Cics - Basil Campus, Chicago IL - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Cics - Basil Campus

CICS - Basil Campus is a charter school serving kindergarten through eighth grade on Chicago's South Side. The school operates as part of the Chicago charter sector within the Chicago Public Schools district.

The school enrolls a student body that is roughly four-fifths Black and one-fifth Hispanic, with very small counts of students in other racial categories. Enrollment is modest, distributed relatively evenly across the grade bands, with slightly smaller cohorts in the upper middle grades. Free-or-reduced-price-lunch data was not available, so the income composition of the enrollment is unclear from the data provided.

State test results show a mixed academic profile across grades and subjects. In English language arts, the school's strongest performance is in grade 7, where proficiency is notably above half. Grades 5 and 8 also show proficiency rates around or slightly above the halfway mark. Grades 3, 4, and 6 show lower proficiency in ELA, ranging from the mid-to-low 40s. In mathematics, performance drops considerably in grades 4 through 6, with proficiency rates in the low teens to high 30s. Grade 3 shows better math performance, near mid-50s, and grade 7 recovers somewhat to the mid-40s, but grade 8 falls back to the low 20s. Science testing, available in grades 5 and 8, shows particularly low proficiency, in the low teens to low 20s. Across tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency sits below the midpoint among the county's districts.

The pattern of stronger performance in grades 3 and 7, particularly in ELA, alongside significant drops in the middle grades and in science, suggests variability in instructional strength or student engagement across the grade span. A parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand where strength lies and what supports exist for students in grades where proficiency lags, especially given the sharp decline in math by grade 4.

Illinois changed the proficiency thresholds on its state assessments this year, so the data reflect new cut scores and are not directly comparable to prior years. Participation in testing was high across all grades, exceeding 94 percent in all tested cohorts.

The school's location in Chicago places it within a large, dense city with extensive public transit, diverse employment, and varied neighborhood character. Housing in the school's area is more affordable than state and national medians, and rents have been stable to modestly rising. Chicago Public Schools as a district has recently shifted its strategic emphasis toward neighborhood schools, away from the choice model that long shaped the system, and has replaced numeric school ratings with holistic dashboards. The district is also in the process of moving from a mayor-appointed to a fully elected board, with a fully elected 21-member board taking office in 2027. For families considering this charter school, these district-level changes may affect how resources flow and how the charter's role in the broader system evolves.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 353%

School 53% · District 38% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Grade 436%

School 36% · District 29% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 24% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Grade 615%

School 15% · District 23% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 744%

School 44% · District 27% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 22 pts above county median

Grade 823%

School 23% · District 23%

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

English language arts

Grade 347%

School 47% · District 36% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 451%

School 51% · District 39% · ▲ 12 pts above district

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

Grade 557%

School 57% · District 43% · ▲ 14 pts above district

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

Grade 649%

School 49% · District 45% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 770%

School 70% · District 46% · ▲ 23 pts above district

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

Grade 862%

School 62% · District 48% · ▲ 14 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 523%

School 23% · District 29% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 31% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 9 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.