Emerson Elem School, Maywood IL - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Emerson Elem School

Emerson Elementary School is a small school serving prekindergarten through fifth grade in the Maywood-Melrose Park-Broadview School District 89. The school sits in Maywood, a densely populated village of predominantly Black and Hispanic residents in the western Chicago suburbs, with a long-established residential character mixed with historic industrial areas and anchored by major health institutions like Loyola University Medical Center.

The school has an enrollment of roughly three hundred sixty students. The student body is predominantly Black and Hispanic, with a substantial Hispanic share. Demographic data for free-or-reduced-price lunch status and English learner enrollment were not available in the records reviewed.

Academic performance shows considerable weakness across tested grades and subjects. In math, state assessment results show proficiency rates well below what would be typical, with the strongest performance in third grade but declining significantly in grades four and five. English language arts results are somewhat stronger than math but still reflect substantial unmet achievement across all tested grade levels. Science assessment data appears only for fifth grade, where proficiency is similarly low. All available grade-level test results showed full participation, indicating students were tested. The school's overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades falls in the bottom quartile when compared to the pool of schools across Cook County's districts, positioning Emerson below typical performance in its comparison universe.

The district has been implementing a durable shift in its instructional model: a phased expansion of one-way dual language instruction in English and Spanish at multiple elementary schools, including a K-8 two-way dual language academy at Washington Dual Language Academy. This represents a long-term reorientation toward biliteracy for families choosing neighborhood schools. However, the specific status of Emerson School's enrollment in or alignment with this program was not documented in available records, and a parent may want to look into how this school's instruction relates to the district's bilingual initiatives.

The school serves grades prekindergarten through fifth, so state testing data for upper middle grades does not apply; Emerson's grade band itself explains the absence of results for grades six and above. The housing market in the Maywood zip code area shows modest values with year-over-year appreciation and rental costs in line with working-family budgets in the western suburbs. Population in Maywood has been roughly flat to slightly declining since 2020, with recent development and reinvestment efforts concentrated on affordable and supportive housing rather than greenfield growth.

State assessment data represented the most recent available academic snapshot. No enrollment history was provided, so enrollment trends at this school could not be assessed. Information on attendance, chronic absenteeism, staffing, course-specific offerings, and discipline was not available in the records reviewed.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 319%

School 19% · District 30% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 46%

School 6% · District 27% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 58%

School 8% · District 23% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 341%

School 41% · District 37% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 432%

School 32% · District 44% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 531%

School 31% · District 52% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Science

Grade 517%

School 17% · District 30% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

This schoolMaywood-Melrose Park-Broadview 89, 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.