Bell Elem School, Chicago IL - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Bell Elem School

Bell Elementary is a neighborhood public school in Chicago's Bucktown area on the North Side, serving kindergarten through eighth grade. The school enrollment is mid-sized for the grade band, with a student body that is predominantly white and includes substantial Asian, multiracial, and Hispanic populations. Free-or-reduced-price lunch status data are not available in the district's public reporting.

The school's academic performance in English language arts is a clear strength. Across grades three through eight, proficiency rates are solid to strong, with fourth and fifth grade showing particularly high performance. Reading comprehension and writing skills demonstrate consistent strength in the earlier grades, with performance holding steady even as students enter middle school.

Mathematics shows more variation across grades. Third through fifth grades perform at strong levels, with consistent proficiency above typical Cook County benchmarks. Performance dips noticeably in sixth grade, where proficiency falls to about half of students, before recovering somewhat in seventh and eighth grades, though not returning to the elementary-grade levels. A parent may want to explore this transition with the school, as it is a common pattern when mathematics becomes more abstract, but understanding how Bell addresses this shift matters for families with younger children heading into middle school.

Science testing was available only for fifth and eighth grades in the most recent assessment cycle. Fifth-grade students showed strong results, while eighth-grade performance was in line with the school's overall patterns. Science testing data are limited, so this picture is necessarily partial.

Across all tested subjects and grades, Bell's overall proficiency index places the school in the top quartile of schools within Cook County. This is a genuine strength and reflects consistent academic work across the grades.

The school sits within the context of Chicago Public Schools' ongoing transition toward a fully elected school board and the district's shift in strategic focus toward neighborhood schools. The district has also launched new school accountability dashboards that move beyond simple numeric ratings to holistic measures of school experience and resource allocation. Bell is part of a broader system that is rethinking school choice and centering neighborhood enrollment as a policy priority, which may shape resource availability and community composition over time.

The Bucktown neighborhood where Bell is located sits on Chicago's North Side in a mixed-income area with mid-range housing values and stable rental markets. The area has walkable commercial corridors and decent transit access via the CTA. The broader Chicago metro has been adding population in recent years after a period of decline, with new housing approvals up and development concentrated in downtown and North Lakefront areas, though the Near West Side has led neighborhood approvals.

Bell does not serve a high school population, so no graduation rate is available. Special population enrollment data, such as English learner or special education counts, are not reported in the publicly available district records examined here.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 381%

School 81% · District 38% · ▲ 43 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 42 pts above county median

Grade 484%

School 84% · District 29% · ▲ 55 pts above district

▲ 47 pts above state median · ▲ 55 pts above county median

Grade 578%

School 78% · District 24% · ▲ 54 pts above district

▲ 48 pts above state median · ▲ 57 pts above county median

Grade 653%

School 53% · District 23% · ▲ 30 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 36 pts above county median

Grade 773%

School 73% · District 27% · ▲ 46 pts above district

▲ 44 pts above state median · ▲ 52 pts above county median

Grade 869%

School 69% · District 23% · ▲ 46 pts above district

▲ 47 pts above state median · ▲ 52 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 383%

School 83% · District 36% · ▲ 47 pts above district

▲ 39 pts above state median · ▲ 46 pts above county median

Grade 489%

School 89% · District 39% · ▲ 50 pts above district

▲ 41 pts above state median · ▲ 49 pts above county median

Grade 591%

School 91% · District 43% · ▲ 48 pts above district

▲ 38 pts above state median · ▲ 45 pts above county median

Grade 679%

School 79% · District 45% · ▲ 35 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

Grade 786%

School 86% · District 46% · ▲ 39 pts above district

▲ 34 pts above state median · ▲ 41 pts above county median

Grade 880%

School 80% · District 48% · ▲ 32 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 33 pts above county median

Science

Grade 584%

School 84% · District 29% · ▲ 55 pts above district

▲ 47 pts above state median · ▲ 57 pts above county median

Grade 880%

School 80% · District 31% · ▲ 48 pts above district

▲ 40 pts above state median · ▲ 53 pts above county median

This schoolChicago Public Schools Dist 299, 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.