The top reported proficiency rate is 38% in English language arts. The lowest is 12% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Sauk Elem School
Sauk Elem School serves fourth through sixth grade in Richton Park, a residential suburb in Cook County about thirty miles southwest of Chicago. The school is part of Matteson ESD 162, which recently built an in-house commercial kitchen at a converted roller-skating rink to serve meals to all its schools without a tax increase, a shift that could matter to families thinking about food quality and sourcing.
Sauk Elem has an enrollment of around 280 students, predominantly Black (about eighty-five percent), with smaller shares of Hispanic, Asian, white, and multiracial students. The school serves a neighborhood that is decidedly residential, with the broader village actively pursuing mixed-use and transit-oriented development around the Metra station, though most of daily life still revolves around auto-oriented commercial corridors and strip retail.
On state assessments administered in 2024-25, Sauk Elem's proficiency results sit in the bottom quartile across Cook County districts. In English Language Arts, students in fourth grade achieved proficiency just under forty percent, fifth grade about thirty percent, and sixth grade about forty-four percent; sixth-grade ELA is the school's strongest subject showing. In math, proficiency is considerably lower: fourth grade at about twenty-five percent, fifth grade near twenty-four percent, and sixth grade near seventeen percent. Fourth and fifth graders took a science assessment as well, with fifth-grade science proficiency at around twelve percent. Students participated fully in these assessments. State testing data for third and seventh grade was not available, reflecting that those grade spans do not attend Sauk Elem (the school covers fourth through sixth only). Reading rates by grade and school-year comparison trends were not available in the data provided, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about year-to-year growth and whether proficiency patterns have shifted over time.
The school's location in Richton Park places it in a community in transition. The village has longstanding residential neighborhoods but is building out a town center aimed at adding apartments, senior housing, and mixed-use development near the Metra Electric station, which stands at Sauk Trail east of Governors Highway with service to Chicago. Median home values in the 60471 zip code that includes Sauk Elem are in the mid-range for the region, and the rental market is active. The area has Walmart, national chains, and light industrial warehousing; residents work largely in health care, transportation and warehousing, and public administration sectors outside the village. Employment is available but not concentrated locally.
Sauk Elem is a straightforward neighborhood public elementary school with no charter or magnet designation. Program offerings, staffing details, discipline approaches, and attendance data were not provided in the available information, so a parent evaluating fit may want to contact the school directly about curriculum choices, class sizes, extracurricular options, and how the school supports students working below grade level in math and literacy. The school does maintain full participation on state assessments, which shows a commitment to testing transparency.
For families in the area, Sauk Elem offers the expected elementary structure and access to the Richton Park community. The test results indicate that many students in this school are not meeting state proficiency benchmarks across subjects, particularly in math. A parent may want to look into further detail with the school about intervention programs, professional development for teachers, and what recent shifts in instruction or support have been underway to address those gaps.
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