1
What's the one class at Great Lakes Academy Charter ES every student should take?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
538
Elementary
DISTRICT 463 · STATE 381
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS DIST 299·NCES 170993006328
Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School
8401 S Saginaw Ave, Chicago, IL 60617 · (773) 503-3040 · Cook County
GRADES KG–08ELEMENTARY11-CITYCHARTERTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL538 STUDENTS
B
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 60% 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.
- ABeats 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
15.8:1
34 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.6:1 · STATE 13.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
86%
461 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 49 | 9% |
| Grade 1 | 63 | 12% |
| Grade 2 | 60 | 11% |
| Grade 3 | 63 | 12% |
| Grade 4 | 61 | 11% |
| Grade 5 | 61 | 11% |
| Grade 6 | 61 | 11% |
| Grade 7 | 60 | 11% |
| Grade 8 | 60 | 11% |
This year's kindergarten class (49) is 18% smaller than its 8th grade class (60).
Student demographics
18%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
Test scores
IAR + ISA 2024-25 . % Proficient (Levels 4-5)English Language Arts
50.1%
IL avg 51.0% . +9.1pp since 2023
Math
24.6%
IL avg 37.9% . +4.0pp since 2023
What this means: On the IAR + ISA, Illinois's statewide test, about 50 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 25 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 9 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 4 points.
IAR + ISA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 50.1% | 24.6% |
| 2023-24 | 41.0% | 20.6% |
% 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
35.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
22.0%
based on IL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+13.3pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 35% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 22% 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 Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School
Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School's state test result (35.4% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School this school | 538 | 85.7% | 35.4% |
| Wadsworth Elementary School Chicago | 487 | 87.5% | 16.6% |
| Powell Elementary Paideia Comm Academy Chicago | 542 | 88.6% | 17.1% |
| Univ of Chicago Chtr-Donoghue Chicago | 499 | 84.6% | 29.6% |
| OKeeffe Elementary School Chicago | 572 | 82.0% | 16.3% |
| CICS - Wrightwood Chicago | 614 | 82.4% | 16.7% |
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 Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Illinois | In Cook County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 35.4% | #1,078 of 1,925 | #313 of 760 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 24.6% | #1,471 of 2,077 ▼ 313 | #470 of 829 ▼ 120 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 50.1% | #998 of 2,077 ▼ 225 | #324 of 829 ▼ 75 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 538 | #411 of 2,419 | #209 of 901 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 15.8:1 | #1,693 of 2,035 | #709 of 817 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 18.1% | #1,684 of 2,042 | #636 of 819 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 85.7% | #388 of 2,132 | #278 of 804 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +83.0% | #12 of 615 | #2 of 186 |
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
538
+72 (+15%) vs 2020
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 | 538 | 34 | 15.8:1 | 86% (461) |
| 2023-24 | 535 | 36.3 | 14.7:1 | 87% (467) |
| 2022-23 | 524 | 36 | 14.6:1 | 87% (456) |
| 2020-21 | 466 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 294 | 15.2 | 19.3:1 | 87% (256) |
| 2015-16 | 198 | 14 | 14.1:1 | 91% (181) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students up 83% (294 to 538); teachers up 124% (15.2 to 34).
About Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School
This page covers Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School, a mid-sized elementary school in Chicago, Illinois. Students in kindergarten through 8 make up the school's enrollment of 538 students. Elementary schools in Illinois have about 381 students on average; enrollment here is 41% higher.
Chicago Public Schools Dist 299 counts 324,396 students in its 622 schools, and Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School is one of them.
The share of Black students at Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School is 90%. Next come 8% Hispanic. The county population is about 22% Black. On a 0 to 100 scale, the school's diversity index is 18, compared with 70 nationally.
For every teacher at Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School, there are about 15.8 students; the school has 34 full-time-equivalent teachers. Statewide, elementary schools in Illinois average 13.9:1. The eligibility rate for free or reduced-price meals is 86%. On average, public schools in Cook County report 66%.
Among Illinois public elementary schools, Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School outscored 60%, which works out to a B on the allk12 Grade.
Based on its free or reduced-price lunch share, the BeatsExpectations model predicts an average proficiency rate across its state test results of 22.0% for Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School. The school posts 35.4%, 13.3 points above the prediction.
Five-year Census Bureau estimates for Cook County show that median household income comes to about $83,498, roughly 43% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 10%. The county's public schools total 1,406, with about 697,934 students.
Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School's closest public school neighbor is Coles Elementary Language Academy, about 0.3 miles away. The five-mile area around Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School holds at least 8 other public schools. Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School's average proficiency of 35.4% compares with 15.6% for its nearest scored neighbors.
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. The school is classified as a charter school in federal data.
In 2020-21, Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School enrolled 466 students. By 2024-25, that number had grown to 538.
This page is a place to ask questions and share updates about open houses, carpools, and field trips at Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School. Members of the school community can share what they know.
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
- Coles Elementary Language Academy0.3 mi · 286
- Ninos Heroes Elementary Academic Center0.4 mi · 315
- EPIC Academy High School0.5 mi · 255
- Noble St Chtr-Baker Campus0.6 mi · 285
- Bowen High School0.6 mi · 278
- Chicago Vocational Career Academy High School0.8 mi · 673
Frequently asked questions
About Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary SchoolHow many students attend Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School?
Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School enrolls approximately 538 students in grades KG-08.
What age range does Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School serve?
Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School serves students from grade KG through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School?
Approximately 15.8:1 students per teacher at Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School?
At Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School, the student body is approximately 8% Hispanic, 90% Black, 2% Two or more.
Who oversees Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School?
Great Lakes Academy Charter 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.