Dever Elem School, Chicago IL - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Dever Elem School

Dever Elementary serves a neighborhood school population from pre-K through eighth grade on Chicago's Northwest Side, in a catchment that skews heavily toward Hispanic and white families, with smaller Asian, Black, and multiracial enrollment. The school sits in a working and middle-class residential area where home values have risen modestly and rental costs are climbing. It is a regular public school without charter or magnet status, and therefore operates within Chicago Public Schools' broader policy framework, which is currently shifting emphasis toward strengthening neighborhood-based enrollment rather than school choice.

Academic performance at Dever is a place to look closely if you're considering the school. On Illinois state assessments (IAR in math and English language arts, ISA in science), proficiency rates across grade levels and subjects are consistently below the midpoint among Cook County school districts. Math proficiency ranges widely by grade, from around half proficient in grade 4 to just above one in seven students proficient in grade 5, with most grades settling between one in five and one in three. English language arts shows somewhat more strength in grades 4 and 8, where about two in five or just under half of students tested reached proficiency, but in earlier grades like 3 and 5, fewer than one in four do. Science testing, available in grades 5 and 8, shows proficiency rates around one in five and just under one in three, respectively. Participation in testing is nearly complete across the school, so these results represent genuine performance rather than gaps in who takes the test. A parent may want to examine with school staff what instructional approaches are in place, what reading or math interventions exist for students not meeting grade-level standards, and whether professional development or curriculum changes are underway to address these trends.

The school's enrollment is stable, with roughly equal numbers in most grade levels, slightly more in grade 5. The student body reflects neighborhood demographics: the majority are Hispanic, a sizable minority are white, and smaller proportions are Asian, Black, or multiracial. Free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility data and counts of students with IEPs or English learner status were not available, so a family cannot assess poverty concentration or the intensity of specialized services from these records.

The immediate neighborhood context matters. Chicago has resumed population growth after years of decline, and the metro area is growing steadily. Housing in the school's zipcode has appreciated modestly and is generally below the state average value, though rental rates are rising faster than sale prices year over year. The affordability profile shows monthly mortgage and rent costs relative to typical household income that remain manageable by national standards, though not cheap. CPS itself is navigating major structural change: the school board is shifting from mayoral appointment to full election by November 2026, and the district's strategic direction, announced in 2024, emphasizes neighborhood schools over choice-based enrollment. Whether those policy shifts strengthen or constrain resources for a neighborhood school like Dever is not yet clear.

The school offers instruction across the full PK-8 span, which means students do not leave for middle school partway through their time there. Program specifics, staffing ratios, or specialized offerings beyond the standard curriculum were not detailed in available data. The district has rolled out Skyline, a PreK-12 curriculum now available at no added school cost to all district schools, so Dever has access to standardized instructional materials in English language arts, math, science, social studies, world languages, and arts.

For a parent evaluating Dever, the core question is readiness to engage with a school whose test results fall below county medians across most subjects and grades, paired with a commitment to understanding what academic support and monitoring systems exist at the school level. The neighborhood setting, stable enrollment, and working-family context are plainly present. The extent to which the school's instructional practices, staffing investment, or intervention capacity can address current proficiency gaps is something only a conversation with school leadership and classroom teachers can clarify.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 330%

School 30% · District 38% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 438%

School 38% · District 29% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 515%

School 15% · District 24% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 619%

School 19% · District 23% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

Grade 733%

School 33% · District 27% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 821%

School 21% · District 23% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 322%

School 22% · District 36% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Grade 441%

School 41% · District 39% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 43% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 635%

School 35% · District 45% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Grade 729%

School 29% · District 46% · ▼ 17 pts below district

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

Grade 849%

School 49% · District 48% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 29% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 828%

School 28% · District 31% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▲ 2 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.