Students at the emptiest schools in Chicago Public Schools recorded low proficiency and high absenteeism on average. Students at the most overcrowded schools fared better, even with lower spending per student.
Chicago Public Schools has a space-use problem, and it is hurting students at the empty schools while students at the most-crowded schools do better despite lower per-pupil spending.
More than 1-in-3 desks is empty in CPS on average. But many schools are much emptier, according to data from the 2024-2025 school year.
Empty schools take a toll on students. The emptiest schools in CPS reported lower proficiency rates and higher absenteeism than the districtwide average – all at significantly higher costs.
While more than half of CPS schools were deemed “underutilized” during the 2024-2025 school year, some schools were overcrowded.
The data shows students at CPS’ most-overcrowded schools fared better than students at the emptiest schools. On average, proficiency was better among the students at the district’s most overcrowded schools than the average districtwide.
Emptiest schools see lower proficiency, higher absenteeism, greater costs
The 10 least-utilized schools in CPS were at just 11% capacity on average, ranging from 3% at Douglass Academy High School to 15% at Harlan Community Academy High School, Marshall Metropolitan High School and Tilden Career Community Academy High School.
Just 3% of students at these schools met grade-level standards on state assessments in 2024. Just 2% met grade-level proficiency in math. In five of the schools, no tested students met proficiency in reading and four of the schools saw no tested students meet proficiency in math.
The emptiest schools also saw high absenteeism rates. On average, 71% of the already few students were chronically absent. As many as 85% of students were chronically absent at Austin College and Career Academy High School alone.
High absenteeism is a warning sign for students, as research suggests frequent absences from school put students at a higher risk of poor outcomes, such as dropping out of school and lower academic achievement. The lower proficiency scores already seem to be bearing this out.
What’s more, costs soared at those schools. Average spending per student was over $42,000 compared to the district average of nearly $20,000. That means paying more than double the district average per student fails to prevent much poorer results than the district’s average.
The least utilized school in CPS is Douglass Academy High School. It’s at just 3% of its capacity and enrolled 28 students in the 2024-2025 school year despite having an ideal capacity of over 900 students. Not a single 11th grade student could read or perform math at grade level on the SAT in the 2023-2024 school year. The last school year in which any 11th grade Douglass students could read or perform math at grade level was the 2016-2017 school year, when just 2.4% of students could read or perform math proficiently.
Douglass Academy’s chronic absenteeism rate was 62% in the 2023-2024 school year, outpacing the district average of 41%.
These poor metrics came at a price tag of $93,787 per student last school year. That’s nearly $74,000 more per student than the district average.
Most overcrowded schools in CPS do better than the emptiest schools
There were more successful outcomes and efficient spending among the 10 most-overcrowded schools in CPS compared to the 10 emptiest schools.
The 10 most-overcrowded schools in CPS averaged 134% of their ideal capacity, ranging from 127% at Hubbard High School and Thomas Kelly College Preparatory High School to as much as 147% at Von Steuben Metro Science High School.
The average percentage of students at the 10 most-overcrowded schools meeting grade-level standards in state assessments was 46% for reading and 37% for math in spring 2024, meaning students fared better at the most-overcrowded schools than at the 10 emptiest.
Chronic absenteeism was 37%, slightly lower than the district average and significantly lower than the average across the 10 emptiest schools.
Average site-based spending per student was about $18,000 at the 10 most-overcrowded schools. That is less than half of the average per-student spending at the 10 emptiest schools.
The most overcrowded school was Von Steuben Metro Science High School. It has surpassed its capacity at 147% space utilization. Despite being the most-overcrowded school in CPS, in spring 2024 34% of its students met grade-level standards in reading and 30% in math, both exceeding the district average. Von Steuben’s absenteeism rate nearly matched the district average at 42%, but spending per student was lower than the district average by about $3,600.
CPS must find cost-savings measures, but costly CTU contract makes it difficult
There exist inefficiencies in the way CPS is operated: many buildings are half empty, some nearly empty. Staffing numbers have increased despite decreasing numbers of students during the past decade.
In the face of the district’s financial hardships and inefficiencies, CTU leadership ratified a new contract with CPS this summer, estimated to add $1.5 billion to district expenses over four years. Among the provisions is the addition of more staff members and a continued moratorium on closing near-empty schools, showing CTU’s priorities hurt students and taxpayers.
The Chicago Board of Education passed a $10.2 billion budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year on Aug. 28. Nearly $1.7 billion of the increase in expenditures – 70% – from 2020 to 2025 has been for salaries or benefits for employees, despite there being nearly 30,000 fewer students enrolled at CPS today than in 2020.
The Chicago Board of Education passed a budget without borrowing and without an overt deficit, but unless it manages the explosion in staffing and deals with 1-in-3 desks sitting empty, the financial crisis is far from over. All cost-saving options should be on the table.
