Goodwin Elementary School, Cicero IL

Original Research by School Decision on Goodwin Elementary School

Goodwin Elementary serves grades PreK through 6 in Cicero, a heavily Hispanic working-class town just west of Chicago. The school sits within a dense, mixed-use neighborhood where families walk to shops and transit lines; most of Goodwin's students, drawn from the surrounding blocks, reflect Cicero's predominantly Hispanic population.

The school's student population is small for its grade band, with roughly a mid-sized enrollment spanning early and upper elementary grades. Nearly all students at Goodwin identify as Hispanic or Latino. Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch and English learner counts were not available, limiting a full picture of economic hardship or language-support needs in the building.

State testing results from this spring show that Goodwin's students are struggling with foundational academic content across tested subjects and grades. Math proficiency is low across the board: third graders are reaching proficiency at roughly one-quarter the rate, and fifth and sixth graders at roughly one-fifth to one-sixth the rate. Fourth grade is the exception, with about four in ten students meeting the standard. In English language arts, the pattern is similar. Fifth grade performs better here, near four in ten, while third, fourth, and sixth grades cluster much lower. Science data is available only for fifth grade, where about one-fifth of students showed proficiency. These results place Goodwin in the bottom quartile among the schools in Cook County on an overall proficiency measure.

This pattern warrants direct conversation with the school. A parent may want to ask how Goodwin is addressing these results, what interventions are in place for struggling readers and mathematicians, and how the school is implementing the structured literacy and Professional Learning Communities approaches that District 99 adopted at the strategic level. The district has intentionally shifted to systematic, explicit instruction in reading decoding and to teacher collaboration around student data. Whether and how those investments are taking hold at Goodwin would be a crucial topic for a prospective family to explore with school leadership.

The school is part of Cicero SD 99, a district that publicly reported gains in reading and math on its 2024 report card tied to these strategic changes. Cicero as a town is a fully developed, transit-accessible place where schools are woven into neighborhoods rather than isolated on campuses. The Pink Line runs through Cicero, the Cicero Public Library anchors civic life on Cermak Road, and families have walkable access to shops and services.

Housing in the 60804 zip code is affordable relative to state and national benchmarks. Median home values and rents have risen modestly in recent months, and the market shows moderate supply and modest demand, leaving some inventory available for buyers and renters. The town is preparing incremental revitalization through a five-year plan focused on housing preservation and neighborhood repair rather than rapid growth.

Goodwin's classroom setting is a neighborhood school in a place with real walkability and transit access, serving a working-class community with deep roots in the area. The school's academic results suggest it is not the place for a family expecting strong elementary-grade performance without close coordination with the home, but it is a school where a committed parent can observe, ask direct questions about curriculum and intervention, and gauge whether the principal and teachers are engaged with the district-wide reforms underway.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 324%

School 24% · District 36% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 442%

School 42% · District 29% · ▲ 13 pts above district

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

Grade 516%

School 16% · District 18% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 618%

School 18% · District 22% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 322%

School 22% · District 28% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 440%

School 40% · District 28% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▼ 8 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 542%

School 42% · District 37% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Grade 618%

School 18% · District 40% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Science

Grade 522%

School 22% · District 25% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 5 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.