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What do you wish you knew before starting at Whitney Elem School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
559
Elementary
DISTRICT 463 · STATE 381
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS DIST 299·NCES 170993001157
Whitney Elementary School
2815 S Komensky Ave, Chicago, IL 60623 · (773) 534-1560 · Cook County
GRADES PK–08ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL559 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
12.8:1
44 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.6:1 · STATE 13.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
95%
529 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 | 26 | 5% |
| Kindergarten | 59 | 11% |
| Grade 1 | 51 | 9% |
| Grade 2 | 65 | 12% |
| Grade 3 | 55 | 10% |
| Grade 4 | 52 | 9% |
| Grade 5 | 60 | 11% |
| Grade 6 | 53 | 9% |
| Grade 7 | 67 | 12% |
| Grade 8 | 70 | 13% |
| Grade 11 | 1 | 0% |
This year's kindergarten class (59) is 16% smaller than its 8th grade class (70).
Student demographics
4%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
Test scores
IAR + ISA 2024-25 . % Proficient (Levels 4-5)English Language Arts
27.4%
IL avg 51.0% . +4.4pp since 2023
Math
16.1%
IL avg 37.9% . +7.5pp 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 16 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 4 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 8 points.
IAR + ISA results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 27.4% | 16.1% |
| 2023-24 | 23.0% | 8.6% |
% 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
22.2%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
16.9%
based on IL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+5.3pp
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 Whitney Elementary School
Whitney Elementary School's state test result (22.2% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whitney Elementary School this school | 559 | 94.6% | 22.2% |
| Otis P Graves Elementary School Summit | 562 | 97.0% | 27.2% |
| Acero Chtr - Officer Marquez Elementary School Chicago | 508 | 93.1% | 19.6% |
| Hedges Elementary School Chicago | 502 | 95.6% | 17.0% |
| McCormick Elementary School Chicago | 502 | 96.6% | 18.3% |
| Little Village Elementary School Chicago | 575 | 91.3% | 21.2% |
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 Whitney Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Illinois | In Cook County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 22.2% | #1,535 of 1,925 | #524 of 760 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 16.1% | #1,708 of 2,077 ▼ 19 | #590 of 829 ▲ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 27.4% | #1,728 of 2,077 ▼ 271 | #642 of 829 ▼ 120 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 559 | #358 of 2,419 | #189 of 901 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.8:1 | #838 of 2,035 | #397 of 817 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 3.5% | #2,025 of 2,042 | #810 of 819 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 94.6% | #164 of 2,132 | #124 of 804 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -43.3% | #34 of 1,461 | #21 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
559
-192 (-26%) vs 2020
-49% since 1990-91, when it was 1,095
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 | 559 | 43.5 | 12.8:1 | 95% (529) |
| 2023-24 | 614 | 40.5 | 15.2:1 | 95% (585) |
| 2022-23 | 598 | 40.5 | 14.8:1 | 95% (568) |
| 2020-21 | 751 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 986 | 48.2 | 20.4:1 | 97% (960) |
| 2015-16 | 1,088 | 51 | 21.3:1 | 98% (1,064) |
| 2010-11 | 1,112 | 53 | 21.0:1 | 98% (1,088) |
| 2000-01 | 1,224 | 58 | 21.1:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 1,095 | 50 | 21.9:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Whitney Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 43% (986 to 559); teachers down 10% (48.2 to 43.5).
About Whitney Elementary School
Whitney Elementary School is the name of a medium-sized elementary school in Chicago, Illinois. Classes run from pre-K through 8, and the school has 559 students. Against the 381-student average for elementary schools in Illinois, enrollment here is 47% higher.
The district for Whitney Elementary School is Chicago Public Schools Dist 299, with 622 schools and 324,396 students.
The student body at Whitney Elementary School is 98% Hispanic. By comparison, Cook County residents are about 27% Hispanic. Whitney Elementary School's diversity index is 4%, against a US figure of 70%.
Federal data list 43.5 full-time-equivalent teachers at Whitney Elementary School in 2024-25, for a ratio of 12.8:1. That is 1.1 students per teacher below the 13.9:1 average for elementary schools in Illinois. The school's rate of free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is 95%. For comparison, public schools in Cook County average 66%.
Given its share of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, Whitney Elementary School would be expected to post about 16.9%. Its actual average proficiency rate on state tests is 22.2%.
Within Cook County, the median household income is $83,498, 43% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Besides Whitney Elementary School, Cook County has 1,405 other public schools.
Gary Elementary School is the closest public school, about 0.4 miles away in a straight line. Other public schools within five miles number at least 8. The nearest schools with test data average 19.9%, lower than Whitney Elementary School's 22.2%.
On the NCES locale scale, the school is City: Large.
Enrollment has fallen by 192 students since 2020-21, to 559.
Families, students, and staff can use this page to discuss school safety, transportation, and start times at Whitney Elementary School. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
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 Whitney Elementary schools
6 other US public schools in 7 states are named Whitney Elementary. Whitney Elementary School is the largest of the 7.
- WHITNEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBOISE, ID · 469 students
- Whitney ElementaryYakima, WA · 433 students
- Whitney Elementary SchoolStrongsville, OH · 426 students
- Whitney Elementary SchoolLas Vegas, NV · 410 students
- Whitney Elementary SchoolWHITNEY, TX · 387 students
Nearby schools
- Gary Elementary School0.4 mi · 711
- Ortiz De Dominguez Elementary School0.4 mi · 404
- Little Village Elementary School0.4 mi · 575
- Corkery Elementary School0.5 mi · 442
- Zapata Elementary Academy0.5 mi · 524
- World Language High School0.6 mi · 389
Frequently asked questions
About Whitney Elementary SchoolHow large is Whitney Elementary School?
Whitney Elementary School enrolls approximately 559 students in grades PK-08.
What age range does Whitney Elementary School serve?
Whitney Elementary School serves students from grade PK through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Whitney Elementary School?
Approximately 12.8:1 students per teacher at Whitney Elementary School.
What is the student diversity at Whitney Elementary School?
Student demographics at Whitney Elementary School are roughly 2% White, 98% Hispanic, 0% Asian.
What district is Whitney Elementary School in?
Whitney Elementary School is part of Chicago Public Schools Dist 299.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.