CICS - Ralph Ellison Campus

CICS - Ralph Ellison Campus operates as an one-room-style secondary school in Chicago, Illinois, overseen by Chicago Public Schools Dist 299. Current enrollment sits at 247 students spanning grades 9 through 12. By comparison, Illinois's public schools average about 834 students each, so CICS - Ralph Ellison Campus sits 70% leaner than that benchmark.

Chicago Public Schools Dist 299 comprises 622 schools with combined enrollment of 324,396 students; CICS - Ralph Ellison Campus is among them.

On the student-mix side, CICS - Ralph Ellison Campus records that the student body is overwhelmingly Black (97%). The remainder breaks down as 2% Hispanic. That is noticeably more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 22%.

Looking at school resources, CICS - Ralph Ellison Campus lists 10 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 24.7:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 13.8:1, putting CICS - Ralph Ellison Campus higher than the state norm the norm. Around 85% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, often used as a Title I proxy. Set against Cook County (around 66%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), CICS - Ralph Ellison Campus is in the bottom 10% of Illinois public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 22.4%; CICS - Ralph Ellison Campus posts 7.7%, -14.7 points below that line.

Zooming out to the county, the surrounding county (Cook County) shows that the typical household earns roughly $83,498 per year, 43% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 10%. CICS - Ralph Ellison Campus is one of 1406 public schools in Cook County (combined enrollment of about 697,934 students).

Joplin Elem School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.1 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts CICS - Ralph Ellison Campus at 9th of 9; the average score across the group is 18.4%.

CICS - Ralph Ellison Campus operates from a metropolitan location. As a public charter, CICS - Ralph Ellison Campus runs on public funding but with greater curricular and operational autonomy than a typical district school.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at CICS - Ralph Ellison Campus has fell 40%, going from 415 students in 2018 to 247 in 2025.

On this page, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to weigh in.