1
What's the vibe like in the hallways at Clay Elem School right now?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
578
Elementary
DISTRICT 463 · STATE 381
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS DIST 299·NCES 170993000661
Clay Elementary School
13231 S Burley Ave, Chicago, IL 60633 · (773) 535-5600 · Cook County
GRADES PK–08ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL578 STUDENTS
C-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 24% of Illinois public elementary schools
- C-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- C+Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Illinois public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
14.3:1
41 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.6:1 · STATE 13.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
82%
476 students
DISTRICT 78% · STATE 56%
Community
5
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 | 61 | 11% |
| Kindergarten | 51 | 9% |
| Grade 1 | 58 | 10% |
| Grade 2 | 53 | 9% |
| Grade 3 | 66 | 11% |
| Grade 4 | 51 | 9% |
| Grade 5 | 56 | 10% |
| Grade 6 | 55 | 10% |
| Grade 7 | 60 | 10% |
| Grade 8 | 65 | 11% |
| Grade 9 | 2 | 0% |
This year's kindergarten class (51) is 22% smaller than its 8th grade class (65).
Student demographics
48%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
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
Clay Elementary School→Washington G High School
Based on published attendance-zone data from Chicago Public Schools Dist 299. Zones change; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
IAR + ISA 2024-25 . % Proficient (Levels 4-5)English Language Arts
33.9%
IL avg 51.0% . +7.7pp since 2023
Math
12.2%
IL avg 37.9% . -0.2pp since 2023
What this means: On the IAR + ISA, Illinois's statewide test, about 34 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 12 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 8 points since 2023, while math scores have held steady.
IAR + ISA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 33.9% | 12.2% |
| 2023-24 | 26.2% | 12.4% |
% 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
23.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
24.0%
based on IL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-0.6pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 23% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 24% 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 Clay Elementary School
Clay Elementary School's state test result (23.3% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clay Elementary School this school | 578 | 82.4% | 23.3% |
| Washington Elementary School Rockford | 523 | 83.0% | 13.2% |
| De Diego Elementary Community Academy Chicago | 511 | 80.0% | 14.1% |
| Harriet Gifford Elementary School Elgin | 460 | 79.1% | 22.4% |
| Carman-Buckner Elementary School Waukegan | 509 | 82.3% | 12.6% |
| Whitehead Elementary School Rockford | 678 | 80.7% | 22.0% |
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 Clay Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Illinois | In Cook County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 23.3% | #1,500 of 1,925 | #503 of 760 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 12.2% | #1,822 of 2,077 ▼ 306 | #661 of 829 ▼ 161 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 33.9% | #1,556 of 2,077 ▼ 232 | #558 of 829 ▼ 94 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 578 | #313 of 2,419 | #171 of 901 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.3:1 | #1,320 of 2,035 | #590 of 817 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 48.3% | #957 of 2,042 | #348 of 819 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 82.4% | #464 of 2,132 | #320 of 804 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -8.5% | #1,000 of 1,461 | #491 of 661 |
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
578
+21 (+4%) vs 2020
+10% since 1990-91, when it was 527
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 | 578 | 40.5 | 14.3:1 | 82% (476) |
| 2023-24 | 592 | 37.5 | 15.8:1 | 87% (517) |
| 2022-23 | 532 | 40 | 13.3:1 | 92% (489) |
| 2020-21 | 557 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 632 | 35.3 | 17.9:1 | 93% (585) |
| 2015-16 | 581 | 34 | 17.1:1 | 94% (544) |
| 2010-11 | 669 | 33 | 20.3:1 | 92% (615) |
| 2000-01 | 656 | 36 | 18.2:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 527 | 32 | 16.5:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Clay Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 9% (632 to 578); teachers up 15% (35.3 to 40.5).
About Clay Elementary School
In Chicago, Illinois, Clay Elementary School is a large elementary school. It serves 578 students in pre-K through 8. For comparison, elementary schools in Illinois average about 381 students.
Chicago Public Schools Dist 299 has 622 schools and 324,396 students, and Clay Elementary School is one of those schools.
Hispanic students make up a majority at Clay Elementary School, at 68%. The remaining shares are 24% Black, 6% White, and 3% multiracial. Census estimates put the Hispanic share of Cook County's population at about 27%. Pick two students at random and there is a 48% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
The ratio of students to teachers is 14.3:1, with 40.5 full-time-equivalent teachers on staff. That is close to the 13.9:1 average for elementary schools in Illinois. The percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch is 82%. Among public schools in Cook County, the average eligibility rate is 66%.
Measured against Illinois public elementary schools, Clay Elementary School receives a C-. The grade weighs proficiency most heavily, then how results compare with what the school's low-income share predicts, then the three-year change.
Clay Elementary School scores 23.3% on state tests, averaged across results. The predicted figure, based on its student poverty level, is 24.0%.
Cook County census figures show that the median household income is $83,498, 43% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 10% of people live in poverty. There are 1,406 public schools in Cook County, enrolling about 697,934 students in all.
The school nearest to Clay Elementary School is Grissom Elementary School, at a distance of about 0.7 miles. Other public schools within five miles number at least 8. The average proficiency across nearby scored schools is 22.6%; Clay Elementary School's is 23.3%, ranking 4th of 9.
Clay Elementary School is inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more, a location NCES labels City: Large.
2024-25 enrollment was 578, a 4% increase from 557 in 2020-21.
Conversations here can range across enrollment questions, class placement, and PTA news. Reviews and ratings from people who know the school are welcome.
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 Clay Elementary schools
7 other US public schools in 8 states are named Clay Elementary. Clay Elementary School is the 3rd largest of the 8.
- Clay ElementaryAltoona, IA · 700 students
- Clay Elementary SchoolClay, AL · 606 students
- Clay Elementary SchoolClay, WV · 431 students
- Clay Elementary SchoolEphrata, PA · 377 students
- Clay Elementary SchoolPortsmouth, OH · 326 students
Nearby schools
- Grissom Elementary School0.7 mi · 287
- Burnham Elementary School0.9 mi · 141
- Abraham Lincoln Elementary School2.0 mi · 565
- Washington G High School2.3 mi · 1,520
- Wentworth Intermediate School2.3 mi · 315
- Washington G Elementary School2.3 mi · 571
Frequently asked questions
About Clay Elementary SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Clay Elementary School?
Clay Elementary School enrolls approximately 578 students in grades PK-08.
What grades does Clay Elementary School serve?
Clay Elementary School serves grades PK-08.
How many students per teacher at Clay Elementary School?
Approximately 14.3:1 students per teacher at Clay Elementary School.
What is the student diversity at Clay Elementary School?
Student demographics at Clay Elementary School are roughly 6% White, 68% Hispanic, 24% Black, 0% Asian, 3% Two or more.
Who oversees Clay Elementary School?
Clay Elementary School is overseen by Chicago Public Schools Dist 299 in Cook County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.