NCES CCD 2024-25 17 schools IL

Best-Resourced Schools in Downers Grove, IL

Compiled from official source data by .

17 public K-12 schools in Downers Grove 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
10,204
Students
58.1/100
Avg Resource Index
14.9:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Middle-of-corpus city profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Downers Grove has more public-school enrollment than 81% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Downers Grove sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.

Combined-grade campuses shape the local portfolio

11 of Downers Grove's 17 listed schools use NCES's combined or “other” grade-level classification. Citywide averages therefore blend campuses serving unusually broad or nonstandard grade spans with conventional elementary, middle, and high schools. Grade configuration is a first-order comparison here, not a minor label.

The composite and staffing measures point in different directions

Downers Grove's average Resource Investment Index sits at the 98th percentile, while its teacher-staffing measure sits at the 55th percentile. The 43-point percentile gap is a reminder that the index is not a class-size score: counselors, gifted-program reporting, and attendance also affect it. Compare those components directly when two schools have similar index totals; the same headline score can arise from a different mix of reported resources.

City enrollment
Top 19%
School count
Top 19%
Resource Index average
98th percentile
Teacher staffing
55th percentile

Comm H S Dist 99 - South High Sch accounts for 25.4% of all Downers Grove public-school enrollment

That concentration means Downers Grove-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

Downers Grove school enrollment varies 9.6× across entities

Downers Grove school enrollment ranges from 271 students (lowest) to 2,591 students (highest), a spread of 2,320 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

Downers Grove student-teacher ratio is 14.9:1 — near the typical range (US average ~15.7) — citywide staffing is neither unusually lean nor unusually crowded by this measure

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 Variation between sub-units within Downers Grove is typically wider than the Downers Grove-aggregate figure suggests.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Kingsley Elem School 70
2. Hillcrest Elem School 65
3. Pierce Downer Elem School 64
4. El Sierra Elem School 64
5. Lester Elem School 63
6. Whittier Elem School 63
7. Highland Elem School 62
8. Indian Trail Elem School 61
9. Fairmount Elem School 60
10. Henry Puffer School 58
11. O Neill Middle School 57
12. Lakeview Jr High School 57
13. Belle Aire Elem School 57
14. Herrick Middle School 54
15. Prairieview Elementary School 49
16. Comm H S Dist 99 - North H S 45
17. Comm H S Dist 99 - South High Sch 38

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Downers Grove

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 Comm H S Dist 99 - South High Sch 63.5/100
  2. 2 Indian Trail Elem School 61.4/100
  3. 3 El Sierra Elem School 56.9/100
  4. 4 Belle Aire Elem School 53.7/100
  5. 5 O Neill Middle School 51.9/100

What do families ask about schools in Downers Grove?

Which Downers Grove school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Kingsley Elem School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Downers Grove schools in this federal-data comparison at 70/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Downers Grove, IL? ▼

Downers Grove has 17 public schools with a total enrollment of 10,204 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 14.9:1.

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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.