Grass Lake Elem School, Antioch IL

Original Research by School Decision on Grass Lake Elem School

Grass Lake Elementary School is a small public school serving preschool through eighth grade in Antioch, a mixed-use village on the lake side of Lake County. The school draws from a community with a historic downtown, established manufacturing base, and growing housing development.

The school has a student body of roughly 180 students, distributed across ten grades from preschool through eighth grade. The enrollment is predominantly white, with a smaller share of Hispanic students and a very small representation of Asian and Black students. Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility and counts of English learners were not available, so a reader looking into family income distribution and language-support needs would want to ask the school directly.

State testing results from the most recent school year show a mixed picture across grades and subjects. In math, younger elementary grades show proficiency in the low-to-mid range, with grade three and four both below 50 percent. Performance drops sharply in grade five, then recovers somewhat by grades seven and eight. In English language arts, the school follows a similar pattern: lower proficiency in the early grades and grade five, then stronger results in grades six through eight. By eighth grade, reading and writing proficiency are notably higher. Science proficiency was tested in grades five and eight; grade five again shows very low proficiency, while grade eight shows strong performance. The data set does note that Illinois changed its cut scores for proficiency in 2024-25, so year-to-year trend comparison is not possible from what is available here.

Across the tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it below the midpoint among the other districts in Lake County. A parent may want to look into further with the school what is driving the pronounced dip in grade five performance across subjects, and what support or intervention structures are in place for students in the elementary range who are not yet proficient.

The school does not serve high school grades, so no graduation rate is reported. Chronic absenteeism data were not available.

Antioch itself is a small, historically rooted community with a walkable downtown anchored by a historic shopping district, the Antioch Theatre, and civic institutions including the district library near the Metra rail station. The village has long had a manufacturing-centered employment base, with long-standing employers like Pickard China and recent activity in the light industrial parks along Anita Avenue. In recent years, the community has seen growth in residential development, including new townhome construction marketed to renters, and home values in the area have appreciated. The Metra North Central Service provides commuter rail access from the Antioch station at the northern terminus of the line.

School-level programming and staffing detail were not available. The district brief for Grass Lake SD 36 found little activity of recent parent-relevant change in the public record, so a reader interested in current curriculum initiatives, staffing, or capital projects would benefit from visiting the district website or attending a school board meeting to get that information directly.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 339%

School 39% · District 39%

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 440%

School 40% · District 40%

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 515%

School 15% · District 15%

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 617%

School 17% · District 17%

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

Grade 760%

School 60% · District 60%

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 27 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 339%

School 39% · District 39%

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

Grade 447%

School 47% · District 47%

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 510%

School 10% · District 10%

▼ 42 pts below state median · ▼ 55 pts below county median

Grade 648%

School 48% · District 48%

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 773%

School 73% · District 73%

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 878%

School 78% · District 78%

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

Science

Grade 515%

School 15% · District 15%

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

Grade 878%

School 78% · District 78%

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

This schoolGrass Lake SD 36, 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.