Isaac Fox Elementary School, Lake Zurich IL

Original Research by School Decision on Isaac Fox Elementary School

Isaac Fox Elementary School is a kindergarten-through-fifth-grade school serving a small enrollment in Lake Zurich, a residential northwest Chicago suburb with a mixed suburban and small-town character. The school sits on the northwestern side of its district, which covers several villages and towns in Lake County.

The school's students are predominantly white, with smaller shares of Asian, Hispanic, and multiracial students. About one in twelve students identified as Asian, and about one in sixteen as Hispanic. Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility and on students with disabilities or English learners was not available. The school feeds into the broader Lake Zurich Community Unit District 95, which recently named its high school and one of its middle schools as National Blue Ribbon Schools in 2024, a federal designation tied to academic performance.

In the most recent state testing, Isaac Fox showed a mixed picture across grade levels. In reading and language arts, fourth graders performed strongest, with most students proficient; fifth graders also performed well, with proficiency solid. Third graders showed lower performance in reading. Math results were stronger in grades three and four, where roughly three in four students met proficiency, but fifth grade math proficiency dropped substantially, with about three in five students proficient. Science testing at the fifth-grade level showed proficiency just above three in five students. The school's overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades places it in the top quartile among Lake County district schools, though a reader may want to look into the school's approach to fifth-grade math, where the performance decline suggests possible transition challenges or curriculum questions as students advance.

The school's location in Lake Zurich puts it in an area where home prices have appreciated modestly and remain above the state median. Rental costs also run above state benchmarks. The housing market in the broader Lake County area shows moderate activity, with median listing prices in the mid-range for the region. Lake Zurich itself is a long-established community with a mixed employment base including manufacturing, retail, and professional services, anchored by employers like Fresenius Kabi and ACCO Brands. The village has pursued downtown redevelopment for decades and has continued residential growth, with recent new-construction subdivisions and mixed-income housing additions like Zurich Meadows Senior Apartments.

The district completed a full rebuild of May Whitney Elementary School, opening a new structure with air conditioning and modern learning spaces on the original site, replacing a building that had stood since the early twentieth century. The district has also adopted a new five-year strategic plan, Empower95 (2023 to 2028), which includes formal guidance on integrating artificial intelligence into classroom instruction. These shifts signal the district's direction on curriculum and instructional technology for the coming years.

State assessment cut scores changed across subjects between the prior year and the current results, which affects year-to-year comparisons; trend data to judge whether performance is stable or moving is not available. The school does not serve students in middle or upper grades, so there is no information on graduation rates or high school pathways from this school specifically.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 373%

School 73% · District 75% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 475%

School 75% · District 77% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 558%

School 58% · District 67% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 369%

School 69% · District 76% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 484%

School 84% · District 84% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 581%

School 81% · District 85% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Science

Grade 565%

School 65% · District 69% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

This schoolLake Zurich CUSD 95, 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 5Lower-income30%Higher-income64%34 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income10%Higher-income49%39 pp gap