Jane Addams Elem School, Palatine IL

Original Research by School Decision on Jane Addams Elem School

Jane Addams Elementary serves kindergarten through sixth grade in Palatine, a residential suburban village northwest of Chicago that straddles Cook and Lake counties. The school enrolls a diverse student body, with a substantial share of students identifying as Hispanic, a notable Asian population, and White and Black students making up the remainder. Enrollment across the school's eight grades is stable and relatively balanced, with no particularly small or large grade cohorts.

On state assessments in math and English language arts, administered to grades three through five, student proficiency falls below the midpoint among districts in Cook County. In third grade, roughly a quarter to one-third of students in each subject scored at proficiency. Fourth grade performs similarly. Fifth grade shows slightly higher proficiency in ELA but weaker performance in math, with only about one-fifth proficient. Science testing in fifth grade shows proficiency in the range of one-third of students. The proficiency index across all tested grades and subjects places Jane Addams in the bottom quartile of Cook County schools. These results suggest parents should want to understand the school's reading and math supports and any tutoring or intervention programs it offers, particularly if their child enters below grade level or needs targeted help.

The school benefits from district-wide facility improvements. Through a referendum approved in 2022, Palatine CCSD 15 has been renovating buildings and adding science labs and STEM spaces, work that has now reached most of the district's schools. The district also transitioned to full-day kindergarten in 2024-25 and reorganized its middle schools by moving sixth grade up from elementary; Jane Addams, as a pre-K through sixth-grade building, may see some structural shifts as the district continues these transitions. Attendance boundaries were redrawn for the 2024-25 school year, so families new to the area should verify their assigned school.

Housing in the Palatine zip code ranges from modest to moderate, with median home values near typical Cook County benchmarks and rental costs comparable to county norms. Downtown Palatine, centered on the Metra station, has seen new residential development including family apartments, though the broader village remains car-oriented. The area is experiencing modest multifamily and infill development.

State testing data was limited to grades tested under state law; Jane Addams enrolls pre-K, kindergarten, and first and second grade as well, for which no proficiency data is reported. No data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, free-or-reduced-price lunch enrollment, or special education and English learner populations was available, and no multi-year trend data permitted comparison of how the school's proficiency has moved over time. A parent may want to ask the school directly about its reading intervention structure, mathematics support for struggling students, how it identifies and serves gifted learners, and how it works with English learners and families new to the district.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 52% · ▼ 22 pts below district

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

Grade 431%

School 31% · District 48% · ▼ 16 pts below district

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

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 39% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 47% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 53% · ▼ 23 pts below district

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

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 57% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Science

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 48% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

This schoolPalatine CCSD 15, 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.