Coles Elem Language Academy

Coles Elem Language Academy is one of the tight-knit elementary schools in Chicago, Illinois, overseen by Chicago Public Schools Dist 299, with 286 students on its rolls from grades pre-K through 8. By comparison, Illinois's public schools average about 381 students each, so Coles Elem Language Academy sits 25% leaner than that benchmark.

Within Chicago Public Schools Dist 299, which oversees 622 schools and 324,396 students, Coles Elem Language Academy is one campus in the system.

Looking at the student body, Coles Elem Language Academy lists that nearly all students (88%) are Black. Beyond that, the school reports 11% Hispanic. By comparison, Cook County as a whole is about 22% Black, so the school skews visibly more Black than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, The school lists 22 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 12.8:1. The state averages around 13.9:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Roughly 61% of students at Coles Elem Language Academy qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Coles Elem Language Academy falls in the UNDERPERFORMING tier of the BeatsExpectations residual. Given its student profile, a typical campus would land near 36.4%; this one comes in at 22.1%, -14.3 points off the demographic line.

Zooming out to the county, census data for Cook County shows median household income runs about $83,498, roughly 43% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, 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), Coles Elem Language Academy is one campus in the mix.

Great Lakes Academy Charter ES is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.3 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Coles Elem Language Academy comes 4th of 9 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 16.6%.

The school occupies an urban site.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged down 34%: 436 students in 2018 compared to 286 in 2025. The Black share of enrollment shrank from 98% to 88% over that span. Class-load math has pulled in: from 16.4:1 in 2018 to 12.8:1 in 2025.

On the community side, members of the Coles Elem Language Academy community share and discuss enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. Members of the school community can share what they know.