The top reported proficiency rate is 78% in English language arts. The lowest is 77% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Pleasantdale Elementary School
Pleasantdale Elementary serves grades pre-K through fourth in La Grange, a leafy suburban village of roughly that size in Cook County's southwest quadrant. The school sits within a small, single-building district that has been watching its enrollment closely and juggling tight space constraints for several years.
The school's recent performance on Illinois state assessments shows solid fundamentals. In third grade, proficiency in math and English language arts both reached strong levels, with the vast majority of students meeting or exceeding state standards in both subjects. Fourth grade results show a steeper drop, particularly in math, where proficiency falls to about two-thirds of students meeting standard. English language arts in fourth grade remains above that threshold, though below third-grade performance. State testing data for higher grades are not available, as expected given the school's grade band. The overall proficiency index across tested grades places Pleasantdale in the top quartile among the county's schools, a meaningful strength in a diverse, populous county.
The student body is predominantly white, with a meaningful Latino presence and smaller populations of Asian and multiracial students. Specific numbers on free-and-reduced-price lunch eligibility and students with IEPs or English learner status were not provided; a parent may want to reach out to the school directly to understand the range of academic supports available. Enrollment of about that size across pre-K through grade four is typical for a self-contained elementary building, though the district brief reveals the underlying story: the preschool program has been compressed into half-day classes over time to preserve classroom space for the elementary grades, and efforts to expand that capacity through a bond referendum or a repurposed facility have stalled. Families relying on full-day district preschool will not find it here.
La Grange itself is a transit-connected, historically rooted community where walkable civic life centers on the downtown district along La Grange Road rather than dispersed across suburban sprawl. Two Metra stations sit within the village, the Stone Avenue station and the LaGrange Road station, both connecting to downtown Chicago in under an hour. The village's comprehensive plan, adopted in late 2024, prioritizes measured infill development near transit and calls for reduced parking requirements and increased height allowances to accommodate denser residential and commercial use. Housing values in the 60525 zip code have risen, and the town maintains an inventory of older, character-filled single-family homes alongside newer condos, particularly in and near the downtown.
The school is part of Pleasantdale SD 107, which encompasses parts of La Grange, Burr Ridge, and nearby areas. The district is small and has faced a multi-year conversation about early childhood facility needs. After considering a major bond referendum and later a smaller property-tax-increase plan to renovate a municipal building, the board withdrew the latter option in early 2025. Preschool capacity remains half-day and constrained, a real issue for working parents and a marker of how the district continues to balance growth and infrastructure. No other parent-relevant curriculum changes or program shifts were documented in available sources.
Pleasantdale Elementary is a neighborhood school with competent academic results in the grades it serves and a straightforward, traditional elementary approach. It is neither a draw school with magnet programming nor a choice destination outside its attendance area. For families living in the attendance zone, it offers solid foundational academics, a compact school body, and proximity to a village with genuine walkable character and transit access. For those from outside the zone, the draw would need to be the specific neighborhood and housing market itself. The space and preschool story matters for families with younger siblings.
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