The top reported proficiency rate is 28% in Math. The lowest is 10% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Lyon Magnet Elementary School
Lyon Magnet Elementary serves grades kindergarten through fifth in Waukegan, a mid-sized industrial port city on Lake Michigan about thirty miles north of Chicago. The school enrolls a small-to-medium student population, with a student body that is predominantly Hispanic, followed by Black students, and a very small share of other racial groups. Free and reduced price lunch data was not available, but the school sits in a city where manufacturing, healthcare, retail, and transportation employment anchor the local economy and where median home values have been rising modestly while rental costs remain relatively affordable by regional standards.
On the Illinois Assessment of Readiness in math and English language arts, Lyon's proficiency results in the most recently reported school year fall well below the median for districts across Lake County. In third grade math, roughly two in five students met proficiency; in fourth grade, about one in three did so. In fifth grade math, the share drops sharply to single digits. English language arts proficiency follows a similar downward arc: nearly three in ten third graders met the standard, but by fourth grade fewer than one in five did, and by fifth grade the rate fell to around one in ten. Science testing data, available only for fifth grade, showed proficiency at about one in ten. The school has full participation in state testing, meaning these results reflect the assessed student population without testing-rate caveats.
The school is designated a magnet school, which typically signals a theme or curricular focus meant to draw enrollment, but no information about Lyon's specific magnet theme, program structure, or application process was available in the school's public data. A parent may want to inquire directly with the school about what academic or instructional focus defines the magnet designation and whether it aligns with a child's interests.
Lyon sits within Waukegan Community Unit School District 60, a large urban district currently navigating significant structural change. The district is restructuring its high school, including changes to which campus students will attend and grade-level configurations across the Brookside and Washington campuses, a shift that affects secondary placement for families with older students. The district has also expanded international and out-of-state teacher recruitment to address ongoing staffing gaps, authorizing travel to recruit from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and historically Black colleges and universities.
Housing in the Waukegan area remains relatively affordable by the Chicago region's standards, with median home values near midrange levels and rental costs below the regional average, though both have been rising gradually. The city itself blends a walkable historic downtown with lakefront access, a Metra station serving commuters northbound toward Milwaukee and southbound toward Chicago, and more typical suburban neighborhoods. This context shapes who moves to and stays in the area: families drawn by affordability and the industrial and service-economy employment that anchors the city.
Lyon Magnet Elementary is a regular public school with no charter status. State testing data for grades six through eight was not reported, reflecting the fact that the school serves only through fifth grade. No information on attendance, discipline, advanced course offerings, or detailed staffing was available to characterize the school's broader environment and culture. A family considering Lyon would benefit from visiting the school, observing classrooms, and asking the leadership team directly about the magnet program design, instructional approaches, and school-community engagement, as these factors shape the daily experience in ways the performance data alone cannot convey.
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