The top reported proficiency rate is 77% in English language arts. The lowest is 55% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Kelvin Grove Jr High School
Kelvin Grove Jr High School enrolls students in grades four through eight in Lockport, an old canal town about thirty to thirty-five miles southwest of Chicago in Will County. The school sits in a mixed community anchored by historic downtown limestone buildings along the Illinois & Michigan Canal, surrounded by residential subdivisions and newer housing developments filling in around the urban core. Housing values in the area reflect suburban growth, with median home prices in the mid-range and rents moderate relative to Chicago commuter communities.
The school serves roughly two hundred seventy students. Enrollment is distributed fairly evenly across the grade band, with slight variation by year. The student body is predominantly white, with a meaningful Hispanic population making up about a fifth of the school, and smaller shares of Black, Asian, and multiracial students. Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility and special education or English learner populations were not available, so a parent would want to inquire directly about the school's support systems and the share of students receiving subsidized meals.
State assessment results for 2024-25 show mixed performance across grades and subjects. In English language arts, the school is stronger in the elementary grades: grade four proficiency stands above the midpoint, and grades five and six show particularly solid results, with grade five near ninety percent proficient. Performance dips in grade seven to the low seventies, then declines further in grade eight to the low sixties. Math proficiency is more uneven. Grade four sits just above half, grade five in the low sixties, and grade six climbs to the high sixties. Grade seven, however, drops to near half proficient, and grade eight recovers only slightly above that. Science results, available for grades five and eight, show grade five near three-fifths proficient and grade eight slightly above half. Across tested grades and subjects, the school's overall proficiency sits above the midpoint compared to other districts in Will County. Student participation in state testing has been consistently near full, a sign of good test administration.
The growth context matters for understanding the community. Lockport is adding housing steadily, with new single-family subdivisions on its edges near Interstate highways and infill projects downtown, including a mixed-use building with retail and residential units. The downtown sits within walking distance of schools, and the city has invested in pedestrian and cycling infrastructure tied to the eighty-two-mile canal trail. That said, a facilities constraint shaped the district's recent history: in November 2022, voters rejected a referendum that would have funded maintenance and repairs at the district's two schools, including Kelvin Grove, whose original structure dates to the nineteen-fifties. Without that funding, the school faces an aging facilities challenge for roof replacement, security systems, and other updates, a reality parents should understand when weighing enrollment.
The school does not report separate metrics for attendance, chronic absenteeism, or a graduation rate, which reflects the fact that grades four and five do not take state exams in all tested subjects and the school does not serve high school grades where graduation would apply.
For a parent considering this school, the picture is a stable grade-school setting in a mixed suburban community with decent housing stock and access to trails and downtown amenities. Proficiency in English language arts trends stronger than math, particularly in the upper elementary grades. The middle-grades performance (seven and eight) shows softer results across both subjects, a pattern worth exploring with the school in terms of instructional support and whether the transition to middle school creates challenges. The facilities funding gap is real and something to ask about directly: what is the school's timeline for roof replacement, how well do heating and cooling systems work, and what priorities guide the use of limited maintenance funds.
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