Woodson South Elem School, Chicago IL

Original Research by School Decision on Woodson South Elem School

Woodson South serves prekindergarten through eighth grade on Chicago's South Side. The school enrolls a relatively small cohort—about the same total across all grades—and the enrollment is predominantly African American, with a small share of students who identify as Hispanic, Asian, or multiracial. The school's location on South Evans Avenue places it in a residential neighborhood where median home values are in the mid-range for the metro area, rents have ticked up modestly year over year, and housing remains accessible compared to downtown and lakefront zip codes.

Academic performance across tested subjects is weak. Math proficiency is severely constrained: third-grade students show modest results, while fourth through eighth grades show near-zero proficiency despite high test participation. English language arts results are similarly low across the grade band—third grade sits at around one-third of students meeting state standards, fourth through seventh grades cluster in the single digits and low teens, and only eighth grade rises to around two in five students meeting standards. Science proficiency, tested in fifth and eighth grades, shows single-digit results. Across math, ELA, and science, the school sits in the bottom quartile among Cook County schools by overall proficiency. A parent may want to look into what the school is doing to diagnose and address the gap between enrollment and achievement, and what support systems or interventions exist for students below proficiency.

Test participation rates are strong across subjects and grades, exceeding ninety percent in nearly every case, which means the low proficiency is not a reflection of selective testing. The school's 2024-25 data comes from the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) for ELA and math and the Illinois Science Assessment (ISA 2.0) for science; the state changed proficiency cut scores in 2024-25, so direct year-to-year comparison with prior years is not reliable.

The school is a regular public school within Chicago Public Schools District 299, not a magnet or charter. It has one grade-nine student on record, though the school's stated grade range is PK through 8, which suggests either a coding variation or very limited ninth-grade enrollment. State testing data does not include results for prekindergarten, kindergarten, first, or second grade, as those grades are not assessed under Illinois state law.

Chicago Public Schools has undergone significant structural changes in recent years. A newly elected school board, with the first direct elections held in 2024 and a fully elected board to come in 2026, will reshape district governance. The district has also signaled a strategic shift toward neighborhood school investment and away from the school-choice model that dominated for decades, though selective enrollment and charter schools remain in place for now. The district rolled out a universal PreK-12 curriculum called Skyline beginning in 2021-22 and replaced numeric school ratings with holistic dashboards in late 2024, both changes that affect how families evaluate schools.

The South Side neighborhood housing market is modest and stable. Median home values have declined very slightly year over year, while rents have crept up. The area remains more affordable than much of the metro region, and homes and rentals have been moving at a moderate pace. Chicago itself continues adding residents after a decade of decline, and the broader metro has grown for three consecutive years, though development has clustered downtown and along the North Lakefront rather than in South Side residential areas.

Woodson South's enrollment has held steady, but the severe gap between test participation and proficiency raises questions about what instructional or assessment supports the school is providing, and what families should expect in terms of academic outcomes and support structure.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 340%

School 40% · District 38% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 43%

School 3% · District 29% · ▼ 26 pts below district

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

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 24% · ▼ 24 pts below district

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

Grade 60%

School 0% · District 23% · ▼ 23 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 73%

School 3% · District 27% · ▼ 24 pts below district

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

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 23% · ▼ 23 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 335%

School 35% · District 36% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 415%

School 15% · District 39% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 33 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 531%

School 31% · District 43% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 617%

School 17% · District 45% · ▼ 28 pts below district

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

Grade 79%

School 9% · District 46% · ▼ 37 pts below district

▼ 42 pts below state median · ▼ 35 pts below county median

Grade 843%

School 43% · District 48% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Science

Grade 512%

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

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 85%

School 5% · District 31% · ▼ 26 pts below district

▼ 35 pts below state median · ▼ 22 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.