Barack H Obama Learning Academy, Markham IL

Original Research by School Decision on Barack H Obama Learning Academy

Barack H Obama Learning Academy sits in Markham, a small south-suburban Cook County city developed after World War II as a residential bedroom community. The school is one of two newly constructed buildings in Hazel Crest School District 152-5, which consolidated from five separate schools into this two-school structure serving pre-K through eighth grade across East Hazel Crest, Hazel Crest, Markham, and a section of South Harvey. The school serves roughly half the district's total enrollment.

The enrollment of roughly four hundred students breaks fairly evenly across the grade span, from pre-K through eighth grade. The student body is predominantly Black, with a substantial Latino population and a small number of Asian, multiracial, and Native American students. Free-and-reduced-price lunch eligibility data was not available.

Academic performance across the school is very low. In mathematics, proficiency ranged from near zero in eighth grade to single digits in third through sixth grades, with seventh grade at roughly one in ten students meeting proficiency. English language arts shows slightly stronger but still very low results across grades three through eight, with most grades in single digits, sixth grade around one in five students, and seventh grade around three in ten students—the highest rate the school reports in either subject. Science proficiency in the two grades tested (fifth and eighth) falls below one in ten students. The school achieved full or near-full participation in state testing, so these numbers reflect actual student performance rather than testing-rate artifacts. Comparative data show that Barack H Obama's overall proficiency index falls in the bottom quartile among the roughly one hundred twenty districts with available data across Cook County.

The school is a regular public elementary and middle school, not a charter or magnet, housed in a brand-new building. It opened as part of the district's consolidation of its facilities into two modern, purpose-built academies. The locale is auto-oriented suburban, organized around expressway access and commercial strips along arterials like 159th Street and Kedzie Avenue rather than a traditional walkable downtown. Markham's housing stock is affordable relative to Illinois and national benchmarks, with owner-occupied homes common and prices well below state averages. The city's population has remained roughly flat to slightly declining, and forecasts suggest need for new housing to meet demand.

A parent considering this school should understand that it faces significant academic challenges reflected in state assessment results that are among the lowest in the county. The school is new in its physical plant and represents the district's strategic choice to consolidate into two consolidated campuses rather than operate five separate buildings. For a family in the Markham attendance area, this is the neighborhood school and the only option within the district unless the sibling school, Jesse C. White Learning Academy, serves the same address. A parent may want to look into the school's academic improvement plans, the school's own support offerings, and what recovery or intervention the district is undertaking to address these proficiency levels.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 38%

School 8% · District 28% · ▼ 20 pts below district

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

Grade 42%

School 2% · District 4% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 35 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Grade 52%

School 2% · District 1% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 62%

School 2% · District 3% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 711%

School 11% · District 10% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 2% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 38%

School 8% · District 26% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 36 pts below state median · ▼ 30 pts below county median

Grade 415%

School 15% · District 14% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 518%

School 18% · District 16% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 34 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

Grade 621%

School 21% · District 15% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 729%

School 29% · District 18% · ▲ 11 pts above district

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

Grade 816%

School 16% · District 20% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 37 pts below state median · ▼ 31 pts below county median

Science

Grade 56%

School 6% · District 6%

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 89%

School 9% · District 19% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

This schoolHazel Crest SD 152-5, 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.