Tarkington Elem School, Chicago IL

Original Research by School Decision on Tarkington Elem School

Tarkington Elementary sits on the Southwest Side of Chicago in the South Lawndale neighborhood, serving pre-K through grade 8 students in a Chicago Public Schools building. The school is deeply rooted in a neighborhood that is substantially Latino, with most of the enrollment composed of Spanish-speaking students and households. The community housing market is modest: home values and rental costs sit well below both state and national medians, making the South Lawndale area affordable relative to much of Cook County, though housing inventory in the broader county market remains tight.

The school draws on the Skyline curriculum, CPS's standardized PreK-12 instructional framework launched across the district to provide all schools with consistent materials in English language arts, math, science, social science, world languages, and arts. This is a substantive change in how the district approaches teaching, and it gives Tarkington access to a comprehensive, professionally developed program that was not available at school level before.

Testing results from the most recent school year show that proficiency rates at Tarkington are well below both the district median and state benchmarks. In English language arts, proficiency ranges from the low teens in third grade to roughly one-half in sixth and eighth grades, showing more strength in the upper elementary and middle grades. In math, results are consistently lower, with proficiency in the single digits through the seventh grade, and modestly higher in eighth grade. Science proficiency, tested in fifth and eighth grades, sits in the range of 15 to 21 percent. When evaluated against the universe of district schools across Cook County, Tarkington's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile. A parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand the demographics being served, the pace of growth over time, and what targeted support or intervention is in place in the subjects and grades with the lowest results.

The school serves approximately 860 students across ten grade bands from pre-K to eighth grade, with enrollment weighted toward the older grades. High school students transition to another school. Demographic data show that the population is majority Latino, with a meaningful share of Black students, and very few white or Asian students. Specific data on the share of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch and on students receiving special education or English learner services were not publicly available. The school's participation rates in state assessments are very high, at or near 100 percent, which means the testing results reflect nearly all eligible students.

Under a newly implemented policy direction, CPS is shifting away from school-choice and selective-enrollment models toward strengthening neighborhood schools. Tarkington sits within this shift and operates as a neighborhood school serving its immediate community. The district also recently replaced its numeric school ratings with new holistic dashboards, and it is in the early stages of a transition to a fully elected school board, completed in November 2026. These changes position parents to have more direct say in district governance and school accountability going forward.

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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 410%

School 10% · District 29% · ▼ 19 pts below district

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

Grade 518%

School 18% · District 24% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 613%

School 13% · District 23% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

Grade 713%

School 13% · District 27% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 821%

School 21% · District 23% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 321%

School 21% · District 36% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 39% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 43% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Grade 651%

School 51% · District 45% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 733%

School 33% · District 46% · ▼ 13 pts below district

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

Grade 849%

School 49% · District 48% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 515%

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

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

Grade 821%

School 21% · District 31% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 6 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.