King Academy of Social Justice, Chicago IL

Original Research by School Decision on King Academy of Social Justice

King Academy of Social Justice serves a small school community, roughly the size of a typical K-8, drawn almost entirely from its immediate south-side Chicago neighborhood. It is a regular public school within Chicago Public Schools, encompassing pre-K through eighth grade. The enrollment is stable and concentrated: the vast majority of students are Black, with a small Hispanic population and very few white or multiracial students. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data was not available, but the zip code and neighborhood context suggest a lower-income area.

The academic picture is the school's defining challenge. State testing data from the Illinois Assessment of Readiness shows proficiency rates well below what families would encounter in most Chicago schools. In math, proficiency ranges from near zero in sixth and eighth grades to low single digits in third and fourth grade, with fifth grade at a more hopeful—though still very low—level. English language arts performance is somewhat higher, particularly in fifth and seventh grades, but still well below typical benchmarks. Science testing data, available for fifth and eighth grades, shows similarly low proficiency. When placed against other school systems in Cook County, the school's overall proficiency index falls in the bottom quartile. This is not a school recovering from a dip; it reflects a consistent pattern across grade levels and subjects.

Test participation is strong. Most grades show participation rates in the high ninety percent range, meaning nearly all students took the assessments, so the results reflect actual student performance rather than selection effects. The school is present and engaged in the testing regime.

The instructional context is shaped by the district's adoption of Skyline, a PreK-12 curriculum rolled out across Chicago Public Schools that standardizes materials in English language arts, math, science, social science, world languages, and arts. This means the school has access to aligned, district-developed materials rather than having to source curriculum independently. At the same time, Skyline's presence across hundreds of campuses means the school's low proficiency is not attributable to lack of curriculum resources but rather points to deeper instructional or student-support challenges that a parent would want to explore directly with school leadership.

The school sits in the context of broader Chicago Public Schools change. The district has transitioned from a mayor-appointed board to a hybrid model with elections now in place for the first time, and will have a fully elected board by 2027. This opens questions about governance and accountability that may affect resource allocation and school-level autonomy over time. More directly relevant, the district replaced its numeric school ratings in late 2024 with holistic dashboards, shifting how schools are evaluated away from test scores alone. The district is also formally moving toward strengthening neighborhood schools rather than supporting school choice, which has long defined CPS admissions policy.

The housing market in the 60621 zip code where the school sits shows modest home values and moderate rents, with the neighborhood offering affordability relative to the rest of Cook County. The broader Chicago metro has resumed growth after years of decline, and housing approvals have been rising, though recent completions concentrate on the downtown and North Lakefront rather than on the South Side. The area around the school is a stable, established neighborhood with deep roots in Chicago's African American community, not a zone of rapid gentrification or turnover.

A parent considering King Academy should understand that this is a school in the bottom tier of academic performance across tested grades and subjects. The school is present and participating in assessment, students are attending, and the curriculum framework is current and aligned across the district. What that academic floor represents in terms of instructional quality, teacher expertise, student support services, or school leadership would require direct conversation with the school. The appropriate question is not whether the scores are low—they are—but what is driving them and what turnaround efforts are in place. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, particularly around any improvement initiatives, teacher stability, intervention programs, or recent leadership changes.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 34%

School 4% · District 38% · ▼ 34 pts below district

▼ 42 pts below state median · ▼ 36 pts below county median

Grade 45%

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

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

Grade 512%

School 12% · District 24% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 9 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 78%

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

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

Grade 83%

School 3% · District 23% · ▼ 20 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 315%

School 15% · District 36% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 414%

School 14% · District 39% · ▼ 25 pts below district

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

Grade 524%

School 24% · District 43% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 612%

School 12% · District 45% · ▼ 33 pts below district

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

Grade 724%

School 24% · District 46% · ▼ 22 pts below district

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

Grade 87%

School 7% · District 48% · ▼ 40 pts below district

▼ 46 pts below state median · ▼ 39 pts below county median

Science

Grade 54%

School 4% · District 29% · ▼ 25 pts below district

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

Grade 811%

School 11% · District 31% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 16 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.