Daniel Burnham Elem School, Cicero IL

Original Research by School Decision on Daniel Burnham Elem School

Daniel Burnham Elementary School serves kindergarten through second grade in Cicero, a densely built working-class town just west of Chicago with a predominantly Hispanic population. The school enrolls a small student body, nearly all Hispanic, drawn from the surrounding neighborhoods on the town's west side.

The school's state test results show very low proficiency across grades three through six in both math and English language arts. On the math assessments, proficiency rates ranged from around 7% to 11% across the tested grades. In English language arts, proficiency was similarly low, though sixth-grade students showed a somewhat higher rate. Science proficiency data for fifth grade was suppressed, though a scale score was reported; no tested data was available for eighth grade. These numbers place the school well below the midpoint among Cook County districts on the overall proficiency index. A parent may want to ask the school directly what factors are driving these results, what support structures exist for students who are not yet proficient, and what changes are underway.

The school sits within Cicero School District 99, which has implemented two district-wide instructional shifts that affect Daniel Burnham. Beginning in 2021–2022, the district adopted structured literacy with explicit, systematic instruction in decoding and word recognition across all elementary grades. The district also adopted the Professional Learning Communities model, embedding collaborative inquiry cycles into how teachers plan and adjust instruction based on student data. These changes represent a sustained shift in reading instruction and in how teachers analyze student performance across all D99 schools, including Daniel Burnham.

Cicero itself is a fully built-out inner-ring suburb where housing is affordable compared to broader Chicago-area markets. The town mixes dense residential neighborhoods with commercial corridors along Cermak Road, and the area is walkable with access to transit including the CTA Pink Line. Median home values are well below the state benchmark, and rents are below the national average, making the town accessible to working families. The town's economy centers on manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and education, with District 99 as one of the major employers. Major employers also include Bimbo Bakeries USA, Chicago Extruded Metals Company, and Morton College, a community college with its own workforce and vocational programs.

Daniel Burnham's enrollment is small for its grade band, concentrated in kindergarten and first grade with a smaller cohort in second grade. The nearly complete absence of any racial or ethnic diversity other than Hispanic enrollment reflects the town's demographics. Free-or-reduced-price lunch status and English learner rates were not available in the data; understanding the share of students with these characteristics would help contextualize the proficiency picture. Special education enrollment data was also not reported.

The school is a regular public school with no magnet or charter status, embedded in the neighborhood rather than set apart on a campus. Daniel Burnham operates as part of a district that has made deliberate, recent commitments to reading instruction and collaborative teacher practice. Whether those district-level changes are yet translating to improved outcomes at this particular school, or how quickly families might expect to see shifts in proficiency rates, would be questions worth exploring directly with school or district leadership.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 310%

School 10% · District 36% · ▼ 26 pts below district

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

Grade 47%

School 7% · District 29% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 57%

School 7% · District 18% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

Grade 611%

School 11% · District 22% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 311%

School 11% · District 28% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

Grade 413%

School 13% · District 28% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 36 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Grade 54%

School 4% · District 37% · ▼ 33 pts below district

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

Grade 620%

School 20% · District 40% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

This schoolCicero SD 99, 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income11%Higher-income8%4 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income13%Higher-income12%1 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income4%Higher-income9%6 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income20%Higher-income25%5 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income10%Higher-income8%2 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income6%Higher-income12%6 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income8%Higher-income0%8 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income10%Higher-income19%9 pp gap