Dewey Elem Academy of Fine Arts, Chicago IL

Original Research by School Decision on Dewey Elem Academy of Fine Arts

Dewey Elementary Academy of Fine Arts sits on the South Side of Chicago in a neighborhood that is overwhelmingly Black and serves grades pre-K through eighth. The school draws just over two hundred students, with the enrollment split fairly evenly across its grade band. The student population is almost entirely Black, with a small share of Hispanic students and a handful of students of other backgrounds. The free-or-reduced-price lunch rate and the share of students in special education or English learner programs are not publicly reported, a gap that leaves an incomplete picture of the school's economic and demographic context.

The Illinois state assessment data available for the school shows a pattern of marked unevenness. In English language arts, proficiency varies sharply by grade: third grade sits in the low range, while grades four and seven post results in the upper-middle band. Grades five, six, and eight fall in between, clustered around the forty-to-fifty percent range. Mathematics proficiency is consistently low across all tested grades, clustering in the ten-to-thirty percent range, with only fourth grade reaching the twenty-eight percent mark. Science results are similarly constrained: fifth grade students achieved twelve and a half percent proficiency, and eighth grade reached twenty-eight percent. The school's overall proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades falls below the midpoint when compared to other schools in Cook County, a positioning that reflects the consistent softness in math and science alongside the volatility in reading.

The school's name advertises a fine arts focus, yet the available data does not describe the structure, curriculum, or time allocation of any arts programs. State testing data does not measure music, visual arts, theater, or dance. Without additional detail from the school directly, a parent cannot assess how much the academy's stated mission shapes the actual daily experience or whether arts offerings run alongside, within, or separate from core academics.

Chicago Public Schools is in transition on multiple fronts relevant to school choice. The district has formally signaled a shift away from the school-choice and selective-enrollment model toward strengthened neighborhood schools, though immediate changes to magnet and charter admissions remain limited. The Board of Education moved from a seven-member mayor-appointed board to a hybrid 21-member board with the first 10 elected members taking office in late 2024; all seats will be elected in November 2026, giving parents a direct vote on district governance for the first time. The district also replaced its longtime numeric school ratings with new holistic dashboards launched in December 2024, changing how families evaluate school quality. The district rolled out Skyline, a comprehensive PreK-12 curriculum across six content areas available to all schools at no cost, standardizing instructional materials across hundreds of campuses that once chose their own.

The broader Chicago housing market shows modest appreciation and a slight uptick in monthly rents. The neighborhood median home value is below the state benchmark and well below the national benchmark. Median monthly rent in the area is relatively affordable. The housing market in Cook County overall carries moderate supply and low demand, with active listings below last year's count.

Dewey Elementary Academy of Fine Arts operates as a regular public school within the district and does not charge tuition. The school name suggests an arts emphasis, but the available data do not detail what that entails or how it functions within the classroom day. Math and science results are weak across grades. English language arts results are volatile and grade-dependent, with some grades performing in the upper range and others falling low. For a family considering this school, the key questions worth exploring directly with the school are the scope and structure of the arts program, the specific approach to teaching math and science given the low proficiency results, what interventions are in place, and whether the school's leadership has diagnosed the drivers of the uneven performance and the persistent weakness in quantitative subjects. The data available cannot answer whether these results stem from curriculum choices, staffing, resources, student needs, or some combination, so conversation with school leadership and, if possible, current families becomes essential.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 312%

School 12% · District 38% · ▼ 26 pts below district

▼ 35 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

Grade 429%

School 29% · District 29%

▼ 8 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 513%

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

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

Grade 626%

School 26% · District 23% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Grade 722%

School 22% · District 27% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 820%

School 20% · District 23% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 315%

School 15% · District 36% · ▼ 21 pts below district

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

Grade 471%

School 71% · District 39% · ▲ 33 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Grade 546%

School 46% · District 43% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 6 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 644%

School 44% · District 45%

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 770%

School 70% · District 46% · ▲ 24 pts above district

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

Grade 868%

School 68% · District 48% · ▲ 20 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 22 pts above county median

Science

Grade 513%

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

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 828%

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

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▲ 1 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.