Gillespie Elem School, Chicago IL

Original Research by School Decision on Gillespie Elem School

Gillespie Elementary is a school of about 340 students serving prekindergarten through eighth grade on the South Side of Chicago. The enrollment is nearly entirely Black students, with a small number of Hispanic and other students. About half the student body is in the elementary grades and the remainder in the middle grades, reflecting the full span the school covers.

The school's state assessment results in both math and English language arts show low proficiency rates across all tested grades. In math, proficiency ranges from about 3.6% in fifth grade to about 12% in third and fourth grades. In English language arts, the pattern is somewhat better: proficiency rates run from about 20% in seventh grade to about 41% in sixth grade, with the lower elementary and upper middle grades sitting in the 24-30% range. Science proficiency at fifth and eighth grades is similarly modest, around 17-24%. These results position Gillespie in the bottom quartile among Cook County districts on overall proficiency. This is plainly a school where students are not meeting grade-level expectations in the state assessments, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school, including what instructional support and interventions are in place.

The school participates in the district's recently launched universal curriculum, Skyline, which covers English language arts, math, science, and social science across prekindergarten through twelfth grade at no school-level cost. This is the first comprehensive, district-developed curriculum in Chicago Public Schools history and standardizes instructional materials across the system. Test participation is generally strong: attendance at testing in most grades exceeds 93%.

The South Side Chicago neighborhood where Gillespie sits has a median home value around the lower end for the county, and rental costs are modest by metropolitan standards. The area is part of a city that has resumed growth after years of decline, adding residents over the past two years and approving new housing units at rising rates. The broader Cook County housing market shows modest pricing pressure and a supply-to-demand imbalance favoring sellers, though the single-family home market remains accessible on local terms.

Chicago as a whole is a large, dense city with extensive public transit, a lakefront, numerous neighborhoods, and substantial cultural and civic institutions. The city ranks among the most walkable in the nation and operates continuous transit service on some lines. Families choosing Gillespie are choosing a neighborhood school within this urban landscape, not an isolated campus, and are part of a district in transition: the school board is shifting toward elected governance (fully elected as of 2027) and adopting a strategic direction that emphasizes neighborhood schools over the choice-driven model of prior decades. A parent may want to review the district's newly adopted dashboards, which replaced the prior numeric school ratings and take a broader view of school quality beyond test scores alone.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 311%

School 11% · District 38% · ▼ 27 pts below district

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

Grade 412%

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

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

Grade 54%

School 4% · District 24% · ▼ 20 pts below district

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

Grade 69%

School 9% · District 23% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Grade 75%

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

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 16 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 330%

School 30% · District 36% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 424%

School 24% · District 39% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 24 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 641%

School 41% · District 45% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 720%

School 20% · District 46% · ▼ 26 pts below district

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

Grade 825%

School 25% · District 48% · ▼ 23 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 524%

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

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

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 31% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 9 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.