Fieldcrest Elem School, Oak Forest IL

Original Research by School Decision on Fieldcrest Elem School

Fieldcrest Elem School serves an early elementary population in Oak Forest, a south-suburban Cook County community about twenty miles south of downtown Chicago. The school sits in residential neighborhoods that make up much of the city's fabric, away from the commercial strips along Cicero Avenue and 159th Street where the Metra station and civic anchors cluster.

The school enrolls a small population across pre-K through fifth grade. Its student body is majority Hispanic, with a substantial Black student population and smaller representation of white, Asian, and multiracial students. Free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility data is not publicly reported for the school. The English learner and special education enrollment counts are not available.

On the Illinois Assessment of Readiness administered in the most recent school year, third-grade proficiency in math reached the middle range, while proficiency in English language arts was lower. Fourth and fifth graders showed significantly weaker results: math proficiency fell sharply in fourth grade and dropped further by fifth grade, while ELA proficiency in fourth grade recovered to near the third-grade level but fell again in fifth. Science proficiency in fifth grade was quite low. Participation rates were full or near-full across all tested grades and subjects. It bears noting that Illinois changed its proficiency cut scores across subjects for this school year, so year-to-year trend comparison is not available; a parent may want to ask the school directly how it is responding to current proficiency levels and what support it is offering to students in math, especially in grades four and five.

Among elementary schools within Cook County that report proficiency data, Fieldcrest's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile—meaning most county elementary schools report higher proficiency rates. This positioning reflects the school's uneven grade-level performance and particularly the weak fourth and fifth grade results.

The immediate school environment is a residential neighborhood. Oak Forest itself is car-oriented, though the city has invested in making the Metra station area more walkable and mixed-use as a development priority. Parks, library service, and commuter rail access are available to families in the community. Housing values in the Oak Forest zip code are modest for the Chicago area and have appreciated modestly over the past year. Rental rates are moderate. The labor market in the county is stable, with health care and local government anchoring employment; the closure of the large county hospital campus presents both transition and future redevelopment opportunity in the community.

The school is part of Prairie-Hills ESD 144, a district that recently added a STEAM-themed elementary academy in nearby Markham serving pre-K through fifth grade, giving families in the district a dedicated science, technology, engineering, arts, and math pathway option alongside traditional elementary buildings. Fieldcrest remains a regular neighborhood school, not part of the STEAM program.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 344%

School 44% · District 24% · ▲ 20 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 421%

School 21% · District 17% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 511%

School 11% · District 8% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 325%

School 25% · District 21% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 446%

School 46% · District 36% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 526%

School 26% · District 22% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

Science

Grade 515%

School 15% · District 11% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

This schoolPrairie-Hills ESD 144, 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.