Summary:
The Elmwood Park CUSD 401 district in Illinois serves students from four schools - two elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. The district's schools demonstrate a mix of strengths and areas for improvement, with some standout performance and persistent challenges.
Elm Middle School stands out as the top performer in the district, with the highest proficiency rates in English Language Arts across all grade levels, significantly exceeding both the district and state averages. In contrast, Elmwood Elementary School leads the district in Mathematics proficiency, outpacing the district and state in this subject area. However, Elmwood Park High School lags behind, with lower proficiency rates in Math and ELA compared to the district and state averages on standardized tests.
The district as a whole faces challenges, such as a high chronic absenteeism rate of 25.4%, which is significantly higher than the state average. Additionally, the schools serve a substantial population of economically disadvantaged students, with free/reduced lunch rates ranging from 31.98% to 41.88%. Despite these disparities, the district appears to allocate resources evenly, with similar spending per student and student-teacher ratios across the schools. The district's leadership should investigate the factors contributing to the performance gap between the elementary/middle schools and the high school, and implement targeted interventions to address the high chronic absenteeism and support the needs of the economically disadvantaged student population.
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