Harriet Tubman Elem School, Chicago IL

Original Research by School Decision on Harriet Tubman Elem School

Harriet Tubman Elementary School is a neighborhood school serving pre-K through eighth grade in Chicago's Lakeview community. With an enrollment of about a couple hundred students, it serves a diverse peer group: roughly equal shares of white and Hispanic students, with meaningful representation of Black students and students of Asian heritage, and a small two-digit share identifying as multiracial. The school's demographic profile reflects a neighborhood with strong racial and ethnic diversity, neither heavily concentrated in any single group.

The school's academic profile shows a pattern of strength in the early grades that narrows considerably as students move into the middle years. In third grade, reading proficiency is quite strong and math proficiency is solid. By fifth grade, reading remains strong, math sits at about the midpoint, and science results are comparable to math. From sixth grade onward, proficiency rates in math and science shift lower, and while reading holds relatively steady through eighth grade, the overall trajectory suggests that students encounter greater academic challenge as they advance into the middle grades. Testing participation rates are consistently high, above 95 percent across nearly all grades, indicating robust family and student engagement in the assessment process.

When compared to the other districts across Cook County, Harriet Tubman's overall proficiency index—a composite measure of performance across tested subjects and grades—sits above the midpoint, a position that reflects solid foundational work. The school does not report a graduation rate, as it serves only through eighth grade and therefore has no students completing a high school pathway.

The school's immediate neighborhood lies in Chicago proper, where the housing market is active and moderately priced relative to the broader region. Home values and rents in the Lakeview area have remained steady with modest year-over-year growth. Chicago's economy is diverse and robust, anchored by major employers in finance, healthcare, technology, and government, and the city benefits from an extensive public transit network, extensive parkland, and a strong civic infrastructure. The city has returned to population growth after a period of decline, and new housing development, while concentrated in downtown and the North Lakefront, is spreading into neighborhood areas.

Chicago Public Schools as a district is undergoing significant structural change. A new five-year strategic plan adopted in 2024 emphasizes neighborhood schools and moves away from the school-choice and selective-enrollment model that defined district policy for decades, a fundamental shift in how the district allocates resources and who it serves. The district replaced its longtime numeric school ratings with new holistic dashboards that broadened the measures beyond test scores. The school board itself is transitioning from mayoral appointment to full election; the first 10 members were elected in November 2024, and all 21 seats will be elected in 2026, giving parents direct democratic input on district governance. The district also rolled out Skyline, its first comprehensive PreK-12 curriculum available at no cost to all school sites, standardizing instructional materials across campuses that previously sourced their own.

For a parent considering Harriet Tubman, the school offers a setting where early reading instruction is a genuine strength, where the student body reflects real neighborhood diversity, and where students are tested and engaged at high rates. The narrowing of proficiency as students reach the upper grades is worth understanding directly with the school: a parent may want to look into further what the school identifies as the source of this shift and what targeted interventions exist for sixth through eighth grade mathematics and science. The broader district context suggests an institution in transition, with new governance structures and renewed emphasis on neighborhood schools, which could reshape resource flows and school support over the coming years.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 377%

School 77% · District 38% · ▲ 39 pts above district

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

Grade 439%

School 39% · District 29% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 556%

School 56% · District 24% · ▲ 32 pts above district

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

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 23% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Grade 735%

School 35% · District 27% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 828%

School 28% · District 23% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 386%

School 86% · District 36% · ▲ 50 pts above district

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

Grade 458%

School 58% · District 39% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 588%

School 88% · District 43% · ▲ 45 pts above district

▲ 36 pts above state median · ▲ 43 pts above county median

Grade 658%

School 58% · District 45% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 757%

School 57% · District 46% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Grade 862%

School 62% · District 48% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Science

Grade 555%

School 55% · District 29% · ▲ 26 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

Grade 844%

School 44% · District 31% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 18 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.