The top reported proficiency rate is 65% in English language arts. The lowest is 50% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Spencer Crossing
Spencer Crossing is a regular public elementary school in New Lenox, an auto-oriented southwest Chicago suburb in Will County. The school serves grades four through six and sits within New Lenox SD 122, which is poised for a significant operational shift: the district approved the transition to full-day kindergarten beginning in the 2027-2028 school year, replacing a long-standing half-day model. This change will reshape how the district uses its building stock and remove a major childcare constraint for working families with young children.
Spencer Crossing enrolls a modest student population across three grades, with fourth grade slightly smaller and fifth and sixth grade larger. The school's student body is overwhelmingly white, with small but meaningful shares of Hispanic, biracial, and Asian students. Demographic data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility, special education enrollment, and English learner counts were not available, so a reader cannot assess the proportion of students with economic hardship or language support needs.
Test results from the most recent school year show proficiency rates that vary meaningfully by grade and subject. In English language arts, fourth graders achieved a proficiency rate above the midpoint, fifth graders performed at a notably strong level, and sixth graders returned to the middle range. Mathematics proficiency shows a different pattern: fourth graders clustered in the mid-range, fifth graders fell slightly lower, and sixth graders dipped further. Science testing is available only for fifth grade, where proficiency sat near the midpoint. The school's overall proficiency index—the average across tested subjects and grades—placed it above the midpoint among the county's tested schools, a meaningful position that reflects solid but uneven performance across grades. Illinois made changes to state assessment cut scores this year, so trend comparisons to prior years are not yet available.
The data does not include information on staff credentials, course breadth, disciplinary climate, chronic absenteeism, or attendance patterns, so readers cannot form a full picture of school culture or environmental factors. The school's website and any programs it offers beyond core instruction were not in the available data.
New Lenox itself is a family-oriented suburb where steady residential growth continues through major builders such as Pulte, Ryan Homes, and M/I Homes. Housing values in the area have risen modestly in recent years, and the market shows signs of balanced supply and demand. The village centers on The Commons, a civic plaza with the library, village hall, and performing arts venue, rather than a conventional downtown. Transit includes two Metra commuter-rail stations serving the Chicago market. A key amenity is the Old Plank Road Trail, a paved 21-mile rail-trail running through the heart of the community that residents use for walking and biking. The broader region is auto-dependent, though the area near the Metra station rates as somewhat walkable. Silver Cross Hospital is the dominant regional employer, with significant partnerships in pediatric and specialty care; smaller locally headquartered firms and industrial tenants in the Cherry Hill Business Park round out the employment base.
For families considering Spencer Crossing, the takeaway is a school with solid county-level performance but uneven results by grade, particularly a measurable decline in math from fourth to sixth grade. The school fits a suburban, predominantly white community experiencing steady growth. The near-term operational context—the shift to full-day kindergarten and related facility planning—may affect school operations, though the immediate impact on grades four through six is unclear. A parent may want to ask the school directly about the sixth-grade math results, any curricular focus on numeracy intervention, and how the full-day kindergarten transition will affect building use and staffing.
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