The top reported proficiency rate is 82% in Math. The lowest is 75% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Cherokee Elem School
Cherokee Elementary is a small, K-4 school in Lake Forest serving an enrollment of about 339 students. The school sits in an affluent North Shore suburb on Lake Michigan, about 30 miles north of downtown Chicago, built on Beaux Arts and historic residential character with a compact walkable downtown core around Market Square and the Metra station.
The school's academic performance, measured by the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR), shows solid work in both math and English language arts across the grades tested. In third-grade math, about four-fifths of students reached proficiency or above. Fourth-grade results dip somewhat, with about four-fifths proficient in math and a similar share in English language arts. In English language arts at third grade, about seven-tenths of students met the proficiency threshold. These proficiency rates position Cherokee in the top quartile of schools across the county's districts when overall proficiency is averaged across tested subjects and grades. State testing data for grades five and six are not available because the school serves only kindergarten through fourth grade, not beyond.
The student body is predominantly white, with small shares of Asian, Hispanic, multiracial, and other students. Enrollment counts by free-or-reduced-price lunch status, English learner status, and special education were not available in the publicly reported data, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about the demographics of economically disadvantaged students and students with identified disabilities.
Lake Forest SD 67, the district that includes Cherokee, has recently adopted a "Portrait of a Learner" framework defining six core competencies: communication, adaptability, citizenship, empathy, critical thinking, and confidence. This competency-based approach, launched in the 2021-2022 school year, now shapes curriculum and instruction across the district's elementary and middle schools. The district has publicly committed to avoiding a large taxpayer referendum and instead funds capital improvements through its existing debt service mechanism and by reallocating funds as enrollment has modestly declined. For prospective homebuyers, this means the district expects smaller, more incremental tax requests than peer districts have pursued. The high school district serving Lake Forest's secondary students, District 115, did pass a major bond referendum in April 2023 to fund comprehensive renovations of the 60-year-old high school. Because Districts 67 and 115 share the same Lake Forest tax base, this has direct property-tax implications for families with younger children who will eventually attend high school.
Housing in Lake Forest is affluent. The median home value in the area is over a million dollars, with median rents over $4,000 per month. Homes sell in about a month on average. The market is slow-growth and high-value; new development is largely infill—small condominium projects near the library and small luxury subdivisions—rather than large-scale expansion. Population growth accelerated sharply starting in the 1950s through annexation and westward expansion but has since slowed.
Cherokee's enrollment is static and small for its grade band, distributed across kindergarten through fourth grade. The school offers the standard elementary curriculum, though specific details about enrichment programs, specials instruction, or other specialized offerings were not available in the data provided.
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