Thurgood Marshall Elem School, Bellwood IL

Original Research by School Decision on Thurgood Marshall Elem School

Thurgood Marshall Elementary is a small school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in Bellwood, a residential suburb about fourteen miles west of Chicago. The enrollment is roughly a hundred families at each grade level, with a student body that is predominantly Black, followed by a substantial Latino population, and very few white or Asian students. Specific data on free and reduced-price lunch eligibility was not available, nor were counts of students with IEPs or those learning English as an additional language.

The school's state test results in the most recent year show a worrying pattern. In third grade, roughly one-third of students met state proficiency in math and somewhat higher in English language arts, which is a soft starting point. By fourth grade, the proficiency rates collapsed to near zero in both subjects: only a small handful of students across the tested cohorts met the state bar. Fifth grade showed partial recovery, with roughly half the class proficient in ELA but only about one-eighth meeting the math standard. The school also administered a science assessment to fifth grade, where about one-fifth of students were proficient. Student participation in the tests was nearly complete, which means the results reflect actual learning gaps rather than testing logistics.

When compared to other schools across Cook County, Thurgood Marshall's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile among the county's tested schools. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, including what supports are in place for students who are not yet meeting grade-level standards, what classroom instruction looks like, and whether there are specific interventions underway in math, where performance is notably weaker.

The school has not released recent district-level changes or reform initiatives that we could identify; no major curriculum overhaul, staffing shift, or strategic priority was publicly reported in the past few years.

Bellwood itself is a working-class community of Chicago-style bungalows and brick ranches on a sidewalk-lined grid. It has historically lacked a strong downtown but is currently transforming a site along St. Charles Road into a mixed-use gateway with workforce housing and ground-floor retail, with the first phase scheduled to open in spring of 2026. The village is anchored by a Metra station on the Union Pacific West Line, which offers service to downtown Chicago and connections to bus routes. Housing values in the area are moderate, with a home ownership market that has modest appreciation and a rental market where a typical rent is in the mid-range for the region. The local job base leans toward health care, administrative services, manufacturing, and logistics, reflecting the industrial corridor on the village's east side and the broader rail and highway network.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 330%

School 30% · District 36% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 43%

School 3% · District 14% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 34 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 15% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 337%

School 37% · District 37%

▼ 7 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 43%

School 3% · District 22% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 46 pts below state median · ▼ 37 pts below county median

Grade 547%

School 47% · District 37% · ▲ 10 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 518%

School 18% · District 16% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

This schoolBellwood SD 88, 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.