NCES CCD 2024-25 8 schools IL

Best-Resourced Schools in Park Forest, IL

Compiled from official source data by .

8 public K-12 schools in Park 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
8
Schools
2,068
Students
33.9/100
Avg Resource Index
15.6:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Lean reported-resource profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Park Forest has more public-school enrollment than 13% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Park Forest's average Resource Investment Index falls in the lower portion of the 4,487-city comparison set. The index is a resource snapshot, not an academic grade: it reflects the federal staffing, counselor, gifted-program, and attendance fields available for local campuses. The most useful next step is to open the individual schools below and identify which component is pulling each score down, because the same city average can hide very different campus-level constraints.

The school portfolio is elementary-weighted

6 of Park Forest's 8 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 0 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 46-point gap between Michelle Obama Sch of Technology and Talala Elementary School shows the range hidden by Park 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 87%
School count
Top 54%
Resource Index average
22nd percentile
Teacher staffing
47th percentile

Michelle Obama Sch of Technology accounts for 20.7% of all Park Forest public-school enrollment

That concentration means Park Forest-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: Middle. 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

Park Forest school enrollment varies 3.4× across entities

Park Forest school enrollment ranges from 127 students (lowest) to 428 students (highest), a spread of 301 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

Park Forest student-teacher ratio is 15.6:1 — 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 Park Forest is typically wider than the Park Forest-aggregate figure suggests.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Michelle Obama Sch of Technology 60
2. Illinois School 60
3. Indiana Elem School 41
4. 21st Century Primary Center 38
5. Mohawk Primary Center 22
6. Blackhawk Primary Center 21
7. Algonquin Primary Center 15
8. Talala Elementary School 14

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Park 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 Talala Elementary School 53.4/100
  2. 2 Mohawk Primary Center 45.0/100
  3. 3 Algonquin Primary Center 40.3/100
  4. 4 Blackhawk Primary Center 39.2/100
  5. 5 21st Century Primary Center 39.0/100

What do families ask about schools in Park Forest?

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

Michelle Obama Sch of Technology has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Park Forest schools in this federal-data comparison at 60/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Park Forest, IL? ▼

Park Forest has 8 public schools with a total enrollment of 2,068 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 15.6:1.

Other Cities in Illinois

Chicago
633 schools
Aurora
47 schools
Rockford
44 schools
Naperville
41 schools
Peoria
34 schools
Joliet
31 schools

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.