Clissold Elem School, Chicago IL

Original Research by School Decision on Clissold Elem School

Clissold Elem School serves pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in Chicago's Southwest Side, in the 60643 zip code. The school is part of Chicago Public Schools, which is in transition: a fully elected 21-member school board will take office in 2027 after elections complete in the fall of 2026, ending the era of mayoral appointment. The district has also shifted from its school-choice model toward strengthening neighborhood schools, and replaced its longtime numeric school ratings with new holistic accountability dashboards in late 2024. For families at Clissold, this means the district's priorities and governance are undergoing significant change.

Clissold enrolls a small population. The school is predominantly African American, with a substantial share of students also identifying as white or Hispanic. The early grades, especially pre-K and kindergarten, are larger, while grades three through eight taper in enrollment. Free and reduced-price lunch eligibility data were not available in the source materials, so a parent may want to reach out directly to the school to understand economic profile and any Title I supports.

State testing results from the 2024-25 school year reveal consistent difficulty across both math and English language arts. In math, third-grade students showed the highest proficiency rate, while each successive grade saw proficiency decline sharply. By sixth and eighth grades, proficiency in math dropped to single-digit rates. English language arts showed somewhat more variation: third and fourth graders reached the mid-40s in proficiency, seventh graders attained half proficiency, but grades five, six, and below eighth were in the 30s or lower. Science testing in grade five showed proficiency in the low 20s; grade eight was similarly low. These figures place Clissold's overall proficiency index in the bottom quartile among Cook County school districts.

The profile reflects a school where academic performance is significantly below the county median. Test participation was high and consistent across grades, indicating that absences or opt-outs were not the driver of low results. A parent considering Clissold should understand that this is a school where most students are not meeting state proficiency benchmarks, and should have direct conversation with school leadership about the reasons, what intervention or support is being deployed, and what progress, if any, is visible year to year. The school's shift toward the new Skyline curriculum across the district, a comprehensive PreK-12 instructional framework rolled out starting in 2021-22, is one structural change meant to standardize and strengthen instruction, though results to date have not yet reflected that.

The school sits in a residential area of Chicago with a mixed housing market. The median home value in the zip code is in the mid-to-high 200s in recent valuation, and the monthly rent median is around 2,300. Housing values have grown modestly year over year. The broader Chicago region has returned to growth after nearly a decade of decline, and approvals for new housing have risen, though recent completions remain concentrated downtown and along the North Lakefront. Southwest Chicago's housing market reflects typical neighborhood-scale dynamics rather than the development surge visible in more central areas.

Chicago itself is a large, dense city with a robust public transit system, extensive parks and lakefront access, and a diversified economy anchored by major employers including JPMorgan Chase, Exelon, Boeing, and Abbott Laboratories, as well as the University of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools itself. Families living in or near Clissold have walkable commercial corridors nearby and access to the city's CTA rail and bus network, though neighborhood character and amenities vary widely across the city's 77 community areas.

No information was available on specific programs, special populations such as English learners or students in special education, discipline data, attendance or chronic absenteeism rates, or staffing and class size. A parent should request those details directly from the school to get a fuller picture of support systems and environment.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 347%

School 47% · District 38% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 416%

School 16% · District 29% · ▼ 13 pts below district

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

Grade 511%

School 11% · District 24% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 66%

School 6% · District 23% · ▼ 17 pts below district

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

Grade 713%

School 13% · District 27% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Grade 85%

School 5% · District 23% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 341%

School 41% · District 36% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 443%

School 43% · District 39% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 530%

School 30% · District 43% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 631%

School 31% · District 45% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Grade 750%

School 50% · District 46% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 838%

School 38% · District 48% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 524%

School 24% · District 29% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 819%

School 19% · District 31% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below 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.