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Which teacher or staff member at Ward J Elem School deserves more recognition?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
500
Elementary
DISTRICT 463 · STATE 381
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS DIST 299·NCES 170993001143
Ward J Elementary School
2701 S Shields Ave, Chicago, IL 60616 · (773) 534-9050 · Cook County
GRADES PK–08ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL500 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
15.2:1
33 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.6:1 · STATE 13.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
79%
395 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 | 39 | 8% |
| Kindergarten | 43 | 9% |
| Grade 1 | 51 | 10% |
| Grade 2 | 51 | 10% |
| Grade 3 | 50 | 10% |
| Grade 4 | 42 | 8% |
| Grade 5 | 55 | 11% |
| Grade 6 | 52 | 10% |
| Grade 7 | 59 | 12% |
| Grade 8 | 58 | 12% |
This year's kindergarten class (43) is 26% smaller than its 8th grade class (58).
Student demographics
39%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
Ward J Elementary School→Phillips Academy High School
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
62.6%
IL avg 51.0% . +14.5pp since 2023
Math
63.3%
IL avg 37.9% . +18.7pp since 2023
What this means: On the IAR + ISA, Illinois's statewide test, about 63 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 63 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 15 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 19 points.
IAR + ISA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 62.6% | 63.3% |
| 2023-24 | 48.1% | 44.6% |
% 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
OUTPERFORMING
Top 10% of IL schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
60.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
25.9%
based on IL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+34.9pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 61% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 26% typical for Illinois schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations ranks schools against others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school can post high scores and still fall short of its prediction, or post lower scores and still beat it. This school clears its prediction by about 35 points, placing it in Illinois's top 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 Ward J Elementary School
Ward J Elementary School's state test result (60.8% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ward J Elementary School this school | 500 | 79.0% | 60.8% |
| Haines Elementary School Chicago | 461 | 78.5% | 68.9% |
| Healy Elementary School Chicago | 1,194 | 79.2% | 67.7% |
| Sheridan Elementary Math & Science Academy Chicago | 528 | 53.8% | 69.5% |
| Clinton Elementary School Chicago | 1,050 | 89.0% | 30.3% |
| Mark Twain Elementary School Niles | 489 | 66.5% | 40.2% |
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 Ward J Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Illinois | In Cook County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 60.8% | #306 of 1,925 | #96 of 760 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 63.3% | #343 of 2,077 ▲ 90 | #116 of 829 ▲ 22 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 62.6% | #591 of 2,077 ▼ 45 | #203 of 829 ▼ 19 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 500 | #557 of 2,419 | #270 of 901 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 15.2:1 | #1,571 of 2,035 | #675 of 817 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 39.3% | #1,171 of 2,042 | #438 of 819 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 79.0% | #536 of 2,132 | #366 of 804 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -14.8% | #670 of 1,461 | #360 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
500
-78 (-13%) vs 2020
+56% since 1990-91, when it was 321
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 | 500 | 33 | 15.2:1 | 79% (395) |
| 2023-24 | 495 | 31 | 16.0:1 | 80% (394) |
| 2022-23 | 515 | 32.5 | 15.8:1 | 79% (409) |
| 2020-21 | 578 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 587 | 28.4 | 20.7:1 | 83% (489) |
| 2015-16 | 540 | 27 | 20.0:1 | 81% (438) |
| 2010-11 | 443 | 25 | 17.7:1 | 89% (393) |
| 2000-01 | 444 | 27 | 16.4:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 321 | 31 | 10.3:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Ward J Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 15% (587 to 500); teachers up 16% (28.4 to 33).
About Ward J Elementary School
Ward J Elementary School is a mid-sized elementary school with its address in Chicago, Illinois. There are 500 students enrolled, covering pre-K through 8. That puts enrollment 31% bigger than the 381-student average for elementary schools in Illinois.
Chicago Public Schools Dist 299 runs 622 schools with a combined 324,396 students. Ward J Elementary School is one of them.
Of every 100 students at Ward J Elementary School, about 77 are Asian. It is also 10% Hispanic, 6% Black, 4% White, and 2% multiracial. Cook County's residents are about 8% Asian, 69 points below the school's share. Measured by the diversity index, the student body scores 39%.
The school's 33 full-time-equivalent teachers translate to a student-to-teacher ratio of 15.2:1. Elementary schools in Illinois average 13.9:1, 1.2 fewer students per teacher than here. Income data for the school show 79% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That rate is above the 66% average among public schools in Cook County.
Ward J Elementary School is in the top 10% of Illinois schools on the allk12 BeatsExpectations measure. Based on its free or reduced-price lunch share, the model predicts an average proficiency rate across its state test results of 25.9%. The school's actual rate is 60.8%, 34.9 points higher.
The county, Cook County, is where the school is located. Median household income comes to about $83,498, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 43% of adults, and the poverty rate is about 10%. The county has 1,406 public schools and about 697,934 students.
Sheridan Elementary Math & Science Academy sits about 0.3 miles from Ward J Elementary School. Around the school, at least 8 other public schools are within five miles. On state test proficiency, Ward J Elementary School ranks 4th in a group of 9 nearby schools.
Ward J Elementary School has an NCES locale of City: Large.
The school's enrollment decreased 13% from 2020-21 to 2024-25.
You can use this page to share news and ask questions about athletics, class schedules, and weather closures. Current and former families are welcome to add their experience.
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
- Sheridan Elementary Math & Science Academy0.3 mi · 528
- Drake Elementary School0.3 mi · 302
- Healy Elementary School0.4 mi · 1,194
- Haines Elementary School0.4 mi · 461
- YCCS-McKinley-Lakeside Leadership0.5 mi · 103
- National Teachers Elementary Academy0.7 mi · 795
Frequently asked questions
About Ward J Elementary SchoolHow large is Ward J Elementary School?
Ward J Elementary School enrolls approximately 500 students in grades PK-08.
What grades does Ward J Elementary School serve?
Ward J Elementary School serves grades PK-08.
How many teachers does Ward J Elementary School have?
Ward J Elementary School employs 33 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 15.2:1.
What is the student diversity at Ward J Elementary School?
Student demographics at Ward J Elementary School are roughly 4% White, 10% Hispanic, 6% Black, 77% Asian, 2% Two or more.
Is Ward J Elementary School public or private?
Ward J 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.