Families near Muirhead Avenue have something to brag about. Meadow Glens Elementary School earned the No. 5 spot in Illinois in the U.S. News & World Report 2027 Best Public Elementary Schools rankings, scoring 99.71 out of 100.
A second Naperville school, Ellsworth Elementary on North Sleight Street, landed at No. 7 with a score of 99.56. Both schools are part of Naperville Community Unit School District 203, which operates 22 schools across all grade levels.
The rankings evaluated 1,360 Illinois elementary schools. U.S. News based the scores on students' performance on state math and reading assessments, weighting raw proficiency rates at 50% and performance relative to socioeconomic expectations at 50%, according to the published methodology.
Student-teacher ratios served as a tiebreaker. The assessment data came from the 2023-2024 school year.
Meadow Glens by the numbers
The K-5 school enrolls 475 students and has 37 full-time teachers, all certified. That produces a 13-to-1 student-teacher ratio, lower than the district average.
On state assessments, 83% of Meadow Glens students scored at or above proficiency in math and 86% in reading. District-wide, those figures were 63% in math and 71% in reading. Statewide, they were 37% and 43%.
Meadow Glens ranked No. 5 in reading proficiency and No. 9 in math proficiency among all ranked Illinois elementary schools. Both categories earned a "well above expectations" rating.
Principal Alex Morrow leads the school. On the school's leadership page, Morrow describes the school's motto as "SOAR with Pride," guided by safety, ownership, acceptance and respectful behavior.
Ellsworth holds its own
Ellsworth, a smaller school with 227 students and 20 full-time teachers, posted an even higher reading proficiency rate: 87%. Its math proficiency stood at 80%. The school's 12-to-1 student-teacher ratio is also below the district average.
Ellsworth ranked No. 6 statewide in reading proficiency and No. 15 in math proficiency. The principal's name was not available in the research for this article.
District context
District 203 has a track record of strong state performance. The district ranked in the 99th percentile of all statewide unit districts on the 2025 Illinois Report Card, according to administrators. Six of the district's elementary schools earned the state's highest "exemplary" designation on that report card. Meadow Glens was among them.
Superintendent Dan Bridges, speaking at a Nov. 3, 2025, board of education meeting about the report card results, said, "I think the results really exemplify the hard work that's being put in."
No statement from Bridges or Morrow specifically about the U.S. News rankings was available at publication.
Illinois top 10 elementary schools (2027 U.S. News)
- Edison Elementary Regional Gifted Center, Chicago
- Skinner North Elementary School, Chicago
- Thurgood Marshall Elementary, Rockford
- Keller Elementary Gifted Magnet School, Chicago
- Meadow Glens Elementary School, Naperville
- Elm Elementary School, Burr Ridge
- Ellsworth Elementary School, Naperville
- Hawthorne Elementary Scholastic Academy, Chicago
- Decatur Classical Elementary School, Chicago
- Hollywood Elementary School, Brookfield
Five Chicago schools appear in the top 10. Naperville placed two. The full rankings are available on the U.S. News state listing page.
