Seward Elem Communication Arts Ac, Chicago IL

Original Research by School Decision on Seward Elem Communication Arts Ac

Seward Elem Communication Arts Academy is a regular public school in Chicago serving nearly all grades from pre-K through eighth. The school's enrollment is small, with just under four hundred students across its ten grade bands. The student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic, with very small populations of other racial and ethnic groups. The school sits in a city neighborhood on the South Side.

Academic performance at Seward is substantially below state proficiency benchmarks across tested grades and subjects. In English language arts, third-grade proficiency stood in the low single digits, fourth and fifth graders showed low performance in the mid-teens, sixth grade moved to nearly a third of students proficient, and by eighth grade four out of ten students met the state standard. Math proficiency was even lower across most grades. Third-grade math performance was near the 18 percent mark, fourth grade about 14 percent, fifth grade about 3 percent, and sixth grade about 6 percent. Seventh graders showed roughly 18 percent proficiency, and eighth graders rose to about 22 percent. Science results in the tested grades (fifth and eighth) were similarly low, in the single digits for fifth grade and near 17 percent for eighth. Across the comparison set of Cook County districts, Seward's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile, meaning a large majority of schools across the county are outperforming it academically.

The pattern that stands out is a sharp dip in fifth-grade math and science performance, followed by recovery in the upper grades. The stronger showing by eighth graders in both ELA and math, and the steadier ELA gains as students progress through middle grades, suggest the school may be building momentum with older students. State assessment results do not yet tell whether these trends reflect the effect of instruction time in place or other factors. A parent may want to ask the school directly about what is driving the low fifth-grade results and what curriculum or support changes have been made for upper grades.

The school's name references communication arts, which suggests an intentional curricular focus on language development, reading, and written expression. This focus may explain the relative strength in eighth-grade ELA compared to math. Chicago Public Schools introduced its Skyline curriculum in 2022, a district-wide set of instructional materials in English language arts, math, science, social science, world languages, and arts available at no school cost. Seward, as a district-managed school, has access to this resource and the standardized instructional approach it provides.

CPS itself is in transition. The district adopted a five-year plan in 2024 called Together We Rise that reframes district strategy toward neighborhood schools rather than the school-choice model that has defined the system. The Board of Education moved from a fully mayor-appointed seven-member board to a hybrid body with elected members, and will transition to a fully elected twenty-one-member board in 2026. The district also replaced numeric school ratings with new holistic dashboards starting in December 2024, meaning the old single-number comparison metric no longer applies. These changes reshape how the district allocates resources and which schools it emphasizes, factors that affect any school's trajectory over the next several years.

Housing in the school's Chicago zip code remains relatively affordable compared to many parts of the city and metro area. Home values are modest for an urban location, and rental costs are moderate. The neighborhood has a substantial Hispanic-majority population aligned with the school's composition.

Seward Elem Communication Arts Academy serves a neighborhood population and is the school of record for students in its attendance area. It is not a selective-admissions school, magnet school, or charter. Test data was available for third through eighth grades; pre-K, kindergarten, and first and second grades are not tested under state law. The school did report participation rates at or near 100 percent on assessments where data was provided, indicating strong test administration. A parent considering this school should understand that academic performance trails county norms and may want to discuss with school leadership what instructional supports exist for students who enter below grade level and how the school plans to close current achievement gaps.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 318%

School 18% · District 38% · ▼ 20 pts below district

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

Grade 414%

School 14% · District 29% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 54%

School 4% · District 24% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 66%

School 6% · District 23% · ▼ 17 pts below district

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

Grade 718%

School 18% · District 27% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 822%

School 22% · District 23% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 36%

School 6% · District 36% · ▼ 30 pts below district

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

Grade 417%

School 17% · District 39% · ▼ 21 pts below district

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

Grade 514%

School 14% · District 43% · ▼ 29 pts below district

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

Grade 631%

School 31% · District 45% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Grade 726%

School 26% · District 46% · ▼ 21 pts below district

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

Grade 842%

School 42% · District 48% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Science

Grade 57%

School 7% · District 29% · ▼ 22 pts below district

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

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 31% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 10 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.