Brown R Elem Community Acad, Chicago IL

Original Research by School Decision on Brown R Elem Community Acad

Brown R Elem Community Acad serves pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in Chicago's South Side, an area on the city's South and Southeast sides. The school has a small student body distributed fairly evenly across its grade bands, with roughly equivalent enrollments in elementary and middle grades. The student population is predominantly Black, with a small Hispanic presence and very few other racial or ethnic groups represented.

Academic performance in math is notably weak across all tested grades. Results range from no students meeting proficiency in fifth grade to modest single-digit and mid-teen proficiency rates in third, fourth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. These numbers place the school in the bottom quartile among Cook County school districts when looking at overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades. English language arts shows a starkly different trajectory: third and fourth grades score in the low-to-mid twenties, but performance climbs significantly in the upper middle grades, with seventh grade reaching a majority of students meeting proficiency and sixth and eighth grades both approaching or exceeding half. Science proficiency, tested in fifth and eighth grades, is very low in both, in the single digits. All students participate in state testing.

The school draws from a neighborhood where median home values are modest relative to the state and nation, and rental costs have risen notably in recent years. The area is part of Cook County's broader housing market, which remains substantially below state and national benchmarks for value while affording costs have tightened due to rent inflation. Schools in this neighborhood sit within the city's dense residential fabric; they are embedded in community areas rather than isolated. Chicago has a large and highly walkable downtown, extensive public transit via the CTA, and a vast park system anchored by the Lake Michigan shoreline. The city's economy is diversified, with major public-sector employment through CPS, city and county government, and the federal government, alongside significant private employment in finance, healthcare, technology, and other sectors.

At the district level, Chicago Public Schools is transitioning from a mayor-appointed board to a fully elected one, with the first 10 members elected in November 2024 and all 21 seats to be elected in November 2026. This shift gives parents direct votes on school board elections going forward. The district adopted a five-year strategic plan in 2024 that prioritizes neighborhood schools over the school-choice model that has long defined the system, though it did not immediately alter selective enrollment, magnet, or charter policies. CPS also replaced its prior numeric school ratings with new holistic accountability dashboards in late 2024, moving beyond test scores alone to include school experience and resource metrics. The district has implemented Skyline, a PreK-12 universal curriculum across multiple subject areas that is available at no cost to all district-managed schools, marking the first comprehensive district-wide curriculum in CPS history.

A parent weighing Brown R would see a school with genuine strength in language arts in the upper middle grades but significant academic gaps in math and science across the board. The English language arts data suggests some instructional foundation is present at the school, particularly in grades six and seven, yet math proficiency numbers warrant a direct conversation with school leaders about what supports exist, what the learning gaps look like, and what the school's plans are to address them. The school serves a neighborhood community with modest housing values and rising rents, and it sits within a large city offering substantial cultural, civic, and transit infrastructure. The broader district context is one of recent governance change and a stated commitment to strengthening neighborhood schools.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 314%

School 14% · District 38% · ▼ 24 pts below district

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

Grade 48%

School 8% · District 29% · ▼ 21 pts below district

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

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 24% · ▼ 24 pts below district

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

Grade 67%

School 7% · District 23% · ▼ 16 pts below district

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

Grade 716%

School 16% · District 27% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 812%

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

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

English language arts

Grade 333%

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

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 427%

School 27% · District 39% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 43% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

Grade 655%

School 55% · District 45% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 772%

School 72% · District 46% · ▲ 26 pts above district

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 48% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Science

Grade 54%

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

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

Grade 88%

School 8% · District 31% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 19 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.