Lakewood School, Carpentersville IL

Original Research by School Decision on Lakewood School

Lakewood School is a small elementary school serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Carpentersville, a working-class Fox River suburb northwest of Chicago. The school enrolls a population skewed toward younger grades, with kindergarten and second grade as the largest cohorts. Enrollment is heavily Latino, reflecting the broader character of the village.

The school's academic performance on Illinois state assessments shows weak proficiency across tested subjects and grades. In mathematics, where third and fourth grades were tested, proficiency rates fell below one quarter of students. Fifth-grade math proficiency dropped notably lower. In English language arts, third-grade proficiency was near one fifth of students, improving somewhat in fourth grade and rising more substantially in fifth grade. Fifth-grade science proficiency was also low. All tested grades showed full participation, meaning assessment administration itself was not a barrier; the pattern reflects actual student performance on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) and the state science assessment.

When compared to other districts in Kane County, Lakewood's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile. This positioning matters for a parent weighing options: the school's students are learning at measurably lower rates than peers in neighboring districts. A parent may want to explore with the school what specific supports are in place to close these gaps, what classroom practices are underway, and whether they have seen upward trajectory in recent years. The assessment data provided does not carry comparison information from prior years, so understanding whether performance is improving, stable, or declining would be a useful conversation.

The school sits in Carpentersville proper, a mixed suburban village where older residential neighborhoods around Main Street near the Fox River meet postwar subdivisions and commercial corridors along Randall Road and Route 31. Housing values are modest and have grown modestly year over year. The village is car-oriented, though the Fox River Trail offers recreational access. Major employers include OTTO Engineering and retail anchors, and the village is actively marketing itself for growth and new development, with significant public works underway.

Free-or-reduced-price lunch status and special education enrollment data were not available for this school. The demographics reported show the enrollment is predominately Latino, with very small numbers of white, Black, and Asian students. State testing data was the only academic measure provided; information about graduation rate does not apply because the school serves only elementary grades.

The school is part of Community Unit School District 300, a larger district that recently redrew high school attendance boundaries to manage projected enrollment growth, and is preparing to seek voter approval for a facilities funding referendum in November 2026. For families at Lakewood, the district context signals both growth pressure and capital constraints that may affect school conditions and resources in coming years.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 323%

School 23% · District 52% · ▼ 29 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Grade 424%

School 24% · District 51% · ▼ 26 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 515%

School 15% · District 38% · ▼ 24 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 320%

School 20% · District 45% · ▼ 25 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 426%

School 26% · District 50% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 539%

School 39% · District 56% · ▼ 17 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 520%

School 20% · District 39% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

This schoolCUSD 300, 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.