Learn Chtr - Middle School, Chicago IL

Original Research by School Decision on Learn Chtr - Middle School

LEARN Charter Middle School serves grades 6 through 8 in Chicago's Near West Side. The school is small, with just under 200 students, almost entirely from the city's Black and Latino communities. State test data was available only for grades 7 and 8, since grades 6 and below are not assessed in Illinois.

In English language arts, the school shows markedly stronger results. In 7th grade, about half of students met state proficiency standards on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness. By 8th grade, that share declined somewhat but remained substantial. These results place the school above the bottom quartile for overall proficiency relative to other schools in Cook County—a meaningful position for a school serving this population.

Mathematics performance is quite low. In both 7th and 8th grade, roughly 15 percent of students met proficiency standards. Science results were similarly weak: in 8th grade, about one in five students reached proficiency. All students took the tests at very high participation rates, so these figures reflect genuine learning gaps rather than missing data.

The pattern—stronger in literacy, weaker in math and science—is not unusual in schools serving communities with less access to resources, but a parent may want to look into further with the school leadership what supports or interventions exist to address math skill development specifically. The school reports 100 percent participation in testing, which is solid and suggests good engagement.

The school is a charter operated under the Chicago Public Schools system. It draws from the neighborhood rather than being a magnet or selective-enrollment school. Demographically, about 93 percent of students are Black and 7 percent are Latino; no other racial or ethnic groups are represented. Free-or-reduced-price lunch status and English learner rates were not provided in available data.

Chicago housing in the school's zip code runs at a moderate median value, with rents relatively affordable for the city. The neighborhood sits on the Near West Side, an area that has seen development activity and is within reach of downtown and the city's transit network.

The school exists in a moment of broader district transition. Chicago Public Schools recently shifted from a mayor-appointed board to an elected one, changed how it rates school performance, and adopted a strategic plan emphasizing neighborhood schools over school choice. These changes affect context and resource allocation citywide but do not directly address this school's academic performance gaps.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 715%

School 15% · District 27% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 816%

School 16% · District 23% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 756%

School 56% · District 46% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 848%

School 48% · District 48%

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

Science

Grade 822%

School 22% · District 31% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 5 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.