Whittier Elementary School

Whittier is truly a great school! The staff is amazing and the administrations does a great job of ensuring that all students receive the educational support that they need. The low score on Great Schools is completely unfounded (as another reviewer noted) because many students opt out of standardized testing.

I'm reviewing mostly to point out that the current school rating (as of this writing at 4 of 10) is due to a movement of many parents pulling their kids out of standardized testing in protest. Only a few years ago, the school was a 9/10. Obviously, the school quality is not going to change that dramatically so quickly and in our observation certainly has not.

Whittier has excellent teachers, a great principal, and a caring and warm community of families. It is one of the smaller schools in Oak Park and (bonus!) has a library branch across the street. Parents are high achieving, well-educated, and very involved. PTO is active. The school is pretty diverse and both school and community work to ensure that everyone feels included. There is a great after school enrichment program with a wide range of classes including acting, coding, martial arts, homesteading, and chess. Our kids love school and have done amazing work here. We have been really pleased!

The teachers and faculty here have been outstanding for my son from K-4. The kids are challenged in class and seem to enjoy coming to school, and their performance shows. Great school.