Harnew Elem School, Oak Lawn IL - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Harnew Elem School

Harnew Elementary serves children in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Oak Lawn, a mid-sized Cook County suburb southwest of Chicago marked by dense Arab-American and Mediterranean communities, postwar brick housing stock, and a revitalized downtown centered on the Metra station. The school is part of Ridgeland SD 122.

The student body at Harnew reflects the neighborhood: close to half the enrollment is Hispanic, and roughly equal numbers are white, with Asian, Black, and multi-racial students making up the remainder in smaller shares. The school enrollment is stable and distributed across its grade band, with PreK through 5th grade classes. Race and ethnicity data is available; free-or-reduced-price-lunch status and counts of students with IEPs or English learners were not reported in the available data.

Academic performance shows a mixed picture across the tested grades. In third grade, proficiency in English Language Arts reaches near two-thirds, and math proficiency is solid, approaching three-fourths. Performance softens noticeably in fourth grade, where math proficiency drops to around a third and ELA holds at about half. By fifth grade, both subjects recover somewhat: ELA climbs back toward two-thirds while math sits around a half. In science, tested only at fifth grade, proficiency falls below two-fifths. These results position the school above the midpoint for overall proficiency when compared with the universe of districts in Cook County, though the grade-to-grade volatility and the fourth-grade dip merit attention.

The testing data is recent (spring 2025) and participation rates are strong across grades. However, state assessments for grades 6 and above show no results because Harnew does not serve those grades; the school's mission is elementary education.

Oak Lawn itself sits at a crossroads of economic vitality and relative affordability for the region. Health care dominates employment, anchored by Advocate Christ Medical Center. The for-sale housing market has seen modest appreciation and rents have risen, but the median home value remains well below the Chicago area mean, making it accessible for families seeking suburbs with transit links. The Metra Patriot station, heavily used by commuters, sits within the village and connects to bus service, so car-free or car-light living is possible along main corridors. Ridgeland SD 122 took a concrete step in early 2024 by waiving student fees and device insurance fees, eliminating recurring out-of-pocket costs that families would have faced each year.

A parent considering Harnew should take the fourth-grade performance seriously and might want to explore with the school directly what accounts for the dip and whether the school has curriculum or support strategies in place to strengthen that transition. The elementary-only grade band is straightforward; families will need to plan for middle and high school placement in one of several districts serving Oak Lawn. The school's location in a diverse, transit-accessible neighborhood means students come from a broad range of family backgrounds and the community itself is multiethnic and economically mixed.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 370%

School 70% · District 61% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Grade 431%

School 31% · District 45% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Grade 546%

School 46% · District 41% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 365%

School 65% · District 59% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Grade 450%

School 50% · District 58% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 568%

School 68% · District 65% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

Science

Grade 539%

School 39% · District 39%

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

This schoolRidgeland SD 122, 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.