Goethe Elem School

Goethe Elem School is a well-populated elementary school in Chicago, Illinois, operated by Chicago Public Schools Dist 299. The school enrolls 711 students in grades pre-K through 8. By comparison, Illinois's public schools average about 381 students each, so Goethe Elem School sits 87% above that benchmark.

Chicago Public Schools Dist 299 comprises 622 schools with combined enrollment of 324,396 students; Goethe Elem School is among them.

In terms of who attends, Goethe Elem School reports that 64% of the student body identifies as Hispanic. Beyond that, the school reports 22% White, 6% Black, 4% multiracial, 2% Asian. That is visibly more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 27%.

On the resource side, On paper, Goethe Elem School has 53 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 13.5:1. That tracks the state average closely. Around 43% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, Cook County runs at roughly 66%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully below the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Goethe Elem School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 46.8%, the actual is 43.5%, a residual of -3.2 points.

In the surrounding community, community-level numbers for Cook County indicate median household income runs about $83,498, about 43% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 10%. Goethe Elem School is one of 1406 public schools in Cook County (combined enrollment of about 697,934 students).

Chase Elem School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.3 miles from this campus. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Goethe Elem School ranks 3rd on composite proficiency, higher than the local average of 32.4%.

The school occupies a high-density site.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Goethe Elem School has declined 7%, going from 761 students in 2018 to 711 in 2025. Over the same period, the Hispanic share fell from 74% to 64%. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 17.0:1 in 2018 to 13.5:1 today.

Within the allk12 community for this school, posts here usually surface around classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.