Enrollment
343
Elementary
DISTRICT 463 · STATE 381
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS DIST 299·NCES 170993005919
Polaris Elementary Charter Academy
620 N Sawyer Ave, Chicago, IL 60624 · (773) 534-0820 · Cook County
GRADES KG–08ELEMENTARY11-CITYCHARTERTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL343 STUDENTS
F
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 2% of Illinois public elementary schools
- DTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- FBeats 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
22.9:1
15 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.6:1 · STATE 13.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
71%
244 students
DISTRICT 78% · STATE 56%
Community
0
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 | 18 | 5% |
| Grade 1 | 42 | 12% |
| Grade 2 | 32 | 9% |
| Grade 3 | 55 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 37 | 11% |
| Grade 5 | 26 | 8% |
| Grade 6 | 42 | 12% |
| Grade 7 | 49 | 14% |
| Grade 8 | 42 | 12% |
This year's kindergarten class (18) is 57% smaller than its 8th grade class (42).
Student demographics
20%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
QUIET COMMUNITY
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START A DISCUSSIONTest scores
IAR + ISA 2024-25 . % Proficient (Levels 4-5)English Language Arts
24.2%
IL avg 51.0% . +10.5pp since 2023
Math
5.9%
IL avg 37.9% . +4.7pp since 2023
What this means: On the IAR + ISA, Illinois's statewide test, about 24 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 6 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 11 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 5 points.
IAR + ISA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 24.2% | 5.9% |
| 2023-24 | 13.7% | 1.2% |
% 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
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of IL schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
14.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
30.4%
based on IL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-16.3pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 14% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 30% typical for Illinois schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
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 Polaris Elementary Charter Academy
Polaris Elementary Charter Academy's state test result (14.1% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polaris Elementary Charter Academy this school | 343 | 71.1% | 14.1% |
| Cook Elementary School Chicago | 322 | 72.7% | 11.5% |
| Woodson South Elementary School Chicago | 298 | 70.8% | 13.9% |
| Greenwood Elementary School South Holland | 321 | 67.3% | 18.2% |
| Ariel Elementary Community Academy Chicago | 364 | 71.2% | 19.6% |
| Black Magnet Elementary School Chicago | 336 | 70.5% | 56.3% |
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 Polaris Elementary Charter Academy ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Illinois | In Cook County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 14.1% | #1,780 of 1,925 | #678 of 760 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 5.9% | #2,011 of 2,077 ▲ 46 | #784 of 829 ▲ 36 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 24.2% | #1,832 of 2,077 ▼ 26 | #712 of 829 ▼ 9 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 343 | #1,296 of 2,419 | #536 of 901 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 22.9:1 | #2,007 of 2,035 | #805 of 817 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 20.4% | #1,610 of 2,042 | #604 of 819 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 71.1% | #714 of 2,132 | #449 of 804 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -21.0% | #409 of 1,461 | #244 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
343
-51 (-13%) vs 2020
+22% since 2010-11, when it was 281
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 | 343 | 15 | 22.9:1 | 71% (244) |
| 2023-24 | 336 | 16 | 21.0:1 | 80% (269) |
| 2022-23 | 348 | 19 | 18.3:1 | 80% (279) |
| 2020-21 | 394 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 434 | 2 | 217.0:1 | 95% (412) |
| 2015-16 | 438 | N/A | N/A | 93% (409) |
| 2010-11 | 281 | 13 | 21.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Polaris Elementary Charter Academy.
Since 2017-18: students down 21% (434 to 343); teachers up 650% (2 to 15).
About Polaris Elementary Charter Academy
Polaris Elementary Charter Academy is a public mid-sized elementary school in Chicago, Illinois. The school enrolls 343 students in kindergarten through 8.
The district for Polaris Elementary Charter Academy is Chicago Public Schools Dist 299, with 622 schools and 324,396 students.
The share of students at Polaris Elementary Charter Academy who are Black is 89%. Other students are 10% Hispanic. By comparison, Cook County residents are about 22% Black. On a 0 to 100 scale, the school's diversity index is 20, compared with 70 nationally.
The school had 15 full-time-equivalent teachers in 2024-25. Its student-to-teacher ratio is 22.9:1. The school's 22.9:1 compares with an average of 13.9:1 for elementary schools in Illinois. The eligibility rate for free or reduced-price meals is 71%.
Polaris Elementary Charter Academy holds an F allk12 Grade, placing it above 2% of Illinois public elementary schools.
On allk12's BeatsExpectations measure, Polaris Elementary Charter Academy is among the bottom 10% of schools in Illinois. Predicted: 30.4%. Actual: 14.1%.
In the surrounding county, Cook County, the median household earns about $83,498 a year, 43% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 10% of people live in poverty. Cook County has 1,406 public schools with about 697,934 students, including Polaris Elementary Charter Academy.
Polaris Elementary Charter Academy's nearest public school is Westinghouse High School (about 0.2 miles). Inside a five-mile radius, there are at least 8 other public schools. Ranked by average proficiency, Polaris Elementary Charter Academy places 7th out of 9 schools in its immediate area.
Locale data from NCES put Polaris Elementary Charter Academy inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more (City: Large). Polaris Elementary Charter Academy operates as a charter school, which is publicly funded and run under a charter.
Between 2020-21 and 2024-25, Polaris Elementary Charter Academy had a net loss of 51 students, or 13%.
Parents, students, and staff can share information on special education services, counseling, and support programs here. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to post.
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
- Westinghouse High School0.2 mi · 1,230
- Morton Elementary Career Academy0.3 mi · 268
- YCCS-West Town Academy Alt High School0.3 mi · 115
- LEARN Chtr - Middle School0.5 mi · 176
- LEARN Chtr - 7th Campus0.5 mi · 144
- LEARN Charter Excel Campus0.5 mi · 379
Frequently asked questions
About Polaris Elementary Charter AcademyHow many students attend Polaris Elementary Charter Academy?
Polaris Elementary Charter Academy enrolls approximately 343 students in grades KG-08.
What age range does Polaris Elementary Charter Academy serve?
Polaris Elementary Charter Academy serves students from grade KG through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Polaris Elementary Charter Academy?
Approximately 22.9:1 students per teacher at Polaris Elementary Charter Academy.
What is the student diversity at Polaris Elementary Charter Academy?
Student demographics at Polaris Elementary Charter Academy are roughly 1% White, 10% Hispanic, 89% Black.
Who oversees Polaris Elementary Charter Academy?
Polaris Elementary Charter Academy 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.