Executive Summary
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) serves roughly 316,000 students whose backgrounds and educational needs reflect the complexity of the city itself. Today, over 80 percent of students are Black or Latine, about seven in ten come from low-income households, more than one in four speaks a language other than English at home, and nearly one in five receives special education services. For a district this large and diverse, no single test can tell the full story. But the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) gives us something rare: a consistent way to compare Chicago’s performance over time and against other large urban districts on the same scale.
The headline is mixed. Chicago is not uniformly low-performing. In some areas, especially Grade 8 reading, CPS performs competitively with other large urban districts. But in the early grades — especially Grade 4 reading and math — Chicago trails many of its peers. And across subjects and grade levels, the district’s averages hide large and persistent gaps by race, income, and gender.
Key Takeaways
In 2024, Chicago’s Grade 8 reading score was competitive with other large urban districts and close to the national public-school average. This is the clearest place where Chicago looks comparatively strong, especially against demographically similar cities.
Grade 4 math remains weak compared with peer districts, and Grade 4 reading has continued to fall. In Grade 4 reading, more than half of Chicago students scored Below Basic in 2024.
From 2003 to 2019, Chicago made sustained gains in math. Between 2019 and 2022, much of that progress was erased. Since 2022, recovery has been limited and uneven.
Chicago’s White students often score above national averages, while Black, Latine, and economically disadvantaged students remain far behind. The district’s average is not one story. It depends heavily on which students we are talking about.
Compared with demographically similar cities such as New York City, Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth, and Boston, Chicago lags in Grade 4 math but performs strongly in Grade 8 reading. That reversal raises an important question: what is happening between early elementary and middle school?
Comments and Questions?
Please get in touch with Kids First Chicago's Senior Data Analyst Mariam Raheem, Data Science Manager Micaelan Valesky, or Chief of Policy Hal Woods for more information. For media inquiries, please contact Sitoria Townsend.