Taft Grade School

Taft Grade School is a cozy elementary-level community in Lockport, Illinois, part of Taft SD 90. The school instructs 272 students in grades pre-K through 8. That puts it 29% smaller than the typical public school in Illinois, which averages around 381 students.

Taft Grade School is a school of Taft SD 90, the district that handles curriculum, staffing, and budget for the campus.

Demographically, Taft Grade School logs that White students make up the majority at 64%. Beyond that, the school logs 25% Hispanic, 7% multiracial, 3% Black. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, Taft Grade School has 23 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 12.1:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 13.9:1, putting Taft Grade School tighter than the state norm the norm. Roughly 46% of students at Taft Grade School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Taft Grade School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 44.8%, the actual is 34.8%, a residual of -10.0 points.

In the broader community, Will County reports that the typical household earns roughly $109,984 per year, roughly 38% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 6%. Across Will County's 209 public schools (combined enrollment of about 113,008 students), Taft Grade School is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Milne Grove Elem School, roughly 0.8 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Taft Grade School comes 5th of 6 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 53.4%.

The campus sits in a bedroom-community setting.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count fell 13%: 313 students in 2018 compared to 272 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 75% to 64% across the same window. Class-load math has fell: from 17.7:1 in 2018 to 12.1:1 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.