Summary
Wadsworth Elementary School serves 487 students in PK–8 in Chicago, Illinois, as part of Chicago Public Schools District 299. Its 2025–2026 results show a clear contrast: English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency was 38%, while Mathematics proficiency was 13%. Chronic absenteeism was also high at 48%, compared with 39% in the district and 24% statewide. The most important concern is that Mathematics proficiency is well below both district and state rates: 13% at Wadsworth versus 29% and 40%, respectively.
ELA is Wadsworth’s stronger subject compared with nearby schools, the district, and the state, while Mathematics is a particular local weakness. Wadsworth’s ELA result was above the 10 nearby schools’ average of 32%, and it exceeded 7 of them; its Mathematics result was below their 15% average. Both subjects remained below district and state rates: ELA was 38% versus 46% in the district and 56% statewide, while Mathematics was 13% versus 29% and 40%. Eighth-grade ELA stands out: 68% of students were proficient, above the district’s 56% and the state’s 63%, and higher than every nearby school with a reported eighth-grade result. By contrast, ELA proficiency in grades 3, 4, and 5 was 25%, 21%, and 28%, each below the same-grade district and state results.
ELA has improved over the three reported years, rising from 22% in 2023–2024 to 38% in 2025–2026, and its gap with the state narrowed from 20 to 18 percentage points. Mathematics also rose, from 6% to 13%, but its gap with the state widened from 22 to 27 points. SchoolDigger places Wadsworth at the 5th statewide percentile with 0 stars in 2025–2026, ranking it 1,658th out of 1,737 schools. One notable subgroup result is SchoolDigger’s measure of how well the school serves African American students: its statewide percentile was 24 in 2024–2025, compared with 5 for the school overall that year, then fell to 12 in 2025–2026. As context, Wadsworth’s student–teacher ratio was 18 in 2024–2025, the highest among the nearby schools, and 88% of students were eligible for free/reduced lunch that year.
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