NCES CCD 2024-25 17 schools IL

Best-Resourced Schools in Des Plaines, IL

Compiled from official source data by .

17 public K-12 schools in Des Plaines from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
17
Schools
8,581
Students
48.6/100
Avg Resource Index
12:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Broad resource and staffing advantage

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Des Plaines has more public-school enrollment than 76% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Des Plaines lands in the upper national tier on both the average Resource Investment Index and teacher staffing intensity. Those measures come from different inputs: the index combines reported counselors, gifted access, attendance, and staffing, while the staffing percentile compares the city's student-teacher ratio directly. Agreement across both measures is stronger evidence of broad reported capacity than either score alone, though neither is a test-score rating or a guarantee about an individual classroom.

The school portfolio is elementary-weighted

11 of Des Plaines's 17 listed schools are elementary campuses. That composition means citywide enrollment and staffing averages are influenced more by early-grade operating patterns than by the city's 3 middle and 1 high-school records. Families comparing later grades should rely on those individual rows rather than the all-school mean.

Campus spread matters more than the city mean

The 41-point gap between Forest Elem School and Early Learning Center shows the range hidden by Des Plaines's average Resource Investment Index. The city figure is useful for national placement, but families ultimately choose among campuses with different grade spans, enrollment, district affiliations, and reported support fields. Start with schools serving the relevant grade level, then compare the index components rather than assuming the city average describes any one classroom.

City enrollment
Top 24%
School count
Top 19%
Resource Index average
83rd percentile
Teacher staffing
88th percentile

Maine West High School accounts for 21.6% of all Des Plaines public-school enrollment

That concentration means Des Plaines-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Des Plaines school enrollment varies 9.0× across entities

Des Plaines school enrollment ranges from 206 students (lowest) to 1,857 students (highest), a spread of 1,651 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous school portfolio for a city this size. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Des Plaines student-teacher ratio is 12.0:1 — low (typically associated with smaller schools or per-school staffing investment that often correlates with stronger per-student supports)

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Forest Elem School 67
2. Terrace Elem School 62
3. Iroquois Community School 61
4. South Elem School 60
5. Cumberland Elem School 59
6. Central Elem School 58
7. Devonshire School 55
8. Plainfield Elem School 52
9. Brentwood Elem School 49
10. North Elementary School 45
11. Orchard Place Elem School 45
12. Friendship Jr High School 42
13. Maine West High School 39
14. Chippewa Middle School 39
15. Algonquin Middle School 39
16. Apollo Elem School 28
17. Early Learning Center 26

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Des Plaines

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Apollo Elem School 73.3/100
  2. 2 Brentwood Elem School 72.4/100
  3. 3 Devonshire School 72.0/100
  4. 4 Early Learning Center 71.2/100
  5. 5 North Elementary School 71.1/100

What do families ask about schools in Des Plaines?

Which Des Plaines school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Forest Elem School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Des Plaines schools in this federal-data comparison at 67/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Des Plaines, IL? ▼

Des Plaines has 17 public schools with a total enrollment of 8,581 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 12:1.

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Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Illinois →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.