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Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at OKeeffe Elem School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
572
Elementary
DISTRICT 463 · STATE 381
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS DIST 299·NCES 170993001005
OKeeffe Elementary School
6940 S Merrill Ave, Chicago, IL 60649 · (773) 535-0600 · Cook County
GRADES PK–08ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL572 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
13.2:1
44 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.6:1 · STATE 13.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
82%
469 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 51 | 9% |
| Kindergarten | 48 | 8% |
| Grade 1 | 56 | 10% |
| Grade 2 | 66 | 12% |
| Grade 3 | 59 | 10% |
| Grade 4 | 63 | 11% |
| Grade 5 | 55 | 10% |
| Grade 6 | 68 | 12% |
| Grade 7 | 47 | 8% |
| Grade 8 | 58 | 10% |
| Grade 9 | 1 | 0% |
This year's kindergarten class (48) is 17% smaller than its 8th grade class (58).
Student demographics
25%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
OKeeffe Elementary School→Chicago Vocational Career 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
26.8%
IL avg 51.0% . +12.3pp since 2023
Math
8.7%
IL avg 37.9% . +4.1pp since 2023
What this means: On the IAR + ISA, Illinois's statewide test, about 27 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 9 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 4 points.
IAR + ISA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 26.8% | 8.7% |
| 2023-24 | 14.5% | 4.6% |
% 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
16.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
24.2%
based on IL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-7.9pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 16% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 24% 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 OKeeffe Elementary School
OKeeffe Elementary School's state test result (16.3% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| OKeeffe Elementary School this school | 572 | 82.0% | 16.3% |
| Great Lakes Academy Charter Elementary School Chicago | 538 | 85.7% | 35.4% |
| CICS - Wrightwood Chicago | 614 | 82.4% | 16.7% |
| Powell Elementary Paideia Comm Academy Chicago | 542 | 88.6% | 17.1% |
| Wadsworth Elementary School Chicago | 487 | 87.5% | 16.6% |
| Univ of Chicago Chtr-Donoghue Chicago | 499 | 84.6% | 29.6% |
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 OKeeffe Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Illinois | In Cook County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 16.3% | #1,723 of 1,925 | #641 of 760 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 8.7% | #1,950 of 2,077 ▼ 65 | #740 of 829 ▼ 33 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 26.8% | #1,750 of 2,077 ▲ 29 | #657 of 829 ▲ 33 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 572 | #326 of 2,419 | #174 of 901 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.2:1 | #943 of 2,035 | #432 of 817 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 24.8% | #1,505 of 2,042 | #561 of 819 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 82.0% | #471 of 2,132 | #325 of 804 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -14.1% | #710 of 1,461 | #376 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
572
+22 (+4%) vs 2020
-27% since 1990-91, when it was 783
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 | 572 | 43.5 | 13.2:1 | 82% (469) |
| 2023-24 | 513 | 34.5 | 14.9:1 | 83% (425) |
| 2022-23 | 492 | 35 | 14.1:1 | 91% (446) |
| 2020-21 | 550 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 666 | 32.3 | 20.6:1 | 98% (654) |
| 2015-16 | 702 | 32 | 21.9:1 | 96% (676) |
| 2010-11 | 656 | 29 | 22.6:1 | 98% (645) |
| 2000-01 | 851 | 38 | 22.4:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 783 | 43 | 18.2:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for OKeeffe Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 14% (666 to 572); teachers up 35% (32.3 to 43.5).
About OKeeffe Elementary School
OKeeffe Elementary School is a large elementary school in Chicago, Illinois, one of the schools in Chicago Public Schools Dist 299. The school serves 572 students in pre-K through 8 in 2024-25. The average among elementary schools in Illinois is roughly 381 students; this school is 50% larger than that.
Chicago Public Schools Dist 299 enrolls 324,396 students, and its 622 schools include OKeeffe Elementary School.
OKeeffe Elementary School's enrollment is 86% Black. The school is also 12% Hispanic. That is higher than the 22% Black share among all Cook County residents. OKeeffe Elementary School's diversity index is 25%, against a US figure of 70%.
A ratio of 13.2:1 comes from the school's 43.5 full-time-equivalent teachers. The school has fewer students per teacher than the 13.9:1 average for elementary schools in Illinois. The lunch program counts 82% of students at OKeeffe Elementary School as eligible for free or reduced-price meals. Compared with the 66% average for public schools in Cook County, the school's rate is higher.
Predicted from its free or reduced-price lunch share, OKeeffe Elementary School would score about 24.2%. It scores 16.3%, 7.9 points below that figure.
According to the American Community Survey, in Cook County, the median household income is $83,498, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 43% of adults, and the poverty rate is about 10%. There are 1,406 public schools in Cook County, enrolling about 697,934 students in all.
The nearest other public school, Parkside Elementary Community Academy, is about 0.5 miles away. There are at least 8 more public schools inside five miles. By average proficiency, OKeeffe Elementary School is 8th among 9 schools close by.
Its NCES locale code is City: Large: the school is inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
The school enrolled 572 students in 2024-25, 22 more than the 550 it had in 2020-21.
Threads on this page can be about sports schedules, lunch menus, and spirit week. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
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
- Parkside Elementary Community Academy0.5 mi · 283
- Bouchet Elementary Math & Science Academy0.5 mi · 660
- South Shore Intl Col Prep High School0.7 mi · 625
- Art in Motion Charter School0.8 mi · 602
- South Shore Fine Arts Elementary School0.9 mi · 224
- Powell Elementary Paideia Comm Academy1.0 mi · 542
Frequently asked questions
About OKeeffe Elementary SchoolHow large is OKeeffe Elementary School?
OKeeffe Elementary School enrolls approximately 572 students in grades PK-08.
What age range does OKeeffe Elementary School serve?
OKeeffe Elementary School serves students from grade PK through grade 08.
How many teachers does OKeeffe Elementary School have?
OKeeffe Elementary School employs 44 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 13.2:1.
What is the racial breakdown of students at OKeeffe Elementary School?
At OKeeffe Elementary School, the student body is approximately 0% White, 12% Hispanic, 86% Black, 2% Two or more.
Is OKeeffe Elementary School public or private?
OKeeffe Elementary School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Chicago Public Schools Dist 299.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.