The top reported proficiency rate is 53% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Heritage Lakes Elem School
Heritage Lakes Elementary is a small elementary school in Carol Stream serving kindergarten through fifth grade with an enrollment of around three hundred students. The school sits within Carol Stream Community School District 93, a suburban DuPage County district that has recently shifted to standards-based grading across its K-8 schools, moving away from traditional letter grades to a system where progress is reported on a four-level scale aligned to Illinois Learning Standards through the TeacherEase platform. This is a meaningful change for parents to understand, as report cards now reflect mastery of specific standards rather than overall subject grades.
The student body is racially and ethnically mixed. White students make up the largest share, followed by substantial populations of Asian and Hispanic students, with smaller numbers of Black and multiracial students. The school's enrollment breakdown is fairly even across grade levels. Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility and English learner populations were not available.
In terms of academic performance, proficiency data from the 2024-25 Illinois Assessment of Readiness shows a pattern of proficiency rates in the range of roughly one-half to two-thirds across tested subjects and grades. In English language arts, third and fourth graders are at lower proficiency levels, while fifth graders show notably stronger performance. In math, proficiency hovers around one-half across third, fourth, and fifth grades, with the fifth grade showing a similar rate in science. The data is most complete for grades three through five; the school does not report proficiency rates for grades six through eight because Heritage Lakes is designated as an elementary school serving through grade five only.
Compared to the proficiency performance of other schools across DuPage County's forty-eight districts, Heritage Lakes sits below the midpoint, meaning that overall proficiency here is lower than the county median. This positioning reflects academic achievement that, while present, trails what many neighboring district schools are achieving. A parent may want to look into the school's curriculum approaches and any support systems in place for students who are not yet meeting grade-level standards.
Carol Stream itself is a car-dependent planned suburb built largely in the post-war era, built out and stable rather than rapidly growing. The village is defined by a strong manufacturing and distribution presence, anchored by employers like the U.S. Postal Service mail facility, FedEx Ground, Hearthside Food Solutions, and several smaller manufacturing and technology firms. Single-family neighborhoods coexist with extensive warehouse and industrial space. There is no walkable downtown; instead, civic life centers on the Ross Ferraro Town Center, a green space on Gary Avenue built in the late 1990s. The village has a good park system with over forty parks and playgrounds, including Red Hawk Park and access to the Great Western Trail. Housing in the zip code is moderately valued and has moved slightly upward in recent years; the market is listed as moderately supplied with somewhat restrained demand. New residential construction is occurring at a measured pace, with a few townhouse projects in development. There is no Metra rail service within Carol Stream, though commuters can access stations in nearby Wheaton, West Chicago and Bartlett.
District 93 recently adopted a 2023-2028 strategic plan that will guide curriculum and program decisions over the coming years. The standards-based grading system is now the dominant reporting mechanism, reshaping how progress is communicated to families. A parent choosing Heritage Lakes should expect a solidly suburban, car-dependent setting with schools organized on distributed campuses rather than in a town center, a mixed-income and multiethnic peer community, and current academic performance that sits below county median proficiency levels.
See more original research from School Decision →