Mary Lou Cowlishaw Elementary

Mary Lou Cowlishaw Elementary is an elementary campus of sizable scale in Naperville, Illinois, one of the schools within Indian Prairie CUSD 204, instructing 589 students in grades K through 5. By comparison, Illinois's public schools average about 381 students each, so Mary Lou Cowlishaw Elementary sits 55% bigger than that benchmark.

Indian Prairie CUSD 204 runs 32 schools in total, collectively educating 26,108 students. Mary Lou Cowlishaw Elementary is one of those campuses.

Looking at the student body, Mary Lou Cowlishaw Elementary shows that the most-represented group is Asian (41%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups; the rest is composed of 24% White, 18% Hispanic, 13% Black, 4% multiracial. That is noticeably more Asian than the county at large, where the share is closer to 13%.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 41 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 14.5:1 students per teacher. The state averages about 13.9:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. Around 25% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, DuPage County runs at roughly 34%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat below the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Mary Lou Cowlishaw Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 57.2% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 53.9%.

In the area at large, DuPage County reports that median household income runs about $112,096, roughly 52% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 5% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across DuPage County's 277 public schools (combined enrollment of about 138,557 students), Mary Lou Cowlishaw Elementary is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is May Watts Elementary School, roughly 0.9 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Mary Lou Cowlishaw Elementary ranks 8th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 66.5%.

The campus sits in a metropolitan setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count declined 13%: 674 students in 2018 compared to 589 in 2025. Hispanic enrollment moved from 13% to 18% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 15.6:1 in 2018 to 14.5:1 today.

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