Forest Hills Elem School, Western Springs IL

Original Research by School Decision on Forest Hills Elem School

Forest Hills Elementary serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Western Springs, a residential village about 18 miles southwest of Chicago. The school sits within District 101, a well-established suburban district that in 2023 passed a property tax referendum—its first since the early 2000s—to close an operating deficit and restore reserves. Families with school-age children in the area should know that property tax bills in the district rose materially as a result.

The school's enrollment is small, typical for an elementary building in a low-density suburban setting. The student body is predominantly white, with a modest share of Hispanic students and very few students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. Demographic data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility and English learner or special education enrollment were not available in the school's public reporting.

On state assessments administered in spring 2025, Forest Hills showed a mixed profile across grades and subjects. In grades three and four, proficiency rates in English language arts and math were solid—roughly in the upper mid-range. Grade three reading proficiency was particularly strong. Fifth-grade reading showed strong results as well. Fifth-grade mathematics, however, dropped to around 60 percent proficiency, a substantial dip that a parent may want to look into further with the school. Science proficiency in grade five was approximately at the midpoint statewide. The school does not serve grades six through eight, so no state testing data exist for those grades.

When proficiency rates across all tested subjects and grades are combined into a single index, Forest Hills ranks in the top quartile among the county's districts, indicating that overall achievement sits well above the typical Cook County school. That said, the grade five math result and the grade five science result suggest uneven performance in the upper elementary grades, particularly in quantitative reasoning.

The school's setting reflects Western Springs' character: a village with a strong sense of neighborhood identity, extensive park infrastructure, and a downtown anchored by the Metra commuter rail station. Housing values are substantially above the state median, and the median home price in the zip code shows ongoing appreciation. The area is almost entirely built out, though some infill development is underway, including new mixed-use and residential projects near the downtown core and continued build-out of the Timber Trails subdivision on the south edge of the village.

No information was available about the school's instructional approaches, class sizes, special programs, or extracurricular offerings. The school's website may carry those details. Similarly, attendance and discipline data, staffing composition, and the school's strategic priorities are not presented in publicly reported sources reviewed here.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 387%

School 87% · District 83% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 41 pts above state median · ▲ 47 pts above county median

Grade 483%

School 83% · District 72% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 46 pts above state median · ▲ 54 pts above county median

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 65% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 38 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 389%

School 89% · District 77% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 45 pts above state median · ▲ 52 pts above county median

Grade 487%

School 87% · District 77% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 38 pts above state median · ▲ 47 pts above county median

Grade 591%

School 91% · District 85% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 39 pts above state median · ▲ 46 pts above county median

Science

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 61% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

This schoolWestern Springs SD 101, 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.