Goudy Technology Academy, Chicago IL

Original Research by School Decision on Goudy Technology Academy

Goudy Technology Academy is a public elementary school in Chicago serving pre-K through eighth grade, with a community that bridges early childhood and middle school on the North Side. It sits in the Uptown neighborhood along Winthrop Avenue, in a city undergoing steady growth and policy transitions that shape what this school offers families.

The school draws an enrollment pattern that reflects Chicago's diversity. The student body is predominantly students of color, with substantial shares of Hispanic, Black, and Asian students, alongside smaller populations of white students and students from other backgrounds. The school runs full grades from pre-K through eighth, so it captures students across a wide span of developmental stages, which shapes both its daily operations and its academic profile.

State testing results in math and English language arts reveal uneven performance across grade levels. Third grade in math shows proficiency just above the majority threshold, while fourth grade drops noticeably lower. Fifth grade math is particularly low, recovering somewhat by sixth and seventh grades, then dipping again in eighth. The pattern in English language arts is less severe but still variable: sixth grade leads, while other grades hover in the lower-to-mid range. Science proficiency in fifth grade is substantially below math and language arts, though eighth grade science shows more students meeting standard. The variation grade-to-grade suggests that academic momentum differs by cohort and subject. A parent may want to look into the school's instructional approaches and any supports for students who are not yet proficient, particularly in math and science.

When compared against other districts in Cook County, Goudy Technology Academy's overall proficiency index falls below the midpoint, meaning more schools in the county are reporting stronger aggregate proficiency than this school. This is a realistic context: many neighborhoods in Chicago have schools with stronger test metrics. However, the school's results reflect the fact that it serves a community with fewer economic resources overall than some other parts of the county, and citywide, many schools sit in similar terrain.

Chicago Public Schools is in structural transition. The board moved from full mayoral appointment to a mixed elected-and-appointed model in 2024 and will move to fully elected governance in 2026. The district has also stepped back from its longstanding school-choice emphasis and announced a strategic pivot toward strengthening neighborhood schools. That shift means more district resources may flow to schools in their immediate communities rather than being spread thin across choice and selective admissions. For Goudy, a neighborhood school serving its immediate area, this could mean different resource allocation going forward. The district also replaced its old numeric rating system with new, broader accountability dashboards that measure school experience and resources alongside test scores, so how the school is evaluated publicly has changed.

The district rolled out Skyline, a comprehensive PreK-12 curriculum in six content areas, available to all schools at no additional cost. This means Goudy has access to aligned, district-provided materials in English language arts, math, science, social science, world languages, and arts, a resource many schools in the past had to cobble together independently.

Housing in the Uptown area and surrounding North Side neighborhoods is moderately valued for Cook County, with median home prices in the mid-range for the city. Rental costs are rising and have climbed notably year-over-year. The broader Chicago housing market is tightening slightly, with fewer active listings than a year ago, though demand remains moderate. This is a neighborhood with walkable street life and easy transit access via the CTA 'L' and bus lines, so families without a car can manage daily life. The area sits in a city that has resumed population growth after nearly a decade of decline, with new housing approvals rising, though completions remain concentrated downtown and along the North Lakefront rather than inland neighborhoods like Uptown.

Goudy serves an early-through-middle-grades population in a neighborhood school model, with a demographically diverse student body and variable achievement levels that suggest some students are meeting standards while others need stronger support. The school operates within a district that is resetting its identity away from school choice and toward neighborhood strength, which may shape its future direction and resources. For a family considering this school, the core questions are whether the instructional approaches address the grade-level variation in outcomes, whether the Skyline curriculum and other district supports are well implemented here, and whether the school's specific programming and culture fit their child's needs.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 360%

School 60% · District 38% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 442%

School 42% · District 29% · ▲ 13 pts above district

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

Grade 517%

School 17% · District 24% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 623%

School 23% · District 23%

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

Grade 747%

School 47% · District 27% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 837%

School 37% · District 23% · ▲ 13 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 348%

School 48% · District 36% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 440%

School 40% · District 39% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 8 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 545%

School 45% · District 43% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 7 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 667%

School 67% · District 45% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 754%

School 54% · District 46% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 48% · ▲ 5 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Science

Grade 524%

School 24% · District 29% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 844%

School 44% · District 31% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 17 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.