Elementary Schools in Berwyn North School District 98

The three elementary schools in Berwyn North School District 98—Prairie Oak School, Karel Havlicek Elementary School and Jefferson Elementary School—all serve PK–5. In 2025–2026, their simple average was 42% in all-grade math and 50% in all-grade ELA, compared with state averages of 40% and 56%. The most important area-wide finding is that math averaged above the state result, while ELA was below the state at every school.

Jefferson leads the broad all-grade results: its ELA is 51%, about 1 percentage point above the other schools, and its math is 44%, 3 points above their average and 5 points above the state. Karel stands out in fifth grade, with 49% proficient in science—2 points above the state—and 67% in ELA, 12 points above the state. Prairie Oak is lowest in fifth-grade math, at 33%, 3 points below the state; its fifth-grade science is 34%, 13 points below. Science varies sharply among schools, from 34% at Prairie Oak to 49% at Karel.

From 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, the all-school ELA average edged up from 49.5% to 50.0%, but the gap below the state widened from 4 to 6 points. Math rose from 39% to 42%, moving from 1 point above the state to 2 points above; fifth-grade science climbed from 29% to 41%, narrowing its shortfall from 12 to 6 points. SchoolDigger statewide ranking percentiles also fell over the period from 51 to 36 for Prairie Oak, 57 to 40 for Karel and 51 to 41 for Jefferson. As additional context, all three report free/reduced lunch eligible for 2024–2025: 72% at Prairie Oak, 76% at Karel and 48% at Jefferson. Jefferson’s student–teacher ratio is 12.5, compared with 13.4 at Prairie Oak and 14.8 at Karel. Karel’s strong fifth-grade results alongside weaker third-grade results—34% in ELA and 42% in math—show why all-grade averages alone may not capture differences parents want to compare; these measures describe the schools but do not explain their results.