The top reported proficiency rate is 80% in English language arts. The lowest is 59% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Bentley Elem School
Bentley Elementary serves grades four through six in New Lenox, a southwest Chicago suburb in Will County known for steady residential growth and a family-oriented character. The school sits in a community shaped by commuter-rail access, hospital employment, and ongoing residential development with builders actively adding homes to established subdivisions. Housing values in the area reflect suburban demand; the median home value is in the mid-to-upper range for the county, with active listings and continued construction indicating a stable residential market.
Bentley's enrollment is small by district standards, with a student population spread across its three grades. The student body is predominantly white, with smaller shares of Hispanic, multiracial, and Asian students; detailed data on English learners and students with special education needs was not available. Free-or-reduced-price lunch rates were not reported, making it difficult to assess economic need at the school level.
In state testing on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, Bentley shows mixed academic performance. Reading (English Language Arts) results are a genuine strength across all tested grades, with proficiency rates climbing from the mid-seventies in fourth grade to the mid-eighties in sixth grade. Math performance is softer; proficiency rates hover in the low-to-mid sixties across grades four, five, and six. In science, the school reported proficiency in the upper fifties for grade five, the grade tested. These results place Bentley in the top quartile among Will County school districts on an overall proficiency index, a meaningful distinction. The proficiency baseline reflects cut-score changes in Illinois testing, so year-over-year trend comparisons are not available; a parent may want to ask the school directly about performance direction in recent years.
Grade three and grades seven and eight show no state test data, which is expected because grade three falls outside the tested range for this school and grades seven and eight are not served at this elementary building.
The district is undergoing a significant structural change: the Board approved a transition from half-day to full-day kindergarten beginning in the 2027-2028 school year. While this decision does not directly affect Bentley's current enrollment, it signals the district's direction and may influence how families with younger children view schools in the system. The move expands instructional time for early learners and removes a childcare constraint that matters to working parents, though it also carries capital and operational costs the district is budgeting to absorb.
Bentley is a regular public school with no charter or magnet designation, located on a standard school campus rather than integrated into New Lenox's civic core at The Commons. The school feeds into the broader New Lenox SD 122 system, which also operates through that same district framework. Housing in the school's attendance area aligns with the suburban patterns of the village: auto-oriented residential subdivisions with modest walkability outside of the trail system. Families considering this school should weigh the strength in reading instruction and above-county-average proficiency overall against the relative weakness in math, and understand that this is a traditional neighborhood elementary serving a small, stable cohort in a growing but still suburban setting.
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