Peirce Elem Intl Studies School, Chicago IL

Original Research by School Decision on Peirce Elem Intl Studies School

Peirce Elementary International Studies School is a Chicago Public Schools school serving prekindergarten through eighth grade in the Uptown neighborhood on the North Side. The school enrolls a student body that is roughly half white, with substantial shares of Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial students. The overall enrollment is distributed fairly evenly across grades, with slightly larger numbers in the early elementary years.

The school's academic profile shows mixed performance across Illinois state assessments. In English language arts, proficiency is strongest in the middle grades: sixth graders show the highest performance, while results decline noticeably in grades seven and eight. Math performance is markedly weaker. Third grade shows the strongest math results, but proficiency drops sharply in fourth and seventh grades, and eighth grade math proficiency falls to a low level. Fifth and sixth grades in math are closer to midpoint, with sixth grade performing better. Science results are available only for grades five and eight; fifth graders perform respectably while eighth graders' performance is quite low. The school participated fully or nearly fully in all tested assessments.

When proficiency results are averaged across all tested subjects and grades, Peirce's overall academic performance places it below the midpoint compared to other schools across Cook County districts. A parent may want to discuss with the school what strategies are being used to support students in upper grades, where results tend to weaken, particularly in mathematics and eighth-grade science.

The school's name reflects an International Studies focus, though curricular details about language instruction, global education pathways, or program structure were not available in the provided data. The district has recently adopted Skyline, a comprehensive PreK-12 curriculum in English language arts, math, science, social studies, world languages, and arts that became available to all CPS schools beginning in 2021-22. Free-or-reduced-price-lunch data and English learner enrollment figures were not reported, so a parent seeking to understand the school's socioeconomic or language-learner populations should ask the school directly.

Chicago itself has resumed population growth after years of decline, and the North Side neighborhoods where Peirce sits have attracted considerable new housing development, particularly along the lakefront and in mixed-use commercial corridors. Rental housing in the school's 60660 zip code is moderately priced relative to both Cook County and Illinois benchmarks, and home values have seen recent appreciation. The area is highly walkable with strong transit access via CTA rail and bus, and sits adjacent to Uptown's established residential and commercial streets.

The broader district context includes significant structural change. Chicago transitioned from a mayor-appointed school board to an elected one, with the first 10 members elected in November 2024 and all 21 seats set to be elected in November 2026. The district's five-year strategic plan, adopted in 2024, signals a shift toward strengthening neighborhood schools, a meaningful change for families evaluating schools within the choice-driven CPS ecosystem. The district also replaced its long-standing numeric school ratings in December 2024 with new holistic accountability dashboards that broaden evaluation beyond test scores.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 348%

School 48% · District 38% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 427%

School 27% · District 29% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 24% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 19 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 725%

School 25% · District 27% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 811%

School 11% · District 23% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 353%

School 53% · District 36% · ▲ 16 pts above district

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

Grade 459%

School 59% · District 39% · ▲ 20 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 43% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Grade 672%

School 72% · District 45% · ▲ 27 pts above district

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

Grade 743%

School 43% · District 46% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Grade 826%

School 26% · District 48% · ▼ 22 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 558%

School 58% · District 29% · ▲ 29 pts above district

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

Grade 824%

School 24% · District 31% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 3 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.