The top reported proficiency rate is 86% in English language arts. The lowest is 74% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Hough Street Elem School
Hough Street Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade in Barrington, a mixed-use village northwest of Chicago with a historic downtown, walkable streets, and residential neighborhoods that give the area a village-center character rather than a generic suburban feel. The school sits within Barrington CUSD 220, a district that recently passed a major referendum in late 2024 to fund safety upgrades, instructional improvements, and a new community auditorium; the district also implemented free full-day kindergarten district-wide beginning in the 2024-25 school year, eliminating prior half-day programming and removing a fee-based enrichment cost that had fallen on families.
The school's enrollment is small, distributed fairly evenly across grades kindergarten through fifth, with kindergarten and first-grade classes in the low to mid-range. The student body is predominantly white, with a meaningful share of Hispanic students and a smaller share of Asian students; the school does not report free-and-reduced-price-lunch rates or counts of English learners or students in special education, so those dimensions of the school population remain opaque from available data.
On state assessment results from 2024-25, Hough Street showed strength in English language arts. Third-grade proficiency in ELA was strong, and fourth- and fifth-grade proficiency in both ELA and math was above the state threshold, with particularly high results in fifth-grade ELA. In math, third and fifth grades performed well, though fourth-grade math proficiency came in notably lower than the other tested grades. Science proficiency in fifth grade was solid. One soft spot is that the school did not report data for grades six through eight; given that Hough Street serves only through fifth grade, sixth and eighth grade results are expected to be absent. When averaged across all reported math and ELA proficiency rates, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among Cook County school districts.
Barrington as a place is undergoing active residential growth. The former PepsiCo Research & Development site is being redeveloped into a large gated community of custom homes slated for completion in 2027. Downtown, a new mixed-use building with residential units and retail space is scheduled to begin construction in the latter half of 2026. Housing values in the 60010 zip code are substantial and have appreciated year-over-year. Median home values and median rents both align with affluence, and the affordability picture reflects the high price-to-income ratio typical of affluent Chicago suburbs. The housing supply is moderately active, with home listings shifting gradually as the market adjusts.
A parent considering Hough Street would encounter a small elementary school in a historic, walkable village with strong proficiency in reading and solid performance in math and science. The school's student body is largely white and relatively affluent. The district has recently invested in infrastructure and expanded all-day kindergarten, signaling ongoing commitment to primary-grade instruction. The community's village character, park system, and Metra commuter rail access shape daily life. A parent may want to look into the school's specific practices around math instruction in grades three and four, given the gap between fourth-grade and other grades, and to confirm whether the school reports data on English learners or special-education enrollment, since those figures do not appear in available reporting.
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