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What do you wish you knew before starting at Shields Elem School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
439
Elementary
DISTRICT 463 · STATE 381
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS DIST 299·NCES 170993001092
Shields Elementary School
4250 S Rockwell St, Chicago, IL 60632 · (773) 535-7285 · Cook County
GRADES PK–04ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL439 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
12.2:1
36 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.6:1 · STATE 13.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
94%
412 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 | 81 | 18% |
| Kindergarten | 54 | 12% |
| Grade 1 | 75 | 17% |
| Grade 2 | 74 | 17% |
| Grade 3 | 70 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 83 | 19% |
| Grade 5 | 1 | 0% |
| Grade 11 | 1 | 0% |
Student demographics
8%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
Shields Elementary School→Thomas Kelly College Preparatory
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
26.5%
IL avg 51.0% . +12.3pp since 2023
Math
21.5%
IL avg 37.9% . +4.2pp 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 22 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 | 26.5% | 21.5% |
| 2023-24 | 14.2% | 17.3% |
% 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
21.9%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
17.3%
based on IL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+4.6pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 22% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 17% 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 Shields Elementary School
Shields Elementary School's state test result (21.9% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shields Elementary School this school | 439 | 93.8% | 21.9% |
| Acero Chtr-Brighton Park Elementary School Chicago | 465 | 93.1% | 19.6% |
| Kanoon Elementary Magnet School Chicago | 389 | 93.8% | 16.1% |
| Hedges Elementary School Chicago | 502 | 95.6% | 17.0% |
| Acero Chtr - Officer Marquez Elementary School Chicago | 508 | 93.1% | 19.6% |
| McCormick Elementary School Chicago | 502 | 96.6% | 18.3% |
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 Shields Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Illinois | In Cook County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 21.9% | #1,544 of 1,925 | #530 of 760 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 21.5% | #1,548 of 2,077 ▼ 246 | #509 of 829 ▼ 96 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 26.5% | #1,757 of 2,077 ▲ 27 | #664 of 829 ▲ 30 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 439 | #796 of 2,419 | #362 of 901 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.2:1 | #619 of 2,035 | #294 of 817 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 8.4% | #1,924 of 2,042 | #743 of 819 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 93.8% | #189 of 2,132 | #137 of 804 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -47.6% | #23 of 1,461 | #15 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
439
-131 (-23%) vs 2020
-51% since 1990-91, when it was 891
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 | 439 | 36 | 12.2:1 | 94% (412) |
| 2023-24 | 487 | 41.5 | 11.7:1 | 94% (458) |
| 2022-23 | 457 | 36.5 | 12.5:1 | 95% (432) |
| 2020-21 | 570 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 838 | 42.3 | 19.8:1 | 98% (825) |
| 2015-16 | 993 | 50 | 19.9:1 | 98% (977) |
| 2010-11 | 1,847 | 90 | 20.5:1 | 98% (1,817) |
| 2000-01 | 2,227 | 88 | 25.3:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 891 | 37 | 24.1:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Shields Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 48% (838 to 439); teachers down 15% (42.3 to 36).
About Shields Elementary School
Federal records list Shields Elementary School as an elementary school in Chicago, Illinois. It had 439 students in 2024-25, spanning pre-K through 4.
Chicago Public Schools Dist 299 is made up of 622 schools with 324,396 students in all.
Roughly 96% of students at Shields Elementary School are Hispanic. Enrollment also includes 3% White. Among people living in Cook County, the Hispanic share is about 27%. The diversity index for Shields Elementary School is 8%. For US public schools as a whole it is 70%.
Shields Elementary School reported 36 full-time-equivalent teachers in 2024-25, a ratio of 12.2:1. By comparison, the average for elementary schools in Illinois is 13.9:1. There are 412 students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, 94% of enrollment. That is higher than the 66% average for public schools in Cook County.
On a poverty-adjusted basis, Shields Elementary School falls in the middle 80% of Illinois schools: 21.9% actual against 17.3% predicted.
Five-year Census Bureau estimates for Cook County show that the median household earns about $83,498 a year, about 43% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 10%. Across Cook County, 1,406 public schools serve about 697,934 students.
Among nearby public schools, Acero Chtr-Brighton Park Elementary School is closest at about 0.3 miles. Other public schools within five miles number at least 8. Nearby schools with test data average 23.6% proficiency; Shields Elementary School posts 21.9%.
Federal data place Shields Elementary School in the City: Large locale, which means it is inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
Since 2020-21, enrollment has fallen 23%, from 570 to 439.
The allk12 page for Shields Elementary School lets the school community talk about athletics, class schedules, and weather closures. You can also rate the school on this page.
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
Other Shields Elementary schools
3 other US public schools in 3 states are named Shields Elementary. Shields Elementary School is the 3rd largest of the 4.
- Shields Elementary SchoolGLENN HEIGHTS, TX · 625 students
- Shields Elementary SchoolSAGINAW, MI · 447 students
- Shields Elementary SchoolVICTORIA, TX · 409 students
Nearby schools
- Acero Chtr-Brighton Park Elementary School0.3 mi · 465
- Thomas Kelly College Preparatory0.3 mi · 1,762
- Acero Chtr - Sandra Cisneros Elementary School0.5 mi · 326
- Gunsaulus Elementary Scholastic Academy0.5 mi · 658
- Brighton Park Elementary School0.6 mi · 298
- Horizon Science Academy-McKinley Pk0.6 mi · 873
Frequently asked questions
About Shields Elementary SchoolHow many students attend Shields Elementary School?
Shields Elementary School enrolls approximately 439 students in grades PK-04.
Is Shields Elementary School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Shields Elementary School is an elementary school covering grades PK-04.
How many teachers does Shields Elementary School have?
Shields Elementary School employs 36 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 12.2:1.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Shields Elementary School?
At Shields Elementary School, the student body is approximately 3% White, 96% Hispanic, 1% Black, 0% Asian, 0% Two or more.
Is Shields Elementary School public or private?
Shields 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.