NCES CCD 2024-25 7 schools IL

Best-Resourced Schools in Lake Forest, IL

Compiled from official source data by .

7 public K-12 schools in Lake Forest 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
7
Schools
3,162
Students
56/100
Avg Resource Index
10:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

One campus shapes the city average

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Lake Forest has more public-school enrollment than 31% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Lake Forest High School enrolls 43.0% of Lake Forest's public-school students. That is enough concentration for one institution to pull the citywide enrollment, staffing, and Resource Index averages toward its own profile. The smaller campuses below should therefore be compared directly rather than inferred from the headline mean; their grade configurations and program footprints can be materially different even inside the same district.

The school portfolio is elementary-weighted

4 of Lake Forest's 7 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 1 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 6-point gap between Deer Path Middle Sch East and Everett Elem School shows the range hidden by Lake Forest'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 69%
School count
Top 65%
Resource Index average
97th percentile
Teacher staffing
98th percentile

Lake Forest High School accounts for 43.0% of all Lake Forest public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Lake Forest-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

Lake Forest school enrollment varies 9.0× across entities

Lake Forest school enrollment ranges from 151 students (lowest) to 1,359 students (highest), a spread of 1,208 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

Lake Forest student-teacher ratio is 10.0:1 — 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. Deer Path Middle Sch East 58
2. Cherokee Elem School 58
3. Sheridan Elem School 57
4. Lake Forest High School 56
5. Deer Path Middle Sch West 56
6. Rondout Elem School 55
7. Everett Elem School 52

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Lake Forest

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 Rondout Elem School 45.0/100
  2. 2 Lake Forest High School 39.7/100
  3. 3 Everett Elem School 36.2/100
  4. 4 Deer Path Middle Sch East 28.1/100
  5. 5 Deer Path Middle Sch West 27.8/100

What do families ask about schools in Lake Forest?

Which Lake Forest school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Deer Path Middle Sch East has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Lake Forest schools in this federal-data comparison at 58/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Lake Forest, IL? ▼

Lake Forest has 7 public schools with a total enrollment of 3,162 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 10:1.

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47 schools
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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.