The top reported proficiency rate is 31% in English language arts. The lowest is 23% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Longwood Elem School
Longwood Elementary is a small suburban school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in Naperville, located in the Indian Prairie CUSD 204 district on the west side of Chicago. The school enrolls around 350 students across six grade levels, with a diverse composition: roughly a third of the enrollment is Black, a quarter is Hispanic, and the remaining students are white, Asian, or multiracial. Families drawn to this school will find an established neighborhood setting within a district that has recently invested in significant infrastructure upgrades through a bond referendum.
Longwood's 2024-25 state assessment results show proficiency rates well below the midpoint among county districts. In math, third-grade performance is the highest at around 42 percent proficiency, fourth grade drops to about 22 percent, and fifth grade falls to around 14 percent. English Language Arts follows a similar pattern: third grade at about 36 percent, fourth grade at about 23 percent, and fifth grade at about 33 percent (which shows a slight rebound compared to math). In science, fifth-grade results sit at about 23 percent proficiency. On the whole, Longwood's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile within DuPage County districts. Illinois changed its proficiency cut scores in these testing years, so historical trend data is not directly comparable, and the school has not reported detailed year-to-year movement that would show whether performance is improving or flat.
What stands out is the declining pattern from third to fifth grade in both math and English, a trend a parent may want to discuss directly with the school to understand whether it reflects curriculum transitions, student mobility, instructional shifts, or the cumulative difficulty of advancing content. The school does not report free-or-reduced-lunch rates or English learner enrollment figures, so a reader cannot assess directly what share of the student body faces economic or language barriers, though the racially diverse enrollment suggests a mixed-income and possibly multilingual community.
Naperville itself is a thriving suburban city on the west side of the Chicago metropolitan area, known for its downtown Riverwalk along the DuPage River, walkable neighborhoods near the downtown district, and strong civic anchors including the Naperville Public Library and extensive park system. The housing market is moderately expensive but stable, with median home values in the mid-to-upper range for the region and modest annual appreciation. The area is experiencing steady but slow population growth, with new residential development and infill projects continuing, and two Metra commuter rail stations offer access to Chicago. Indian Prairie CUSD 204 is a large suburban district serving Naperville and surrounding suburbs; in fall 2024 it passed a major bond referendum for facility upgrades district-wide, including secure entry systems, modernized learning spaces, and infrastructure overhauls at older buildings. The district has also adopted a new CommonLit-based English curriculum across middle schools, emphasizing writing and critical thinking, and is expanding STEM electives. These changes position the district on a path of renewal and modernization, though they do not yet directly address the elementary proficiency gaps evident at Longwood.
For a family considering Longwood, the salient questions are the school's trajectory in addressing those proficiency gaps, the specific support structures in place for students reading and computing below grade level, and whether the school's approach to early literacy and numeracy (where third-grade performance is highest) carries through consistently to upper elementary. The district's recent investments and curriculum work suggest institutional momentum, but Longwood's current results warrant a direct conversation with the school about intervention strategies, remediation, and any additional services available to students who do not meet benchmark.
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