Taft High School

Taft High School operates as a well-populated four-year high school in Chicago, Illinois, overseen by Chicago Public Schools Dist 299. Current enrollment sits at 4,487 students spanning grades 7 through 12. That puts it 438% above the typical public school in Illinois, which averages around 834 students.

Chicago Public Schools Dist 299 runs 622 schools in total, collectively educating 324,396 students. Taft High School is one of those campuses.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Taft High School shows that 45% of students identify as Hispanic, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. The remainder breaks down as 39% White, 7% Asian, 4% multiracial, 3% Black. By comparison, Cook County as a whole is about 27% Hispanic, so the school skews considerably more Hispanic than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, The school lists 275 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 16.3:1. The state averages around 13.8:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. Around 51% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, often used as a Title I proxy. Set against Cook County (around 66%), the school's rate is noticeably below typical.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Taft High School ranks in the top 10% of Illinois public schools. The BeatsExpectations model, a per-state regression of composite proficiency on FRL share, predicts schools with this student profile to land around 42.3%; Taft High School posts 65.5%, +23.2 points above that line.

In the surrounding community, census data for Cook County shows median household earnings sit near $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. In all, Cook County runs 1406 public schools (combined enrollment of about 697,934 students), of which Taft High School is one.

Nearest neighbor: Garvy J Elem School, around 0.6 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Taft High School ranks 1st on composite proficiency, above the local average of 53.2%.

The school occupies a city-core site.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count ticked up 33%: 3,371 students in 2018 compared to 4,487 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 46% to 39% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 20.6:1 in 2018 to 16.3:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, members of the Taft High School community share and discuss open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.