Bowen High School

Bowen High School operates as a very small 9-12 campus in Chicago, Illinois, part of Chicago Public Schools Dist 299. Current enrollment sits at 278 students spanning grades 9 through 12. Enrollment runs roughly 67% leaner than the state mean of about 834.

Bowen High School is one of 622 schools operated by Chicago Public Schools Dist 299, a district that instructs 324,396 students overall.

On the student-mix side, Bowen High School records that the largest single group is Black, at 69% of enrollment. The remainder breaks down as 30% Hispanic. That is meaningfully more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 22%.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, Bowen High School has 21 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 13.4:1. The state averages about 13.8:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. Around 92% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Cook County runs at roughly 66%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully above the surrounding baseline.

With demographic context factored in, On a poverty-adjusted basis, Bowen High School sits in the bottom 10% statewide. Predicted proficiency from the FRL regression is roughly 18.1%; actual is 1.6%, a gap of -16.6 points.

In the surrounding community, Cook County reports that the typical household earns roughly $83,498 per year, about 43% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Cook County's 1406 public schools (combined enrollment of about 697,934 students), Bowen High School is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Noble St Chtr-Baker Campus, around 0.0 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Bowen High School. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Bowen High School ranks 9th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 22.7%.

The campus sits in a city-core setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count ticked down 5%: 294 students in 2018 compared to 278 in 2025. Black enrollment moved from 78% to 69% across the same window. Class-load math has tightened: from 15.3:1 in 2018 to 13.4:1 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, posts here usually surface around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.