Parkside Elem Community Academy

Parkside Elem Community Academy is an elementary school of low-enrollment scale in Chicago, Illinois, run under Chicago Public Schools Dist 299, teacheing 283 students in grades pre-K through 8. Compared to the state average of about 381 students per school, that is 26% leaner than typical.

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

Looking at the student body, Parkside Elem Community Academy reports that 93% of students identify as Black, making the school strongly Black-majority. Beyond that, the school reports 6% Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 22% Black, putting the school's mix visibly more Black than the area baseline.

On the resource side, The school reports having 21 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 13.5:1. The state averages about 13.9:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. About 88% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. By comparison, Cook County runs at roughly 66%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat above the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Parkside Elem Community Academy sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 20.5%; this one delivers 17.4%.

In the surrounding community, ACS estimates for Cook County put median household income runs about $83,498, roughly 43% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Cook County's 1406 public schools (combined enrollment of about 697,934 students), Parkside Elem Community Academy is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: South Shore Fine Arts Elem Sch, around 0.4 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Parkside Elem Community Academy. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Parkside Elem Community Academy at 6th of 9; the average score across the group is 21.8%.

Parkside Elem Community Academy operates from a metropolitan location.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count increased 18%: 240 students in 2018 compared to 283 in 2025. Black enrollment moved from 98% to 93% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 18.8:1 in 2018 to 13.5:1 today.

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