Horizon Sci Acad - Southwest Chtr, Chicago IL

Original Research by School Decision on Horizon Sci Acad - Southwest Chtr

Horizon Science Academy-Southwest is a charter school serving kindergarten through twelfth grade on the South Side of Chicago. It is part of Chicago Public Schools District 299. The school's enrollment spans the full K-12 pathway, with a relatively balanced grade distribution, though middle grades run slightly larger than elementary and high school.

The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a substantial Black population and very small shares of white, Asian, and multiracial students. Free-and-reduced-price lunch data was not available; the school's demographic composition suggests that economic need is a significant factor in the student population, though concrete figures on household income or lunch eligibility are absent from the data.

On state assessments administered in 2024-25, the school's proficiency rates reveal a pattern of challenge in foundational mathematics and uneven performance across grades and subjects. In math, proficiency ranges from around 10 percent in seventh grade to 30 percent in grades three through six, indicating that large majorities of students are not meeting state-defined proficiency. In English language arts, performance is less uniformly low: third and fourth graders show proficiency around 25 to 34 percent, but proficiency rises sharply in grades five and six, reaching approximately 51 and 68 percent respectively. By grades seven and eight, ELA proficiency falls back to 35 and 61 percent. Science proficiency is similarly modest, at 19 percent in fifth grade and 25 percent in eighth grade. Test participation is nearly universal across all grades and subjects, indicating full engagement with state assessment requirements. The shift between consistently low early math performance and stronger middle-school ELA results suggests possible instructional strengths in literacy but sustained gaps in numeracy.

Compared to other district-managed and charter schools across Cook County, the school's overall proficiency index places it below the midpoint of county schools. A parent may want to look into further with the school whether specific interventions in math are underway and what strategies the school has pursued to address the grade-level dips evident in the data.

Chicago itself is a large, dense, mixed-use city with a clear downtown, extensive public transit including 24/7 rail service on some lines, and a widely celebrated park system anchoring neighborhood life. The city has resumed population growth after nearly a decade of decline, with housing development concentrated downtown and along the North Lakefront, though the Near West Side has led recent neighborhood approvals. The school is located on the South Side, in a neighborhood with established residential and commercial character.

The district is in transition. Chicago moved from a fully mayor-appointed school board to a hybrid model in 2024 and will hold its first fully elected board election in November 2026. This shift gives parents direct representation in setting district policy. The district has also adopted a five-year strategic plan emphasizing neighborhood schools over the school-choice model that previously defined CPS, though significant changes to charter and selective-enrollment admissions have been deferred. A new accountability dashboard replaced numeric school ratings in December 2024, reshaping how families compare schools. Additionally, CPS has rolled out Skyline, a district-developed PreK-12 curriculum spanning six content areas, standardizing instructional materials across hundreds of schools beginning in 2021-22.

Housing values in the school's zip code are modest relative to state and national benchmarks, and rents are at roughly one-third of median household income, positioning the area as relatively affordable within the Chicago metro. The local housing market shows more supply than demand, with median days on market above the prior year. For families considering this school, the affordability of the neighborhood stands in contrast to much of Chicago's high-cost housing, though the academic performance data suggests that sustained attention to math proficiency and grade-level consistency in literacy would be important areas to understand during a school visit or conversation with leadership.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 38% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

Grade 428%

School 28% · District 29% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 530%

School 30% · District 24% · ▲ 7 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 626%

School 26% · District 23% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Grade 711%

School 11% · District 27% · ▼ 16 pts below district

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

Grade 818%

School 18% · District 23% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 325%

School 25% · District 36% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 434%

School 34% · District 39% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 551%

School 51% · District 43% · ▲ 8 pts above district

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

Grade 668%

School 68% · District 45% · ▲ 24 pts above district

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

Grade 735%

School 35% · District 46% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

Grade 861%

School 61% · District 48% · ▲ 13 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 519%

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

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

Grade 825%

School 25% · District 31% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 2 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.