized tutoring (click here), group courses (click here), and one-day workshops (click here) to ensure our students are as prepared as possible for the exam. Our extensive curriculum covers Number Series, Verbal and Figural Analogies, Paper Folding, Number Puzzles (Algebra), Figural Matrices, and more. We prepare students for every possible section that (to our knowledge) can appear on the ACEE. It is not too late to begin your student’s prep!

Thank you to Lauren Lynch, who compiled the majority of the research for this article for Test Prep Chicago. Her prior work on the subject can be found here. To find out more about Lane Tech Academic Center’s courses or extracurriculars, visit their website: https://lanetech.org/ltac/. To see the cutoff scores for all Selective Enrollment Academic Centers, click here.