Iroquois Community School, Des Plaines IL

Original Research by School Decision on Iroquois Community School

Iroquois Community School is a kindergarten through eighth-grade school in Des Plaines, an inner-ring Chicago suburb about seventeen miles northwest of downtown and adjacent to O'Hare International Airport. The school serves a cohort of roughly four hundred students across nine grades with a balanced demographic composition: just over half the enrollment is white, with meaningful shares of Hispanic and Asian students, and smaller populations of Black and multiracial students. The school sits within CCSD 62, which is transitioning to full-day kindergarten beginning in the 2026-27 school year and has adopted a five-year strategic plan emphasizing academic growth, inclusive learning culture, workforce investment, and family partnerships.

The school's recent state test results show a mixed picture. In English language arts, performance ranges from strong to very strong across the grade span. Fifth graders performed particularly well, while sixth and eighth graders showed solid results above the midpoint. Reading proficiency is a relative strength. Mathematics proficiency is more uneven. Third grade performs well, but the proficiency rates decline through the middle grades, with sixth grade showing notably lower results. Eighth-grade math proficiency sits in the middle range. Science assessments, available only for fifth and eighth grades, show moderate proficiency in fifth grade and stronger results in eighth. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among districts in Cook County, a meaningful positive positioning.

All students participate in state assessments at full or near-full rates, indicating strong testing engagement and attendance during assessment windows. The testing data flags that Illinois changed its proficiency cut scores across subjects in 2024-25, so year-to-year comparisons are not possible from these results alone.

The demographics show reasonable stability and integration. About seventeen percent of students are Asian, a figure consistent with suburban Chicago's demographic mix. Hispanic enrollment stands at roughly twenty-two percent, and approximately fifty-one percent of students are white. The school does not report free-or-reduced-price-lunch rates or English learner enrollment rates, so a full picture of economic and linguistic diversity is not available. Enrollment across grades is fairly balanced, ranging from about thirty-nine to fifty-two students per grade.

Des Plaines itself is undergoing downtown revitalization centered on transit-oriented development. The Metra Des Plaines station on the Union Pacific Northwest line anchors the downtown, with the Des Plaines Public Library, City Hall, and mixed-use developments like Metropolitan Square nearby. The city is home to major employers including Allstate, Rivers Casino, NorthShore University HealthSystem, and logistics firms tied to the O'Hare market. The housing market in the area has seen modest appreciation, with median home values increasing slightly year over year. The median home listing price is in the mid-range for Cook County, making the area moderately accessible compared to some inner-ring suburbs, though housing costs remain a factor for many families.

A parent evaluating Iroquois should recognize that the school's reading and language arts instruction is clearly working well, particularly in the upper grades. Mathematics instruction appears less consistent across the grade levels, with a notable dip in sixth-grade performance; a parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand whether this reflects an instructional transition, curriculum change, or a particular cohort challenge. The school's overall proficiency standing within the county is a strength. The school serves a genuinely mixed peer environment, with students from multiple racial and ethnic backgrounds. The location in Des Plaines offers reasonable proximity to Metra transit and a suburban setting with active civic infrastructure, though the broader housing market and the shift to full-day kindergarten at the district level are factors families will need to account for in planning.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 373%

School 73% · District 63% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 33 pts above county median

Grade 466%

School 66% · District 53% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

Grade 565%

School 65% · District 46% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 43 pts above county median

Grade 642%

School 42% · District 42% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 760%

School 60% · District 49% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 39 pts above county median

Grade 863%

School 63% · District 45% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 40 pts above state median · ▲ 45 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 368%

School 68% · District 63% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Grade 468%

School 68% · District 59% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

Grade 594%

School 94% · District 64% · ▲ 30 pts above district

▲ 42 pts above state median · ▲ 48 pts above county median

Grade 679%

School 79% · District 56% · ▲ 23 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 36 pts above county median

Grade 770%

School 70% · District 51% · ▲ 19 pts above district

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

Grade 883%

School 83% · District 67% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

Science

Grade 563%

School 63% · District 41% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 36 pts above county median

Grade 871%

School 71% · District 50% · ▲ 21 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 44 pts above county median

This schoolCCSD 62, 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.