Fearn Elementary School, North Aurora IL

Original Research by School Decision on Fearn Elementary School

Fearn Elementary is a school of approximately mid-size serving kindergarten through fifth grade in the North Aurora area of Kane County, with a small handful of sixth and twelfth graders also enrolled. The school's enrollment spans about 465 students across fairly even distributions by grade in the early elementary years. The student body is diverse: roughly half white, with substantial shares identifying as Hispanic, Black, Asian, and multiracial, plus smaller American Indian and Pacific Islander populations. Free-or-reduced-price lunch participation data was not available.

On state assessments administered in the 2024-25 school year, Fearn's proficiency results sit in the lower-to-middle range. In mathematics, third graders showed proficiency around the lower-to-middle band, fourth graders performed somewhat higher, and fifth graders dipped back toward the lower end. English language arts results follow a similar pattern, with third graders at the lower end, fourth graders near half, and fifth graders slightly above that threshold. Science testing, available only for fifth grade, showed proficiency near the middle of the band. The school's overall proficiency index places it below the midpoint among the fourteen districts in Kane County. A parent may want to look into Fearn's specific supports and instructional approaches for math and reading, especially in the early grades where proficiency gaps tend to widen.

North Aurora itself is a mid-sized Fox Valley village with a decidedly suburban character. It was born as a bedroom community for Aurora railroad workers and has since transformed into a family-oriented commuter suburb with a small historic core near the Fox River and extensive newer residential and retail growth along the Randall Road and Orchard Road corridors. Most daily life—shopping, services, dining—clusters in those commercial strips or near I-88 rather than in a traditional walkable downtown. The Fox River Trail and surrounding parks anchor recreational life. Housing in the 60542 zip code runs around the mid-range for the region, with median home values modestly above the national benchmark. Monthly rents are also in the mid-range regionally. The village is on an active growth path, with new residential subdivisions and mixed-use developments like Randall Square continuing to expand the commercial and housing stock. The district as a whole recently made full-day kindergarten the default for incoming students, a shift that affects families' daily routines and working arrangements.

Fearn offers a regular public elementary school pathway with no specialized magnet or charter designation. The school's testing participation rates were high across grades, indicating consistent assessment administration. A parent considering Fearn should weigh the relatively modest proficiency results against the school's role in a growing, family-oriented suburb and against what the school itself may be doing to address early-grade reading and math gains—questions worth raising directly with the school's administration.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 343%

School 43% · District 38% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 452%

School 52% · District 30% · ▲ 23 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 541%

School 41% · District 23% · ▲ 18 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 328%

School 28% · District 28%

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 450%

School 50% · District 32% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 554%

School 54% · District 37% · ▲ 17 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 549%

School 49% · District 29% · ▲ 20 pts above district

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

This schoolAurora West USD 129, 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.