Bright Elem School

Bright Elem School is a tight-knit elementary-level community in Chicago, Illinois, one of the schools within Chicago Public Schools Dist 299. The school caters to 236 students in grades pre-K through 8. By comparison, Illinois's public schools average about 381 students each, so Bright Elem School sits 38% leaner than that benchmark.

Bright Elem School is one of 622 schools operated by Chicago Public Schools Dist 299, a district that caters to 324,396 students overall.

On demographics, Bright Elem School lists that Black students make up the majority at 62%. Other groups include 34% Hispanic, 4% White. By comparison, Cook County as a whole is about 22% Black, so the school skews considerably more Black than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 19 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 12.8:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 13.9:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Roughly 72% of students at Bright Elem School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), On a poverty-adjusted basis, Bright Elem School sits in the bottom 10% statewide. Predicted proficiency from the FRL regression is roughly 29.9%; actual is 12.9%, a gap of -17.0 points.

In the broader community, Cook County reports that the typical household earns roughly $83,498 per year, 43% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, 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), Bright Elem School is one campus in the mix.

Marsh Elem School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.2 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Bright Elem School ranks 8th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 25.2%.

Geographically, the school is in a metropolitan area.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Bright Elem School has declined 17%, going from 284 students in 2018 to 236 in 2025. The Black share of enrollment fell from 68% to 62% over that span. Class-load math has tightened: from 14.6:1 in 2018 to 12.8:1 in 2025.

On allk12, the feed for Bright Elem School typically covers pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to weigh in.