Oriole Park Elem School, Chicago IL

Original Research by School Decision on Oriole Park Elem School

Oriole Park Elem School is a neighborhood public school serving pre-K through eighth grade in Chicago. The enrollment spans just under six hundred students distributed across all ten grade bands, from early childhood through middle school, making it a moderately sized building for a district school.

The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic enrollment and smaller Asian and multiracial populations. The school sits in a stable residential area of the city where median home values have risen modestly and rents remain accessible relative to the broader Chicago market. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data was not available, so a parent cannot assess the economic profile of the student body from the data here.

Academically, Oriole Park's test results show a profile of solid performance with some notable variance by grade and subject. In English language arts, results cluster in the mid-to-high range. Fourth grade leads at a strong level of proficiency, fifth grade performs well above the school average, and eighth grade also tests at a solid level. Third and sixth grades sit at lower-to-mid proficiency, and seventh grade registers the lowest across the school. Math proficiency is more uneven. Fourth grade again leads significantly; third and fifth grades cluster around the mid-point; sixth and seventh grades sit below that; and eighth grade edges back up. Science was tested only in fifth and eighth grades, with fifth grade substantially lower than eighth. These patterns suggest some students build momentum moving through the grades while others encounter difficulty at different points, a pattern worth exploring directly with the school.

Relative to other districts in Cook County, Oriole Park's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among tested schools, a genuine strength. This sits above the median for the county and reflects consistent performance across multiple grades and subjects.

The school feeds into Chicago Public Schools, a district in significant transition. The city is moving to a fully elected school board, with all twenty-one members to be elected in November 2026 for the first time. The district has adopted a five-year strategic plan called "Together We Rise" that prioritizes strengthening neighborhood schools rather than expanding school-choice pathways. At the same time, CPS rolled out Skyline, a comprehensive PreK-12 curriculum available to all district-managed schools at no cost, which standardizes instruction across instructional areas and reduces the variance that once characterized individual school curricula.

The district replaced its longtime numeric school ratings in December 2024 with new holistic accountability dashboards. This change means that parents can no longer rely on the simple star or number ratings they may have encountered before; the new profiles present a broader view of school experience and resources. For Oriole Park specifically, this is a practical matter: the school's test results are transparent and solid in context, but evaluating the school requires looking at the full picture of staff, programs, and peer environment rather than a single composite score.

Chicago itself is a walkable, dense city with substantial transit access, a thriving downtown and neighborhood commercial life, and a broad economic base. The housing market in the school's zip code is moderately priced within the metro area, with both ownership and rental options available and relatively short market times for listings. The city and region have resumed population growth after a decade of decline, and school capacity is relevant to families' long-term planning.

A parent considering Oriole Park should seek further detail on the school's response to the grade-level fluctuations visible in testing, the composition of its teaching staff, and how the school is implementing the Skyline curriculum in practice. The school's position in the top quartile is noteworthy, but understanding what accounts for variation between seventh and eighth grade, or between third and fourth grade in math, would help a family assess fit and trajectory.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 359%

School 59% · District 38% · ▲ 21 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Grade 479%

School 79% · District 29% · ▲ 50 pts above district

▲ 42 pts above state median · ▲ 50 pts above county median

Grade 558%

School 58% · District 24% · ▲ 35 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 37 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 758%

School 58% · District 27% · ▲ 31 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

Grade 864%

School 64% · District 23% · ▲ 40 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 364%

School 64% · District 36% · ▲ 28 pts above district

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

Grade 486%

School 86% · District 39% · ▲ 47 pts above district

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

Grade 578%

School 78% · District 43% · ▲ 35 pts above district

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

Grade 663%

School 63% · District 45% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Grade 755%

School 55% · District 46% · ▲ 9 pts above district

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

Grade 877%

School 77% · District 48% · ▲ 29 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 29% · ▲ 14 pts above district

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

Grade 872%

School 72% · District 31% · ▲ 41 pts above district

▲ 32 pts above state median · ▲ 45 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.