Norwood Park Elem School, Chicago IL

Original Research by School Decision on Norwood Park Elem School

Norwood Park Elementary serves prekindergarten through eighth grade in a small, integrated campus on the far north side of Chicago. The school is a regular public school within Chicago Public Schools District 299, and it sits within a mixed residential neighborhood where the housing market is stable and moderately priced compared to many other Chicago areas.

The school enrolls students from a community with substantial demographic diversity. About one-third of the enrollment identifies as Hispanic and about one-half as white, with Asian and multiracial students making up smaller shares. Across grade bands, enrollment is fairly even, with slightly larger cohorts in the upper elementary and middle grades.

On state testing (the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, or IAR), Norwood Park shows a marked subject gap. In English language arts, students perform noticeably better, with solid proficiency across grades three through six and the third grade cohort achieving strong results. By contrast, mathematics proficiency is substantially lower. Third and fifth grade show moderate results, but fourth, seventh, and eighth grade fall considerably lower. This pattern holds true across science: fifth grade scores above the midpoint while eighth grade dips below. The spread between early elementary ELA strength and middle-grade math and language weakness is striking enough that a parent may want to discuss with the school how the transition to upper elementary and middle grades is managed and what interventions exist for students struggling with mathematics at that stage.

When compared against the full set of Cook County public school districts, Norwood Park's overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint, positioning the school in the middle-to-upper range of county schools. This means the school is performing at a respectable level regionally, even though the mathematics performance internally deserves careful attention.

The Chicago Public Schools district is actively shifting its approach to education and governance. The Board of Education is transitioning from mayoral appointment to full electoral selection, with the first direct election of board members happening in November 2024 and a complete elected board taking office in 2027. The district has also adopted a new strategic plan called "Together We Rise" that emphasizes neighborhood schools over school choice and magnet pathways, representing a significant shift in how CPS allocates resources and frames school enrollment. Beyond these structural changes, CPS rolled out Skyline, a comprehensive PreK-12 curriculum across all subjects, marking the first time the district has offered a universal curriculum available at no cost to schools. The district also replaced its long-standing numeric school ratings with new holistic dashboards launched in late 2024, so how schools are now evaluated publicly is fundamentally different.

Chicago itself is a large, walkable city with a dense network of transit, widespread civic institutions, and anchor neighborhoods. The city has resumed population growth after years of decline, and housing approvals have increased, though recent development has concentrated in downtown and lakefront areas rather than spreading evenly. The area where Norwood Park sits is part of a broader city that offers substantial cultural and recreational resources, though they are not uniformly distributed.

Free or reduced price lunch rates, English learner status, and special education enrollment counts were not available in the data, so a parent evaluating this school's support systems may want to ask the school directly about the scope of these populations and the services in place. Similarly, detailed staffing, attendance, or discipline data were not provided. Those are important questions to raise with the school if you are trying to understand the daily climate and resources available to students.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 356%

School 56% · District 38% · ▲ 18 pts above district

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

Grade 435%

School 35% · District 29% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 562%

School 62% · District 24% · ▲ 39 pts above district

▲ 32 pts above state median · ▲ 41 pts above county median

Grade 655%

School 55% · District 23% · ▲ 32 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 38 pts above county median

Grade 739%

School 39% · District 27% · ▲ 12 pts above district

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

Grade 836%

School 36% · District 23% · ▲ 12 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 383%

School 83% · District 36% · ▲ 47 pts above district

▲ 39 pts above state median · ▲ 46 pts above county median

Grade 465%

School 65% · District 39% · ▲ 27 pts above district

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

Grade 581%

School 81% · District 43% · ▲ 38 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 35 pts above county median

Grade 677%

School 77% · District 45% · ▲ 32 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 34 pts above county median

Grade 742%

School 42% · District 46% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

Grade 855%

School 55% · District 48% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Science

Grade 573%

School 73% · District 29% · ▲ 44 pts above district

▲ 36 pts above state median · ▲ 46 pts above county median

Grade 852%

School 52% · District 31% · ▲ 21 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 26 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.