The top reported proficiency rate is 55% in English language arts. The lowest is 22% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Helen Keller Elem School
Helen Keller Elementary is a small to mid-sized school serving Pre-K through fifth grade in Tinley Park, a mixed-use Chicago southwest suburb that combines a walkable historic downtown along Oak Park Avenue with extensive residential neighborhoods and commercial corridors. The school sits in Kirby School District 140, which spans Tinley Park and Orland Hills.
The school's enrollment is modest for its grade band, with steady distribution across the grades except for a larger concentration in kindergarten and first grade. The student body is predominantly white, with a meaningful Hispanic enrollment and smaller Asian and Black populations. Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility was not available, nor was information on the share of English learners or students with disabilities.
State testing results from the Illinois Assessment of Readiness show mixed performance. In third-grade math and ELA, proficiency rates fall somewhat above half. Fourth-grade math proficiency is lower, while fourth-grade English language arts is modestly above that level. Fifth-grade math proficiency is notably low. Fifth-grade English language arts holds around half. Fifth-grade science proficiency is substantially lower. These results should be read with caution given that Illinois changed its proficiency cut scores for the 2024-25 school year, making direct comparison to prior years difficult. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, particularly around the mathematical instruction in grades four and five and science in grade five, to understand what the school is seeing in its own assessments and what supports are in place.
The school reported full participation in state testing, indicating good attendance on assessment days. Grade six through eight results are not reported because Helen Keller serves only through fifth grade.
Tinley Park itself is growing and actively redeveloping its downtown around a music and entertainment identity. The village has recently opened Harmony Square, a new plaza with a concert stage and community gathering spaces, and has mixed-use residential and retail projects underway. The community is anchored by two Metra Rock Island stations serving commuter traffic to Chicago, with express service from the 80th Avenue station taking roughly thirty minutes. The Tinley Park Public Library, the local parks, and village business anchors sit on separate campuses away from the historic downtown core, creating a dispersed civic landscape.
Housing values in the area are moderate for the Chicago region. Median home values are in the low hundreds of thousands, and rental rates are in the mid-range for the area. The housing market shows modest supply relative to demand, with median days on market in the mid-range.
The district made a significant capital commitment in 2022, authorizing a new building to replace the roughly fifty-year-old Fernway Park Elementary through a reserves-funded referendum with no property tax impact. That new school opened for the 2025-26 school year and also centralizes the district's Early Childhood Center, which frees classroom space at other elementary buildings. This kind of investment signals district capacity and a focus on facility renewal that may matter to families evaluating the area's schools.
Helen Keller's proficiency profile is above the midpoint among the county's districts when measured across tested subjects and grades, a modest positioning that reflects neither strong nor weak performance relative to peers in Cook County. The school appears to serve a stable, moderately mixed community and is part of a district investing in its infrastructure. A family considering this school should ask the building about its reading and math interventions, the specific work happening in upper elementary grades where proficiency drops, and how the school uses its assessment data to tailor instruction.
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