CICS - Wrightwood

Located at 8130 S California Ave, in Chicago, Illinois, CICS - Wrightwood is a high-enrollment K-5 school that educates 614 students (grades K through 8), part of Chicago Public Schools Dist 299. Compared to the state average of about 381 students per school, that is 61% above typical.

CICS - Wrightwood is one of 622 schools operated by Chicago Public Schools Dist 299, a district that serves 324,396 students overall.

In terms of who attends, CICS - Wrightwood shows that 95% of students identify as Black, making the school strongly Black-majority. The remainder looks like 4% Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 22% Black, putting the school's mix noticeably more Black than the area baseline.

On the resource side, On paper, CICS - Wrightwood has 30 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 20.5:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 13.9:1 average. About 82% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is above Cook County's rate of about 66%.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), CICS - Wrightwood performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 23.9%, the actual is 16.7%, a residual of -7.2 points.

Around the school, census data for Cook County shows the typical household earns roughly $83,498 per year, roughly 43% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 10%. Across Cook County's 1406 public schools (combined enrollment of about 697,934 students), CICS - Wrightwood is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Carroll Elem School, around 0.3 miles off. 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), CICS - Wrightwood ranks 7th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 23.2%.

Geographically, the school is in a metropolitan area. As a public charter, CICS - Wrightwood runs on public funding but with greater curricular and operational autonomy than a typical district school.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count shrank 20%: 764 students in 2018 compared to 614 in 2025.

On this page, posts here usually surface around classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.