What's your budget. Spring Valley IS great, the cheapest house is also 500k+ for a tear-down.
Ya, I know I'm an lolpoor.
I would avoid anything zoned to northbrook if you're concerned about schools. That's where I currently am, but I don't have school aged kids yet. The established neighborhoods in that area are all decent, it's just the trash in the surrounding apartments that make it look like a 3rd world country in spots.
It seems like spring woods hs is trending up (no, it will never be stratford let alone mhs), curious on what others think about sending their kids though. I'm still 13+ years out from that, so who knows where I'll be.