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Teachers: what resource would make the biggest difference at Bell Elem School this year?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
902
Elementary
DISTRICT 463 · STATE 381
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS DIST 299·NCES 170993000605
Bell Elementary School
3730 N Oakley Ave, Chicago, IL 60618 · (773) 534-5150 · Cook County
GRADES KG–08ELEMENTARY11-CITYREGULAR SCHOOL902 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
14.8:1
61 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.6:1 · STATE 13.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
10%
91 students
DISTRICT 78% · STATE 56%
Community
5
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 4 | 0% |
| Kindergarten | 98 | 11% |
| Grade 1 | 103 | 11% |
| Grade 2 | 107 | 12% |
| Grade 3 | 95 | 11% |
| Grade 4 | 100 | 11% |
| Grade 5 | 106 | 12% |
| Grade 6 | 93 | 10% |
| Grade 7 | 104 | 12% |
| Grade 8 | 92 | 10% |
This year's kindergarten class (98) is 7% larger than its 8th grade class (92).
Student demographics
63%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 64% · STATE 69% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
Bell Elementary School→Lake View High School
Based on published attendance-zone data from Chicago Public Schools Dist 299. Zones change; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
IAR + ISA 2024-25 . % Proficient (Levels 4-5)English Language Arts
84.8%
IL avg 51.0% . +8.1pp since 2023
Math
73.5%
IL avg 37.9% . +9.9pp since 2023
What this means: On the IAR + ISA, Illinois's statewide test, about 85 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 74 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Illinois schools, those numbers are about 51 and 38. Reading and writing scores are up about 8 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 10 points.
IAR + ISA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 84.8% | 73.5% |
| 2023-24 | 76.7% | 63.6% |
% Proficient (Levels 4-5), all students and all tested grades.
Source: IAR + ISA. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
78.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
65.7%
based on IL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+12.9pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 79% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 66% typical for Illinois schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Illinois's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Bell Elementary School
Bell Elementary School's state test result (78.6% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bell Elementary School this school | 902 | 10.1% | 78.6% |
| Lincoln Elementary School Chicago | 868 | 10.1% | 82.4% |
| Leggee Elementary School Huntley | 877 | 17.7% | 67.2% |
| Hawthorne Elementary Scholastic Academy Chicago | 642 | 12.0% | 93.6% |
| Elmwood Elementary School Naperville | 726 | 13.6% | 69.1% |
| Mayer Elementary School Chicago | 707 | 8.8% | 74.6% |
Matched among Illinois elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Bell Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Illinois | In Cook County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 78.6% | #37 of 1,925 | #16 of 760 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 73.5% | #158 of 2,077 ▼ 44 | #61 of 829 ▼ 18 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 84.8% | #65 of 2,077 ▼ 29 | #33 of 829 ▼ 15 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 902 | #33 of 2,419 | #28 of 901 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.8:1 | #1,486 of 2,035 | #649 of 817 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 62.7% | #462 of 2,042 | #176 of 819 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 10.1% | #2,084 of 2,132 | #791 of 804 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -5.8% | #1,152 of 1,461 | #549 of 661 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
902
-51 (-5%) vs 2020
+27% since 1990-91, when it was 708
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 902 | 61 | 14.8:1 | 10% (91) |
| 2023-24 | 848 | 58 | 14.6:1 | 12% (100) |
| 2022-23 | 886 | 58.5 | 15.2:1 | 14% (125) |
| 2020-21 | 953 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 958 | 54.3 | 17.6:1 | 15% (140) |
| 2015-16 | 1,007 | 54 | 18.6:1 | 15% (153) |
| 2010-11 | 951 | 58 | 16.4:1 | 20% (193) |
| 2000-01 | 716 | 59 | 12.1:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 708 | 70 | 10.1:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Bell Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 6% (958 to 902); teachers up 12% (54.3 to 61).
About Bell Elementary School
The public elementary school Bell Elementary School is located in Chicago, Illinois. Federal data show 902 students enrolled in kindergarten through 8 in 2024-25. Elementary schools in Illinois average about 381 students, which makes this school 137% larger than average.
Chicago Public Schools Dist 299 counts 324,396 students in its 622 schools, and Bell Elementary School is one of them.
The share of White students at Bell Elementary School is 56%, a majority. Other students are 17% Hispanic, 13% multiracial, 12% Asian, and 2% Black. That is higher than the 44% White share among all Cook County residents. A diversity index of 63% means there is a 63% chance two randomly chosen students at Bell Elementary School are from different groups.
Bell Elementary School reports a ratio of 14.8 students per teacher, from 61 full-time-equivalent teachers. By comparison, the average for elementary schools in Illinois is 13.9:1. Student poverty is often measured by lunch eligibility; at Bell Elementary School, 10% qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The gap from the 66% average for public schools in Cook County is 56 points.
On the allk12 BeatsExpectations measure, Bell Elementary School is 12.9 points above the average proficiency rate across its state test results predicted for its free or reduced-price lunch share: 78.6% actual, 65.7% predicted. That is outside both the top and bottom 10% in Illinois.
In the surrounding county, Cook County, the median household earns about $83,498 a year, 43% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Counting Bell Elementary School, Cook County has 1,406 public schools.
Of the public schools around it, Bell Elementary School is closest to Lane Technical High School, about 0.4 miles away. Bell Elementary School has at least 8 other public schools within five miles. Bell Elementary School ranks 3rd of 9 among nearby schools on average proficiency, with 78.6% against a local average of 52.9%.
For locale, NCES codes Bell Elementary School as City: Large.
From 953 students in 2020-21, enrollment fell to 902 by 2024-25.
The Bell Elementary School discussion page is a place for homework, tutoring, and testing dates. You can also rate the school on this page.
Cook County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
5,182,090
Census ACS
Median income
$83,498
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
43%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
10%
Below federal line
Schools in county
1,406
697,934 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Chicago Public Schools Dist 299
- Lane Technical High SchoolHigh · 4,604 students
- Taft High SchoolHigh · 4,487 students
- Curie Metropolitan High SchoolHigh · 3,099 students
- Kenwood Academy High SchoolHigh · 2,268 students
- Young Magnet High SchoolHigh · 2,223 students
- Lincoln Park High SchoolHigh · 2,214 students
Other schools in Chicago
- Lane Technical High SchoolHigh · 4,604 students
- Taft High SchoolHigh · 4,487 students
- Curie Metropolitan High SchoolHigh · 3,099 students
- Kenwood Academy High SchoolHigh · 2,268 students
- Young Magnet High SchoolHigh · 2,223 students
- Lincoln Park High SchoolHigh · 2,214 students
Other Bell Elementary schools
9 other US public schools in 9 states are named Bell Elementary. Bell Elementary School is the largest of the 10.
- BELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBELL, FL · 656 students
- Bell Elementary SchoolTYLER, TX · 540 students
- Bell Elementary SchoolHOUSTON, TX · 539 students
- BELL ELEMENTARYPAPILLION, NE · 488 students
- Bell Elementary SchoolMonticello, KY · 432 students
Nearby schools
- Lane Technical High School0.4 mi · 4,604
- Audubon Elementary School0.4 mi · 606
- Coonley Elementary School0.4 mi · 723
- Hamilton Elementary School0.9 mi · 486
- Jahn Elementary School0.9 mi · 360
- Bateman Elementary School1.0 mi · 904
Frequently asked questions
About Bell Elementary SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Bell Elementary School?
Bell Elementary School enrolls approximately 902 students in grades KG-08.
What age range does Bell Elementary School serve?
Bell Elementary School serves students from grade KG through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Bell Elementary School?
Approximately 14.8:1 students per teacher at Bell Elementary School.
How diverse is Bell Elementary School?
Bell Elementary School reports a student body of 56% White, 17% Hispanic, 2% Black, 12% Asian, 13% Two or more.
Who oversees Bell Elementary School?
Bell Elementary School is overseen by Chicago Public Schools Dist 299 in Cook County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.