Enrollment
339
Elementary
DISTRICT 463 · STATE 381
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS DIST 299·NCES 170993000826
Bret Harte Elementary School
1556 E 56th St, Chicago, IL 60637 · (773) 535-0870 · Cook County
GRADES PK–08ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL339 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
12.7:1
27 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.6:1 · STATE 13.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
75%
255 students
DISTRICT 78% · STATE 56%
Community
0
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 | 47 | 14% |
| Kindergarten | 27 | 8% |
| Grade 1 | 24 | 7% |
| Grade 2 | 26 | 8% |
| Grade 3 | 47 | 14% |
| Grade 4 | 25 | 7% |
| Grade 5 | 29 | 9% |
| Grade 6 | 26 | 8% |
| Grade 7 | 45 | 13% |
| Grade 8 | 42 | 12% |
| Grade 9 | 1 | 0% |
This year's kindergarten class (27) is 36% smaller than its 8th grade class (42).
Student demographics
38%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
QUIET COMMUNITY
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START A DISCUSSIONTest scores
IAR + ISA 2024-25 . % Proficient (Levels 4-5)English Language Arts
32.5%
IL avg 51.0% . +2.3pp since 2023
Math
14.1%
IL avg 37.9% . +4.2pp since 2023
What this means: On the IAR + ISA, Illinois's statewide test, about 33 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 14 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 2 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 4 points.
IAR + ISA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 32.5% | 14.1% |
| 2023-24 | 30.2% | 9.9% |
% 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
23.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
28.1%
based on IL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-4.7pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 23% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 28% 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 Bret Harte Elementary School
Bret Harte Elementary School's state test result (23.4% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bret Harte Elementary School this school | 339 | 75.2% | 23.4% |
| Newberry Elementary Math & Science Academy Chicago | 330 | 74.2% | 30.2% |
| Cook Elementary School Chicago | 322 | 72.7% | 11.5% |
| Ashburn Community Elementary School Chicago | 324 | 76.5% | 25.7% |
| Stagg Elementary School Chicago | 377 | 70.6% | 12.0% |
| Maya Angelou Elementary School Harvey | 271 | 75.6% | 12.5% |
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 Bret Harte Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Illinois | In Cook County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 23.4% | #1,498 of 1,925 | #501 of 760 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 14.1% | #1,768 of 2,077 ▼ 152 | #626 of 829 ▼ 68 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 32.5% | #1,598 of 2,077 ▼ 423 | #577 of 829 ▼ 187 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 339 | #1,321 of 2,419 | #548 of 901 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.7:1 | #781 of 2,035 | #369 of 817 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 37.9% | #1,207 of 2,042 | #451 of 819 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 75.2% | #621 of 2,132 | #406 of 804 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +7.6% | #348 of 615 | #102 of 186 |
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
339
+50 (+17%) vs 2020
+9% since 1990-91, when it was 310
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 | 339 | 26.8 | 12.7:1 | 75% (255) |
| 2023-24 | 353 | 25 | 14.1:1 | 74% (262) |
| 2022-23 | 330 | 23.5 | 14.0:1 | 73% (242) |
| 2020-21 | 289 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 315 | 16.1 | 19.5:1 | 80% (252) |
| 2015-16 | 382 | 19 | 20.1:1 | 77% (296) |
| 2010-11 | 358 | 18 | 19.9:1 | 80% (287) |
| 2000-01 | 441 | 23 | 19.2:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 310 | 15 | 20.7:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Bret Harte Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students up 8% (315 to 339); teachers up 66% (16.1 to 26.8).
About Bret Harte Elementary School
Bret Harte Elementary School operates as a mid-sized elementary school in Chicago, Illinois. Students in pre-K through 8 make up the school's enrollment of 339 students.
Bret Harte Elementary School is one school in Chicago Public Schools Dist 299, a system of 622 schools with 324,396 students.
About 78% of the student body at Bret Harte Elementary School is Black. Smaller groups are 13% Hispanic, 4% White, and 3% multiracial. County-wide, 22% of Cook County residents are Black. A diversity index of 38% means there is a 38% chance two randomly chosen students at Bret Harte Elementary School are from different groups.
For every teacher at Bret Harte Elementary School, there are about 12.7 students; the school has 26.8 full-time-equivalent teachers. Statewide, elementary schools in Illinois average 13.9:1. The eligibility rate for free or reduced-price meals is 75%. For comparison, public schools in Cook County average 66%.
Based on its free or reduced-price lunch share, the BeatsExpectations model predicts an average proficiency rate across its state test results of 28.1% for Bret Harte Elementary School. The school posts 23.4%, 4.7 points below the prediction.
In Cook County, median household income comes to about $83,498, roughly 43% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 10%. The county's public schools total 1,406, with about 697,934 students.
Ray Elementary School is the nearest public school to Bret Harte Elementary School, about 0.4 miles away. Bret Harte Elementary School is one of several public schools in the area, with at least 8 others within five miles. Nearby schools with test data average 27.8% proficiency; Bret Harte Elementary School posts 23.4%.
NCES lists the school's locale as City: Large. That means it sits inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
In 2020-21, Bret Harte Elementary School enrolled 289 students. By 2024-25, that number had grown to 339.
Parents, students, and staff can share information on athletics, class schedules, and weather closures here. Members of the school community can share what they know.
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 Bret Harte Elementary schools
5 other US public schools in 3 states are named Bret Harte Elementary. Bret Harte Elementary School is the 5th largest of the 6.
- Bret Harte ElementaryModesto, CA · 867 students
- Bret Harte ElementaryCorcoran, CA · 546 students
- Bret Harte ElementaryBurbank, CA · 537 students
- Bret Harte Elementary SchoolCHERRY HILL, NJ · 363 students
- Bret Harte ElementarySacramento, CA · 173 students
Nearby schools
- Ray Elementary School0.4 mi · 613
- Murray Elementary Language Academy0.4 mi · 477
- Kenwood Academy High School0.7 mi · 2,268
- Carnegie Elementary School0.7 mi · 389
- Hyde Park Academy High School0.8 mi · 838
- Shoesmith Elementary School0.9 mi · 294
Frequently asked questions
About Bret Harte Elementary SchoolHow many students attend Bret Harte Elementary School?
Bret Harte Elementary School enrolls approximately 339 students in grades PK-08.
What grades does Bret Harte Elementary School serve?
Bret Harte Elementary School serves grades PK-08.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Bret Harte Elementary School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Bret Harte Elementary School is approximately 12.7:1 (27 FTE teachers).
How diverse is Bret Harte Elementary School?
Bret Harte Elementary School reports a student body of 4% White, 13% Hispanic, 78% Black, 2% Asian, 3% Two or more.
Is Bret Harte Elementary School public or private?
Bret Harte Elementary School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Chicago Public Schools Dist 299.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.