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Park Forest, Illinois - 6 schools
An equity score of 51/100 ranks Park Forest Sd 163 #91 of 763 districts in Illinois (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $22,969 per pupil, Park Forest Sd 163 ranks #89 of 848 Illinois districts by per-pupil spending (Illinois districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,537
Total Enrollment
6
Schools
$22,969
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Park Forest Sd 163 operates 6 public schools serving 1,537 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Illinois. The school portfolio breaks down into 4 elementary, 1 middle, 1 combined schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Cook County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $22,969 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 848 Illinois districts by per-pupil spending. See how Illinois compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 26.5% local, 58.3% state, and 15.2% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 51/100, ranked #91 of 763 in Illinois against a state average of 38, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 183:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 35.0% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 76.4% African American, 14.6% Hispanic or Latino, 1.7% White across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Mohawk Primary Center, with a diversity index of 45.0/100.
Its largest campus is Michelle Obama Sch of Technology, enrolling 428 students (28% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Algonquin Primary Center, at 127 students, a 3x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Michelle Obama Sch of Technology accounts for 27.8% of all Park Forest Sd 163 student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Park Forest Sd 163-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: middle. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Park Forest Sd 163 school enrollment varies 3.4× across entities
Park Forest Sd 163 school enrollment ranges from 127 students (lowest) to 428 students (highest), a spread of 301 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous campus portfolio, most districts have a wider mix of school sizes. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Park Forest Sd 163 student-counselor ratio is 183:1 — low (typically associated with meeting or exceeding the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommended 250:1 benchmark, which correlates with stronger college and career counseling capacity)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Park Forest Sd 163 chronic absenteeism rate is 35.0% — high (typically associated with higher-than-average disruption; recent CRDC data showed elevated rates persisting after pandemic-era schooling changes)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.