The top reported proficiency rate is 30% in English language arts. The lowest is 17% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Unity Jr High School
Unity Junior High School in Cicero, Illinois serves grades 7 and 8 with an enrollment of roughly equal numbers in each grade. The school is part of Cicero School District 99, a district that has adopted structured literacy instruction and the Professional Learning Communities model district-wide, embedding data-driven collaboration into how teachers plan and deliver instruction.
Cicero is a densely built, heavily Hispanic working-class town just west of Chicago. The vast majority of students at Unity are Hispanic, with the student body being nearly entirely from this community. The school sits within a neighborhood where most residents are Spanish-speaking and where commercial life centers on the Cermak Road corridor. Housing is modest in cost relative to regional benchmarks; the median property value in the area is below state and national comparables. The town itself is served by transit, including the CTA Pink Line, and is walkable, with mixed-use storefronts and apartments characteristic of inner-ring Chicago suburbs.
On state assessments, Unity's proficiency rates are notably low. In grade 7 mathematics, proficiency stood at roughly one-fifth of students, and in grade 8, roughly one-sixth. English language arts results were somewhat higher, with grade 7 around one-quarter proficient and grade 8 around one-third proficient. In science, grade 8 proficiency was around one-quarter. These figures place the school in the bottom quartile of schools in Cook County on overall proficiency. Nearly all students participate in testing, which is a strength; test participation rates exceed 98 percent across all grades and subjects.
State testing data for grades 3 through 6 were not available, likely because this school serves only grades 7 and 8, so no younger cohorts are tested here.
Free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility, English learner status, and special education enrollment were not reported in the available data. Knowing the share of students in poverty and how many are English learners would provide helpful context for understanding what support services the school provides, so a parent may want to look into these details directly with the school.
The district has invested in structured literacy as a reading intervention and is implementing Professional Learning Communities as a model for how teachers examine student data and plan together. These are sustained, intentional changes designed to improve instruction across the district. Whether these efforts will move proficiency numbers at Unity is a question only time and continued attention will answer, but the district has made a strategic commitment to this work.
Cicero itself is a town of working families in a stable urban neighborhood with long-standing institutions like the public library, parks, and transit connections. The economic picture is modest but steady, with homeownership rates and median incomes showing modest growth in recent years.
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