1
What's the best and worst thing about the food at Darwin Elem School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
502
Elementary
DISTRICT 463 · STATE 381
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS DIST 299·NCES 170993000679
Darwin Elementary School
3116 W Belden Ave, Chicago, IL 60647 · (773) 534-4110 · Cook County
GRADES PK–08ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL502 STUDENTS
C
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 34% of Illinois public elementary schools
- CTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- B-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
13.6:1
37 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.6:1 · STATE 13.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
75%
376 students
DISTRICT 78% · STATE 56%
Community
6
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 | 92 | 18% |
| Kindergarten | 36 | 7% |
| Grade 1 | 40 | 8% |
| Grade 2 | 55 | 11% |
| Grade 3 | 44 | 9% |
| Grade 4 | 46 | 9% |
| Grade 5 | 50 | 10% |
| Grade 6 | 42 | 8% |
| Grade 7 | 44 | 9% |
| Grade 8 | 52 | 10% |
| Grade 9 | 1 | 0% |
This year's kindergarten class (36) is 31% smaller than its 8th grade class (52).
Student demographics
34%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
Darwin Elementary School→Clemente Community Academy 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
46.4%
IL avg 51.0% . +11.9pp since 2023
Math
17.8%
IL avg 37.9% . +6.9pp since 2023
What this means: On the IAR + ISA, Illinois's statewide test, about 46 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 18 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 12 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 7 points.
IAR + ISA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 46.4% | 17.8% |
| 2023-24 | 34.5% | 10.9% |
% 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
29.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
28.3%
based on IL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+1.3pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 30% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 28% 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 Darwin Elementary School
Darwin Elementary School's state test result (29.5% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Darwin Elementary School this school | 502 | 74.9% | 29.5% |
| Cleveland Elementary School Chicago | 507 | 74.6% | 33.2% |
| Karel Havlicek Elementary School Berwyn | 490 | 75.7% | 36.4% |
| Talcott Elementary School Chicago | 487 | 71.3% | 25.9% |
| Glen Flora Elementary School Waukegan | 476 | 75.2% | 17.6% |
| Huff Elementary School Elgin | 577 | 76.3% | 21.4% |
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 Darwin Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Illinois | In Cook County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 29.5% | #1,290 of 1,925 | #408 of 760 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 17.8% | #1,666 of 2,077 ▼ 95 | #567 of 829 ▼ 38 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 46.4% | #1,133 of 2,077 ▼ 138 | #373 of 829 ▼ 50 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 502 | #545 of 2,419 | #263 of 901 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.6:1 | #1,091 of 2,035 | #490 of 817 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 34.4% | #1,290 of 2,042 | #476 of 819 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 74.9% | #632 of 2,132 | #412 of 804 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -2.7% | #1,323 of 1,461 | #607 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
502
-36 (-7%) vs 2020
-65% since 1990-91, when it was 1,424
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 | 502 | 37 | 13.6:1 | 75% (376) |
| 2023-24 | 500 | 37.5 | 13.3:1 | 81% (406) |
| 2022-23 | 508 | 38.5 | 13.2:1 | 81% (409) |
| 2020-21 | 538 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 516 | 23.8 | 21.7:1 | 92% (474) |
| 2015-16 | 482 | 26 | 18.5:1 | 94% (455) |
| 2010-11 | 680 | 37 | 18.4:1 | 96% (654) |
| 2000-01 | 1,046 | 66 | 15.8:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 1,424 | 66 | 21.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Darwin Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 3% (516 to 502); teachers up 56% (23.8 to 37).
About Darwin Elementary School
Darwin Elementary School is a mid-sized elementary school in Chicago, Illinois. The school has 502 students in 2024-25 across pre-K through 8. Elementary schools in Illinois average about 381 students, which makes this school 32% bigger than average.
Darwin Elementary School is run by Chicago Public Schools Dist 299, whose 622 schools enroll 324,396 students.
More than half of enrollment at Darwin Elementary School is Hispanic: 80%. Enrollment also includes 12% White and 6% Black. The school's Hispanic share is 53 points above the 27% share among Cook County residents. Measured by the diversity index, the student body scores 34%.
The school lists 37 full-time-equivalent teachers and a student-to-teacher ratio of 13.6:1. The average ratio among elementary schools in Illinois is similar, at 13.9:1. Free or reduced-price lunch covers 75% of the student body. The average for public schools in Cook County is 66%.
Darwin Elementary School earns a C on the allk12 Grade, which blends test scores, results against poverty-based expectations, and the three-year trend. It scored higher than 34% of Illinois public elementary schools.
Test results at Darwin Elementary School are 1.3 points above what its free or reduced-price lunch share predicts (29.5% actual, 28.3% predicted).
Five-year Census Bureau estimates for Cook County show that the median household earns about $83,498 a year, about 43% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 10% of residents are in poverty. Cook County has 1,406 public schools with about 697,934 students, including Darwin Elementary School.
Goethe Elementary School sits about 0.6 miles from Darwin Elementary School. Darwin Elementary School has at least 8 other public schools within five miles. The school's 29.5% average proficiency ranks 4th among 9 nearby schools.
NCES lists the school's locale as City: Large. That means it sits inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
Federal enrollment counts fell from 538 (2020-21) to 502 (2024-25).
People who know Darwin Elementary School can post here about homework, tutoring, and testing dates. Teachers and staff are welcome to share updates too.
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
Nearby schools
- Goethe Elementary School0.6 mi · 711
- Yates Elementary School0.7 mi · 268
- Chase Elementary School0.7 mi · 415
- Brentano Elementary Math & Science Academy0.7 mi · 763
- Funston Elementary School0.7 mi · 440
- Avondale - Logandale Elementary School0.8 mi · 459
Frequently asked questions
About Darwin Elementary SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Darwin Elementary School?
Darwin Elementary School enrolls approximately 502 students in grades PK-08.
What grades does Darwin Elementary School serve?
Darwin Elementary School serves grades PK-08.
How many students per teacher at Darwin Elementary School?
Approximately 13.6:1 students per teacher at Darwin Elementary School.
How diverse is Darwin Elementary School?
Darwin Elementary School reports a student body of 12% White, 80% Hispanic, 6% Black, 1% Asian, 1% Two or more.
What district is Darwin Elementary School in?
Darwin Elementary School is part of Chicago Public Schools Dist 299.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.