Faraday Elem School, Chicago IL - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Faraday Elem School

Faraday Elementary School sits on the West Side of Chicago in a neighborhood of low-rise residential streets and ethnic commercial corridors, part of the Chicago Public Schools system. The school serves children from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, with a student body that is almost entirely Black, reflecting the demographic composition of its immediate community. The enrollment is small, with fewer than two hundred students across the full grade span.

Academic performance at Faraday is markedly low across tested subjects. In math, proficiency ranges from nearly absent in fourth and fifth grades to under a quarter of students meeting grade-level benchmarks in third grade and in the upper grades. English language arts shows somewhat more variability, with proficiency highest in sixth grade but still well below what state testing would identify as widespread competency in other grades. Science proficiency in the tested grades (fifth and eighth) sits below one quarter of students. Test participation rates are high, meaning the results reflect how students at the school are actually performing rather than opt-out effects. A parent evaluating this school must understand that achievement outcomes on Illinois state assessments are substantially weaker than would be typical even within a district and city context where many schools serve similar student populations. When compared against other districts in Cook County, Faraday's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile, a position that reflects a real and persistent academic challenge.

The composition of the student body is nearly all Black with a very small Hispanic population. Data on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, English learner status, and special education enrollment were not available, so a full picture of the school's economic and linguistic context remains incomplete. Without those details, a parent cannot see what share of the school's population qualifies for meal support or receives special language or special education services, information that often helps families understand a school's needs and resource allocation.

Chicago is resuming growth after years of decline, with new housing approvals rising and population returning to the city after the pandemic years. The neighborhood's housing market reflects the broader Cook County context: median home values are modest relative to national standards, and rents are proportionally more affordable than mortgage costs, a pattern typical for Chicago's South and West sides. This may make the area accessible to families with lower household incomes, though no direct income data for the immediate school catchment is provided.

The district itself is undergoing substantial change. An elected school board is replacing the mayor-appointed model, with a fully elected twenty-one-member board arriving in 2027, giving parents direct voice in governance. The district's newly adopted strategic plan emphasizes neighborhood schools over school choice, a shift away from decades of selective enrollment and magnet-school competition. This reframing means resources are gradually redirecting toward schools like Faraday that serve their immediate neighborhoods rather than attracting choice-based enrollment from across the city.

CPS has also rolled out Skyline, a district-developed PreK-12 curriculum available at no cost to all district-managed schools, standardizing instructional materials across the system for the first time. The district replaced numeric school ratings with holistic dashboards in late 2024, moving away from single-score comparisons toward a broader view of school experience and resources.

For a family considering Faraday, the school's academic outcomes present a clear challenge. The low proficiency rates across core subjects point to instructional and possibly resource constraints that would require direct conversation with school leadership about what supports exist for students working below grade level, what intervention systems are in place, and what the school's trajectory is. The small size means individual attention is more feasible, but size alone does not explain or remedy weak test results. A parent would want to understand the school's strategic response to these numbers, how the shift toward neighborhood-focused investment affects Faraday specifically, and whether the adoption of the new curriculum and accountability framework has begun to shift teaching and outcomes. Given the persistent low performance shown in the data, this is a school that merits careful inquiry into current conditions and realistic expectations about pace of improvement.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 321%

School 21% · District 38% · ▼ 16 pts below district

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

Grade 46%

School 6% · District 29% · ▼ 23 pts below district

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 24% · ▼ 24 pts below district

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

Grade 621%

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

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

Grade 78%

School 8% · District 27% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below 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 314%

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

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 424%

School 24% · District 39% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 531%

School 31% · District 43% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 642%

School 42% · District 45% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 731%

School 31% · District 46% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 821%

School 21% · District 48% · ▼ 26 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 523%

School 23% · District 29% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 87%

School 7% · District 31% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 20 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.