About this map. This is an unofficial map. It is not affiliated with the City of Chicago or Chicago Public Schools. It is styled with the Chicago Design System palette and Big Shoulders, the official typeface of Chicago. For official information, go to the source:
What is the 5Essentials Survey? It is an anonymous yearly survey of teachers and students, with students in grades 4 to 12 statewide. UChicago Impact runs it for the Illinois State Board of Education. It asks about five things that research links to school improvement: Effective Leaders, Collaborative Teachers, Involved Families, Supportive Environment and Ambitious Instruction. Answers are scored on one common scale, and a school's overall rating summarizes its results on all five. This map uses the 2026 results from reports.uchicagoimpact.org. Methodology: technical appendix (PDF) and the ISBE 5Essentials page.
What is the Illinois Report Card? It is not a survey. It is the state's yearly report on every public school, built from test scores, student growth, attendance and graduation. Each school gets a summative rating, from Exemplary to Comprehensive. The rating weighs proficiency and growth most, and high schools add graduation rate. English learner progress and attendance can raise it by one step. This map uses the 2026 Public Data Set. Methodology: 2026 designation business rules (PDF) and the ISBE summative designation page.
The schools. This map shows every school that received a 5Essentials rating. That is 636 schools. A further 8 schools on the survey list have no report and are left off. I matched each school to its state record by name and grade level. 607 of the 636 matched. 29 have no state record and 12 more have no state rating. Most of these are early childhood, alternative or contract programs.
State results. Proficiency is IAR for grades 3 to 8 and ACT for high school. Growth is a median growth percentile, where 50 is typical statewide. The state does not publish a definition of Dually Designated, so check that school's report card.
School type. Neighborhood, selective enrollment, classical, gifted, magnet, charter and other types come from the CPS School Profile data on the Chicago Data Portal. The latest published version is for the 2024–25 school year, so a few schools that opened or changed type since may be labeled wrong or left unclassified.
Locations. Each dot is placed with the school's coordinates from the CPS School Locations data (SY2526) on the Chicago Data Portal. Safe Achieve Academy ES and HS is placed from its address. Neighborhood outlines are the city's 77 community areas, from Boundaries – Community Areas on the same portal.
How to read it. This is a starting point, not a ranking. A school missing from the map had no 5Essentials rating this year. It may have been ineligible or have too few survey responses. The state rating system changed in 2026, so it is not comparable to earlier years. Visit a school and read its full reports before you decide.