Fort Dearborn Elem School, Chicago IL

Original Research by School Decision on Fort Dearborn Elem School

Fort Dearborn Elem serves a neighborhood of Chicago's South Side, encompassing grades from pre-K through eighth. The school draws a student body that is overwhelmingly Black, with smaller numbers of Hispanic and multiracial students. The school is situated within Chicago Public Schools District 299, a large urban system that has recently shifted its policy direction toward strengthening neighborhood schools as its baseline strategy, moving away from the school-choice model that has long defined the district.

Academically, Fort Dearborn's state assessment results reveal sustained challenge across tested grades and subjects. In math, proficiency rates across grades three through eight are very low, particularly in the upper elementary and middle grades. Grade three shows somewhat less severe performance than grades four through seven, while grade eight shows slightly improved proficiency in math compared to its immediate predecessors. English language arts proficiency is similarly low across the school, though eighth grade shows markedly higher ELA proficiency than any earlier grade. Science testing is limited to grades five and eight; both grades show very low proficiency rates. These proficiency results place Fort Dearborn well below the midpoint among Cook County school districts on a proficiency index calculated across tested subjects and grades.

The school's enrollment sits at a modest level for an urban elementary school. The student population is distributed across pre-K through eighth grade, with relatively balanced cohorts in the early grades and somewhat fluctuation in the middle grades. Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility and English learner status are not available, limiting clarity on the economic and linguistic profile of the student body. Special education data are also absent from the available information.

Test participation rates are high across grades and subjects, ranging from the mid-nineties to near-universal. High participation alone does not shift the proficiency picture, but it does indicate that the reported results reflect the broader student population rather than a subset of students.

The broader context matters here. Chicago itself has resumed population growth after nearly a decade of decline, the housing market in the area shows modest appreciation, and the district's recent adoption of a universal curriculum called Skyline and transition to new school accountability dashboards represent structural changes in how schools operate and how families receive information about them. The district is also moving toward an elected, rather than mayor-appointed, school board, shifting governance in ways that may affect resource allocation and priority-setting over the coming years.

For a parent or resident considering Fort Dearborn, the academic performance data presents a clear picture of substantial proficiency gaps. A parent may want to look into further what instructional strategies the school is deploying, what support structures exist for students below proficiency, and how the school is tracking progress over time. The absence of trend data makes it difficult to know whether proficiency is stable, declining, or improving. The school's role as a neighborhood anchor and its position within a district emphasizing neighborhood stability may appeal to some families, but the academic results demand direct conversation with school leadership about improvement efforts and student supports.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 323%

School 23% · District 38% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 412%

School 12% · District 29% · ▼ 17 pts below district

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

Grade 53%

School 3% · District 24% · ▼ 20 pts below district

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

Grade 60%

School 0% · District 23% · ▼ 23 pts below district

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

Grade 76%

School 6% · District 27% · ▼ 21 pts below district

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

Grade 811%

School 11% · District 23% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 33%

School 3% · District 36% · ▼ 33 pts below district

▼ 41 pts below state median · ▼ 34 pts below county median

Grade 420%

School 20% · District 39% · ▼ 19 pts below district

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

Grade 534%

School 34% · District 43% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 625%

School 25% · District 45% · ▼ 20 pts below district

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

Grade 724%

School 24% · District 46% · ▼ 23 pts below district

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

Grade 846%

School 46% · District 48% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 56%

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

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 21 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.