1
How has Drexel Elem School changed in the last five years, for better or worse?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
396
Elementary
DISTRICT 494 · STATE 381
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CICERO SD 99·NCES 171020001239
Drexel Elementary School
5407 W 36th St, Cicero, IL 60804 · (708) 652-5532 · Cook County
GRADES KG–06ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL396 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
13.7:1
29 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.4:1 · STATE 13.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
71%
282 students
DISTRICT 81% · STATE 56%
Community
1
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 57 | 14% |
| Grade 1 | 57 | 14% |
| Grade 2 | 57 | 14% |
| Grade 3 | 51 | 13% |
| Grade 4 | 50 | 13% |
| Grade 5 | 58 | 15% |
| Grade 6 | 66 | 17% |
This year's kindergarten class (57) is 14% smaller than its 6th grade class (66).
Student demographics
5%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 6% · 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
Drexel Elementary School→Unity Jr High School
Based on grade levels within Cicero SD 99. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
IAR + ISA 2024-25 . % Proficient (Levels 4-5)English Language Arts
32.0%
IL avg 51.0% . +14.0pp since 2023
Math
29.9%
IL avg 37.9% . +20.1pp since 2023
What this means: On the IAR + ISA, Illinois's statewide test, about 32 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 30 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 14 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 20 points.
IAR + ISA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 32.0% | 29.9% |
| 2023-24 | 18.0% | 9.8% |
% 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
29.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
30.4%
based on IL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-1.0pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 29% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 30% 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 Drexel Elementary School
Drexel Elementary School's state test result (29.4% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drexel Elementary School this school | 396 | 71.2% | 29.4% |
| Grimes Elementary School Chicago | 368 | 72.0% | 41.3% |
| Oak Park Elementary School Aurora | 353 | 67.4% | 16.5% |
| Pershing Elementary School Berwyn | 418 | 74.2% | 41.4% |
| Whittier Elementary School Waukegan | 438 | 69.2% | 21.6% |
| L D Brady Elementary School Aurora | 310 | 67.7% | 10.9% |
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 Drexel Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Illinois | In Cook County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 29.4% | #1,291 of 1,925 | #409 of 760 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 29.9% | #1,284 of 2,077 ▲ 335 | #396 of 829 ▲ 165 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 32.0% | #1,610 of 2,077 ▲ 38 | #583 of 829 ▲ 34 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 396 | #1,021 of 2,419 | #435 of 901 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.7:1 | #1,114 of 2,035 | #499 of 817 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 5.0% | #2,002 of 2,042 | #796 of 819 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 71.2% | #709 of 2,132 | #446 of 804 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -27.9% | #213 of 1,461 | #135 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
396
-38 (-9%) vs 2020
-36% since 1990-91, when it was 617
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 | 396 | 29 | 13.7:1 | 71% (282) |
| 2023-24 | 398 | 28.2 | 14.1:1 | 74% (293) |
| 2022-23 | 431 | 32.2 | 13.4:1 | 81% (348) |
| 2020-21 | 434 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 549 | 33.7 | 16.3:1 | 69% (377) |
| 2015-16 | 562 | 35 | 16.1:1 | 91% (510) |
| 2010-11 | 596 | 36 | 16.6:1 | 78% (467) |
| 2000-01 | 864 | 49 | 17.6:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 617 | 39 | 15.8:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Drexel Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 28% (549 to 396); teachers down 14% (33.7 to 29).
About Drexel Elementary School
Cicero, Illinois, is home to Drexel Elementary School, a mid-sized elementary school. Federal data show 396 students enrolled in kindergarten through 6 in 2024-25.
A total of 15 schools make up Cicero SD 99, with 8,664 students enrolled.
Of every 100 students at Drexel Elementary School, about 97 are Hispanic. That is higher than the 27% Hispanic share among all Cook County residents. Its diversity index, the chance that two randomly chosen students belong to different racial or ethnic groups, is 5%.
Teacher count: 29 full-time equivalents. Student-to-teacher ratio: 13.7:1. It is about the same as the 13.9:1 average for elementary schools in Illinois. Roughly 71% of students come from households that qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
On the allk12 BeatsExpectations measure, Drexel Elementary School is 1.0 points below the average proficiency rate across its state test results predicted for its free or reduced-price lunch share: 29.4% actual, 30.4% predicted. That is outside both the top and bottom 10% in Illinois.
In Cook County, home to about 5,182,090 people, 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. There are 1,406 public schools in the county, enrolling about 697,934, Drexel Elementary School among them.
District 99 Early Childhood Center, about 0.2 miles away, is the closest public school. Within five miles of Drexel Elementary School, there are at least 8 other public schools. The average proficiency across nearby scored schools is 25.2%; Drexel Elementary School's is 29.4%, ranking 2nd of 8.
Federal records code the school's setting as Suburb: Large.
Since 2020-21, enrollment has fallen 9%, from 434 to 396.
The discussion board for Drexel Elementary School is open to topics like pickup and drop-off, after-school programs, and teacher feedback. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to post.
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 Cicero SD 99
- Unity Jr High SchoolMiddle · 1,919 students
- Abe Lincoln Elementary SchoolElementary · 717 students
- Warren Park SchoolElementary · 695 students
- Woodrow Wilson Elementary SchoolElementary · 622 students
- Sherlock Elementary SchoolElementary · 583 students
- Cicero West Elementary SchoolElementary · 557 students
Other schools in Cicero
- J Sterling Morton East High SchoolHigh · 3,394 students
- Unity Jr High SchoolMiddle · 1,919 students
- J Sterling Morton Freshman CntrHigh · 941 students
- Abe Lincoln Elementary SchoolElementary · 717 students
- Warren Park SchoolElementary · 695 students
- Woodrow Wilson Elementary SchoolElementary · 622 students
Other Drexel Elementary schools
3 other US public schools in 4 states are named Drexel Elementary. Drexel Elementary School is the 3rd largest of the 4.
- Drexel Elementary SchoolTUCSON, AZ · 515 students
- Drexel ElementaryMorganton, NC · 477 students
- DREXEL ELEM.DREXEL, MO · 125 students
Nearby schools
- District 99 Early Childhood Center0.2 mi · 232
- Columbus East Elementary School0.6 mi · 411
- Columbus West Elementary School0.6 mi · 534
- Abe Lincoln Elementary School0.8 mi · 717
- Academy for Global Citizenship1.1 mi · 486
- Goodwin Elementary School1.3 mi · 502
Frequently asked questions
About Drexel Elementary SchoolHow many students attend Drexel Elementary School?
Drexel Elementary School enrolls approximately 396 students in grades KG-06.
Is Drexel Elementary School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Drexel Elementary School is an elementary school covering grades KG-06.
How many teachers does Drexel Elementary School have?
Drexel Elementary School employs 29 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 13.7:1.
What is the student diversity at Drexel Elementary School?
Student demographics at Drexel Elementary School are roughly 1% White, 97% Hispanic, 2% Black.
Is Drexel Elementary School public or private?
Drexel Elementary School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Cicero SD 99.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.