Webster Elem School, Chicago IL - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Webster Elem School

Webster Elem is a neighborhood school serving grades pre-K through eighth grade in Chicago's West Side, located on West Arthington Street. The school is part of Chicago Public Schools District 299 and operates as a regular public school, not a charter. It serves a small to mid-sized population for its grade span, with students distributed across all grades from pre-K through eighth.

The student body is predominantly Black, reflecting the Chicago neighborhood where the school sits. Demographic specifics are available in the enrollment data, though free-or-reduced-price-lunch rates and counts of students receiving special education services or identified as English learners were not available in the data provided.

Academic performance presents a mixed picture by grade level. In third grade, the school shows genuine strength: math proficiency is notably high, and English language arts proficiency is in the mid-range. Performance drops sharply in fourth grade, where math proficiency falls to zero—a result that stands out enough that a parent may want to look into this directly with the school to understand what occurred with that cohort or assessment administration. Fifth and sixth grades show low proficiency in both math and English language arts, though seventh grade rebounds with higher proficiency rates in both subjects. Eighth grade settles in the low-to-mid range. In science, which is tested in fifth and eighth grades, proficiency is low across both grade levels. All students participated fully in state assessments.

How Webster compares to other schools matters for context. Across tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index sits below the midpoint when placed against other districts in Cook County. This positioning reflects the low performance visible in the middle grades, particularly fourth and fifth grade, which pull down the school-wide average.

The neighborhood around the school is Chicago proper—dense, pedestrian-oriented, served by CTA transit including the 'L' rail lines and bus routes, and embedded in a community with parks, libraries, and cultural anchors. Housing values in the local zip code are moderate, and the rental market is similarly accessible compared to other parts of Chicago or its suburbs. The broader city has resumed population growth after a decade of decline, and housing approvals have risen, though recent multifamily construction has concentrated downtown and along the North Lakefront rather than on the West Side.

CPS itself is undergoing significant structural change. The district moved from a fully mayor-appointed school board to a partially elected one in 2024, with a fully elected 21-member board to be seated in 2027. This shift gives families direct democratic input on school board decisions. The district's strategic plan, adopted in 2024, now prioritizes strengthening neighborhood schools rather than continuing the school-choice model that defined the system for decades. CPS also rolled out Skyline, a district-designed PreK-12 curriculum in English language arts, math, science, social science, world languages, and arts, available to all district schools at no cost. Additionally, the district replaced its old numeric school ratings with new holistic dashboards launched in December 2024, changing how parents evaluate school quality.

For a family considering Webster, the key question is how to interpret the grade-level results. Third grade shows genuine capability; the cliff in fourth grade warrants direct conversation with school leadership. The low proficiency in the middle-grade band, particularly in fourth and fifth grade, is a real academic concern. Seventh-grade performance suggests students can progress toward proficiency, but the entry point into middle school matters. A parent weighing this school should seek clarity on what support the school provides to students in the proficiency gap and what the school's plan is for the struggling cohorts that may still be moving through the system.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 394%

School 94% · District 38% · ▲ 56 pts above district

▲ 48 pts above state median · ▲ 54 pts above county median

Grade 40%

School 0% · District 29% · ▼ 29 pts below district

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

Grade 511%

School 11% · District 24% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 643%

School 43% · District 23% · ▲ 20 pts above district

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

Grade 765%

School 65% · District 27% · ▲ 38 pts above district

▲ 36 pts above state median · ▲ 44 pts above county median

Grade 842%

School 42% · District 23% · ▲ 19 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 344%

School 44% · District 36% · ▲ 8 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 410%

School 10% · District 39% · ▼ 29 pts below district

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

Grade 522%

School 22% · District 43% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 629%

School 29% · District 45% · ▼ 16 pts below district

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

Grade 759%

School 59% · District 46% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 837%

School 37% · District 48% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Science

Grade 517%

School 17% · District 29% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 816%

School 16% · District 31% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 11 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.