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What's the best and worst thing about the food at Walt Whitman Elem School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
378
Elementary
DISTRICT 480 · STATE 381
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·WHEELING CCSD 21·NCES 174221004238
Walt Whitman Elementary School
133 Wille Ave, Wheeling, IL 60090 · (847) 520-2795 · Cook County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL378 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
11.4:1
33 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.9:1 · STATE 13.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
80%
303 students
DISTRICT 59% · STATE 56%
Community
1
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 | 40 | 11% |
| Kindergarten | 57 | 15% |
| Grade 1 | 56 | 15% |
| Grade 2 | 48 | 13% |
| Grade 3 | 57 | 15% |
| Grade 4 | 66 | 17% |
| Grade 5 | 53 | 14% |
| Grade 7 | 1 | 0% |
Student demographics
39%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 65% · 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
Test scores
IAR + ISA 2024-25 . % Proficient (Levels 4-5)English Language Arts
21.0%
IL avg 51.0% . +10.9pp since 2023
Math
21.6%
IL avg 37.9% . +16.0pp since 2023
What this means: On the IAR + ISA, Illinois's statewide test, about 21 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 11 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 16 points.
IAR + ISA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 21.0% | 21.6% |
| 2023-24 | 10.1% | 5.6% |
% 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
20.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
25.2%
based on IL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-5.2pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 20% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 25% 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 Walt Whitman Elementary School
Walt Whitman Elementary School's state test result (20.1% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walt Whitman Elementary School this school | 378 | 80.2% | 20.1% |
| W J Murphy Elementary School Round Lake Park | 414 | 83.6% | N/A |
| Village Elementary School Round Lake | 433 | 83.4% | 23.7% |
| Adm Richard E Byrd Elementary School Elk Grove Village | 301 | 80.1% | 30.9% |
| John Jay Elementary School Mount Prospect | 389 | 79.2% | 28.3% |
| Parkwood Elementary School Hanover Park | 342 | 77.2% | 32.4% |
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 Walt Whitman Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Illinois | In Cook County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 20.1% | #1,602 of 1,925 | #564 of 760 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 21.6% | #1,546 of 2,077 ▲ 294 | #508 of 829 ▲ 170 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 21.0% | #1,904 of 2,077 ▲ 21 | #751 of 829 ▲ 20 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 378 | #1,112 of 2,419 | #465 of 901 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 11.4:1 | #385 of 2,035 | #207 of 817 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 39.4% | #1,167 of 2,042 | #435 of 819 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 80.2% | #501 of 2,132 | #344 of 804 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -24.4% | #304 of 1,461 | #192 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
378
-68 (-15%) vs 2020
-27% since 1990-91, when it was 516
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 | 378 | 33 | 11.4:1 | 80% (303) |
| 2023-24 | 409 | 32 | 12.8:1 | 78% (321) |
| 2022-23 | 401 | 31 | 12.9:1 | 67% (268) |
| 2020-21 | 446 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 500 | 31.1 | 16.1:1 | 72% (362) |
| 2015-16 | 558 | 36 | 15.5:1 | 83% (462) |
| 2010-11 | 555 | 34 | 16.3:1 | 74% (412) |
| 2000-01 | 570 | 35 | 16.3:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 516 | 29 | 17.8:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Walt Whitman Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 24% (500 to 378); teachers up 6% (31.1 to 33).
About Walt Whitman Elementary School
Walt Whitman Elementary School is a mid-sized elementary school based in Wheeling, Illinois. There are 378 students enrolled, covering pre-K through 5.
Wheeling CCSD 21 is the local district for Walt Whitman Elementary School. It runs 12 schools with 6,298 students.
About 76% of the student body at Walt Whitman Elementary School is Hispanic. Other groups make up 13% White, 4% Black, 4% Asian, and 3% multiracial. County-wide, 27% of Cook County residents are Hispanic. Its diversity index, the chance that two randomly chosen students belong to different racial or ethnic groups, is 39%.
Walt Whitman Elementary School has 33 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of about 11.4:1. The school's 11.4:1 compares with an average of 13.9:1 for elementary schools in Illinois. Eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch, often used to gauge student poverty, is 80%. The gap from the 66% average for public schools in Cook County is 14 points.
A school with Walt Whitman Elementary School's lunch-eligibility share in Illinois is predicted to score 25.2%. Walt Whitman Elementary School scores 20.1%, 5.2 points below that line.
For Cook County, Census Bureau data show the median household earns about $83,498 a year, 43% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Public schools in Cook County number 1,406, with about 697,934 students.
Walt Whitman Elementary School's nearest public school is Oliver W Holmes Middle School (about 0.3 miles). In all, at least 8 other public schools sit within five miles of Walt Whitman Elementary School. By average proficiency, Walt Whitman Elementary School is 6th among 6 schools close by.
Locale: Suburb: Large. In NCES terms, the school is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Enrollment fell by 15% across 4 years, from 446 in 2020-21 to 378 in 2024-25.
On allk12, people connected to Walt Whitman Elementary School can post about pickup and drop-off, after-school programs, and teacher feedback. Members of the school community can share what they know.
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 Wheeling CCSD 21
- Cooper Middle SchoolMiddle · 732 students
- Jack London Middle SchoolMiddle · 628 students
- Oliver W Holmes Middle SchoolMiddle · 615 students
- Eugene Field Elementary SchoolElementary · 613 students
- Joyce Kilmer Elementary SchoolElementary · 590 students
- Booth Tarkington Elementary SchoolElementary · 540 students
Other schools in Wheeling
- Wheeling High SchoolHigh · 1,743 students
- Jack London Middle SchoolMiddle · 628 students
- Oliver W Holmes Middle SchoolMiddle · 615 students
- Eugene Field Elementary SchoolElementary · 613 students
- Booth Tarkington Elementary SchoolElementary · 540 students
- Mark Twain Elementary SchoolElementary · 524 students
Other Walt Whitman Elementary schools
One other US public school is named Walt Whitman Elementary. Walt Whitman Elementary School is the 2nd largest of the 2.
- WALT WHITMAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLWOODBURY, NY · 391 students
Nearby schools
- Oliver W Holmes Middle School0.3 mi · 615
- Mark Twain Elementary School1.2 mi · 524
- Wood Oaks Jr High School1.5 mi · 455
- Wheeling High School1.7 mi · 1,743
- Jack London Middle School1.7 mi · 628
- Eugene Field Elementary School1.8 mi · 613
Frequently asked questions
About Walt Whitman Elementary SchoolHow many students attend Walt Whitman Elementary School?
Walt Whitman Elementary School enrolls approximately 378 students in grades PK-05.
Is Walt Whitman Elementary School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Walt Whitman Elementary School is an elementary school covering grades PK-05.
How many teachers does Walt Whitman Elementary School have?
Walt Whitman Elementary School employs 33 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 11.4:1.
What is the student diversity at Walt Whitman Elementary School?
Student demographics at Walt Whitman Elementary School are roughly 13% White, 76% Hispanic, 4% Black, 4% Asian, 3% Two or more.
Who oversees Walt Whitman Elementary School?
Walt Whitman Elementary School is overseen by Wheeling CCSD 21 in Cook County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.