Prairie Crossing Charter School, Grayslake IL

Original Research by School Decision on Prairie Crossing Charter School

Prairie Crossing Charter School serves students from kindergarten through eighth grade in Grayslake, a residential Lake County village about forty miles north of downtown Chicago. It is a tuition-free public charter school open to families in Woodland District 50 and Fremont District 79, with enrollment held steady at a small, mixed-grade structure. The school's charter was renewed by the Illinois State Board of Education in 2024, securing another five-year operating term and confirming continuity for families considering the area.

The school's academic profile shows mixed results across tested grades and subjects. In English language arts, the upper grades perform notably well: sixth and seventh graders show strong proficiency, and fifth grade recorded particularly high results. Third and fourth graders in ELA are closer to the midpoint. Math results track lower overall, with proficiency varying by grade. Third, fifth, and seventh graders show stronger performance, while fourth, sixth, and eighth graders cluster in the mid-range. Science proficiency data are available only for fifth and eighth grades, showing solid results in fifth grade and moderate results in eighth grade. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it above the midpoint among the fifty Lake County districts, a meaningful positioning that reflects uneven but competitive performance across the school's span.

The student body of about four hundred thirty is predominantly white, with smaller shares of Asian, Hispanic, two-or-more-races, and Black students. Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility and English learner enrollment were not available. The school maintains even class sizes across grade levels, typically around forty-eight students per grade, which parents may view as either enabling closer teacher-student relationships or, if they prefer smaller cohorts, as larger than desired.

Grayslake itself is a walkable, mixed-income village with a historic downtown centered on Center Street, home to local shops and restaurants, and a civic campus nearby that includes parks, the public library, aquatic center, and Metra rail access to Chicago. Housing values in the area are moderate and climbing steadily, with year-over-year price growth reported. The community supports new residential development, and a major artificial intelligence data center campus has been announced, signaling growth in the local economy and tax base. Schools in the area fall within a competitive regional landscape, with Woodland District 50 and Fremont District 79 serving surrounding neighborhoods through traditional public options.

Charter schools like Prairie Crossing operate with greater autonomy in pedagogy and curriculum design than traditional public schools, and families considering this school should ask directly about the school's educational approach, whether place-based and environmental learning remains central to its mission, and how it supports students working below grade level in core subjects, particularly in math across the middle elementary and early middle grades. The flat enrollment structure (roughly equal cohorts K–8) shapes the school's size and budget differently than age-pyramid schools, and parents should understand staffing, resource allocation, and transition pathways to high school outside the charter.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 362%

School 62% · District 62%

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 457%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 565%

School 65% · District 65%

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 26 pts above county median

Grade 659%

School 59% · District 59%

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

Grade 777%

School 77% · District 77%

▲ 48 pts above state median · ▲ 32 pts above county median

Grade 858%

School 58% · District 58%

▲ 36 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 354%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 464%

School 64% · District 64%

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 590%

School 90% · District 90%

▲ 37 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 689%

School 89% · District 89%

▲ 39 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Grade 779%

School 79% · District 79%

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

Grade 863%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Science

Grade 575%

School 75% · District 75%

▲ 38 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Grade 863%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

This schoolPrairie Crossing Charter School, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.